Carlee Russell’s boyfriend has publicly called for a stop to harassment of the nursing student after Alabama police questioned her kidnapping story.
“All I can say is I want everyone to stop bullying her.” I know what it looks like, what she’s done. Just stop bullying on social media,” her friend Thomar Lattrel Simmons told the New York Post.
“Think of her sanity.” She didn’t deserve that. She doesn’t. “No one deserves to be bullied online,” he added.
Russell, 25, claims she was abducted from the side of the road on July 13 after stopping to help a toddler and was held captive for two days before she was able to escape. However, local police said they could not confirm any of their claims.
Some have raised concerns about her claims, while lawyers have said she faces charges if she makes false allegations.
Carlee Russell with her boyfriend Thomar Simmons before she disappeared. Simmons has now said, “I want everyone to stop bullying her.” I know what it looks like, what she did.
Simmons and Russell recently visited New York together on July 4th. He has since deleted her from his photos of the trip
When Russell went missing, her boyfriend Simmons took to social media desperately asking for information
After Russell first disappeared, Simmons posted desperate calls for information on social media, then released a supportive post when Russell returned home.
Not only did he delete his posts about her disappearance, but also every photo of her and them together that had been there previously. He also unfollowed her on social media.
Carlee’s Twitter account also suggests that all was not well in the relationship in the weeks leading up to the ordeal.
She complained that men “throw away everything” for “a sex or a stripper.”
“I always say I will NOT stay with someone who cheated on me,” reads another of her tweets.
In this case, she appeared to be referring to another Twitter user and not Simmons.
But it was clear that she had romance on her mind.
“Everyone wants to feel wanted,” she tweeted at 3:08 am on July 8, five days before her disappearance.
Last month she hinted that she had been cheated on.
“You think you have a bond with someone until they show you you never did,” she tweeted.
Russell’s tweets in the days and weeks leading up to her disappearance paint a picture of a melancholy young woman tired of her job and unlucky in love
Russell has since stopped cooperating with officers, but initially told authorities she was abducted by a white man with “orange hair” who emerged from the trees by the roadside of I-459 after she saw a “little boy in a diaper” around 9:30 p.m. on July 13.
It is also believed that her parents are protecting themselves from further interrogation.
Russell went missing after she reported calling 911 and saying she saw a toddler walking barefoot across the freeway in Hoover, Alabama.
That sparked a massive 49-hour manhunt for Russell. Family members pleaded for their safe return as tracking dogs across the country tried to locate them.
Russell was found days later walking alone to the home she shared with her parents. She initially gave police a statement that she had been kidnapped – and her family continued to repeat those statements.
But police said they found little evidence to support their version. They said there were no more calls about the wandering child.
On July 13, security cameras caught her stealing a dark bathrobe and toilet paper before leaving work. She was later fired from her job at Woodhouse Day Spa in Birmingham, Alabama.
It was also revealed that she had searched online for the Liam Neeson kidnapping film Taken and researched whether an Amber Alert would be issued for someone her age.
Simmons has now removed Carlee from his Instagram page and called on the public to respect his girlfriend’s mental health
An Alabama attorney said he couldn’t believe Carlee Russell wasn’t arrested because she filed a false police report.
Filing a false police report in Alabama is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison and a $6,000 fine.
Veteran attorney Eric Guster said police were using all means possible to prevent her from lying, but he believes it’s clear Russell wasted police time and money.
“She says she was kidnapped and no kidnapping took place.” [They say] Our citizens are safe. There’s no kidnapper out there. “So they use every other synonym for lying other than saying she lied,” he told WVTM.
Guster says Police Chief Nick Derzis detailed three crimes they believe Carlee committed: theft, lying to authorities, and filing a false police report.
With that in mind, he says he’s shocked she hasn’t already been arrested.
Guster also told the outlet he was concerned that this case could affect future missing persons cases, particularly African-American women.
“It’s going to be a lot harder for African-American women to believe, and it might actually reduce the number of actual accounts of things because people are afraid they won’t be believed anyway,” he said.
Guster said he expects Carlee to be charged with filing a false police report, but said police are likely waiting to complete their investigation first.