“There are moments when she had to physically fight for her life and moments when she had to mentally fight for her life.” – Talitha Robinson-Russell
Now that Carlee Russell has returned to her Alabama home, her parents say she has to not only deal with the physical and mental trauma but she’s being victimized all over by the “mean and vicious things people are saying online.”
peaking on NBC’s “TODAY” show in an interview, Talitha Robinson-Russell, said she felt “just so much joy” after her daughter returned home after being missing for 48 hours.
“We tried to hug her as best we could, but I had to stand back because she was not in a good state,” she said.
Russell, 25, disappeared July 13 after calling 911 just after 9:30 p.m. She told the 911 operator she saw a toddler on I-459 South, said police in Hoover, a city of around 92,000 south of Birmingham.
She had also called a relative and told them she saw a male toddler in a diaper on the side of the road and that she was stopping to check in on him, but that relative lost contact with her, said the Hoover Police Department . When officers arrived at the scene, they found her wig, cell phone and purse on the road near her car, but no sign of Russell or the child she called about, said police . Her call was the only report about seeing a child on the interstate, police said.
Two days later, police received a call notifying them that Carlee Russell had returned home. Authorities responded to her home and she was transported to a local hospital for evaluation, treated and released.
Talitha Robinson-Russell and Carlos Russell, Carlee Russell’s father, told the “TODAY” show they could not share details on how their daughter returned home or on her account of what unfolded during her disappearance, citing the ongoing police investigation but they were adamant that their daughter had been abducted.
In the days since her return Carlos Russell said his daughter was struggling with “bad dreams” and “moments where some things make her cringe, afraid,” including loud noises. “Just different things that trigger,” he said.
Her mother said the family has also been left traumatized. She also said they received “many” texts and calls from people who “maliciously lied” to them and pretended to know their daughter’s whereabouts while she was missing. “I just didn’t know people could be so evil,” said Talitha Robinson-Russell, noting that there has also been widespread speculation around what happened during her daughter’s disappearance in the wake of her return home.
