Carlee Russell who lied about being kidnapped loses her job at spa, co-workers “pissed off”

Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who claimed to be kidnapped after calling 911 about a child wandering on a highway, has lost her job at a spa in Birmingham.

Stuart Rome, the owner of the Woodhouse spa, quoted The New York Post that Russell was fired and that her former co-workers were outraged by her dubious story.

Rome said his staff was shocked and worried when they heard that Russell had gone missing and did everything they could to help find her.

“They were devastated, thinking that one of their co-workers was abducted,” he said. “They had to work on Saturday, which was the busiest day of the week, and in their spare time they distributed flyers and other things.”

But since Russell reappeared, police have revealed that she had searched online for bus fares and movies about the kidnapping on the day she vanished, raising doubts about her account.

Her co-workers’ sympathy also turned into anger.

ALSO READ| Alabama's missing teen Carlee Russell had searched for amber alerts & abduction-related info on internet

“As more information came out that there were some questionable things, we’ve been very pissed off, mainly because so many people spent so much time searching,” Rome said.

He added that the spa has been receiving nasty messages and negative reviews on social media because of its connection to Russell.

“We’ve been trying to delete things for the last day,” he said. “Comments. I had to disable my comment section on Instagram and Facebook, which hurts us because we do a lot of marketing there. We’re just trying to keep the doors open.”

Russell, 25, told a dispatcher at 9:34 p.m. on July 13 that she had seen a child wearing a T-shirt and diaper walking barefoot along a busy Hoover, Alabama highway.

She said she would stay there until police arrived but then disappeared for two days before returning home and claiming that she had been kidnapped and held captive.

Police found her red Mercedes-Benz, cellphone, and wig at the scene but no sign of Russell or a missing child.

Her mother, Talitha Russell, told NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday that her daughter had “fought for her life” to escape her captors - but Police Chief Nick Derzis said his investigators have been “unable to verify most of Carlee’s initial statement.”

The 25-year-old alleged that she was forced into a car and then a truck by a man who blindfolded her. She said she was then taken to a house where a woman gave her cheese crackers, according to Derzis.

She told detectives that she eventually escaped and ran through the woods back to her neighborhood.

Before she went missing, Russell searched online for information about Amber Alerts, the Liam Neeson movie “Taken” and bus tickets to Nashville leaving the day she disappeared, officials said.

She also posted some strange tweets before calling 911.

ALSO READ| Carlee Russell was quite active on Twitter for 40 minutes before 911 call

“Yeah I want a family now,” she wrote about 15 minutes before contacting police.

Earlier, she tweeted: “Today was a GREAT day God be looking out I’m telling you!!” and “someone to tell you ‘I love you’ and don’t got a reason.”

Her former boss said that if her story is proven to be a hoax, people will be less willing to help the next time someone goes missing.

“I think it erodes faith for the next time, it erodes faith when people see somebody who’s been abducted and they’ve been put through this,” he said. “They’re not going to respond like they did, which is the worst part.”

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