Relisha Rudd

Warning: This one is a tough one. The best outcome for Relisha is that she is a victim of human trafficking. The other outcome is that she is no longer with us. There really are no other outcomes here, and for that I am sorry. This case leaves me angry and sad. So many people have failed this 8-year-old girl. I do hope she is alive, but if she is alive, this also means her life is a nightmare. Hopefully, someone will rescue her.

Relisha Rudd

Eight-year-old Relisha Rudd was never reported missing by her own family. Not by her mother,Shamika Young, nor her stepfather, Antonio Wheeler. Not even the staff at the homeless shelter, where her family lived for close to 18 months, called the police when she went missing.

The missing persons report was submitted by Child Protection, after being notified by her school that she had not attended school for a month. This family was not new to CPS. There had been three previous visits to this family, beginning in 2007. The worker at that time believed that Relisha may have been abused and that there was not enough food for Relisha and her younger brother. But nothing was done.

Social workers returned three years later, in 2010 to find evidence of “medical neglect,” a filthy home littered with trash, cigarette butts and ashes. Also found was evidence that small children were left unsupervised and allowed to bathe themselves. They report a failure to follow up on surgery for one of Relisha’s brothers. Again, nothing was done.

In November of 2013, Social workers found evidence that children were unsupervised and that one child had been thrown to the ground and slapped, causing a split lip. This occurred while the family was living at the homeless shelter. Guess what? Nothing was done.

On February 6, 2014, Shamika Young asks Kahlil Malik Tatum, a janitor at the homeless shelter, to take Relisha home with him. It is the last time she sees her daughter. Later that day, Tatum and Relisha are seen walking toward a room in a Holiday Inn Express in DC, side by side holding bags and entering a room. Below is that footage.

The last day Relisha is seen alive was March 1, 2014, and there have been no sightings of Relisha after that date. This is the last known photo of Relisha.

Last known photo of Relisha.

On March 13, 2014, a counselor at Relisha's school wrote a referral to the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency noting Relisha’s many absences. She missed more than 30 days, but officials say many were excused by her mother for illness, citing a “Dr. Tatum.” The school never checked to see if a "Dr Tatum" existed and it has not been released if notes were written on any sort of letterhead or script pad. (Tatum is the same name as the man last seen with Relisha)

On March 19, acting on the referral from the school, a social worker called Tatum and he agreed to a meeting at the shelter. However, he did not show up, so the social worker did some investigating and learned that Tatum has left his shift early that day. Relisha's mom is not concerned about Relisha's education and is also unable to account for her whereabouts.

That day, on the evidence presented by the social worker, the D.C. police launched a missing-person investigation. At 9:39PM., an officer calls Tatum’s cell, but it goes straight to voice mail and is never again reactivated. At 10:04PM., Tatum checks into a hotel in Oxton Hill, MD, about a half-hour away from DC. He is seen with four people, but none of them is Relisha. Less than an hour later, three people leave.

The next day, one person returns to the motel at 5:40 a.m. and sees Tatum’s wife, Andrea Tatum, lying on the bed. He is not allowed inside and calls the police. He tells the police that in the last month he helped Tatum do Internet searches for a handgun and downloaded images on an Apple iPad.

Khalil Tatum.

At 8:01, they learn Tatum might be driving a Chevrolet Trail Blazer. They find that vehicle abandoned at the hotel in Oxton Hill. Police went inside and found Andrea Tatum, 51, lying face down on a bed and shot once in the head. Police put out an alert for another vehicle, a white GMC truck, but it is quickly found abandoned in a neighboring city. Tatum is charged with murder in connection with the killing.

On March 27, the police got a tip that Tatum had purchased a shovel and large plastic contractor bags. He also spent a large amount of time in a DC park.  The police launched a search and recovery mission in that park, to no avail.

The police never picked up Tatum. He was found five days later in the same park, dead from a gunshot to the head. It has been ruled a suicide.

So the main suspect is dead, but this doesn't mean that Relisha is. Many things in this case point to human trafficking. The first thing is that her parents never reported her missing. The second is suddenly had money around the time she was given to Tatum. The stepfather had a new pair of Jordans, a new cell phone, and he posted photos of stacks of $50 bills in his mouth on social media. (This might not seem like much, but they had been living in a homeless shelter for over a year.) The police do believe that she is alive and her appearance may have been altered, maybe short or shaven hair to look like a boy. They also acknowledge that she could still be in DC or she could be anywhere across the country.

Human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States, with hubs in Maryland, Georgia, Illinois, Texas and California.  Though it is often associated with immigrants, the majority of sex trafficking victims in this country are U.S. citizens, with black women and girls making up about 40%. of those trafficked.

They are drugged and prostituted out so they are both highly controllable and afraid. Then they are kept hungry, so they will be even more controllable.  While it is hard to digest that an individual would prey on someone as young as Relisha,it does happen, and it is not just an outside possibility.
The important part is that there is no body, there is hope that she is still alive.

Her mother is in the process of being charged with obstruction of justice, but that is all right now. Until we have Relisha safe in our arms, there is so little the police and justice system can do. Hang in there, baby...we have not forgotten you.

The last time she was seen alive was on March 1st. She was born on Oct 29, 2005

Relisha  Rudd is 4 feet tall and weighs approximately 80 pounds.  She has black hair, black eyes and has a medium complexion.

There she has a smile! (Courtesy of Homeless Children's Playtime Project)