The story about the disappearance of 26-year-old Carlee Russell sounded a little wonky from the beginning. She had made a phone call to 911 and her sister-in-law while on the side of a highway, claiming to have seen a toddler on the side of an Alabama interstate. Russell had told them she saw a toddler in diapers walking along the road. Then she disappeared. The responding officers found her abandoned car along with her purse, cell phone, wig and apple watch in a nearby area. But no Carlee and no wandering toddler.
Authorities, friends, family members, Russell’s boyfriend, and even strangers desperately searched for her. In fact, the community turned out en masse and the search involved drones and dogs and the support of families of actual missing people. Money was also raised for information about Russell’s disappearance – which is now reportedly being returned [1] by Crime Stoppers.
Russell ended up showing up at her parent’s home two days later, giving everyone a story about her fight for freedom.
But it was all a hoax [2].
The police weren’t able to find evidence to corroborate her story and Russell stopped cooperating with them at some point. Then, Russell finally admitted that it was all a fraud and had her attorney make a statement of apology from her. Her boyfriend also made a statement saying that he was disgusted with what she did and is now calling her his “ex.”
Police are weighing criminal charges against Russell for wasting their time. Consequences would be a nice change of pace but I won’t hold my breath. We ARE after all, living in Biden’s America, where you can basically do with you want and not be held responsible.
However, this case could be different since Russell is complaining [3] on her Facebook page that “they are trying to give me ten years.”
But, alas, she was exaggerating. According to the state’s Hoover County Police Department, she was charged with filing a false police report and filing a false statement to law enforcement authorities, two misdemeanors. Each charge is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $6,000 fine if convicted. But she obviously thinks the whole thing is a joke since she is smiling in her mugshot [4].
Russell’s Facebook page, by the way, has more than 7K followers. Wonder how many she had before the “kidnapping.”
These types of stories often end up with interviews with the press, talk show appearances, magazine articles, books, GoFundMe fundraisers and more – which explains the possible motives I have seen people discussing as to why she did this: attention, fame and greed.
If this is true, then she, at some point, decided that the attention that she was receiving on her social media sites wasn’t enough. She had to push the envelope. I saw a post on Facebook that said they thought she needed the whole world to see her and know who she was.
And now they do.