A 25-year-old Alabama woman who went missing Thursday night helping a stranded toddler on the side of a busy highway has reportedly returned home.
Hoover authorities received a call that Carlee Russell returned to her home on foot Saturday night around 10:45 p.m., WBRC reported. Russell was transported to the hospital and was evaluated.
Hoover Police Chief Nicholas Derzis said the department is excited Russell has returned, but an investigation into her disappearance is ongoing.
“The first thing is to give Carlee and family a little time to get themselves back together,” Derzis told WRBC. “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.”
Authorities have obtained traffic footage, which they believe shows Russell’s car pulling over at I-459 at mile marker 11.7 before she disappeared, according to the New York Post.
The nursing student made a phone call to 911, at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday reporting the missing toddler. She then was on the phone with her sister-in-law for six minutes until the sister-in-law said she heard a scream.
“In the process at some point she got out of the car and my daughter-in-law could hear her asking the child if they were OK,” Talitha Russell, Carlee’s mother, told WBRC.
Police responded in minutes, finding Russell’s car still running, along with her purse in the front seat.
Authorities are still trying to figure out where Russell has been.
