Carlee Russell update: Alabama woman sent odd tweets before alleged kidnapping as search history revealed

She stopped for food at Taziki’s in the nearby Colonnade mall to pick up food for herself and her mother, and then drove south onto Interstate 459, according to AL.com.

Soon afterwards, Ms Russell reportedly came across a young boy aged three or four in diapers walking along the side of the highway near mile marker 11.

At 9.34pm, she called 911 to report sighting the child. She then phoned her brother’s girlfriend to say she was stopping to check on the child. Ms Russell lost contact with the relative, although the line remained open.

The girlfriend then heard what they thought was someone scream, followed by traffic noise from the interstate, according to AL.com.

The child was not sighted on the footage, and authorities haven’t received any other reports of a missing child, Hoover Police Department said in a statement on Friday morning.

When police officers arrived, they found her red Mercedes still running and belongings including a wig, phone, Apple Watch and purse, but no sign of her or the toddler, her mother Talitha Russell said.

Carlethia “Carlee” Nichole Russell vanished on 13 July after calling 911 to report she had seen a toddler walking on the side of Interstate 459 in Alabama.

The 25-year-old told dispatch she stopped her car to check on the child, and called a family member before losing contact, according to the Hoover Police Department.

By the time officers arrived five minutes later, Ms Russell had disappeared with her car engine still running, and the toddler was nowhere to be found.

Law enforcement and family mounted a desperate search for the missing woman and pleaded with the public for help.

Then just over 48 hours later, police were notified that Ms Russell had returned home on foot.

She told detectives that she had been kidnapped by a white man with “orange hair”, and held captive in a semi-truck trailer and house before escaping.

Here’s what we know about her disappearance so far – and the questions that remain unanswered:

Ms Russell returned home, on foot, on 15 July.

Surveillance footage obtained from the neighbourhood shows Ms Russell walking up to her family’s home, alone.

“As you can see there are many questions left to be answered, but only Carlee can provide those answers,” Mr Derzis said.

Mr Derzis said police have asked to interview Ms Russell again but their request has so far been denied.

It is unclear why Ms Russell wanted to disappear but Mr Derzis pointed to Ms Russell’s actions beforehand to give some insight into her mental state.

Using tracking information, internet search history and surveillance camera footage, investigators saw Ms Russell leave her workplace carrying items that she allegedly was not supposed to have.

This included a roll of toilet paper and a bathrobe.

She then stopped by Target to get snacks and a local restaurant to get dinner before driving down the interstate.

Mr Derzis said Ms Russell searched things like “Do you have to pay for Amber Alert or search” and how old someone has to be for an Amber Alert to be issued in the days and hours leading up to her disappearance.

She also searched “How to take money from a register without being caught.”

Other searches included: one-way bus tickets out of Birmingham and the movie Taken which is about a young woman’s abduction.

Ms Russell told police that a man with “orange hair” emerged from the trees, picked her up and forced her into another vehicle where she was kidnapped for 49 hours.

In a horrific tale, Ms Russell recounted being transported to another truck and then to a house where she was stripped naked and photographed.

However, police were unable to verify Ms Russell was kidnapped at all. As of now, authorities don’t know where Ms Russell went in the two days she was missing.

Minutes before her supposed disappearance, Ms Russell told a 911 operator she pulled over her vehicle and turned on her hazard lights to assist a small toddler who was walking alone along the interstate.

She said the child was barefoot but wearing a diaper and t-shirt.

After that, she said she was kidnapped, insinuating that the toddler was used as bait.

However, police said there is no evidence that a child was walking alone alongside the interstate. Despite many drivers using the road, nobody else called police about a toddler, no traffic cameras picked up on a child and no missing children had been reported.

They also debunked Ms Russell’s claims that she pulled over to make sure the child was safe. Location tracking information from her cellphone showed that during the 911 call, she travelled 600 yards, about six football-field lengths.

Carlee Russell’s tweets, in combination with her search history prior to her vanishing, contribute to the weirdness that swirls around the case. Police revealed that Ms Russell’s internet search history suggests she could have staged her own kidnapping, as she looked up Amber Alerts, the movie Taken, booking a bus ticket from Birmingham to Nashville and “how to take money from a register without being caught.”

A tweet on 10 July adds colour to this complicated picture, and indicates potential problems in her relationship. Ms Russell wrote, “I always say one thing i WONT do is stay with someone who cheated on me like you went and had sex with someone else and think it’ll be sweet one day?? hellll no.” Days earlier, she also tweeted: “everyone wants to feel wanted.”

Her boyfriend, Thomar Latrell Simmons, had posted on Facebook upon Ms Russell’s miraculous return, and supported her story that she had been abducted. She had been “fighting for her life for 48 hours,” he wrote, but has since taken down the post.

Two days earlier, her tweet revealed she may have been unhappy at work: “my job is really starting to get on my dang nerves.” She worked at Woodhouse Spa, the owner of which said on Thursday that he provided the police with “everything we uncovered.”

According to the New York Post, Ms Russell tweeted on 19 July, “I’m thankful I know how to identify when the enemy coming for me now, makes life a lot easier.” But the post has been taken down.

Police on Wednesday said they were “unable to verify” most of Ms Russell’s claims regarding the events leading up to and during her disappearance.

An Alabama lawyer has outlined the possible crimes Carlee Russell may have committed after police haven’t been able to verify her claims about her 49-hour disappearance.

The 25-year-old claims she was kidnapped, but police have shared her internet search history which suggests the ordeal may have been staged.

Birmingham lawyer Eric Guster, a longtime criminal defence attorney, told WVTM13 that he, like many others, grew interested in the case. He added that the message coming from the police was clear.

“She says she was kidnapped, and a kidnapping didn’t happen. (They say) our citizens are safe. There’s not a kidnapper out there. So, they use every other synonym for lie except saying she lied,” he told the local TV station.

Before 25-year-old Carlee Russell disappeared for a mysterious 49 hours, she posted a series of bizarre tweets.

On the day she went missing on 13 July, she tweeted at 8.55pm: “today was a GREAT day God be looking out im telling you!!”

One minute later, Ms Russell wrote: “someone to tell you ‘i love you’ and don’t got a reason.”

Finally, she tweeted, “yeah i want a family now” at 9.19pm. Just moments later, around 9.30pm, the Alabama woman called 911 and told detectives that she was following a lost toddler along the interstate.

After she returned home, Ms Russell claimed was abducted by a man with “orange hair.” She turned up on foot at her parent’s home with $107 tucked in her right sock, and alleged she had barely survived the encounter.

The mother of slain teen Aniah Blanchard has sent a dire message in the wake of an exhaustive investigation by Alabama authorities into the mysterious circumstances in which Carlee Russell allegedly went missing.

Ms Russell’s disappearance has stumped law enforcement and the public alike after the 25-year-old’s vehicle was found in the stretch of a highway following a 911 call she made reporting a stranded toddler. Ms Russell inexplicably reappeared at her parents’ home in Hoover 49 hours later, claiming she had been kidnapped and barely managed to escape her captors.

Hoover police and the FBI are leading the investigation, with detectives noting that no evidence of a toddler walking along the highway has been found. Ms Russell’s online searches prior to going missing — including the 2008 film Taken, Amber alerts, and “how to take money from a register without being caught” — have also cast doubt on her claims, police said during a press conference earlier this week.

The circumstances in which the alleged kidnapping unfolded initially prompted speculation that a new ruse involving children was being used by kidnappers to lure in victims, but authorities have emphasized there is currently no evidence of such a threat. Angela Harris, who created a nonprofit organization to promote safety education after her 19-year-old daughter Aniah was murdered in 2019, helped in the search for Ms Russell and has now called for the public to remain patient — and cautious — as an investigation is underway.