Eight Year Old Vanished? What Happened to Relisha Rudd? 37:42

Hey guys and welcome back to my channel. So today we are going to be talking about a case that involves a child and that's always really hard to do. I'm also just really emotionally fragile today to be honest because the boulder shooting just happened last night when I'm filming this.

And I live very close to Boulder. I've lived in Colorado pretty much my whole life and I am really heartbroken right now. So I'm just feeling

down in general. And this case is pretty heavy, but I still wanted to get on here and talk about it this week because I was looking forward to covering it this week. I think this case is extremely under covered and there's definitely a possibility that it could be solved. So today we're going to be talking about Relisha Rudd. She was born October 29th, 2005 in Washington DC.

R-E-U-I-S-H-A. She's described as a playful, loving kid with a huge personality. And she was also known for being really smart. And she loved school. All of her teachers said that she was one of their favorite students, that she was always willing to challenge herself. She was also always smiling and was a joy to have in their class. She was also in Girl Scouts and she was a cheerleader. And she did some other after school programs pretty much constantly.

anything she could to fill her time away from her home life. Verlicia was known to be a very creative kid. She loved colors, especially pink and purple. Purple.

And like many little girls, she had dreams of being a model or a singer one day. And I feel like maybe she really could have made it. I mean, she was stunningly beautiful. But like I said, she had a really hard home life. She was caught in the cycle of abuse, generations of abuse. She had experienced neglect in her family.

Her family has also, for generations, been a victim of systematic poverty. And it seemed like they were constantly falling through the cracks, especially Relisha. This is her mom, Shamika Young. And she grew up living in shelters herself and had a very, very rough and unstable childhood.

She entered the foster care system when she was six years old, and she stayed in it until she was 18 and had a lot of ups and downs while she was in the system. And then she had relisha about a year later with a man named Irving Rudd. Now, not much is known about Irving, but we do know that in 1992, he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for the death of his 17-month-old daughter.

daughter. He was sentenced to only 15 years for that. And then he got out in 2002 and he has not been arrested since, at least that I found. And Relisha is not their only child. Irving and Shemekia also have another son. He is older than Relisha. And in 2012, Irving actually tried to get custody of both of them, but that was denied and he was only given visitation rights.

By the time that Relisha was eight, the main father figure you could say in her life was her stepfather, Antonio Wheeler. And he actually fathered two of Relisha's younger brothers. And Antonio had also experienced unstable housing when he was growing up and he had remembered his family being evicted.

were all living on Brandywine Street at the time in Southeast DC when they were evicted in 2012. That year, there were over 30,000 filings for evictions in the Congress Heights neighborhood in DC. This was the fifth time that Shemeika had to go to tenant court and the third time that she and her kids were evicted. She just simply did not have the money to pay rent. So their family started staying at motels,

But most of the time they had to go to homeless shelters. Whenever they did have some type of permanent residence or somewhere that they were staying, it was normally in a really dangerous area and Relisha was scared to go outside. So one thing you guys should know before we go forward is that the Children and Family Services Agency in D.C. has been involved with their family for quite a while.

quite a while, specifically with Rulisha. They have had a case going for her and been keeping an eye on her since she was about two years old. And mainly because she had unexplained injuries that a toddler should not have. In fact, the social worker

that was on her case at the time specifically noted that she had great concern for Relisha, but since there was no proof of any abuse happening, nothing was ever done. And she fell through the cracks once again. There are other reports of neglect and abuse that Shemeika's kids were experiencing and the police were called at least twice. So after their last eviction, they stayed with Shemeika's sister, Ashley, for a little while.

But she was getting a government housing subsidy, so she couldn't let them stay with her too long, but it was kind of a temporary fix. At this time, Shamika was in her late 20s and she has four kids and her sister has no choice but to have them move out of her house. She can't have them there forever. So they had to move into a homeless shelter and one that was known

for being a very sketchy place. Her and the four kids moved into the DC General Family Shelter in the summer of 2013. Now this place was pretty gnarly. It was the largest shelter in the district and it's run out of a former hospital and it's just not well-maintained at all.

And there's tons of people staying in it. They house hundreds of families and up to 600 kids at a time. And obviously it is not an ideal place for any child to grow up. I mean, this place was bad. They had...

rats, cockroaches, bed bugs, everywhere was infested with lice. Residents have claimed to find raccoons living in closets and things like that. The heat constantly goes out because it's an older building and sometimes it's freezing temperatures. And it's across the street from a morgue and a methadone clinic. So definitely not the best place for Rulisha and her siblings to be. Now there are

all types of allegations of things that have happened at that specific shelter and shelters all over the country. But specifically there are all types of allegations of drug deals and sexual assaults happening at this specific shelter. But I guess there were some good rules put in place. One of them being these nightly room checks that they did every night. They would go around to all the rooms and check

how many people were in each room and make sure people were where they were supposed to be, et cetera, et cetera. Good policy to have, right? So Relish's family shared a whole room with another family and their kids as well. So it was quite crowded. Now, another important thing to note here is that this shelter supposedly had a strict no employee resident relationship or socializing rule.

Literally that was the policy. You're not supposed to socialize with people living there if you work there. And in their policy, it also says that employees that violate this rule should be terminated immediately. So it sounds like they take this rule pretty seriously. So summer of 2013, they

kind of went back and forth between the shelter and Ashley's house because it was pretty rough at the shelter and they hated being there. So they tried to spend as much time away as they could. And sometimes Relisha would just go hang out over at Ashley's house. That fall, Relisha was a second grader at Faraby Hope Elementary School and people that worked directly with Relisha at school never

that there was a lot going on in her home life because she came to school unwashed, normally hungry, and typically wearing dirty clothes. And she often seemed tired and never wanted to go back to the shelter or even back home.

This quickly became something that her teachers knew about her. And luckily she had good teachers that helped her out. They gave her clothes, food, made sure that she got clean. Her teachers there really loved and cared about her and they were concerned. At this point, Relisha is just eight years old and she's already experienced

so much in her young life. So she was mature for her age, but inside she was still a little girl. She still slept with her little teddy bear named baby every night. So one person that really took Relisha under her wing at this point was her cheerleading coach, Shannon Smith. She often was the one bathing her, doing her hair. And if Relisha ever didn't show up to school,

which happens sometimes she would call her mom and make sure that she was okay. It was pretty obvious to the teachers that there was a serious lack of care for Relisha at home by people who are supposed to be taking care of her. One time a teacher came back from some type of event that they had away from the school and it was way past school hours. And she found Relisha and her brother sitting outside of the school.

way after the school had closed. They told her that their mom never had come to pick them up. So she offered to give them a ride home and they called Shamika for their address and she refused to give it to them and then hung up. And later after this, her mother called the school and clarified

to them that if she ever doesn't pick them up, it's fine for them to just walk home. And later that same night, another teacher claimed to see both of the kids outside of a laundromat really late. And she called the police and the police had to come pick them up. But there is no proof that this happened and the family denies that this actually happened. But there are a few reports of neglect

on Shamika by the school. One social worker noted that there was a lack of supervision going on and abuse. And this was mainly due to an injury that her brother came to school with where he, according to him, said he was thrown down and beaten and

They made his lip bleed and he came to school a total mess. And the police investigated, but no charges were ever filed. And the family denies all of this even happened. Now, like I said, Relisha did not like to go home, especially not to the shelter.

That was one thing that was for sure is she absolutely hated the shelter and she called it the trap house. So that tells you a lot about what was going on there. So she would always try to find ways to stay late at school. If there wasn't some program going on, she would literally ask the teachers to stay late and like help them out or hang out with them. Sometimes the security guard would find her just wandering around the school, like outside and inside for hours. And she would always ask if she could please just stay longer at the school and

It's so sad. She spent a lot of her time at this one afterschool program called the Homeless Children's Playtime Project, which I will link below if you guys would like to donate. And this really helped her out. They did all kinds of activities. They made art projects, put on plays, they did singing and dancing, and they just got to play, hang out, and be with other kids.

All kids need a place to play. Not only did Relisha participate in all of it, she also would go early and help set up. She would help clean up. She was as helpful of a kid as you could be. She also would try to stay longer at her auntie's house, Ashley's, and sometimes she would actually pretend she was sick so that Ashley would feel bad and let her stay at the house. One time she even

faked an asthma attack to stay at the house longer. She would also beg to go to her grandmother's house. Her grandmother had a cat there that she loved and her aunt Ashley still saw them, you know, every other week or so and remained active in their lives. But over time, she said she started to see Relisha less and less. But one day Relisha was over at her house and a man called.

Ashley didn't even know who this guy was, but he said that he was coming to pick up Relisha. He said he was literally on his way, that he already had the address and this freaked Ashley out. She demanded to know how he got her name, number and her address, but he was kind of weird about it. So she hung up and called Shamika to see if this was even a legitimate thing. And Shamika said, yeah,

It is. She said this was Relisha's godfather. She said it was totally fine for him to pick her up. She said his name is Khalil Tatum and he's a good man. So Ashley was definitely concerned, but she trusted that Shemeika wanted what was best for her daughter. And maybe this was a way for her to spend even more time away from the shelter. So she let her go with him.

Now her grandmother, Melissa was not wild about this guy at first. And she thought it was strange for Relisha to be spending alone time with him. What the fuck? But she too assumed that Shemeika was a good mom and knew what she was doing here. And eventually over time, she said she grew to like this guy. Eventually she really trusted Khalil with Relisha. My daughter says, "Ma, that's Mr. Tatum." You know, I say, but

It's not going to look right for your daughter to go. She said, Ma, he goes, she go on to play with the granddaughter. It's fine. Every time my granddaughter comes back, she tell me, I had fun with Mr. Tatum's granddaughter. You know, I want to go back. So it wasn't strange for us to see that somebody was doing something, you know, in their time of need. And the more Tatum did...

the more the family trusted him. - I've been around this man, like if he is getting off from work and he's coming down on his way home and he see me walking, he will pick me up and give me a ride. So I have been in this man's car by myself and I didn't get no uncomfortable feeling. - And he seemed to really like Relisha.

He would bring her all these gifts, one of them being a Kindle Fire tablet, which was a pretty nice gift for a kid. And not only that, he also got her tickets to Disney on Ice, which was a big deal. He took her out to the movies all the time, to the mall, to parks, took her to get her nails done. He would buy her new clothes, buy her food. So of course she liked him. She was happy to be spending time away from the shelter.

And no one seemed to think it was odd that this grown man who is not related to their family at all was hanging out with her by himself and buying her all these gifts and not doing this at all with her brothers, only her. Shemekia even started letting Relisha sleep over at this guy's grandmother's house. And it wasn't long before she started okaying full

weekends for her to go stay with him. And like I said, her siblings never went. It was just her and him. And during these times that she would go over for the weekend at his grandmother's house, Shemekia never even met.

this grandmother. She just trusted him. She said she thought he was a good man, trusted that she would be okay. So going into 2014, Relisha starts missing a lot of school. By early spring, she had already missed 30 days, which is very concerning. But a lot of these were actually marked as excused absences because Shamika actually told the school that Relisha was currently under the care of this doctor named Dr.

Kind of confusing? Hang with me. I promise I'll explain this all. But by March of 2014, Relisha had five unexcused absences marked down. So even more than that, but five unexcused. And so a teacher ended up scheduling a meeting with Shamika just to figure

out what was going on. Why isn't your kid coming to school? They also said, why don't you bring this Dr. Tatum with you? Because he's taking all this care of Relisha. It would be great if we all kind of touched base. But when it came time for the meeting, this Dr. Tatum was nowhere to be found. Shemeika went alone with a note from Dr. Tatum. It had his contact information. She said, give him a call and he'll explain everything.

Now this is where it starts to get really confusing. This timeline is definitely dicey. But there are reports that Relisha was at school on March 5th, 2014. But this can't be confirmed, and she may have picked up her other younger brothers at their school on March 7th, but Relisha was absent that day. Her brothers, though, still had not missed any days.

So, on Monday, March 10th, the school officials decide to give this Dr. Tatum a call. He then explained that he was treating her for a neurological condition, but he said that her treatment was wrapping up and she would be done by the end of the week. So, they asked him to provide some documentation for them to excuse these absences. He said, "Okay," and then

When they got off the phone, he of course sent nothing over and nothing came for days. So by March 13th, she had her 10th unexcused absence and teachers were really starting to get worried.

So at that point, the school was required by law to report the case of educational neglect to the CFSA. And this was considered a low priority case for them. So a social worker didn't reach out to Dr. Tatum until March 19th.

And he actually agreed to meet up in person with the social worker. But when time came to do that, he did not show. So the social worker went over to the shelter where Relisha's family was staying to check things out. And it was then that she asked if anyone knew who this Dr. Tatum person was. And they said the only Tatum that they know of there was Khalil Tatum, who was a 51-year-old janitor after...

the shelter. That's right, this guy that Shamika had said was Relisha's grand or godfather was actually this janitor from the shelter who had been clearly grooming and preying on Relisha. And it seemed like Shamika was just letting it happen. So they told the social worker that this janitor had actually worked there that day and that he hadn't missed any recent shifts, but he wasn't there at that

time he had left early for the day. So the social worker put everything together pretty quickly of what had happened here most likely and reported it right away. She called a child abuse hotline and reported everything to the police. So the police brought Chemeka in and they questioned her and she continued to refer to this janitor, Khalil Tatum, as Dr. Tatum. She explained that on March 8th, Relisha had been with the doctor after

at a medical conference in Atlanta. And she didn't know when they were coming back, but that she talked to Relisha on March 17th, just a few days earlier. And she insisted that she thought her daughter was safe with Dr. Tatum. She said before that Relisha was staying with her grandmother,

And she also didn't have a cell phone that was working at the time. So she hadn't talked to her daughter in weeks. She said that March 17th was the first time that she had talked to Relisha on the phone in about three weeks. So they tried to call Khalil's cell phone, but it went straight to voicemail, of course. So the police officially filed a missing persons report for Relisha Redd. And when the investigation started right away, it was a lot of finger pointing and blame going on between the family members and a

lot of disagreements about timeline and what had happened. The police went over to Melissa's house, her grandmother, and they interviewed her. And she said that she was supposed to pick up Relisha that night. And when they told her Relisha was missing, she said, no, she's not missing. And it turns out she knew about Khalil Tatum. She said, she's with this guy, Khalil, Dr. Tatum. She's with him. Everything's fine.

And she claimed that she and Ashley had both talked to her that morning. And she also said that Relisha was not with Shamika during the times that she claimed that she was and started kind of turning on her. And she started blaming Shamika for letting her go alone

with this guy Tatum. But then Shemekia is saying something completely different. And at one point she actually blamed Melissa for writing some of the doctor's notes from Tatum. She started claiming that Melissa was involved in her daughter's disappearance. But one of the first things that investigators did was clear up this whole neurological condition thing. They found out that

Relisha had no reason to be under any type of medical care and this condition was made up. Then they looked into Khalil's background and it's not good. He had a felony record for burglary, larceny, and breaking and entering. And he was also in prison from 1993 to 2003 and then again from 2004 to 2011. And it turns out this guy had a history of hanging out with young girls at the shelter.

But apparently a lot of the residents really liked him. He was one of those types of people who comes across as really charming and that's the type of people that are sometimes predators. It turned out that a lot of people called him Godfather in the shelter. A lot of teenagers, a lot of young girls

Very odd. Now, if you remember, the shelter has this policy that employees should not be socializing with residents. Looks like they weren't following it very well, huh? It turns out Khalil was never disciplined, even though many people knew that he was doing this and socializing quite a bit with many kids. It was a well-known thing. No one did anything. And the shelter wasn't much help in the investigation because it turns out that their other policy where they go around and do a head count at night, yeah,

That was not happening really either because what they would do is just walk around, take a quick peek in. Normally they wouldn't even look in. They would knock on the door. Someone would answer and say, yeah, there's three of us in here. There's six of us in there, whatever. And they would just write it down and move on. They weren't going around and verifying and actually doing a head count. So they had no idea and no record.

that Relisha had not been there in three weeks. And there are rules at homeless shelters, and at this one, that you cannot just come and go as you please and use this as your apartment. You have to stay the night.

every night. So with no good record keeping at the shelter and her family disagreeing on what actually happened, the police were pretty stuck. So they started looking at surveillance footage for clues and they started narrowing down that they believe that she was taken on February 25th. She had missed school this day and it was her fifth

on excused absence. On February 26th, there's surveillance footage that shows Relisha with Khalil at a Holiday Inn Express on Baldinsburg Road in Northeast DC. And the last confirmed sighting of Relisha was on March 1st.

According to her aunt, Relisha and her brothers spent the morning at her house. Ashley claims that that morning she did their hair with pink and white bows and she thought everything was fine, that they were going to just be going to school like a normal day. But that day, Relisha said that she was not feeling well. So she ended up calling Shamika instead and saying that she needed to come pick her up because she wasn't going to send her to school like that.

And then later that day, Relisha and Khalil are seen at a Days Inn on New York Avenue in DC. And then that day, Shamika posted an Instagram video of Relisha on her account. And then the next day, March 2nd, Khalil is seen on surveillance footage in a hardware store. And he's buying 42 gallon size contractor trash bags, a shovel, and a bag of lime.

which I'm sure most of you know, the smell of lime is often used to help cover up the smell of human remains. So it's pretty obvious what he was doing with all that stuff. That same day, he was seen in Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Northeast DC. And the police searched that whole area looking for any signs of Khalil or Alicia. Then on the evening of March 19th, the same day that Khalil had left work early, he checked into a red roof inn in

Oxon Hill, Maryland, which is close to DC. Now he went into this room with four people, none of these people being Relisha and then less than an hour later,

Three people left the room. Then surveillance footage showed him and his wife going into that room later that night. And her name is Andrea Kelly Tatum. She was 51 years old. And the next morning, her body was discovered in that hotel room, lying on the bed with a single gunshot wound to the head.

Investigators believe that she was either killed that night when they first went into the room or early that morning. So as soon as they realized that this was Khalil Tatum's wife, they issued a BOLO for him and his vehicle, which if you don't know what that means, it is be on the lookout.

And because they also believed Relisha was definitely in danger, they issued an Amber Alert for her as well in Washington, D.C. on March 20th. Khalil was then formally charged with murder on March 21st, and they found out he was also wanted on some other charges of car theft.

Now it turns out Khalil and Andrea had been married for 24 years and he shot her in the head. So that tells you what he's willing to possibly do to Relisha. And when they talked to Andrea's daughter, she said that the two of them were having all types of marital issues and Andrea was about to leave him. But according to court records, it showed that Khalil actually filed for separation on February 7th.

So investigators got a search warrant of his home. Inside they found two passports, multiple cell phones, a photo of Relisha, and some children's clothes and shoes. They also confiscated his iPad and some papers from his office at work,

However, none of that information has been made available to the public. When they searched his truck, there was no evidence found in it at all and no evidence of any type of violent attack or struggle happening inside the truck. By late March, the FBI had joined the investigation and digital billboards were being put up all along the East Coast from Georgia to Maryland with photos of Relisha and Khalil. And then on March 31st, police found a body. And it was a man. It was Khalil Tatum.

He was found inside of some random shed and he was found with a single gunshot wound to the head. We have not confirmed what the cause of death is, although we will say that it looks like it likely is a suicide. And they found out that the gun that he used was the same gun that he used to kill Andrea.

So police obviously decided that they needed to do a full extensive search of that park because maybe there was some reason that he killed himself there. Maybe he had buried Relisha there. So they looked all over. They had detectives, volunteers, dive teams, but they found nothing.

The search was suspended on April 3rd and the search effort actually switched to a recovery mission, which means that they were looking for a body at that point. Because it was pretty obvious that Khalil was the one who did it. Most people believe that Relisha was probably murdered by Khalil and that he killed himself to avoid charges from Matt and from Andrea.

And maybe Andrea knew something, but her family really tried to hold out hope that maybe she was still alive. I still believe that baby girl is alive. I might've not had her, but that's my baby. That's my heart. And I want her home. The family also released these photos of an outfit that Khalil had bought Relisha in November of 2013 for her to wear that Easter. And they hope that someone might recognize the clothes, which could be inside a Burlington coat factory bag.

And then in December of 2018, someone tipped off investigators that there was this secret tunnel system through the homeless shelter that Relisha's family stayed in. And it's true. It turns out that there's all these service tunnels, like creepy dingy tunnels throughout the shelter that can be accessed by staff that was, you know, built originally when it was a hospital.

Antonio also spoke with the media and made it clear that he has hope that Relisha could still be alive. I actually believe she's still alive. Every time they look for a body, you find nothing. So, like, what did that tell you? Having two kids with her mother and being there raising her, you know, she's like my own. So I owe it to my son's

And I owe it to her. And of course the media has tried tracking down Shemeika for a comment, but they have been unable to do so. So let's talk about possible theories of what could have happened here because chances are

Relisha is not with us any longer. So one of the bigger theories here is that Relisha was a victim of human trafficking. On March 8th, before Relisha was reported missing, Antonio actually posted a very suspicious photo to Facebook.

And it shows a pile of $50 bills and a brand new pair of Air Jordan sneakers that were allegedly for Relisha's brothers. And this led to a theory online that Shemeika and Antonio may have sold Relisha into human trafficking. And she is definitely high risk to be trafficked. 40% of minors in the United States that are trafficked are Black.

and the most common age for young girls to be trafficked is 8 to 12 years old. So it's possible that Khalil was involved in trafficking Relisha, and maybe Shameeka knew about it, maybe she didn't. There are reports that Andrea, Khalil's wife, may have known that he was involved in trafficking and that's why he killed her.

Which would make a lot of sense, right? Remember how Khalil was seen at the Red Roof Inn with four people? Only one of those people has been even identified and been able to provide an alibi. So those other unidentified people could easily be involved in Relisha's disappearance. And it was revealed that at one point, one of these people came back to the hotel room that they were staying in and tried to get in, but no one let him in, so he just left. So not much is known about Shameeka as of now.

and her mental state or what she may or may not have known. But it should be noted that when she was young, she was diagnosed with a mild mental disability and she also lived in a psychiatric facility for a brief amount of time. And there are also quite a few reports that she had a pretty bad drug addiction and that is why the kids were on their own so often, why they were neglected.

a lot of the time. And then in 2017, the case got some attention because Melissa, Antonio and Shemika were all on the Steve Wilkos show. And if you don't know about that show, I don't know much about it either. I know it's similar to Mari.

lie detector tests, are you the father, that kind of stuff. Family disputes, really good quality content. Anyway, they went on there and did some lie detector tests. Antonio, you came here, you took a lie detector test. Did you participate in any way in the disappearance of Relisha? You answered no. Have you ever had any sexual physical contact with Relisha? You answered no.

Did you ever strike any of your children leaving marks or bruises? You answered no. The results came back the same to each and every question, and they came back that Antonio told the truth. - -Ten years! Ten years! -No, no, you know that? -No! -I'm getting two back! You get-- you just getting two. Melissa, you took a lie detector test.

And we asked you, did you participate in any way in the disappearance of your granddaughter? You answered no. Did you give your granddaughter to Khalil Tatum around the time of her disappearance? You answered no. And the results came back that you, Melissa, told the truth. Day to day.

They don't never discuss me. They discuss other people. But as you can see, according to the lie detector test for Antonio and Melissa, they were both found to be telling the truth that they had nothing to do with Relisha's disappearance. However, Shameka refused to take the test. A lot of people find this very suspicious. Now, some people for some reason get annoyed when I say this, but it is important to remember that a lot of the times lie detector tests don't mean much anyway in a court of law.

law as in they won't hold up very well. So it doesn't necessarily tell us everything, but I think the fact that she decided not to take one tells us a lot. So clearly so many people failed Relisha here, so many adults in her life and also the system. This case was handled poorly by the shelter, by the school, by Children and Family Services Agency in DC and by the police. This wasn't treated with

nearly enough urgency. If any of those agencies would have intervened a little bit earlier, it's possible that Relisha might still be here today. On April 8th, 2014, DC Mayor Vincent Gray announced an investigation into the city's response into her disappearance, and it examined how each of these agencies failed Relisha.

but it ultimately concluded that no justifiable government actions would have prevented Relisha's tragic disappearance, which a lot of people argue with that. It did confirm that other staff members knew that Khalil had this bizarre relationship with multiple girls

and how serious it was getting with Relisha. People that were working there clearly knew something wasn't right with that, and they also just knew that it was against the policies and nothing was done. The police were also criticized for not issuing an Amber Alert

very far. It was only issued in DC and it should have also gone to Virginia and Maryland. DC is so small and she could have been moved out of there so quickly. And there's also been a lot of criticism at the media. Obviously this was covered by local news, but this was never picked up nationally. Just as many people should know about Relisha.

as know about JonBenet Ramsey and Kaylee Anthony, but a lot of people don't. Way less people know about this case. And what's so unfortunate about this is that young black girls are then targeted more because traffickers know that they're not going to get as much attention from the police and the media. They know that kidnapping girls of color is their best chance of not getting caught.

The DC City Council decided that they were going to close this shelter down in 2018 and then replace it with six smaller shelters. However, it wasn't closed until 2019 and these new shelters have never been opened.

And it seems like the school that Relisha went to has also closed down. The local community and DC has remained very vigilant about this case. They definitely aren't giving up hope that this will be solved one day. And in private investigator and founder of DC's Missing Voice, Henderson Long has actually been working with the police pro bono since Relisha went missing, which is amazing. Luckily, the DC City Council also did pass Relisha Rudd's law,

which makes it a crime for parents to not report their children missing under the age of 12 within 24 hours or to report a 13 to 18 year old missing within 48 hours. In 2017, the DC police named July 11th National Relisha Rudd Remembrance Day and March 1st is recognized as the Relisha Rudd Awareness Day. But to this day, there are no answers and Relisha's body has never been found.

The search is still ongoing for her to this day. The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward to anyone who can provide information that actually leads to finding Relisha. Also, any information can be shared with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST or anonymous tips can be submitted to the Black and Missing Foundation, which will be linked below. I think it's...

Pretty obvious what happened here and how many people are truly at fault here. I'm just so heartbroken for Relisha thinking about what she could have been, what she could have done with her life to help serve her community or go on to actually be a model the way that she wanted to be. She totally could have been when she's stunning. It's just tragic.

And it's so sad when there are so many people who miss the signs, miss the red flags, or allow them to happen knowing what's going on. I mean, it's just truly a heartbreaking case.

That is going to be it for me today, guys. Thank you for joining me for another episode and make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then stay safe out there.