Listen to Carlee Russell’s 911 call made minutes before she disappeared

During a news conference Wednesday on Carlee Russell’s disappearance, Hoover police released audio of the 25-year-old nursing student’s 911 call in which she calmly told a dispatcher she saw a toddler walking alone on I-459.

“There is a kid that’s walking by themselves,” Russell tells the dispatcher in the 2-minute 46-second call police provided to the media on Wednesday.

Russell describes the toddler as a 3- to 4-year-old boy wearing a t-shirt.

“It doesn’t look like he has any pants on, it looks like a diaper,” she says.

The dispatcher then asks if Russell can stay near the boy while police arrive on the scene near Exit 10, and she agrees. She says she is in a red Mercedes sedan.

Russell then tells the dispatcher that she has not gotten out of her car but can see the boy. He is white and doesn’t look injured, she says. There are no cars near the boy, according to Russell.

“Try to keep an eye on them the best you can because I don’t want you to lose track of them,” the dispatcher says. “I got them [police] on the way, O.K.? Keep an eye on them, but officers are on the way.”

But there was no sign of Russell when police arrived about 20 minutes later, the department said. Her wig, cell phone and purse were on the roadway, and her Apple Watch in her purse. Police located her Mercedes at the scene.

They were also unable to a child in the area, and Hoover police said they had not received any other calls of someone missing a small child.

After disappearing for 49 hours, Russell showed up at her Hoover home shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday. She was then taken to UAB Hospital for an evaluation.

Also during the news conference, Hoover police said Russell told officers at UAB Hospital she escaped the clutches of a man and woman who snatched her from the side of I-459 two nights earlier.

However, police said the investigation they conducted since she vanished that Thursday night, and after she showed up at her Hoover family home Saturday night, led them to “have no reason to believe that there is a threat to public safety related to this case,” police said.

Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis said Russell told detectives that when she got out of her vehicle to check on the child, “a man came out of the trees and mumbled that he was checking on the baby.”

“That man then picked her up and she screamed. He then made her go over a fence. He then forced her into a car and the next thing she remembers is being in the trailer of an 18-wheeler. She stated that the male was with a female, however she never saw the female, only hearing her voice. She also told detectives she could hear a baby crying,” Derzis said.

“She told detectives the male had orange hair with a big bald spot on the back. She was able to escape the 18-wheeler and fled on foot, only to be captured again and put into a car. She was then blindfolded, but was not tied up because the captors said they did not want to leave impressions on her wrists,” the chief said.

Police were “unable to verify most of Carlee’s initial statement made to investigators,” Derzis said.

He said the investigation continues but “due to the public interest and in some cases public fear that this story has created, we owe it to our citizens to tell them the facts that we have uncovered at this point.”

Russell has not spoken with investigators since her initial interview, the chief said.

“We have asked to interview Carlee a second time, but have not been granted that request,’’ the chief said. “As you can see, there are many questions left to be answered, but only Carlee can provide those answers.”

Police said they did not press her for additional information and made plans to speak with her in detail in a second interview after giving her time to rest.