Investigators in Alabama are starting to doubt Carlee Russell’s story about being kidnapped, and they are focusing in on the missing child.
More information is coming out about what happened to the nursing student on July 13. Today, the police held a news conference where they talked about what Russell did before she went missing. While she was at work, her online records showed that she looked up the movie “Taken” and several things about the age limit for an Amber Alert. Russell also looked for a one-way bus ticket and ways to steal money from a cash register without getting caught. When she got back home, she had hundreds of dollars hidden in her sock.
Just after 8:00 p.m., the young woman left her job and was seen hiding toilet paper and other things from her job. Police say that after that, she went to a nearby Target and bought a few snacks before going to a Taziki restaurant for dinner. Russell called 911 once she was on her way to work and said she saw a white boy walking alone. She said she didn’t see any wounds, and she was told to watch him until the police came.
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Russell called her brother’s partner after she got off the phone with the emergency operators to let her know that she was going to stop by to check on the child. Russell was heard asking if someone was okay before he started yelling. Russell told officers in her only interview with police that a man came out of the woods and said he was checking on a baby before dragging her into the woods and putting her in an 18-wheeler. Russell was able to run away, but she was pulled back into the car and taken to a house where she was kept. Russell said that while she was in captivity, the people who took her fed her cookies and the woman who took her played with her hair. She finally got away for good, but now agents are worried about what Russell did on the internet at work. Police say that no charges are likely right now.
Russell hasn’t talked to the public just yet.