What really happened to Carlee Russell?

By ReShonda Tate

Police in Alabama are still trying to unravel exactly what happened to Carlee Russell, while her parents continue to maintain that she was kidnapped.

Hoover ofcials recently revealed that Russell searched for information about Amber Alerts, bus stations and taking money before she went missing. Te U.S. Secret Service found these searches on her phone, which was lef in her car afer she disappeared afer reporting a toddler walking along I-459.

Russell, 25, also called a relative and told them she saw the toddler in a diaper on the side of the road and that she was stopping to check on him, but that relative lost contact with her. When ofcers arrived at the scene, they found her wig, cellphone and purse on the road near her car, but no sign of Russell or the child she called about. Her call was the only report about seeing a child on the interstate, police said.

Two days later, police received a call notifying them that Carlee Russell had returned home.

Parents Speak

Russell’s parents say their daughter has to not only deal with the physical and mental trauma but she’s being victimized all over by the “mean and vicious things people are saying online.”

Speaking on NBC’s “TODAY” show in an interview, Talitha Robinson-Russell, said she felt “just so much joy” afer her daughter returned home afer being missing for 48 hours.

“We tried to hug her as best we could, but I had to stand back because she was not in a good state,” she said.

Talitha Robinson-Russell and Carlos Russell, Carlee Russell’s father, told the “TODAY” show they could not share details on how their daughter returned home or on her account of what unfolded during her disappearance, citing the ongoing police investigation but they were adamant that their daughter had been abducted.

In the days since her return Carlos Russell said his daughter was struggling with “bad dreams” and “moments where some things make her cringe, afraid,” including loud noises. “Just diferent things that trigger,” he said.

Her mother said the family has also been lef traumatized. She also said they received “many” texts and calls from people who “maliciously lied” to them and pretended to know their daughter’s whereabouts while she was missing. “I just didn’t know people could be so evil,” Talitha Robinson-Russell said, noting that there has also been widespread speculation around what happened during her daughter’s disappearance in the wake of her return home.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?

Hoover police say they have found no evidence of a toddler, and don’t think the public is in any danger. Tey stopped short of disputing Russell’s story, but did say the reveal of her search engine showed searches of everything from “how to take money from a register without being caught” to information about the movie “Taken.”

Surveillance footage from her work at the spa shows that she concealed a bathrobe and toilet paper when she lef, and neither were in the car afer she went missing.