An Alabama woman vanished after calling 911 to report a child walking along an interstate last week, only to reappear two days later, but police still haven’t said what exactly happened to her during that time.
Police in Hoover, Alabama, the city of over 90,000 residents just outside of Birmingham where Carlethia “Carlee” Russell disappeared, released new details about their investigation into her whereabouts Tuesday night. Authorities are scheduled to give additional updates in a news conference Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. local time.
In a press release late Tuesday, police said Russell was seen on surveillance footage walking alone down the sidewalk in her neighborhood the night she came back home. Police said they spoke to Russell “very briefly” after her return, “and are waiting for her to be made available to obtain a more detailed statement about the sequence of events during that timeframe.”
Russell’s family has claimed she was abducted, but Hoover police haven’t said if they’re looking for a suspect or treating the case as an abduction and told USA TODAY more information would be released at the Wednesday afternoon news conference when asked about the claims.
Here’s what police and her family have said so far:
What happened to Carlee Russell?
Russell was driving home to Hoover from her work in Birmingham on I-459 on Thursday when she called 911 to report she spotted a toddler in a diaper walking on the side of the interstate. Police said she then called her brother’s girlfriend and pulled over to check on the child.
“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, Russell’s mother, told AL.com. “From there, all you hear on her phone is background noise from the interstate.”
Police have said they arrived on the scene within five minutes from Russell’s call and found her car and some personal belongings on the road near it, but no sign of either Russell or a child.
Police also added Tuesday night that Russell had stopped at Target on her way and purchased some “snack food type items,” which were not found in or around her car.
Where was Russell after she disappeared?
A search that drew national attention unfolded until Russell returned home about 48 hours later.
On Saturday at about 10:45 p.m., Russell arrived to her home on foot and knocked on the door, police said.
Police have still not said where they believe she was during those two days. In their news release late Tuesday, Hoover police said surveillance footage showed Russell “walking down the sidewalk alone prior to her arrival at her residence.”
“Numerous evidentiary items are still being evaluated, and those items are key in the process of determining exactly what took place in the approximately 49 hours Carlee was missing, but also what took place prior to her disappearance,” police said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Russell’s family members have said they believe she was abducted. Her mother, Talitha Russell, told NBC’s “Today” show that she believes her daughter “fought for her life.”
“Carlee has given detectives her statement so that they can continue to pursue her abductor,” Talitha Russell said in an interview that aired Tuesday. “There were moments when she physically had to fight for her life and there were moments when she had to mentally fight for her life.”
Was Russell hurt?
When police arrived to Russell’s home Saturday night, they found her conscious and responsive, despite reports of a dispatcher relaying information that a person was unresponsive.
She was taken to a local hospital but later released, police said in the Tuesday night update.
What happened to the child Russell claimed to see on the interstate?
Police said they have uncovered no evidence of a child on the highway. Russell’s 911 call is still the only report of a child walking on the side of the interstate,
“The Hoover Police Department has not located any evidence of a toddler walking down the interstate, nor did we receive any additional calls about a toddler walking down the interstate, despite numerous vehicles passing through that area as depicted by the traffic camera surveillance video,” police said Tuesday night.
CARLEE RUSSELL TIMELINE:Police detail Alabama’s movements before she went missing
