Source: Jason Davis / Getty
Outspoken conservative Candace Owens proffered to pay Carlee Russell’s judge-recommended $18,000 in restitution in exchange for an interview on her show.
Russell is the 26-year-old Alabama nursing student who convinced the world she got kidnapped July 13 roadside after calling 911 to report a child wandering alone on an interstate in nothing but a diaper.
She “went missing” for 48 hours, but nearly two weeks later, investigators discovered and announced the story was a hoax.
In the Oct. 16 episode of the Candace Owens Podcast, the 34-year-old claimed Russell’s bizarre story perpetually circulated in her mind since it first broke, particularly the unascertained events in the 48 hours Russell was “missing.”
And the shameless “White Lives Matter” shirt-wearing Republican displayed her desperation for answers, willing to give Russell anything for that interview.
“Now, I want to be very clear. If Carlee Russell goes to prison for one year, I will be on the visitor logs,” Candace said. “I will be seeing her probably daily. I’ll probably at least see her once a week because I feel attached to the story. I feel attached to Carlee. Carlee feels like she’s my cousin…the way I’ve been covering her story.”
Owens directed her speech to Russell.
“So, Carlee, I want you to know that if they put you behind bars for one year, I am going to visit you. And I am going to bring you things,” Owens stated. “I will bring you candy because I need to talk to you. I need to understand where you were for 48 hours.”
“I will give you anything, please. Come on the show! We are begging,” the 34-year-old conservative pundit pleaded. “I will pay the $18,000 fine if you sit down with me and give me a one-on-one on where you were for the 48 hours. I mean that! Take it to the bank, Carlee Russell — $ 18K in your bank account. Just talk to me on this show…America deserves to know.”
Speculations arose about the mysterious 48 hours, with some claiming she checked into a Red Roof Inn, but her lawyer, Emory Anthony, denied the hotel allegations.
“My client was not with anyone or at any hotel during the time she was missing,” Anthony said.
Russell pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanors — false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident — on Wednesday, Oct. 11, three months after orchestrating a spurious kidnapping.
But Hoover, Alabama, Municipal Judge Brad Bishop found the 26-year-old nursing student guilty of the two misdemeanor charges. He recommended she serve a year behind bars and pay $17,874 in restitution to the City of Hoover for faking her abduction.
Not even two weeks after Russell’s fictitious disappearance, the 26-year-old admitted to police to orchestrating the hoax. Police already knew she was lying before she confessed.
After Russell returned to her Hoover, Alabama, residence by foot, she told investigators that a man with orange hair and a bald spot abducted her after the 911 call about “Tommy Pickles” (as Owens described the fake toddler) on the I-459 highway.
She said another woman and baby accompanied the male abductor, and they took her to a house where they forced her to strip naked and pose for photographs.
Russell recalled the woman feeding her Cheez-Its before escaping with only an injury to her lip and torn clothing. She also reportedly had $107 in cash stashed in her sock.
The math wasn’t mathing for the Hoover Police Department during the investigation. They couldn’t find evidence of a missing toddler, and things weren’t making sense once they analyzed Russell’s timeline of events.
“It is what it is,” Hoover Police Chief Nick Deriz told WVMT13. “The fact that I think last Wednesday pretty much showed that we knew that it was a hoax.”
Police checked her search history and discovered she researched Liam Neeson’s Taken and looked up ways to steal money from a register without getting caught. She also searched for a one-way bus pass to Nashville.
Russell confessed that the story was fabricated and asked for the public’s forgiveness.
