Where is Relisha Rudd and how did she fall through the cracks

[kia027]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/relisha-rudds-disappearance-deserves-as-much-attention-as-malaysian-jetliners/2014/03/24/d96eafd2-b383-11e3-b899-20667de76985_story.html

Sweet-faced 8-year-old Relisha Rudd deserved better.
She deserved a mother who protected and cared for her and didn’t hand her over to ajanitor.

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(Courtesy of Homeless Children's Playtime Project) - Missing 8-year old Relisha Tenau Rudd, in October 2013.

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D.C. shelter residents say janitor gave gifts to children

Mike DeBonis and Tara BahrampourMAR 23
Kahlil Malik Tatum is being sought in connection with the disappearance of Relisha Tenau Rudd, 8.




At rally, friends and relatives praise missing Relisha Rudd

Lynh Bui and Martin Weil MAR 22
The 8-year-old was last seen with a man who has been charged in the death of his wife.






She deserved a school where the teachers and principal went on high alert for her when she stopped showing up to class for a long time.
She deserved a social safety net that recognized her life was chaotic, unstable and dangerous — and caught her.
She deserved not to be the one — while still in elementary school — to try to take care of her three younger brothers, ages 7, 5 and 4.
And right now, she deserves as much attention as a missing Malaysian airliner. She deserves an all-out nationwide manhunt.
She deserves the rage, tears, sympathy and tireless work of a city and a nation that shouldn’t stand for the kind of eight years she’s lived and the way she simply disappeared into the ether on Feb. 26.
I understand that Relisha’s mother, Shamika Young, has probably made some horrible decisions in her 27 years. Beginning a family of four children in her teens, with little sign of stability, was one of them. Handing her child over to the janitor at a homeless shelter who was known for handing out $20 bills and gifts to other little girls was another one.

[CeaBee]

I first saw this when someone shared it on FB, from the "Black and missing but not forgotten" page

This case is getting stranger and stranger:

City officials say the man who may have abducted an 8-year-old D.C. girl posed as a doctor and took calls from her school when she didn't show up for class. They say Kahlil Tatum told school administrators Relisha Rudd was sick.

D.C. Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Paul Quander says Relisha Rudd's grandmother and mother gave the school Tatum's phone number, and told them he was the girl's doctor. According to Quander, Relisha Rudd was last seen by her teacher on March 7, but it wasn't until March 19 that a social worker uncovered the truth.

An Amber Alert was issued for Relisha Rudd last Thursday. On Tuesday, law enforcement authorities released surveillance video of Rudd and Tatum from a D.C. hotel in February. Tatum is also wanted for the murder of his wife.

The surveillance footage of Rudd and Tatum was taken on February 26 at the Holiday Inn Express located in the 1900 block of Bladensburg Road in Northeast D.C. The video shows the two walking down a hallway in the hotel. Authorities say Rudd is wearing a pair of pink boots and a purple Helly Hansen brand jacket with white stripes in the video.

Prince George's County police also increased the reward to $50,000 for information on the missing girl and Tatum. They say investigators are working closely with the FBI and D.C. police, and have traveled to several states in an effort to find Rudd and Tatum. Police will not say where the two were last seen together.

But according to Antonio Wheeler, the little girl’s stepfather, Tatum was seen at the D.C. homeless shelter where he works last Wednesday. He then vanished when Wheeler asked him to bring Rudd home. The next day, Tatum’s wife was found murdered in an Oxon Hill, Md., motel.

Although police say Rudd has not been seen since February, a police report says her aunt spoke to the 8-year-old on the phone twice last Wednesday.

On Monday, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier defended the way her department has handled the Amber Alert.

“The Amber Alert was issued as far north as Pennsylvania and Delaware, and as far south as Florida,” she said. “I actually pulled the Amber Alert that was issued through our emergency management agency. The very last Amber Alert that was issued was issued at 3:26 p.m. on Saturday. It is the most recent Amber Alert.”

But after checking state police websites in Maryland, Virginia and Florida, there are no current Amber Alerts.

On Wednesday, Quander defended the way the Metropolitan Police Department has handled the investigation and the Amber Alert that was issued. In fact, he says Relisha's mother initially resisted allowing MPD to issue an Amber Alert.

https://www.facebook.com/blackandmissing

so sad.

[Peasie]

There was an amber alert here.

[kia027]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A search of a District of Columbia park for a missing 8-year-old girl is a "recovery operation," although police haven't given up hope of finding the child alive, Chief Cathy Lanier said Thursday.
Relisha Tenau Rudd was last seen in the city on March 1 with Kahlil Malik Tatum, a janitor at the city homeless shelter where Relisha lived.
A day later, Tatum bought a carton of 42-gallon contractor trash bags at a store in Washington and was seen in the area of the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Lanier said. Tatum, 51, continued to go to work after that and was seen throughout the city, but Relisha was not seen with him, Lanier said.
"We cannot ignore the possibility that he may have killed her," Lanier said at a news conference at the park, where officials had cordoned off entrances with yellow crime scene tape.
Digital billboards along the East Coast are displaying photos of Relisha and Tatum. FBI spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin said the agency is "casting a wide net" for Tatum.
Relisha's repeated absences from school led authorities last week to look for her, although her family had not reported her missing.
The morning after the search began, police found Tatum's wife, 51-year-old Andrea Tatum, dead in a motel room in nearby Oxon Hill, Md. Tatum is charged with fatally shooting her in the head. A charging document says Andrea Tatum's daughter told authorities her mother was having domestic problems with her husband and was contemplating leaving him.
Lanier said there had not been any confirmed sightings of Tatum since shortly after his wife's homicide. Lanier said the girl's family identified Tatum as Relisha's "godfather" and that she had her mother's permission to be with him.
It was Relisha's 10 unexcused absences from school that prompted social workers to go on March 19 to the shelter where her family was staying, said Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray.
Before that, however, her mother told school officials that Relisha was sick, and her grandmother gave officials Tatum's telephone number, saying he was her doctor. Reached by phone, Tatum told officials Relisha had a "neurological illness" and that she would be in and out of school, Ribeiro said.
Relisha's siblings continued to go to school, and officials believed Relisha had been seen at school March 5 and 7, but those records have been called into question, Ribeiro said.
"We are continuing to review and investigate this entire timeline," Ribeiro said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/27/relisha-rudd-search_n_5045056.html?utm_hp_ref=black-voices&ir=Black%20Voices

[Gen]

suh the madda "give" her daughter to the man/janitor ? sigh

when i first heard the story i thought the mother had given her to the janitor's wife. mi did confused.

[kia027]

The mother said "a lot of kids wish they have a mother like me"

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/DRAFT-Relisha-Rudds-Mother-Speaks--252902051.html

The mother of a missing 8-year-old girl says she believes her daughter is still alive even though police are now calling the search for Relisha Rudd a "recovery" mission.
"That's not a thought that I can have in my head right now," Shamika Young said. "The thought that's in my head is praying and staying strong and having faith that my daughter returns home safely and unharmed."
Relisha was officially reported missing March 19. An Amber Alert was issued the next day.
But police believe she had been missing for weeks longer. Police said she had been in the company of Kahlil Tatum, 51, who worked as a janitor at the homeless shelter where Relisha and her family stayed.

• Relisha Rudd's Mother Speaks as Search Continues

The last confirmed sighting of Relisha was March 1 at a D.C. motel. The next day, Tatum purchased a shovel, trash bags and lime.
Federal agents, police officers and fire department recruits descended on Kenilworth Park Thursday after receiving information that Tatum spent some time in the wooded 700-acre park after Relisha disappeared.
Police also said Relisha's mother knew she was with Tatum, but did not report the girl as missing. But Young told News4's Shomari Stone Thursday night that she did not leave her daughter with Tatum.
"I wasn’t under the impression she was missing. I thought she was at my sister’s house," Young said. "I didn't want to lose my other three kids. That's why I didn't call the police."

• Lanier: 'Cannot Ignore Possibility' Missing 8-Year-Old is Dead

She said Relisha was in the care of her grandmother and aunt at the time of her disappearance.
"No, I don't feel responsible.... She was in the care of my mother and my sister; that's why I don't feel responsible," Young said.
The search for the little girl with big brown eyes has stretched as far south as Atlanta.
Police believe Tatum is armed; he is also wanted in the death of his wife, Andrea. Her body was found at an Oxon Hill Red Roof Inn last Thursday during the search for Relisha.
Young said she and her daughter, had a trusting friendship with Tatum.

• D.C. Council to Examine Homeless Shelter Safety After Girl's Disappearance

"He didn't look like that type of person. He looked like a good person. The way he played with everybody's kids, the way he did his job when he needed to do his job...he didn't look like an intimidating person."
Relisha's grandmother and aunt called Young's allegations false.
"I cannot talk bad about my sister. I honestly don't have no room to talk bad about my sister, so it's not nothing really that I can say bad about her," said Young's sister, Ashley Young.
But both sisters want to see Relisha returned safely.
"Deep down inside, I strongly believe that she's alive," Ashley Young said. "I know my niece is a fighter."
Shamika added, "If my daughter is watching this right now, I would say I love you.... If you do return back unharmed, you will never, ever go with anybody else. You will always be by my side at all times."

[blugiant]

suh the madda "give" her daughter to the man/janitor ? sigh

when i first heard the story i thought the mother had given her to the janitor's wife. mi did confused.

natt surprisinn cah sum give dem yuths to addar peeps informallee wen dem cyaan provide fe dem yuths.

gen deer was a sweet likkle gurl woo mii use fe cawl sweettee ann itt made ar smile. ar grannee ear mii cawl ar sweettee ann struck upp a convo bout sweetee ann jamaica. mii neva figgit wan yaawdee granny widd tears inna ar yeyes begginn mii iff mii cood tekk ar grandawtah ann raise ar. granny claim ar dawtah was no good ann dat de onlee reason y shi doan go bakk to jamaica was shii affii stay ann look out fe ar grandawtah.

[blugiant]

more cancern widd da missing gurl ann natt enuff cancern bout yuths livinn inn shelters ann y itt mekk parents wilinn fe give dem yuths away cah dem tink dem yuths will ave a better life

[Gen]

but it says that the madda had other kids that were going to school ??

[Gen]

my country grandmadda in ja used to take in kids and send them guh school. when we visit for holidays we play wid dem and dem used to visit us in town and they were like family.

natt surprisinn cah sum give dem yuths to addar peeps informallee wen dem cyaan provide fe dem yuths.

gen deer was a sweet likkle gurl woo mii use fe cawl sweettee ann itt made ar smile. ar grannee ear mii cawl ar sweettee ann struck upp a convo bout sweetee ann jamaica. mii neva figgit wan yaawdee granny widd tears inna ar yeyes begginn mii iff mii cood tekk ar grandawtah ann raise ar. granny claim ar dawtah was no good ann dat de onlee reason y shi doan go bakk to jamaica was shii affii stay ann look out fe ar grandawtah.

[Gen]

why didn't the madda use the foster system for that ? it's not perfect but at least foster parents supposed to pass checks right ? instead she gie her to a janitor at the shelter that is not in the system and cannot be tracked ?

hope dem find her safe and sound

more cancern widd da missing gurl ann natt enuff cancern bout yuths livinn inn shelters ann y itt mekk parents wilinn fe give dem yuths away cah dem tink dem yuths will ave a better life

[kia027]

and said janitor have a reputation fi hand out $20 bills to likkle kids

im is suspected of killing his wife and now possibly relisha

[blugiant]

why didn't the madda use the foster system for that ? it's not perfect but at least foster parents supposed to pass checks right ? instead she gie her to a janitor at the shelter that is not in the system and cannot be tracked ?

hope dem find her safe and sound

gen mii keep repeatinn dat sum povertee stricken maddar out deer woo doan like da candition dem dawta living will give dem dawtah to peeps woo ar inn better candition fe raise dem. mii ear itt ann saw beefore. four maddars ask mii iff mii wood tekk dems dawtah ann raise dem cah dem saw mii as kind parsan woo look out fe yuths.

mii tink itt cah shi saw imm fe a wild ann tink shi knew imm. foster system is a joke. neva figgit wan gurl woo cawl da police ann reported ar maddar woo beat ar cah shi stole money. dem arrested da maddar ann took da gurl out aff da house ann place ar inn foster doancare. charges were drapped against da maddar woo refused fe tekk ar child bakk. da foster doancare gurl was awlways bawlinn bout oww shi waan fe go back home cah shi miss ar mother ann sister ann foster doancare treated ar badlee. plus at home shi add ar own bedroom widd tv ann computer. dem add do counselinn ann mediation fore da maddar mekk ar dawta came bakk home

[blugiant]

and said janitor have a reputation fi hand out $20 bills to likkle kids

im is suspected of killing his wife and now possibly relisha

fact ar rumour sintinn? no allegations bout imm eva molestinn annee yuths?

wan picknee drapped a twentee ann mii picked itt upp ann gave itt to ar. dat led to fite cah wan gurl taught mii was playinn favarate by givinn da gurl twentee dollar

[kia027]

Divers resumed their search for missing 8-year-old girl Relisha Rudd on Saturday.

D.C. Spokesman Hugh Carew said divers were searching the Anacostia River in Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Northeast D.C., the Washington Post reports. A foot search is expected to occur on Monday.

Rudd was last seen on March 1 with Kahlil Malik Tatum, 51, a janitor from her homeless shelter who police believe may have abducted her, the paper reports.
The next day, police say Tatum bought a box of 42-gallon trash bags and was seen in Kenilworth Park.


Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said on Thursday that the search for Rudd is now 'a recovery mission' and that 'We can't ignore the possibility [Tatum] may have killed her.'






Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz2xYtpSAem
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