HOOVER, Ala. — New details released by police regarding a 25-year-old Alabama woman who vanished for two days last Thursday after calling 911 to report a toddler walking along the side of an interstate shows she had an "unusual" search history prior to her disappearance.
Hoover Police held a press conference Wednesday, releasing new information into the case that included what they said Carlee Russell told detectives about what happened when she returned home after 49 hours missing and her search history in the time before going missing that they felt was "relevant."
What Carlee Russell reportedly told police
According to Hoover Police Chief Nicholas Derzis, Russell told detectives she saw a toddler wandering along the shoulder of Interstate 459, prompting her to call 911. She told detectives that after she got out of the car to check on the toddler, a man came out of the trees and said that he was checking on the child.
Russell claimed that the man then picked her up, made her climb a fence inside the woods, and then forced her into a car before she said she was in the back of an 18-wheeler. She claimed the man was with a woman, but she only recalled hearing the woman's voice. She also said she could hear a baby crying.
She told detectives she was able to escape the bed of the tractor-trailer, but was later captured and then blindfolded. Russell claimed that the abductors made her go into a home and take her clothes off. She told police at the house she was undressed by the pair and believed they took pictures of her, but she did not remember sexual or physical contact.
When she woke up, Russell told detectives she was fed cheese crackers by the woman, but does not remember anything else after she woke up.
The next thing Russell claimed she remembered is being in the back of a vehicle, where she said she escaped in the west Hoover area. She told detectives she ran through the woods for a while before she ended up making it back to her home.
Detectives said that Russell had a small injury to her lip and a tear on her shirt.
Carlee Russell's alleged search history prior to disappearance
Police did not say whether they doubt her story, but provided search terms she allegedly made from her phone and work computer in the days before the disappearance, saying there were "many questions left to be answered that only Carlee can provide."
According to Hoover Police, the search history includes:
- On July 11 at 7:30 a.m., Russell searched the term "Do you have to pay for an Amber Alert or search?"
- On July 13 at 1:03 a.m., the day of her disappearance, she searched for the term "How to take money from a register without being caught."
- On July 13 at 2:13 a.m., Russell searched "Birmingham bus station."
- On July 13 at 2:35 a.m., she searched for a one-way bus ticket from Birmingham to Nashville with a departure date of July 13.
- On July 13 at 2:10 p.m., Russell searched for the movie "Taken," a film that features a woman being abducted.
Police said they have asked to interview Russell a second time after looking at her alleged search history, but explained their request had been denied.
Chief Derzis said they determined she drove 600 yards while on the phone with 911 when she claimed she was following the toddler.
"I've always been the kind of guy to say never say never, but six football fields (600 yards) - to think that a toddler, barefoot, that could be 3-4 years old, is gonna travel six football fields without getting in the roadway, without crying, without moving is very hard for me to understand," he said.
Derzis said on surveillance videos from the interstate they could see Russell's car and someone get out of the driver's side during the time she called 911, but no child.
"We pretty much know exactly what took place from the time she left work to the time she got on 911 call, we can see that getting out of the car on the interstate after that - I think she only knows (what happened), we don't know," he said.
Police offered new details in the case earlier on Wednesday, including that they had no evidence of a missing child. Derzis said during the press conference they had not had a child reported missing.
Authorities said Russell's call is the only one that reported anything like that, "despite numerous vehicles passing through that area as depicted by the traffic camera surveillance video."
They also offered new details on her whereabouts in the roughly hour between when she left work Thursday evening and then made the 911 call on the highway.
"I wouldn't say I'm frustrated, I'm very happy that Carlee's home, that was the main ingredient here," Derzis said Wednesday. "We'll figure it out, I promise you that. We'll end up figuring it out."