*In spite of their insisting otherwise, Carlethia “Carlee” Russell and her family have a credibility problem and it’s of their own making.
The 25-year-old Alabama woman disappeared after calling 911 to report a toddler walking along an interstate last week reappeared at her home two days later.
Her story of being captured and held by a man was told to investigators, but at a press conference earlier today police stated that so far they’ve not been able to verify her story.
Oop. That’s why Carlee Russell and her family have a HUGE credibility problem.
“We have no reason to believe that there is a threat to public safety related to this particular case,” said Nick Derzis, who is the chief of police in Hoover, Alabama, the city of over 90,000 residents just outside of Birmingham where Miss Russell disappeared.
Chief Derzis stopped short of accusing Russell of lying about her account but said investigators couldn’t confirm many things she told them and that many questions were still not answered.
“We want to know the truth,” he said.
Derzis added that other than the brief initial interview with police after she returned Saturday night, Russell has not agreed to answer police questions.
Another red flag in the case came to light. Specifically, Russell made a number of internet searches on her phone and computer at work that are “very relevant” to her disappearance, Derzis noted, including a movie about an abduction (“Taken” starring Liam Neeson).
The Hoover, Alabama Police Chief also revealed some other searches Carlee Russlee did on her phone in the days and even hours leading up to her disappearance. These included, “Do you have to pay for an Amber Alert?” “How to take money from a register without getting caught?” “Birmingham bus station?” “One-way bus ticket Birmingham to Nashville”
Derzis says Carlee was seen on surveillance video leaving her work, July 13, the day of her disappearance, taking a robe and toilet paper with her. She then ordered food and stopped at a Target to buy granola bars and Cheez-Its.
From there, Derzis says Russell hit the road, making a 911 call on her way to report she saw a child on the side of the freeway. He played the 911 call in full, where you hear Russell say it appears the child was 3 or 4 years old and walking in a diaper.
Derzis says his officers responded within 5 minutes of Carlee’s call — and she was nowhere to be found — she was also the only person to report the child on the side of the road … despite it being an area with lots of traffic.
Officers discovered Carlee’s phone, wig, and the food she ordered in her car … but say the Target item (robe and toilet paper) she’d taken from her workplace were gone.
As we reported, Carlee Russell showed up two days later, July 15, at her parents’ home.
She told cops at one point she was able to escape the trailer, and she was put in a car, blindfolded, and taken to a house where she says she was forced to undress and the man and a female accomplice — who Carlee says she never saw — took photos.
Police Chief Derzis says Carlee told them she was eventually able to escape when she was loaded into another vehicle — running through the woods until eventually arriving at her family home.
The bottom line is that regardless of what she and her family have said, there’s no threat to public safety. In other words, they (and the public) don’t believe Carlethia “Carlee” Russell’s story.
RELATED NEWS ON EURWEB: Carlee Russell’s Parents Also Say She Escaped Kidnapper – But Skepticism Runs High | WATCH
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