KY State Police find body of an infant ‘consistent’ with a baby missing for weeks
Detectives found a body Friday that could be that of a missing 8-month-old girl, according to Kentucky State Police.
Officers found the body of an infant during the search of a house. The body, which was partially decomposed, was “consistent with Miya Rudd,” according to a news release from the police.
The body was hidden in the house, according to the release.
The body will be taken to the state Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy and positive identification.
The autopsy will determine the child’s manner of death, Trooper Corey King told Evansville television station WFIE.
King told the television station the body was found “underneath a lot of debris” in the family’s home in Reynolds Station.
He said there were drugs and drug residue inside the house, and because it was a dangerous situation for both investigators and the dogs they were using to search for the baby, authorities had to clean that out before it was safe to go in and do a more thorough search Friday.
The search for the baby began more than a week ago after family members asked police to check on her. Relatives said they had not seen the baby since late April, according to a citation in the case.
State police said they found the baby’s parents, Tesla Tucker, 29, and Cage Rudd, 30, at a motel in Owensboro with a large amount of drugs, but the baby was not with them.
The two said they didn’t know where she was, according to the citation.
The two are charged with child abandonment, possession of fentanyl, trafficking in methamphetamine, first-degree child abuse, trafficking in marijuana, trafficking of legend drugs and engaging in organized crime.
King, a state police spokesman, told the Evansville, Ind., television station earlier this week that Kentucky social workers had removed Miya’s three siblings from Tucker and Rudd, and also told Louisville station WHAS that child-welfare workers planned to remove Miya from the home after blood from her umbilical cord tested positive for meth.
Police arrested several people close to the couple as they raced to try to find Miya.
Police charged one of the baby’s grandfathers, Ricky Smith, 56, with first-degree child abuse, abandonment of a minor, engaging in organized crime and numerous drug-related charges.
They arrested one of Miya’s grandmothers, Billie Smith, 49, on an outstanding warrant for second-degree assault that was not related to the baby.
When police searched the Daviess County home of Miya’s other grandparents — who were keeping her three siblings who had been removed from the parents — they arrested both of them as well.
Taletha D. Tucker, 50, was charged with being a fugitive from Indiana and David Tucker, 53, was arrested on a warrant charging him with non-payment in an earlier case, according to state police.
Police arrested two other people on drug charges during the search for Miya.
One, Timothy Roach, 37, allegedly threw a drug not prescribed to him under a vehicle as police pulled up, and another, Brodie C. Payne, 28, of Ohio County was charged with trafficking in meth; trafficking in a legend drug; trafficking in marijuana; engaging in organized crime; and first-degree wanton endangerment.
Payne had been living at the house where Miya was for several months before he was charged and had been using the U.S. Postal Service to facilitate his alleged drug sales, state police said.
Herald-Leader staff writer Karla Ward contributed to this report.
This story was originally published June 14, 2024 at 4:11 PM.
