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Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who said she had been kidnapped for 49 hours in and then confessed it was all a lie, was charged Friday with two misdemeanors, police announced Friday.
Russell turned herself in to authorities, accompanied by her attorney, and was booked into the Hoover City Jail on misdemeanor charges of false reporting to law enforcement and false reporting of an incident, Derzis reported.
Russell was released after posting $1,000 bail for each charge, which could carry up to a year in jail and a $6,000 fine, if convicted.
“Her decisions that night created panic and alarm among the citizens of our city, as well as the entire country, as concerns grew that a kidnapper was on the loose using a young child as bait,” Derzis said, adding that “ the story opened wounds for the families whose loved ones were actually kidnapped, some of whom even helped organize searches.”
Russell called 911 and reported seeing a child on the shoulder of a freeway. He claimed that he had stopped to help him and then lost communication with her and left her car and phone abandoned.
He appeared by his own means at his home two days later, while his case generated headlines in the national media.
Crime Stoppers community program seeks to return money raised for the search for Carlee Russell
The Alabama Crime Stoppers community program, a citizen organization that helps police collect leads on disappearances and other crimes, began this week returning more than $60,000 raised for the search for Carlee Russell, who confessed to faking her kidnapping. .
According to the AL.com site, the organization managed to raise about $63,378 in the more than 48 hours that Russell was missing, before he turned up again at his parents’ house.
“We are releasing all funds,” Bob Copus, executive director of Crime Stoppers of Metro Alabama, said Tuesday. “We rely on the statements made at the press conference.”
New details from the investigation into a woman reported missing who returned home two days later
What did Carlee Russell do?
Alabama authorities said Monday that Carlee Russell confessed to fabricating the story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a young boy she saw walking on the side of the interstate.
On that occasion, Derzis said Carlee Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, provided a statement Monday saying there was no kidnapping.
“There was no kidnapping on Thursday, July 13. My client did not see a child on the side of the road,” said the text, read by Derzis at a press conference. “She didn’t leave town and act on her own.”
The mysterious case of a woman reported missing who returned home two days later
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