The mother of anAlabama woman who disappeared for 48 hourslast week after first calling 911 to report a child walking along the highway says her daughter was kidnapped.
Carlethia “Carlee” Nichole Russell, 25, mysteriously returned home Saturday night after a frantic two-day search for the nursing student had spanned the state.
HOOVER (AL) POLICE DEPARTMENT
Hoover police did not clarify whether they’re searching for a kidnapper when PEOPLE reached out for comment. In a statement, the department said: “We have spoken to Carlee once and are following up on that information, however we are not able to publicly share the details from our initial interview.”“We will follow up with her again to attempt to get a better understanding of her movements during the time she was missing and will provide what information we can when we are able to do so,” the statement added.
Carlee Russell.HOOVER (AL) POLICE DEPARTMENT
Police told TODAYthat the sequence of events leading up to Carlee’s disappearance last Thursday night are accounted for, but the 48 hours she was missing remain a mystery to investigators.The nursing student stopped to pick up Mediterranean food for herself and her mother on her way home from work when she said she noticed a toddler-aged boy in a diaper walking along the side of I-459. Traffic camera footage shows what police believe to be Carlee’s red Mercedes slowing down along the highway with its blinkers on before making a stop.Carlee then called 911 to tell police about the boy walking alone alongside the interstate. She then called her brother’s girlfriend, according to Talitha, and was on the phone with her when things went awry.“My son’s girlfriend heard her asking the child, ‘Are you OK? She never heard the child say anything but then she heard our daughter scream,’’ Talitha had toldAL.com. “All you hear on her phone is background noise from the interstate.”
An exhaustive 48-hour search then commenced. At one point Saturday evening, police responded to a Red Roof Inn motel roughly two miles from the house where Carlee and her parents lived. Several family members arrived at the motel after they said they received a call from Carlee saying she was there, according toAL.com.
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.However, Carlee was not found there. Instead, later that night, Carlee reappeared on her parents’ doorstep and knocked on the door to be let inside. Hoover policesaidmedics took Carlee to UAB Hospital, where AL.com reports she stayed overnight.
“She was literally fighting for her life for 48 hours,” her boyfriend Thomar Latrell Simmonswrote on InstagramSunday. “So until she’s physically & mentally stable again she is not able to give any updates or whereabouts on her kidnapper at this very moment."
source: people.com
