Carlee Russell, the 26-year-old Alabama nursing student who confessed to staging her own abduction, causing a massive 48-hour search operation, now faces charges for her deceit. The response of law enforcement to her stunt underscores the serious nature of such fraudulent reports.
Russell was slapped with charges Friday including false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident, following her faux disappearance on July 13.
According to Hoover Police Chief Nick Gerzis, each charge is a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison and a $6,000 fine.
Accompanied by her attorney, Emory Anthony, Russell turned herself in at the Hoover City Jail shortly after the afternoon press conference. After smiling for her mugshot, Russell was subsequently released on a $2,000 bond.
During the presser, Attorney General Steve Marshall praised the “monumental” efforts of the Hoover Police Department.
Their round-the-clock work during the nearly 49 hours Russell was allegedly missing, followed by the subsequent investigation, speaks to the gravity of such false reports.
Marshall signaled his office’s intention to keep a close eye on the investigation for possible additional charges.
“We don’t see this as a victimless crime,” highlighting the “significant hours spent” and “resources expended” by the police force. “We intend to fully prosecute this case,” he concluded.
Notably, a video obtained by WVTM shows the ex-spa employee leaving Anthony’s office, appearing distressed, accompanied by her parents.
The intrigue began on July 13, when Russell called the police, stating that she stopped her car to rescue a baby she saw crawling on the side of Interstate 459 in Hoover.
She went missing, only to resurface two days later, when surveillance footage captured her walking alone toward her family’s residence.
Her family immediately called 911. When the police arrived, they found her conscious and speaking, contrary to dispatch reports of her being “unresponsive but breathing.”
Russell’s mother, Talitha Robinson-Russell, told NBC News, “There were moments when she physically had to fight for her life, and there were moments when she had to mentally fight for her life.”
However, Russell’s tale of being kidnapped by a white man with orange hair started to crumble following her interview with the police.
Especially suspect was her search history, which revealed searches for the movie “Taken” and the AMBER Alert system before her disappearance.
After a week, Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, declared that his client had concocted the abduction story and the account of a mysterious toddler on the roadside.
“There was no kidnapping,” he stated, affirming that Russell stayed within the Hoover area during her alleged disappearance.
At Friday’s press conference, Gerzis acknowledged uncertainty about Russell’s whereabouts during the time she was presumed missing and expressed disappointment over the hoax.
“Her actions that night created undue concern among our citizens and across the nation,” he said, pledging to urge lawmakers to consider stricter penalties for false crime reports.
Gerzis and Marshall confirmed that, for now, Russell’s parents face no charges, but the investigation continues.
In a separate incident, Russell lost her job at a Birmingham Woodhouse spa after it came to light that she had stolen a robe and toilet paper from the establishment on the day of her fake disappearance.
The theft occurred outside of the Hoover jurisdiction, so the local police department can’t prosecute the case.
Despite the troubling revelations, some family and friends continued to stand by Russell.
Her boyfriend, Thomar Latrell Simmons, initially defended her on social media, pleading with people to consider her mental health and stop the online bullying. However, he later expressed shock following her confession stating that he was “blindsided” and “disgusted.”.
While the ordeal may have caused emotional turmoil for Russell’s close circle, it really sparks controversy for families who have loved ones that are genuinely missing as they think of the hours and resources lost on their cases.
It remains to be seen whether we will ever find out where Russell went for those 49 “missing” hours and if there will be additional charges. What could have possessed her to plan and carry out this elaborate hoax is unimaginable.