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Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

Missing Carlee Russell: 'I Lied!'

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline

News, True Crime

4.28.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Carlee Russell calls 911, telling the operator that she sees a toddler walking down the side of an Alabama freeway. 

When police arrive, there's no toddler and  Russell is gone. Her car, however, is still parked along the highway. The door is open and the car is running. Forty-nine hours later, Russell returns home, telling investigators in a brief interview that she was abducted by a man with orange hair and a woman.  

As the investigation continued, police find some “really strange” internet searches in the hours before she vanished, such as the cutoff age for an AMBER Alert.  

Now Russell admits via a statement from her lawyer that there was no toddler or abduction. 

Joining Nancy Grace today:

  • James Shelnutt – Attorney – The Shelnutt Law Firm, P.C.; 27-year Atlanta Metro Area Major Case Detective and Former S.W.A.T. Officer; Twitter: @ShelnuttLawFirm
  • Caryn Stark – Psychologist- Trauma and Crime Expert; Twitter: @carnpsych
  • Sheryl McCollum – Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder; Host of new podcast, “Zone 7;” Twitter: @ColdCaseTips
  • Lee Reiber – Mobile Device Forensic Expert, COO: Oxygen Forensics, Inc., Author: “Mobile Forensic Investigations: A Guide to Evidence Collection, Analysis, and Presentation”
  • Mike Hadsell – President and Founder of Peace River K9 Search and Rescue; Twitter: @K9River
  • Savannah Sapp – Multimedia Journalist and Reporter for WAFF48 in Alabama; Twitter: @Savannah Sapp/Instagram:@savannahsapp.tv/Facebook:SavannahSappWAFF48

 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Cribe Stories with Nancy Grace

0:07.0

It's all a lie.

0:18.0

A fabrication as some people call it.

0:21.0

It's an outright lie.

0:23.0

As many of you legal eagles had already figured out

0:26.0

through your sleuthing and just plain common sense.

0:29.0

Carly Russell is a big liar.

0:33.0

Take a listen to this.

0:35.0

But the question is where was she for those 49 hours?

0:38.0

She said she stayed in Hoover the entire time and no one helped her.

0:42.0

So where was she for those 49 hours?

0:44.0

Where did she sleep? Where did she stay?

0:46.0

How did she leave that area where she abandoned her red Mercedes sedan?

0:51.0

Now a lot of questions left unanswered.

0:53.0

We also asked about potential charges and the chief told us

0:56.0

they're looking into that, prosecutors looking into what charges could be filed against her

1:00.0

and then they'll decide whether those charges will be filed.

1:03.0

You're hearing our friends at WVTM with me and all star pal to make sense of what we know right now.

1:08.0

But for those of you just joining us on the story of 25-year-old Carly Russell

1:13.0

who says that she is only trying to render a to a taught boy walking along the interstate

1:21.0

wearing nothing but a diaper and a shirt, then she goes missing for 49 hours,

1:29.0

throwing her family and the Hoover PD into chaos as they search for her

...

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