On July 13, 2023, nursing student Carlethia Nichole Russell (born July 22, 1997) [1] allegedly disappeared for 49 hours from her home in Hoover, Alabama, falsely reporting to police afterwards that she had been abducted. The story of her disappearance went viral on TikTok and other social media platforms. [2] On July 24, Russell admitted that she had fabricated the story, and had not been abducted. [3] She was sentenced to a year's probation in March 2024. [4]
Russell made a 911 call at 9:34 pm [5] on July 13, which has been publicly released. [6] In the call, she says that she has stopped at the side of Interstate 459 having seen an unattended young child on the side of the highway. She then called a family member to report the same situation, before losing contact with them, with the line remaining open. [5] Russell's car was found by police abandoned at the location she had described. [6]
Russell appeared at her parents' house 49 hours later, on July 15, and was taken to hospital where she was briefly questioned by police. In that interview, Russell reported having been abducted by a male and placed inside a tractor trailer truck. She said she was able to escape, but was re-captured and placed in a car. [7] She claimed to have been undressed and photographed while blindfolded, though not bound at the wrists to avoid causing ligature marks, and said that she escaped again, eventually returning home. [8]
Crime Stoppers raised more than $63,000 in reward money for the search of Russell. [9]
The local police department and investigators stated that they had been "unable to verify" most of Russell's statement, [10] [11] and that "continuing investigation had cast doubt on much of Ms. Russell's account." [12] Among her web-searches in the days before her disappearance were "Do you have to pay for an Amber alert", "How to take money from a register without being caught", "Birmingham bus station", "One way bus ticket from Birmingham to Nashville", and the abduction film Taken . [13] The Hoover Police Department stated in a press release that they had "not found any evidence of a child walking on the side of the road" nor did they "receive any additional calls about a toddler walking down the interstate." [11]
On July 24, 2023, Russell later admitted through her attorney, Emory Anthony, that her kidnapping claim was a hoax. [3] Her attorney stated: "There was no kidnapping on Thursday, July 13, 2023. My client did not see a baby on the side of the road. My client did not leave the Hoover area when she was identified as a missing person. My client did not have any help in this incident — this was a single act done by herself. My client was not with anyone or any hotel with anyone from the time she was missing. 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." [14]
Russell was charged with two class A misdemeanors for faking the abduction: false reporting to law enforcement authorities and falsely reporting an incident. [15]
Russell pleaded not guilty to charges of false reporting to law enforcement authorities and falsely reporting an incident, but was found guilty by Municipal Judge Brad Bishop on October 11, 2023 based on the recommendation of state prosecutors. [16] In municipal court, there is no jury trial, however the constitution allows anyone facing jail time to have their case heard by a jury, which Russell's defense attorneys indicated she would be appealing to do. [16]
Bishop recommended one year in jail and $17,874 in restitution for Russell. He also recommended two fines of $831 each. [16] Russell's attorneys argued against jail time, stating it would be unusual for a first time Class A misdemeanor. [16]
In March 2024, Russell pled guilty to two counts of filing false police reports and was sentenced to a year of probation and 100 hours of community service. She was also ordered to pay an $18,000 fine. [4] After pleading guilty, Russell stated that she "made a grave mistake while trying to fight through various emotional issues and stress" and portrayed her actions as a cry for help. [17]
The runaway bride case concerns Jennifer Carol Wilbanks, an American woman who ran away from her home in Duluth, Georgia on April 26, 2005, to avoid her wedding with John Mason, her fiancé, on April 30. Her disappearance sparked a nationwide search and intensive media coverage, including media speculation that Mason had killed her. On April 29, Wilbanks called Mason from Albuquerque, New Mexico, and falsely claimed that she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted by a Hispanic man and a white woman.
Natalee Ann Holloway was an 18-year-old American high school graduate from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who disappeared from the Caribbean island of Aruba on May 30, 2005. Her disappearance resulted in an international media sensation, especially in the United States. The prime suspect, Dutch national Joran van der Sloot, has made conflicting statements over the years about his involvement, including a confession to killing her. Holloway's remains have not been found.
Romona Moore was a 21-year-old Hunter College honors student who disappeared on April 24, 2003, in Brooklyn, New York. Two months later, her body was discovered outside an abandoned house which an anonymous caller had directed her mother to. Two male suspects were arrested; they were convicted in 2006 of having kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered Moore. The young immigrant from Guyana had been living at home with her parents and relatives before she was kidnapped.
On 19 February 2008, nine-year-old Shannon Louise Matthews was reported missing in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, England. The search for her became a major missing person police operation which was compared to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Shannon was found alive and well on 14 March 2008 at a Batley Carr house belonging to 39-year-old Michael Donovan. Donovan was the uncle of Craig Meehan, the boyfriend of the kidnapped girl's mother, Karen Matthews.
On June 10, 1991, Jaycee Lee Dugard, an eleven-year-old girl, was abducted from a street while walking to a school bus stop in Meyers, California, United States. Searches began immediately after Dugard's disappearance, but no reliable leads were generated, even though several people witnessed the kidnapping. Dugard remained missing for over 18 years until 2009, when a convicted sex offender, Phillip Garrido, visited the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, accompanied by two adolescent girls, who were discovered to be the biological daughters of Garrido and Dugard, on August 24 and 25 of that year. The unusual behavior of the trio sparked an investigation that led Garrido's parole officer, Edward Santos Jr, to order Garrido to take the two girls to a parole office in Concord, California, on August 26. Garrido was accompanied by a woman who was eventually identified as Dugard.
The disappearance of Amy Fitzpatrick occurred on New Year's Day 2008. At 10pm on that day, 15-year-old Irish girl Amy Fitzpatrick said goodbye to her friend Ashley Rose, with whom she had been babysitting Ashley's brother at a house in Mijas Costa in Málaga, Spain. Fitzpatrick should have arrived at her home a few minutes later, as it was only a short walk away. She never arrived home and has not been heard from or seen since that night.
Fetal abduction refers to the rare crime of child abduction by kidnapping of an at term pregnant woman and extraction of her fetus through a crude cesarean section. Dr. Michael H. Stone and Dr. Gary Brucato have alternatively referred to this crime as "fetus-snatching" or "fetus abduction." Homicide expert Vernon J. Geberth has used the term "fetal kidnapping." In the small number of reported cases, a few pregnant victims and about half of their fetuses survived the assault and non-medically performed cesarean.
A racial hoax occurs when a person falsely claims that a crime was committed by member of a specific race. The crime may be fictitious, or may be an actual crime.
Girly Chew was a Malaysian-born woman who disappeared on September 9, 1999, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The investigation into the murder of Girly Chew revealed a conspiracy theory involving reptilian queens, UFOs and reports of cannibalism. Girly Chew's husband Diazien Hossencofft and his girlfriend Linda Henning were convicted of her murder. Her body has never been found.
Between 2002 and 2004, Ariel Castro abducted Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus from the roads of Cleveland, Ohio, and later held them captive in his home at 2207 Seymour Avenue in the city's Tremont neighborhood. All three women were imprisoned at Castro's home until 2013, when Berry successfully escaped with her six-year-old daughter, to whom she had given birth while captive, and contacted the police. Police rescued Knight and DeJesus, and arrested Castro hours later.
A fake kidnapping or self-kidnapping is a kidnapping that has been staged by the victim.
In May 2014, Isidro Medrano Garcia, who had been living under the name Tomas Medrano or Tomas Madrano, was arrested and accused by police of kidnapping a 15-year-old girl in 2004 and repeatedly raping her and continuing to hold her captive until 2014. Garcia was accused of forcing the alleged victim to marry him in 2007. As time moved on, the woman had a child with Garcia on October 27, 2010, or in 2012, and they continued to live openly together as a family in Bell Gardens, California, until the woman contacted her sister through Facebook and met with her mother in April 2014. She filed a domestic violence complaint with Bell Gardens police on May 19, 2014. As a married couple, Garcia and the woman had an apparently active social life in the community, including hosting large parties and the woman spending time and running errands by herself, having her own car, and working outside the home. However, police said the woman had tried to escape twice and been severely beaten. Through his attorney, Garcia claimed that the woman made up the story of abuse because the couple was breaking up.
Beverly Rose Potts was a ten-year-old American girl who disappeared while walking home from a neighborhood festival event held in a park less than a quarter of a mile from her Cleveland, Ohio home. Despite intense publicity and repeated, exhaustive efforts to locate the girl, both at the time of her disappearance and in more recent decades, no trace of Potts or definitive leads as to the circumstances surrounding her disappearance have ever materialized. Foul play is strongly suspected, although no definitive suspect has ever been identified.
On January 29, 2011, Bethany Anne Decker left her grandparents' home and returned to her apartment in Ashburn, Virginia. Her then-boyfriend, Ronald Roldan, claimed he saw her there later that day. She has not been seen since.
Sherri Louise Graeff-Papini is an American woman who disappeared on November 2, 2016, reportedly while out jogging a mile from her home in Redding, California. Papini was 34 years old at the time. She reappeared three weeks later on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, having been reportedly freed by her captors at 4:30 that morning, still wearing restraints, on the side of County Road 17 near Interstate 5 in Yolo County, about 150 miles (240 km) south of where she disappeared.
On June 9, 2017, Yingying Zhang, a visiting Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was abducted by Brendt Allen Christensen, a Champaign resident and former physics graduate student at the university. Christensen, who investigators claimed aspired to be a serial killer, lured Zhang into his car at a bus stop on campus posing as a police officer with the promise of a ride after she missed a bus, but then took her to his apartment where he raped and murdered her.
Jonelle Matthews was a 12-year-old American girl who disappeared near Greeley, Colorado, on December 20, 1984. Her remains were discovered on July 24, 2019, by construction workers putting in a new pipeline 15 miles (24 km) from her home. Steven Pankey was sentenced to life imprisonment on October 31, 2022, after his arrest and trial for Matthews' murder.
The killing of Aniah Blanchard occurred in October 2019. Blanchard, a 19-year-old college student, was reported missing on October 24. She had last been seen at a Chevron gas station in Auburn, Alabama, the previous night. A witness from the gas station claims to have seen Blanchard's kidnapping. Blanchard's body was found in Macon County, Alabama, one month after her disappearance.
Dawn Dumont is the pen name of Dawn Marie Walker, a Plains Cree writer, former lawyer, comedian, former CEO and journalist from the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada.