WASHINGTON – Missing after more than a year, Relisha Rudd would have celebrated her 10th birthday Thursday.
There is no new information in the investigation into her disappearance, but the community is keeping Relisha’s memory alive.
On Saturday, Relisha’s family celebrated with a release of balloons outside Deanwood Recreation Center in Northeast, The Washington Post reports. The Facebook group, Help Find Relisha Rudd, hosted a four-day prayer event that began Thursday.
WTOP caught up with Patricia Fowlkes, who lives near Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens — the place where Kahlil Malik Tatum, the last person seen with Relisha, had spent a lot of time, police say.
“I just don’t understand why there are no clues any where,” Fowlkes tells WTOP.
Tatum was a janitor at D.C. General, a troubled homeless shelter where Relisha lived with her mother and siblings. Tatum was last seen with the child on March 1, 2014.
But whatever Tatum, 51, knew about Relisha’s disappearance was taken to his grave.
He was found dead at Kenilworth Park. Officials say he committed suicide.
“She has not been seen since then and that is what gives us the gravest concern,” said D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier around the time Tatum’s body was discovered.
Extensive searches were launched for Relisha, but she was never found. She was 8 years old when she vanished.
“This man takes her, commits suicide, leaves no note, nothing. No one knows his haunts, the places where he hung out,” Fowlkes said. “It’s almost like she’s been made invisible.”
Meanwhile, D.C. General is expected to be closed down in the next few years. The troubled shelter had been slated to be shut down in the past, but that never happened.
