Carlee Russell, missing just over 48 hours, returned home safe Saturday night.
Hoover 911 was called at approximately 10:45 p.m. after the 25-year-old nursing student returned to the Hoover home she shares with her parents.
Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said Russell showed up at her parents house alone. She was taken by paramedics to a hospital for evaluation.
Where Russell has been for the last two days was not immediately clear.
“Additional information will be provided when it becomes available,” a police statement read.
Police and family members previously said Russell was on her way home from work and picking up dinner at the Colonnade when she spotted a young child on the interstate and was stopping to see if she could help.
Russell was on the phone with her brother’s girlfriend when the girlfriend reported hearing Russell scream. Next, the girlfriend only heard the noise of interstate traffic.
FULL STORY: https://www.al.com/news/2023/07/carlee-russell-found-safe-returns-home-2-days-after-she-vanished.html
Original:
An Alabama woman is the subject of a missing persons investigation after authorities say she disappeared after calling 911 to report a child walking along the side of a highway.
Carlethia “Carlee” Nichole Russell, 25, contacted 911 at about 9:34 p.m. on Thursday and reported seeing a toddler walking on the side of I-459 South near mile marker 11, according to a press release from the Hoover Police Department.
Before cops arrived, Russell had stopped to check on the child and called a relative to tell them what she saw, police said. During the call, the relative lost contact with Russell, but the phone line remained open.
Russell’s mother told Alabama Local the person her daughter was on the phone with was her son’s girlfriend, who claimed she heard screaming before the call went nearly silent.
“My son’s girlfriend heard her asking the child, ‘Are you Ok? She never heard the child say anything but then she heard our daughter scream,’’ Talitha Russell said, per the outlet. “From there all you hear on her phone is background noise from the interstate.”
When police arrived at the scene, they found Russell’s abandoned car with some of her belongings nearby, but were unable to find her or a child in the area, the release states.
Hoover police added that the department has not received any other calls of someone missing a small child.
The woman’s mother told Alabama Local there was a report from a trucker who claimed he saw her car with the door open and a gray car pulled over close to it around the time she reportedly vanished.
Russell’s family is now turning to the public for leads as police continue to investigate the woman’s disappearance.
FULL STORY: https://people.com/ala-woman-missing-called-911-child-highway-7561268
