Carlee Russell Case: Aniah Blanchard’s Mother, Who Round Up Volunteers To Help, Sounds Off On Police’s New Evidence

After leading a search in Alabama for Carlee Russell, Aniah Blanchard’s mother Angela Harris is speaking out following the press conference that revealed questionable details found on the Alabama native’s phone during the ongoing investigation.

As Blavity reported yesterday, Hoover Police Department Chief Nick Derzis shared some of their findings that didn’t align with the story the nursing student told police when she returned home after vanishing for two days. Although the fact-finding for the case isn’t complete, it seems the story told to a family member and the police might be false.

A week ago, Russell made headlines because it was believed that she had been kidnapped after she pulled over on the highway to help a toddler she claimed was walking alongside Interstate 459 South alone. In addition to calling the police to alert them of the situation, she called a relative. While on the phone with her family, the call dropped. When authorities found her vehicle, there was nothing but her phone, a wig and some items she had bought earlier.

Concerned about the well-being of Russell, people across America posted and reshared her photo along with the story in hopes she would be found alive. One of the people who spearheaded a search team full of volunteers was fellow Alabama resident Harris, the mother of Aniah Blanchard, who was kidnapped and killed in October 2019. Knowing the feelings and toll a missing person situation can have on a parent, she immediately went to work to help Russell’s parents find the 25-year-old.

Following the statements Derzis told the media during the press conference, Harris wanted to get some things off her chest. She posted a video on TikTok sharing her thoughts about the recent update the police chief shared.

“I decided I’d go ahead and do it because I guess I got in my feelings and just feel like I need to go ahead and do a video,” Harris starts off saying. “I’m coming to you today as a mom…just a mom but a mom who has lost her children, two children, losing one to kidnapping and capital murder”

“So, most of you know I led the search for Carlee Russell because when I got the call…on Friday morning…[I] went immediately cause I was asked to go and did not hesitate. The family asked me if I would lead the command center and search and I said, ‘Absolutely,'” she added. “We did what we are supposed to do. We did everything the right way. I’m not going to speak on anything that has to do [with] what happened, that will come out later. Right now as a mom who has lost her child to kidnapping and murder, I can’t even tell you, I cannot explain to you what it feels like to have a missing child. Just hope you’re never in that situation.”

When it comes to mainstream media coverage about missing Black women, kids and men, or other dire situations in general, they’re often overlooked. If this whole story is found to be a hoax, hopefully, this won’t stifle police and the public’s aid to future Black women who are actually missing and need help.

The investigation is still underway at this time and the Hoover Police Department plans to continue updating the public as things unfold.