New details of Carlee Russell's disappearance under scrutiny

Social media has opened a can of screams about Carly Russell, one part of one part all night, after police in Alabama revealed that they were unable to confirm that she was kidnapped or missing. Russell disappeared last Thursday and later turned up with her parents. Internal police say she called 9-1-1 to report a small child wandering on the interstate. She says she was then kidnapped by a man driving an 18-wheeler, but she escaped and returned home two days later. The new

details

released today have people saying that, damn it. woman lied listen July 11 at 7 30 a.m. m. the deadline for an amber alert investigation on July 13 at 103 a.m. m. on the day of her

disappearance

the term how to get money out of a cash register without being discovered was searched on July 13 at 2:13 a.m.

On the day of her

disappearance

, the Birmingham bus station was searched. On July 13 at 2:35 a.m. A search was conducted for a one-way bus ticket from Birmingham to Nashville with a departure date of July 13, joining me now to talk. about this attorney Oliver Brown, public relations specialist Bridget Holden and Waller County Agent Herschel Smith, so first of all, we're Oliver, what did we learn today from this press conference from law enforcement investigators the law? Well, what I believe, even from a criminal defense standpoint, is that you heard that the police department in that small town did a professional job, which they did from the beginning, from the time the report was made to where they made the announcement today, to summarize the facts, they just described the facts, they allow you to draw your own conclusion, they are without accusing anyone, they are not trying to belittle her or try to diminish the fact that our black women are disappearing and no one wants to report who sat there, laid out the elements of what they've discovered so far, and allowed the public to draw their own conclusions, so from my perspective, I think the authorities have really done an excellent job of allowing us to let the facts take us where they are. we've come today and we all believe that this could have been a hoax and Bridget as a public relations specialist that's what they should do exactly that's what they should do uh to let the public define their own because that's what relations publics are how the public relates to this story and now the public is kind of like oh how did you say this The woman lied, but let's look at the good things that happened and, yes, keep in mind that this is a black woman, if some People said that if the police department or the investigator said that she lied, there would be a reaction, of course, automatically, all you can do is take.

The information that appears now is exactly all you can do, however, social media, as you said, has opened a can on her, but at the same time, social media also started the search to help find this young woman, so it drew attention to the black. Black children and women are missed because Stephen Bradford in Oakland passed the ebony alert law to help find missing black women and children, which I think is a good thing, so I think it skews the public perspective a little bit. As far as she's concerned, it'll set us back 10 years like you say, because people do things and then it's like we believe them now, it's like the boy who cried wolf, but hopefully it won't have a negative effect on anyone else.

This has an effect on the black community in general because a lot of people see us as a monolith, not just one person or one bad apple, they see us all together as one, yes and like I said, I could do that, however, with Good luck, with the things that have come. that was good coming from this, hopefully that will eclipse what she's done. Constable her perspective when someone and we still don't know for sure if someone files a false report saying there's a missing black woman or a missing black man, how damaging that is. to future searches by law enforcement agencies personally, for me you know I take every situation seriously and that's you, yes, personally, but there are others who think totally differently, you know, and you know the stigma that we have about us and people telling us lies like that or saying things that they've been missing and suddenly they come up and they're not telling the truth, you know, if it has a big effect on our community, a big effect on our community and how they see it. the rest, that may not be black non-black individuals non-black researchers birds of the companions grouped together you know, let's be very strange that's how they look at us sometimes they look at us the same way in every little situation and this is sad to say that But In society that's how it is, there are some people who brought it into our community and have a huge effect on it because of what they've done and then some people don't, they just totally accept it as it is.

That's what it's like for some people you know, Oliver, could you face any criminal charges as a result of this? Absolutely fine, making a fake 911 call, a fake police report, um, and there's a whole host of other issues depending on how your state's law is governed. It is written that she has legal problems if this impact turns out to be a hoax. I want to be very careful how you know this, because it hasn't been determined, however, my legal brain analyzes how the police describe things. just facts, that's all they did, they didn't say "hey, she's guilty" or anything.

I really like the way they did it, but based on those facts, your brain can draw conclusions that this will lead to some kind of criminal prosecution. and civil liability for the entire lawsuit Hours of power that went into trying to find her, but what I would like to say is that what I liked about this whole case from the beginning is how powerful social media has become in one direction positive because A lot of people say, "Oh, it's a black woman's medicine. Listen to these facts. Everyone watches videos and stuff and tries to be little detectives, which kept us attentive to the well-being of this lady.

I think one time that video of the car driving down the road. shoulder with the flashing lights, that's where I started saying the police were probably going to look and see if she made a U-turn and then came back and did it because they never released any video of the police officer showing up at the scene, which gave me a clue. Other than that, the local authorities probably knew all along that something was wrong with this, but they didn't want you to know, disdain on social media, they just gave you the facts, thank you all for joining us tonight.