The apparent lack of a parallel investigation into a missing child linked to the case of Carlethia "Carlee" Russell's 48-hour disappearance raises questions about what happened the night she went missing, an expert has told Newsweek.
Russell, a 25-year-old woman from Hoover, Alabama, went missing on Thursday night on her way home from work after telling 911 and family members that she had spotted a toddler walking alone on the side of Interstate 459. Traffic camera footage shows her vehicle, a red Mercedes, slowly driving down the shoulder lane with her flashers on and then coming to a stop.
No child can be seen in the footage, as many have pointed out on social media. Officials called to the scene found Russell's vehicle where she had left it on the side of I-459 along with her purse and phone.
After a frantic 48-hour search, Russell reappeared at her parents' home on Saturday, which police said she had reached on foot. Authorities took her to a local hospital, where she was treated and later discharged.
It is not yet known what exactly happened to Russell, as the investigation led by the Hoover Police Department is still ongoing. But the circumstances surrounding her disappearance have raised questions, with many internet sleuths trying to find answers—and some accusing Russell of faking her own kidnapping to gain attention.
Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD Sergeant SDS (Supervisor Detective Squad) and now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told Newsweek he always follows the lead of law enforcement when judging a case—and in this case what the police are not doing is more telling than what they've made public.
"They've made no public statements about this," he said. "They basically just said, 'OK, she's at home. We brought her there,' and that's it. But here's the other thing—we don't see a big search going on for this abducted child."
Giacalone said that there are no reported missing children cases in Hoover that could be related to Russell's case, and no investigation has been launched into an abducted child.
"Nobody else seems to have seen this child," he said. "Nobody else stopped."
Giacalone thinks that there's "nothing off the table" in Russell's case.
"It wouldn't be unusual for somebody to try to pull a ruse in order to get somebody's attention and then be able to kidnap them," he said of the possibility that Russell was abducted.
"We just know so little about the situation. But I think from the huge response we saw about trying to locate her, all the news press conferences and everything else, and then, now all of a sudden, she's home, she seems to be OK, she went to the hospital and now nothing else after that—I just find it very unusual," he said.
Newsweek reached out to the Hoover Police Department by email for comment on Tuesday.
On Monday, Hoover police said they will be returning the money donated by people trying to help find Russell while she was missing—a reward of $63,378 according to Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama—to donors.
Police said they won't be requesting payouts on Russell's case, but did not explain why.
