The body of eight-month-old Miya Rudd was found hidden in a rural Kentucky home after a week-long search. Her parents and grandparents face various charges, including drug possession and child abandonment.
Kentucky, Bollywood Fever: The decomposing body of eight-month-old Miya Rudd was discovered in a rural Kentucky home in Ohio County after a week-long search.
Miya was last seen “at the end of April,” but the Kentucky State Police (KSP) were only informed of her disappearance this month.
Her body was found at 1:15 pm on Friday, hidden under a pile of debris at the family home southeast of Owensboro.
Multiple search operations were conducted, including in the backyard of the home, where investigators sought any sign of Miya’s presence.
“It’s not easy. In fact, we were really optimistic, just like the rest of the community. We were hopeful that maybe someone was holding this baby. But noticing how we had cadaver dogs, how we were sifting through debris in the backyard, we obviously knew, in the back of our mind, that the end result wasn’t going to be overly promising,” Kentucky State Police Trooper Corey King said to WDRB.
Miya Tucker was reported missing last week after state troopers conducted a welfare check at her parents’ home in Ohio County and found no sign of the infant.
Cadaver dogs were deployed to search the property and nearby woods on Tuesday, but there were no initial signs of Miya.
At that time, police stated they had “no evidence she’s deceased, but no evidence she’s alive, either.”
The Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Louisville will now determine Miya’s cause of death.
Leading up to the discovery of Miya’s body, state police uncovered a drug ring. Miya’s parents, Tesla Tucker, 29, and Cage Rudd, 30, were arrested on charges including drug possession, child abuse, and abandonment of a minor.
Police found them in a room at a Motel 6 with drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, “in plain sight,” according to WFIE-TV.
They appeared in court this week on the drug charges and will be arraigned next week for abandoning a minor.
Following their arrest, King noted that the parents were “not being very cooperative with our investigation.”
Kentucky State Police had previously removed Miya’s three older siblings from Tucker and Rudd’s home.
Miya, whose umbilical cord tested positive for meth at her birth in October, was scheduled to join her siblings on May 30.
Miya’s paternal grandparents, Billie J. Smith and Ricky Smith, who lived with the couple, were also arrested. Billie Smith was apprehended on a domestic violence warrant, while Ricky Smith faced charges of abandonment of a minor and drug-related offenses.
Miya’s maternal grandparents, Taletha, 50, and David Tucker, 53, were arrested on unrelated charges in Daviess County.
Additionally, Brodie Payne was arrested on Thursday, facing numerous drug charges for his involvement in the illegal drug activities at Miya’s home.
Timothy L. Roach was also arrested at the grandmother’s home after officers observed him throwing “unprescribed” opioids under his vehicle. Roach was charged with second-degree possession of a controlled substance and first-degree prescription controlled substance not in a proper container. He was taken to the Ohio County Detention Center, as reported by The Louisville Courier Journal. His relationship to the family remains unclear.
Miya’s body will be transported by the Ohio County Coroner’s Office to the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Louisville for further examination.
Also Read, Eight-Year-Old Girl Dies After Medical Emergency on Flight to Chicago
Louisiana Man Arrested in Connection with Triple Tragedy and Possible Human Trafficking Case
