Authorities in Alabama said on Friday they had filed criminal charges against a woman who confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of an interstate highway.
Carlee Russell was charged with misdemeanor false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident.
The Hoover police chief, Nick Derzis, announced the charges at a news conference.
Russell, 25, disappeared after calling 911 on 13 July to report a toddler wandering beside a stretch of highway. She returned home two days later, telling police she had been abducted and forced into a vehicle.
Her disappearance became a national news story. Images of the missing 25-year-old were shared widely.
But Russell’s attorney, Emory Anthony, said she made the story up.
In a statement read by police on Monday, Anthony said Russell was not kidnapped, did not see a baby on the side of the road, did not leave the city and acted alone.
He said Russell apologized and he asked for prayers and forgiveness as she “addresses her issues and attempts to move forward, understanding that she made a mistake in this matter”.
Russell told detectives she was taken by a man who came out of the trees when she stopped to check on the child.
She said the man put her in a car and an 18-wheel truck, blindfolded her and held her at a home where a woman fed her cheese crackers, authorities said at a news conference last week.
At some point, Russell said, she was put in a vehicle again but managed to escape and run through the woods to her neighborhood.
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