Carlee Russell, left, goes into the courthouse on March 21, 2024, where she admitted to two minor crimes after faking her own kidnapping last summer. (WVTM/YouTube)
Carlee Russell, the woman from Alabama who created chaos by pretending to be the victim of a violent kidnapping and later confessing that it was all a lie, admitted to two minor crimes on Thursday.
A judge stopped her one-year prison sentence and instead gave her a year of probation and a $17,000 fine. Russell, 26, apologized for her actions during the hearing at the Jefferson County Courthouse. She said she was struggling with emotional issues at the time.
“I am extremely regretful for the panic, fear, and various negative emotions that were felt across the nation. I want to specifically admit and take responsibility for the pain and embarrassment that I caused to my family, my church family, friends, neighbors, community, and all of those who were directly involved in search efforts for me,” Russell said through tears, according to AL.com.
Russell was previously found guilty in a lower court, but her attorneys appealed the case to circuit court which led to Thursday’s plea. The Alabama Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case, argued for jail time.
“Miss Russell faked a kidnapping, deceived the community, and created this situation. We, judge, still don’t know, to this day where she was, how she got there, what she was doing, and with whom she was doing it,” prosecutor Clark Morris said, according to AL.com.
But ultimately, the judge said that while she wasted government resources and caused unnecessary alarm, she was not a danger to the community so jail time was not necessary.
It all began on July 13 when she dialed 911 stating she had seen a child walking alone along I-459 South. Russell then phoned her family, saying she had stopped her car to check on the child. Then, something happened.
“The family member lost contact with her, but the line remained open,” the Hoover Police Department wrote in a news release.
Police found Russell’s vehicle but no sign of her or a child. The discovery sparked a frantic search that ended the night of July 15 when police said she showed up at her parents’ home.
Russell told investigators a man with orange hair and a big bald spot abducted her. She claimed he forced her into a car, and the next thing she remembered, she was in the trailer of an 18-wheeler, police said.
Russell told police she could hear the man conversing with a female. She heard a baby crying. She claimed she escaped the 18-wheeler but was caught, blindfolded, and placed into a car. She claimed she was not tied up and heard the captors say it was because they didn’t want to leave marks on her wrists.
She claimed she was taken to a house and forced to undress. She said she thought her captors took pictures of her but was not sexually assaulted. The following morning, she was fed, and the woman “played with her hair” before she was put back in a vehicle, and she managed to escape. She claimed she ran through the woods and came out near her home.
More pictures of Carlee Russell from the Hoover Police Department.
The police started to doubt her story, especially the part about the child on the highway, when they didn't find any evidence of it.
More suspicions arose when they checked Russell’s computer and saw that she had searched for “Do you have to pay for an Amber Alert,” “How to take money from a register without being caught,” and “Birmingham bus station.” She also looked for a one-way ticket from Birmingham to Nashville, Tennessee on July 13. This made the police more suspicious.
On the day she went missing, Russell searched for the movie, “Taken,” which is about a young woman being abducted.
Video from her workplace on the night she went missing showed her hiding a dark robe, a roll of toilet paper, and other business items. Later, she picked up food from a restaurant and snacks from Target before getting on a highway toward her home.
The police found her car with her personal stuff and the restaurant food, but they didn't find the Target snacks and the items she took from work.
Regarding the 911 call, data from Russell’s phone showed that she traveled about 600 yards — or six football fields — while on the phone with the dispatcher and supposedly following the toddler.
Then, on July 24, Russell confessed through her attorney in a statement that it was all fabricated and said sorry. statement that it was all made up and apologized.
“There was no kidnapping on Thursday, July 13, 2023. My client did not see a baby on the side of the road. My client did not leave the Hoover area when she was identified as a missing person. My client did not have any help in this incident — this was a single act done by herself. My client was not with anyone or any hotel with anyone from the time she was missing. 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 and to her friends and family. 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.