HOOVER, Ala. (NewsNation) — Carlee Russell, an Alabama woman who disappeared for two days earlier this month, was never abducted, her attorney confirmed Monday.
The Hoover Police Department provided the update during a news conference Monday. Police Chief Nick Derzis read a statement from Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony.
“My client apologizes for her actions to this community,” Anthony said in the statement.
Russell had claimed to police that she was abducted July 13 from the side of an Alabama interstate after calling 911 to report a wandering toddler. Police previously said they weren’t able to verify her claims.
Russell was set to meet with authorities Monday, Derzis said, but police were instead provided the statement from her attorney.
According to Anthony, there was no kidnapping or a toddler walking along the highway. Nobody else was involved in the fabrication, according to the statement.
Police are in contact with the local prosecutor’s office to discuss the possibility of criminal charges, Derzis said.
Derzis said Monday police are still working to find out what happened during the 49 hours she was gone. They will meet with Anthony on Tuesday.
According to detectives, Russell said she was taken by a man who came out of the trees when she stopped to check on the child, blindfolded and held at a home where a woman fed her cheese crackers. At some point, the 25-year-old said she was put in a vehicle again but managed to escape and run through the woods to her neighborhood.
Derzis cast doubt on Russell’s account at a news conference last week, saying detectives were still investigating her whereabouts, but had so far been “unable to verify most of Carlee’s initial statement.”
In the days before her disappearance, Russell searched for information on her cellphone about Amber Alerts, a movie about a woman’s abduction and a one-way bus ticket from Birmingham, Alabama, to Nashville, Tennessee. Her phone also showed she traveled about 600 yards while telling a 911 operator she was following the child, Derzis said.
The entire 911 call includes Russell telling a dispatcher that she saw a small child on the side of the highway, describing the child and agreeing to pull over. Her car was later found with some of her belongings inside, but Derzis confirmed police found no evidence of a child in the area.
“The facts last Wednesday pretty much showed that we knew that it was a hoax,” Derzis said at the Monday news conference.
Police aren’t aware of any previous mental health issues for Russell, and there is no report of drugs or alcohol in her system when she returned.
A motive has not yet been determined.
NewsNation’s Stephanie Whiteside and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
