‘Wherever you are, just start looking’: Community activist recalls search for Carlee Russell

By Chip Scarborough

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    HOOVER, Alabama (WVTM) — Those who helped search for Carlee Russell over the weekend say they never stopped leaning on their faith as the search grew longer and in extremely hot weather.

At one point on Saturday, organizers say as many as 300 people were part of the search for Carlee Russell. It started in the parking lot of The Hoover Met and spread into surrounding neighborhoods.

Those who took part were determined to do whatever it took to bring Carlee home.

“So, if somebody called me from Pell City and said, ‘Listen, I’m on my way,'” community activist Harry “Traveling Shoes” Turner said, “I said, ‘No! Start searching right there.’ If somebody called me from Alabaster, I said, ‘No. Stay right there!’ People were calling me from Warrior, Tuscaloosa. Some of them were even driving up and I was telling people, ‘You don’t have to come here to the command center. Wherever you are, just start looking.'”

People involved in the search are avoiding any sort of speculation regarding the investigation at this time.

WVTM 13 stopped by a motel along Highway 31 in Vestavia on Monday, where Carlee Russell was reported to have possibly been on Saturday evening. A corporate spokesperson for the motel says any information on Russell’s potential whereabouts will have to come from the Hoover Police Department.

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