The former boyfriend of Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who said she was abducted from the side of an interstate, is speaking out about what happened and how he was blindsided by Russell’s actions.
Thomar Simmons, Russell’s ex-boyfriend, said during a podcast on Saturday that he was shocked when he heard during a news conference a week after Russell went missing for two days that she admitted no abduction had taken place.
“I was mad, I was sad. I was in all type of emotions,” Simmons said during the 205 Boyz podcast.
“If you really want to tell me the truth, you could’ve told me. You could’ve told me before all this happened before the police conference came out. You had time to tell me,” he said of Russell’s actions.
Authorities launched a search for Russell after she vanished on July 13 following a 911 call in which she claimed to have seen a toddler walking on the side of Interstate 459 in Hoover, Alabama. A family member she called reported hearing a scream, and then only interstate noise through the open cellphone line.
Russell returned home two days later and claimed that she had been abducted. Simmons said he had believed Russell had been kidnapped, and after she returned to her parent’s home he thanked everyone for their efforts in trying to find her.
“I have been going nonstop since I received the call that she was missing on Thursday night. I know she would’ve done the same for me, so I wasn’t going to give up until I saw her face again!” he said on social media at the time.
Simmons also discussed how the pair had been on vacation in New York with Russell’s family just before the incident.
“We were good, we were having fun,” he said. “We were going and taking tours to the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, the ferry. We were eating. We were good.”
Simmons did say he and Russell had “a little argument” just before the incident.
“It wasn’t nothing to kidnap yourself over,” Simmons said. “It was a light argument, that’s why I’m confused bro,” he told 205 Boyz podcast host Marcus Moody.
“What made you do that? I don’t understand,” Simmons said of Russell’s reasoning.
Simmons said the two had not spoken to each other since the news conference in July where Russell’s lawyer read a statement from her saying that no abduction happened.
Simmons added that the podcast was the “last time” he’d be talking “about this situation.”
“I’m not speaking on this no more,” he said.
Russell has been charged with false reporting to law enforcement and falsely reporting an incident — both misdemeanors. A pretrial docket has been set for 2 p.m. on Oct. 11 at Hoover’s Municipal Court, according to AL.com.
