Carlee Russell is being excoriated online amid growing skepticism of her abduction claim, according to her boyfriend, who is calling on commenters to show some empathy.
“I want everyone to stop bullying her,” Thomar Latrell Simmons told the New York Post. “I know what it seems like what she did. Just stop bullying on social media.
He added: “Think about her mental health. She doesn’t deserve that. She doesn’t. Nobody deserves to be cyberbullied.”
Simmons’ plea comes after authorities in Hoover, Alabama, just south of Birmingham, released information late this week raising questions about the veracity of allegations made by Russell that she was kidnapped and held captive.
On July 13, Russell called 911 to report that she saw a baby wandering alone on Interstate 459. She stopped along the roadway, but when police responded, neither Russell nor any child were present. Officers found Russell’s vehicle, a red Mercedes-Benz, along with her phone, a wig and take-out food she had just picked up.
Volunteers and local, state and federal law enforcement searched for the 25-year-old nursing student throughout the community. Then two days after vanishing, Russell reappeared at her parents’ home, where she also lived, alleging that she had been kidnapped and held captive.
Russell said that a man forced her into a vehicle and then into the trailer of a semi-truck and that she was later brought to a house and forced to pose naked for photographs, according to the Montgomery Advertiser.
But authorities subsequently learned that just prior to disappearing, Russell had searched the internet for information about bus ticket prices, Amber alerts and films about kidnapping.
Investigators also learned that Russell had taken a robe and toilet paper from the spa where she worked prior to leaving on July 13, and that snacks she had purchased just before the alleged kidnapping were missing from the vehicle when police found it.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said investigators have been “unable to verify most of Carlee’s initial statement made to investigators.”
Russell spoke to police briefly after she returned home, but so far she has declined additional police interviews.
In an Instagram post that is no longer available, Simmons had previously claimed that Russell fought off her attackers. “She was literally fighting for her life for 48 hours, so until she’s physically & mentally stable again she is not able to give any updates or whereabouts on her kidnapper at this very moment,” Simmons wrote.
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[Feature Photo: Thomar Simmons and Carlee Russell/Instagram]
