Current:Home > ContactAlabama woman confesses to fabricating kidnapping -Infinite Edge Capital
Alabama woman confesses to fabricating kidnapping
View
Date:2025-04-15 15:18:07
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Authorities in Alabama said Monday that a woman has confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of the interstate.
Hoover Police Department Chief Nicholas Derzis said Carlee Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, provided a statement on Monday saying there was no kidnapping.
“There was no kidnapping on Thursday July 13. My client did not see a baby on the side on the road,” the statement read, according to Derzis, who read it at a news conference. She did not leave the city, and acted alone, the statement added.
Related stories Police cast doubt on Carlee Russell’s kidnapping claim after reporting toddler on an Alabama highway Carlee Russell returns home after search, but no word from Alabama police on where she’d been Alabama woman who disappeared after reporting child on highway returns home following two-day search“My client apologizes for her actions to this community, the volunteers who were searching for her, to the Hoover Police Department and other agencies as well, as to her friends and family,” Anthony said in a statement. “We ask for your prayers for Carlee, as she addresses her issues and attempts to move forward, understanding that she made a mistake in this matter. Carlee again asks for your forgiveness and prayers.”
The Hoover Police Department announced the development five days after casting doubt on Russell’s story. Derzis said it is possible that Russell could face charges. He said they are trying to determine where she was in the two days she was gone.
“This was an elaborate deal. When you talk about calling 911,” the chief said.
Russell, 25, disappeared after calling 911 on July 13 to report a toddler wandering beside a stretch of interstate. She returned home two days later and told police she had been abducted and forced into a vehicle.
Her disappearance became a national news story. Images of the missing 25-year-old were shared broadly on social media.
Russell told detectives she was taken by a man who came out of the trees when she stopped to check on the child, put her in a car and an 18-wheel truck, blindfolded her and held her at a home where a woman fed her cheese crackers, authorities said at a news conference last week. At some point, Carlee Russell said she was put in a vehicle again but managed to escape and run through the woods to her neighborhood.
Investigators cast doubt on her story in a news conference last week. They said in the days before her disappearance, she 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, departing the day she disappeared. Her phone also showed she traveled about 600 yards while telling a 911 operator she was following a 3- or 4-year-old child in a diaper on the side of the highway.
Hoover is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Birmingham.
veryGood! (5)
Related
- Google unveils a quantum chip. Could it help unlock the universe's deepest secrets?
- Jewish family can have anti-hate yard signs after neighbor used slur, court says
- Tallulah Willis Shares Update on Dad Bruce Willis Amid Health Battle
- Massachusetts man charged after allegedly triggering explosion in his Chicago dorm
- Nearly half of US teens are online ‘constantly,’ Pew report finds
- Krispy Kreme offers a dozen doughnuts for $2 over Labor Day weekend: See how to redeem
- Michael Bolton's nephew on emotional 'Claim to Fame' win: 'Everything was shaking'
- Authorities search for missing California couple last seen leaving home on nudist ranch
- Current, future North Carolina governor’s challenge of power
- ‘Crisis pregnancy centers’ sue Massachusetts for campaign targeting their anti-abortion practices
Ranking
- Rolling Loud 2024: Lineup, how to stream the world's largest hip hop music festival
- Sneex: Neither a heel nor a sneaker, a new shoe that is dividing the people
- Caitlin Clark sets WNBA rookie record for 3s as Fever beat Sun and snap 11-game skid in series
- Love Is Blind’s Stacy Snyder Comes Out as Queer
- Where will Elmo go? HBO moves away from 'Sesame Street'
- Bill Belichick's packed ESPN schedule includes Manningcast, Pat McAfee Show appearances
- A Pivotal Senate Race Could Make or Break Maryland’s Quest for Clean Energy Future
- As Lego goes green, costs will rise but customer prices won't, company says. Here's why.
Recommendation
From family road trips to travel woes: Americans are navigating skyrocketing holiday costs
As Lego goes green, costs will rise but customer prices won't, company says. Here's why.
Yolanda Hadid Shares Sweet Way She’s Spoiling Gigi Hadid's Daughter Khai Malik
Allison Holker Shares Photo Teasing New Romance 2 Years After Husband Stephen tWitch Boss' Death
Federal Spending Freeze Could Have Widespread Impact on Environment, Emergency Management
If you buy Sammy Hagar's Ferrari, you may be invited to party too: 'Bring your passport'
Prosecutors in Arizona’s fake electors case dispute defendants’ allegations of a political motive
Claim to Fame Finale Reveals Real Housewife's Brother: Find Out Who Won