Carlee Russell update: Alabama police throw cold water on dramatic kidnapping tale during press conference

The owner of the beauty spa where Carlee Russell works released a statement opening up about how Ms Russell’s disappearance affected employees and the business.

“Woodhouse Spa employees have been deeply impacted by the events that transpired but are now ecstatic with the news of Carlee’s return home. Our employees worked extremely hard through very tough times keeping guests happy while dealing with the fact that their co-worker was missing,” Stuart Rome told WVTM.

Ms Russell works at Woodhouse Spa located in the Summit luxury shopping mall in Birmingham.

She was returning home from work on the night of her disappearance before she went missing.

Mr Rome said they were cooperating with police in helping put the pieces together on how Ms Russell went missing.

“We understand the investigation is in a very sensitive state and do not want to release any details that could jeopardize the investigation,” Mr Rome added.

Hoover police chief told reporters on Wednesday that from an investigation into Carlee Russell’s disappearance and alleged kidnapping, they have no reason to believe there is a danger to the public’s safety.

“What we can say is that we’ve been unable to verify most of Carlee’s initial statement made to investigators,” chief Nick Derzis said.

“We’ve asked to interview Carlee a second time, but we have not been granted that request. As you can see there are many questions left to be answered, but only Carlee can provide those answers.”

Carlee Russell vanished after calling 911 to report seeing a young boy in diapers on the side of a busy interstate. Two days later, she turned up at her home.

In the days and hours leading up to Carlee Russell’s disappearance, the 25-year-old made a series of interesting internet searches that could provide some answers.

According to Hoover police chief Nick Derzis, Ms Russell searched for things like, “Do you have to pay for an Amber Alert” two days before her disappearance.

In the hours leading up to her alleged abduction on 13 July, Ms Russell searched, “How to take money from a register without being caught” and “One-way bus tickets from Birmingham to Nashville.”

She also looked up the movie Taken which is about the abduction of a young woman.

Ms Russell also searched for more information about Amber Alerts while she was at her workplace – which was the last location she was seen before she went missing for 49 hours.

After 25-year-old Carlee Russell returned to her parents’ home in Hoover, Alabama 49 hours after she went missing, police conducted an interview with her to determine where she went.

During a press conference on Wednesday, police revealed that Ms Russell told them information that they were “unable to verify”.

Ms Russel claimed to have been abducted by a “man who came out of the trees” as she was allegedly checking on a toddler who was walking alone on the interstate.

She said the man had orange hair and a bald spot and picked her up, forced her into a car and eventually put her in the trailer of an 18-wheeler semi truck.

Ms Russell told police that she heard a woman and a baby in the semi, but didn’t see them.

She claimed to have escaped from the trailer, before being recaptured and taken to a house, where her alleged captors forced her to undress and pose for photographs.

She told detectives she was then placed in a car and managed to escape and flee into woods and came out near her home.

Detectives noted she had a minor injury on her lip and a torn shirt. They also found $107 in cash tucked in her right sock.

As of now, police have no evidence that a toddler was walking along the interstate alone or that a crime was committed. The investigation to determine where Ms Russell actually was in underway.

Carlee Russell made a series of suspicious internet searches in the days before she claimed to have been abducted, Alabama authorities revealed at a press conference on Wednesday.

A forensic analysis of Ms Russell’s cell phone, work and home computers found she looked up information about the movie Taken, Amber Alerts, booking a bus ticket from Birmingham to Nashville and “how to take money from a register without being caught”, Hoover Police Department chief Nicholas Derzis told reporters.

Before Carlee Russell went ‘missing’, she called 911 to inform the police that she spotted a three-to-four-year-old child walking alone, barefoot, in only a diaper and t-shirt along the interstate.

According to Ms Russell, she got out of her car to assist the small toddler and was kidnapped by a man.

Police said that no other people driving along the interstate noticed the toddler or called the police and no children had been declared missing in the area, leading to suspicions about Ms Russell’s story.

Then during a press conference on Wednesday, Hoover police chief Nick Derzis said that in the short phone call Ms Russell had with police she travelled approximately 600 yards (the size of six football fields) while claiming she was following the toddler.

Authorities used location-tracking information via her cell phone to see she had not pulled off on the interstate and was likely not following a small child.

The Hoover Police Department is hosting a press conference to update the public with the most recent information about Carlee Russell.

The news conference will begin at 3.30pm ET / 2.30pm CT.