Alabama taxpayer dollars will not be funding the trial for Carlee Russell, the young woman who sent the nation into high alert after vanishing from an interstate in July, now that a plea date has been set. The nursing student was slated to appear before a judge on March 18 to appeal convictions brought against her after revealing she faked her disappearance.
On Thursday (March 7) Circuit Judge David Carpenter ordered the case be removed from the court’s docket, and instead Russell and her legal team will attend a hearing scheduled for March 21 at 1 p.m. Russell pleaded not guilty to falsely reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident in October. However, Municipal Judge Brad Bishop found her guilty of the offenses. His recommended punishment was to pay $18,000 in fines and a year in jail. Her attorneys said the consequences of her actions were steep for a first-time offender, hence their pursuit of an appeal.
The unbelievable saga surrounding her kidnapping tale began on the evening of July 13, 2023, when she called police claiming to have seen a toddler walking by themselves along I-495 South. At the time, Russell alleged that she was on her way home. She placed a call to her sister-in-law as she stopped to check on the alleged child around 9:30 p.m. and then seemingly vanished into thin air for two days. Her vehicle and belongings were found on the shoulder of the roadway, sparking widespread concern for her wellbeing. For two days, multiple agencies searched for her, even offering a $25,000 reward for information that would lead them to Russell.
Two days later, on July 15, she reappeared at her parents’ home, seemingly unharmed. An investigation led to her confessing that the entire ordeal was a hoax. It would later be publicized that authorities had their doubts about her story after discovering she searched “Do you have to pay for an Amber Alert,” one-way bus tickets from Birmingham to Nashville for July 13, and the movie Taken.
“My client apologizes for her actions to the community, the volunteers who were searching for her, to the Hoover Police Department and other agencies, as well as to her friends and family,” said her attorney Emory Anthony when the truth was revealed. Her motive for staging the kidnapping has not been publicly disclosed.