Carlethia "Carlee" Russell disappeared on Thursday, July 13, 2023. She had called 911 to report a sighting of a toddler walking alongside the highway alone. After that call, Carlee called a family member, who remained on the line and heard Carlee scream before the line went dead.
Carlee returned home two days later, but there are still more questions than answers about her case. A woman named Ashanti, who hosts the show Ashanti After Nine and is friends with a friend of Carlee's, is claiming that Carlee has pretended to be abducted before.
Ashanti, the host of the show, explains in the video that she has been hearing from "a lot" of Carlee's friends, and that they are "blowing me up." Ashanti's guest shares that when she first heard the news the day after Carlee's abduction, she assumed her friend had been involved in sex trafficking.
Ashanti shares that she is friends with a friend of Carlee's, and because her friend was so upset about the situation, she believed it from the beginning. But then, it seemed like not everything added up.
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Ashanti offers a disclaimer at the beginning of the show, where she points out that nothing she is speaking about is definitely true, and then shares that friends of Carlee's are starting to doubt her story. Carlee's friends and family also apparently conducted their own search party that ran parallel to the official search group.
Ashanti and her guest also call into question the behavior of Carlee's family, especially since her family members asked for privacy but then went on The Today Show for an interview. Both women believe that Carlee's parents should have remained silent.
The pair also discuss text messages that indicate Carlee allegedly had relationships with up to three men at the time of her disappearance, and that she had broken up with her boyfriend, Thomar Latrell Simmons, two days before she was abducted. The text messages also state that Carlee has "pulled this stunt multiple times."
The text messages go on to state that some friends believe Carlee faked the disappearance to get Thomar to get back together with her because one of the other men was no longer interested.
The friend writes, "Carlee is extremely entitled and spoiled."
More text messages also allege that Carlee was "caught embezzling money" from a spa, and that some friends believe the Hoover Police Department is giving Carlee's family time to come forward with the truth before filing charges against her.
Carlee's mother Talitha Robinson-Russell has backed up her daughter's claims. She told CNN's affiliate WBRC: "Carlee has given detectives her statement and hopefully they are pursuing her abductor. She definitely fought for her life. There were moments when she physically had to fight for her life, and there were moments when she had to mentally fight for her life."
Police have also explained that there were no other reported sightings of a toddler on the side of the road at the time of Carlee's disappearance, and traffic footage is being analyzed.
You can watch the interview in the video.
