Carlee Russell, a 25-year-old woman from Alabama who went missing on Thursday, returned home Saturday night, according to local police.
Russell was reported missing Thursday night after she called 911 at about 9:35 p.m. to report that she saw a child walking on the side of the I-459 South in Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham. Russell stopped along the interstate to check on the child and also called family members “with the same details,” according to police.
However, her family then lost contact with her, but the line remained open, police said. When police arrived on the scene, they located Russell’s car and belongings, but were unable to find her or a child in the area sparking an investigation into her disappearance, which has captured national attention. Her family would not hear from Russell for roughly two days.
Hoover police received a call at 10:45 p.m. Saturday night that Russell had returned to her home where police responded “to investigate this latest development in the case,” Hoover police said in a statement to Newsweek on Sunday morning.
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Hoover Fire medics also responded to assess Russel and ultimately transported her to a local hospital for evaluation, according to police’s statement.
A police spokesperson told Newsweek that more information, including details about her condition and how she went missing, were not yet available Sunday morning, but that the investigation into Russell’s disappearance remains ongoing.
Prior to Russell’s return, her mother Tabitha Russell previously described the phone call with her daughter, according to local television news station WBRC.
“At some point, she got out of the car and my daughter-in-law could hear her asking the child if they were OK,” she said. “The child did not respond, or at least she did not hear her respond. And then she heard our daughter Carlee scream and from there on all we could hear was noise, background noise in her phone which we later found out was noise from the interstate.”
Hoover Police Chief Nicholas Derzis said in an interview with WBRC that investigators will eventually sit down for an interview with Russell.
“The first thing is to give Carlee and family a little time to get themselves back together,” he said. “I know it’s been a tough experience for them. When we think it’s time to sit down and have a conversation with Carlee and try to get some facts, we’ll do that.”
Derzis added that police are “very pleased” that Russell made it home.
“Just know that the police department is very happy. We wanted her to come home safe and sound, and we’ll hope that’s what happened here,” he told WBRC. “The investigation portion, we’ll get to, but to me the main deal is making sure that she got home safe with her family. And I couldn’t be more excited, and I hope the community feels the same way.”
