John Jefferson
Police in Kentucky have now arrested five people in relation to the disappearance of an eight-month-old girl who has been missing since at least the start of May.
The child, Miya Tucker Rudd of Reynolds Station in Ohio County, was declared missing by Kentucky State Police Thursday after the agency said it conducted a search warrant and welfare check at the family’s home but couldn’t find the child. Reynolds Station is about 90 miles southwest of Louisville.
The girl’s mother, Tesla Tucker, 29, and her father, Cage C. Rudd, 30, were arrested at a motel in Owensboro on Wednesday with no information on the baby’s whereabouts and in possession of a large amount of drugs, including fentanyl, a police spokesperson told Fox News Digital. Owensboro is about 25 miles west of Reynolds Station.
“[We] tried to interview the parents, and they’re not being very cooperative with our investigation on this,” Trooper Corey King of the Kentucky State Police told Fox News Digital Friday.
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Police later arrested Ricky Smith, who is understood to be the missing girl’s grandfather and who was living with the couple at their home at Deanfield Church Road. Police say Smith was using the home as a base for trafficking, and a variety of drugs were found at the home during a search. He’s been charged with drug crimes, child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.
Miya’s grandmother, Billie J. Smith, 49, was arrested Friday and charged with second-degree domestic violence assault after police discovered she had an outstanding warrant in Daviess County from October 2023, according to WFIE.
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Another man, Timothy L. Roach, was also arrested after he threw un-prescribed Suboxone under his vehicle. He’s been charged with second-degree possession of a controlled substance and first-degree prescription controlled substance not in a proper container, WBKO reports.
Tesla Tucker, Cage Rudd and Ricky Smith appeared in Ohio County District Court on Monday for arraignments.
Police said the child had not been seen by other family members for weeks. She is described as having brown hair and green eyes and was last suspected to be in the care of her parents, Kentucky State Police said.
Kentucky State Police say they have brought in a team of cadaver canines to search near a wooded area and church along Hardin Lane in Ohio County, per WEVV.
Child protection services had been looking for the infant and then called police when they couldn’t locate her, leading to a string of arrests starting with the arrest of her parents, who were found with a stash of fentanyl and methamphetamine at the motel.
Troopers arrested and charged the parents with drug trafficking and possession as well as the abandonment of a minor and child abuse.
Rudd, the girl’s father, was convicted of two drug offenses in March — including the possession of methamphetamine — and was on a year’s supervised release, according to the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
Anyone with information is asked to call 270-826-3312.
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