WASHINGTON — D.C.’s police chief says that the search for Relisha Rudd, a girl who has been missing since March 2014, will continue at the National Arboretum.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier said on Wednesday that the search for Relisha Rudd, who has been missing since March 2014, will continue at the National Arboretum.
The search will begin Wednesday morning and probably continue until the end of the day Thursday, Lanier said.
Lanier said that the search would cover “a pretty extensive area” at the Arboretum, including a body of water. The search team will comprise 60 people from the Metropolitan Police Department, the FBI, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and more, including divers and K9 officers.
She said that the search was in response to new information police received in the case, but wouldn’t say what that information was.
Lanier said she called the news conference because police “want to let the public know we are continuing to follow up on leads … because we want those leads to keep coming in.”
She added that people often “provide information that they had for long periods of time that they didn’t provide initially.”
Relisha Rudd was 8 years old when she disappeared. She was last seen March 1, 2014, in the company of Kahlil Tatum, a janitor at D.C. General, the homeless shelter where she lived with her mother and siblings.
Police weren’t notified that she was missing for nearly three weeks. They and other groups conducted months of searches, but have turned up nothing yet.
Tatum, 51, was found dead in Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, in Northeast D.C., after Relisha was reported missing. His wife was found dead early in the search for Relisha. Police said Tatum committed suicide, and that he went to the park the day after Relisha disappeared, after having bought a carton of 42-gallon trash bags and other items.
Relisha’s disappearance triggered investigations of problems at D.C. General. The shelter is scheduled to be closed.
Video of Wednesday’s news conference, from WTOP’s Nick Iannelli:
