Update, 9:43 p.m. — Four people have been charged in connection to the deceased body discovered inside an Ohio County home on Friday, according to Kentucky State Police. More charges are expected at a later date. Read the full story here.
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Update, 6:15 p.m. — Kentucky State Police has confirmed an infant’s remains consistent with missing 8-month-old Miya Rudd were found Friday afternoon at the Rudd residence.
Click here to watch OT’s live interview with KSP Friday afternoon after the remains were found. OT was also on site Friday morning while detectives were utilizing advanced equipment as the search intensified.
According to KSP Public Information Officer Trooper Corey King, investigators moved their search to the inside of the residence at approximately 1:15 p.m. Friday. That’s when they discovered the decomposed body “hidden in a concealed manner.”
“One of the investigators that’s largely responsible for investigating this case was sweeping one room,” King said. “As you can imagine by seeing the outside of this house, the inside is equally as cluttered. He was inside one room and underneath a bunch of debris, he located a baby’s body very consistent with Miya Rudd. This body was decomposed.”
King said he technically couldn’t confirm the remains belonged to Miya due to the decomposition and until the autopsy results but said based on all information available “this is probably her.”
He also said he couldn’t elaborate on where the remains were found.
“I can’t say how she was concealed, but I can just tell you it wasn’t in plain sight and there was a substantial amount of debris that was on top of her,” King said.
The Ohio County Coroner’s Office transported the remains to the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office in Louisville. An autopsy will take place Saturday.
“The autopsy is going to help us so much with the manner in which she died, and also based on the decomposition rate and the environment she was in, how long she had been deceased,” King said. “That is very crucial with any investigation. That is actually the roadmap for our investigators to utilize to move this case forward. If we know the manner in which she died, that helps us not only in charging but also in prosecuting this.”
King said there are no charges yet directly related to the baby’s death and the handling of the remains, but they “can and will happen soon” following the autopsy. He added that KSP will continue to gather evidence and present it to a grand jury to further determine charges.
There were at least four to five people who lived in that home for 6 months or greater.
“We found her earlier on than expected,” he said.” We did not know (with certainty) she was deceased, but we didn’t know if she was alive either. Honestly, we didn’t anticipate that we would find her.”
This was not the first time KSP had searched the house, but King said there were so many drugs and drug residue inside that they had to make the residence safe for a more thorough search.
“It was a danger for anyone in there,” King said. “So they had to make sure that this house was sanitized to the point it wasn’t going to harm us or any of our investigators overdose while searching this house.”
Read here for our detailed coverage about the investigation to this point, including a timeline of arrests and charges.
