Carlee Russell, Alabama woman who faked her own kidnapping, gets probation for hoax

Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who faked her own kidnapping last year, pleaded guilty Thursday and avoided jail time, according to CBS affiliate WIAT.

Russell, then a 25-year-old nursing student, told Hoover police she was abducted July 13 after seeing a toddler on the side of the road. She told police an unknown man had forced her over a fence and into a car. For the next 49 hours, hundreds of police and volunteers searched for the missing Russell. 

She suddenly arrived home on July 15 and told officers that she remembered being in a trailer truck with a man with orange hair, and a woman. She also alleged she could hear a baby crying in the truck.