As we shared last night, Carlethia “Carlee” Nichole Russell was found alive after being reported missing for over 48 hours. Russell had vanished from a highway in Alabama, where she last claimed she had seen a toddler stranded. Since her return, her boyfriend is breaking his silence and denying any involvement in her going missing.
RELATED: Carlee Russell Found Alive Days After Vanishing From Highway Where She Saw A Toddler Walking
As a quick refresher, on Thursday (July 13), the 25-year-old nursing student got off of work, picked up some takeout and then headed home, where she lives with her parents. As she was driving along I-459, toward Hoover, she claimed she saw a 3 or 4-year-old child walking alone, along the road. Around 9:30 p.m., she called the Hoover 911 Center to report the incident.
After calling 911, Lt. Daniel Lowe of the Hoover Police said while on the road, Russell then called her family and spoke with her brother’s girlfriend. During the call, the family all heard Russell asking the child if she was ok, but the child did not respond, or at least was not heard responding. Then the family heard Russell scream and lost contact with her, but the line remained open.
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On Friday (July 14), Lt. Lowe said when police arrived to the area Russell had vanished, they found her Mercedes still running, and all of her belongings, plus her wig and hat, left behind. But, they did not find her nor the child she reported seeing.
By Saturday evening (July 15), Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said the 911 Center received a call around 10:45 p.m. They learned that Russell showed up at her parent’s house alone, and in shock. When Hoover Police and Fire responded to the scene to evaluate Russell, paramedics ended up taking her to UAB hospital for further evaluation.
Now, on Sunday afternoon (July 16), Carlee Russell’s boyfriend, Thomar Latrell Simmons, has broken his silence, taking to his Instagram to share photos and videos of the two, while clearing his name of any wrongdoing, and denying any involvement in her disappearance.
Simmons began, “I don’t even know how to start off this post but to only say thank you to my lord & savior Jesus Christ for saving my girlfriend’s life! Also, thank you to everyone who shared a picture, came out to the Hoover Met to help us with the search parties, & who went & proceeded to tell other people about Carlee to bring more awareness to her story.”
He added, “I have been going nonstop since I received the call that she was missing on Thursday night. I know she would’ve done the same for me, so I wasn’t going to give up until I saw her face again! I was straight tunnel vision, even when I would get on social media on my downtime & see some of the false allegations & assumptions about me having something to do with her abduction would have me discouraged at times, but I didn’t give up & kept my faith!”
Simmons continued, “I just want to thank all of my family, friends, former teammates, & church members who called or texted me just to let me know that they’re praying & here for me; you guys don’t know how much that meant to me! All I asked from everyone right now is to be respectful of Carlee’s situation. She was literally fighting for her life for 48 hours, so until she’s physically & mentally stable again she is not able to give any updates or whereabouts on her kidnapper at this very moment.”
While breaking his silence and denying any involvement in Russell’s abduction, the boyfriend also sent his thanks to people across the internet. He said, “I also want to thank the people on social media who has been understanding & respectful about what she’s been through in these past few days. Once again I can’t thank you guys enough for helping us bring Carlee home! God bless you all ❤️🙏🏾 #carleefound #carleerussell.”
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#Socialites, be sure to check out the post below, then leave us your thoughts in a comment after!
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Is she really a nursing student? that ego doesnt care for anyone but herself.
She knew what she was doing! When my daughter first told me about it and I watch the video and all those cars passing by and neither one of them saw a baby, how about the cars going before her, they didn’t see a baby! Come on y’all use some common sense here. After viewing that video, I told my daughter,” that girl somewhere with her boyfriend or someone. All those cars going by didn’t see Anything???? That didn’t make any sense! We have to very carefully and look at the situation. To me, the parents looked like they knew something was up because, you never seen a tear fall from the mother eyes or the father’s eyes, he kept his head down and the mother had her face almost the whole time and very to me she acted like she was crying. Now all this is TO ME!!! What kidnappers do y’all know that will bring their victims home? Is this the new thing in 2023?She did all that just to have charges filed upon herself! AND to ME I think the boyfriend had something to do with it too. To ME they had a plan and it didn’t work! Have y’all seen any reports that law enforcement or the other agencies said they talked to the boyfriend sister? All those people out in that HOT SUN, HOT SUN looking for her and she pulled the wool over everyone eyes, but NOT mine. If y’all actually look at the video closely you will see her get out the car and walk towards the back of her car and walk around, I don’t know if a car was waiting on her or what but you can definitely see after she got out the car for a split of 5 seconds a car on the shoulder started backing up. Oh I forgot, that was the kidnappers 🤓. I just can’t believe they had All those people out in that what felt like 100 plus weather. Well God Knows all and He sees all. All those people that looked for her for two days, all I can say to God Bless you all of you🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽