Carlee Russell Finally Admits Her ‘Abduction’ Was BS

Carlee Russell’s eerie disappearance earlier this month turned out to be, as police implied last week, her own doing. The 25-year-old admitted Monday that there was no abduction and no toddler walking alone down the side of Interstate 459.

Her lawyer sent an apology letter to Hoover, Alabama police chief Nick Derzis, who read it out at a Monday press conference.

“Dear Chief Derzis, my client has given me permission to make the following statement on her behalf: There was no kidnapping on July 13, 2023,” Emory Anthony, Russell’s attorney, wrote in the letter. “My client did not see a baby on the side of the road. My client did not leave the Hoover area when she was identified as a missing person. My client did not have any help in this incident, but this was a single act done by herself.”

“My client apologizes for her actions to the community, the volunteers who were searching for her, to the Hoover Police Department and other agencies, as well as to her friends and family,” Anthony added, requesting “forgiveness and prayers” for Russell.

It’s unclear how much forgiveness the Hoover Police Department is willing to offer Russell; authorities are considering possible criminal charges, Derzis said.

Russell mysteriously vanished off an Alabama highway on July 13 after she called 911 to report a toddler walking alone down the road. After two days of frantic searching and widespread community concern that quickly turned national, she turned up on foot at her home just two days later.

Following her return, Russell told police that she had been abducted by a man while following the toddler down the highway. Police said she claimed to escape her kidnapper’s vehicle the next day.

“At some point, she was put back in a vehicle that she claims [she] was able to escape from while it was [in the] west Hoover area. She told detectives that she ran through lots of woods until she came out near her residence,” Derzis said at a news conference last week, recounting the specific details that Russell fed detectives.

Her parents echoed a similar story during their appearance on the Today show last week, when her mother said she “absolutely” believed Russell’s abductor was still out there.

“There were definitely moments where she fought for her life,” she said in the interview. “There were moments she had to physically fight for her life and there were moments she had to mentally fight for her life.”

But police had their doubts. In last week’s news conference, Derzis revealed a number of questionable Google searches that Russell had made in the days leading up to her disappearance, including, “You have to pay for an Amber alert” and the movie “Taken.”

Police also said that, despite heavy traffic in the area and surveillance footage, they couldn’t verify Russell’s report of a toddler walking down the interstate. Security footage taken from her neighborhood just before she arrived home showed her walking down the sidewalk alone. Some snacks Russell was seen buying from a Target shortly before her disappearance were gone from her car, which was found abandoned near the site of the apparent abduction, still running with her belongings inside.

“It is what it is” Derzis said Monday. “The facts last Wednesday pretty much showed that we knew that it was a hoax.”