LISTEN: What the 911 calls reveal about the disappearance and return of Carlee Russell
The 911 calls from the night Carlee Russell went missing reveal confusion from first responders who went to find a toddler along the interstate and arrived to find no one in the area.
Carlee Russell was on her way home from her job at the Woodhouse Day Spa in the Summit and had gotten dinner when she was driving along I-459 around 9:34 p.m.
She reported a toddler along the interstate to 911 and then stopped to check on the child and called a family member, according to police. The family told investigators that they lost contact with her, but the phone line remained open.
Listen to the 911 calls from the night Carlee Russell disappeared below.
It sparked a 48-hours-long investigation.
Family also responded to the Red Roof Inn in Vestavia Hills just hours before Russell returned home, saying they had gotten a call that she was at one of the Red Roof Inn locations, according to another 911 call.
Listen to the 911 calls from the Red Roof Inn below.
When Carlee Russell's mother was asked what happened when they first saw their daughter, she noted that they were overwhelmed, but Carlee needed medical attention.
"We tried to hug her as best we could, but I had to stand back, because she was not in a good state, so I had to stand back and let medical professionals work with her," Talitha Russell said in an exclusive interview with TODAY.
Dispatchers were originally told that there was an "unresponsive female breathing," and traffic was told to only let people down the street who lived there, according to 911 calls.
Police later revealed that Carlee was "conscious and speaking" at the time first responders arrived on scene.
Listen to the 911 calls when Carlee Russell returned home.
In terms of what happened to Carlee Russell during the time that she went missing, her parents said they cannot speak to anything about the case itself. They do, however, believe there is an abductor out there and police continue the search.
Hoover police are "combing through numerous pieces of evidence, and while officials say that this may be a "tedious process," it is imperative that each piece of evidence is thoroughly evaluated in order to better reconstruct the chain of events.
