Via MPD.
Yesterday marked one year since eight-year-old Relisha Rudd went missing, and city officials are still searching diligently to find her.
In a conference this afternoon, Mayor Muriel Bowser updated the press and public on new information in Relisha’s case, which, unfortunately, was nothing. “A lot of information has come in,” Metropolitan Police Department chief Cathy Lanier said, but none of it has led to any substantial leads about what happened to the girl.
Rudd was living with her family at the D.C. General homeless shelter before she was reported missing. According to her mother, Shamika Young, Relisha had been staying with Kahil Tatum, one of the shelter’s janitors, who had prior felony convictions on his record. Shortly after her disappearance, Tatum’s wife was found dead in a Maryland hotel room and his body was recovered in Kenilworth Park. He had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Although there’s no leads on the location of Relisha—or any evidence of if she’s still alive—city officials aren’t giving up hope. “There are many missing children that are found months, weeks, years later,” Lanier said during the conference. “We are holding out hope that she is still alive.”
Volunteers spent the day handing out fliers of Relisha in hopes that maybe someone will come forward with new information. The FBI is currently offering a $25,000 reward to any information that leads to her recover. Timothy Gallagher, Special Agent in Charge of the F.B.I.’s Washington Field Office made a plea to the press to keep reporting on Relisha in hopes it will lead to more information.
“While this case may have fallen from the headlines, we have not rested in searching for her, following every lead that has come into the office’s Child Exploitation Task Force,” he said. “We will not stop until she is located.”