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, 2:50 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. Read the full story here.
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Original story — The Kentucky State Police is using specialized equipment, working with the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office, and using another pair of canine teams as the search intensifies for missing 8-month-old Miya Rudd in Ohio County. Friday’s search is a more thorough one of the Rudd home and nearby areas. Officials said there is still no evidence confirming Miya is either alive or deceased.
Here’s a live stream of an interview with KSP from the search location. Photos from Friday’s search can be seen here.
“Previous search warrants were more cursory, trying to get the main drugs out of the house so there was not a safety issue for those who come in to execute the search warrant,” KSP Public Information Officer Trooper Corey King said. “Today is going to be more detailed, more in-depth. We’re going to be looking high and low for any sliver of evidence that could reveal where this baby is at.”
King said at the Medical Examiner’s request, the Ohio County Coroner was also called out to the search site. King said it’s standard practice for the Medical Examiner and a County Coroner to work together in a search such as the one being conducted Friday, but it doesn’t mean there has been definitive proof that human remains are on site.
“It doesn’t mean we have located anything. In fact, we haven’t. The process today is sifting through the small amounts of evidence … They’re digging at this point through the burn pile looking for anything possible that could be related to human (remains),” King said.
There are also two search teams with cadaver dogs searching areas near the home in Reynolds Station, though King declined to give specifics on those locations.
To date, eight people have been charged as KSP has searched for the missing baby. However, most of the charges have been drug-related, and little to no information has come to light on Miya’s potential whereabouts.
“Our whole goal was to locate this missing baby, but when we went to family members’ homes (where the baby might have been), unfortunately, there were drugs present, there were warrants. Almost every home we went to ended up in arrests,” King said. “That’s what we had to do as an agency to address that, but it gives us the opportunity to go ahead and discuss, where is baby Miya? If that means going to jail because you committed this offense or you had this warrant, then that’s what we’re doing. We’re not stopping and we’re not slowing down. We’re getting very detail-minded at this point by bringing in all this specialized equipment as well as assistance, to really give us an idea if the baby was here or is here.”
King said Miya’s parents and paternal grandparents have been unhelpful, and the maternal grandparents gave conflicting information on where the baby might be.
“The first set of grandparents were just as cooperative as the parents, which is nonexistent essentially,” he said. “The second set of grandparents were alluding to different conflicting information, so it wasn’t overly helpful. It’s nothing that changed the direction of this investigation.”
KSP was already planning to conduct Friday’s search at the Rudd residence.
“It’s sad that this is where we have to be, but this is our best explanation as to where this baby might be,” King said. “We don’t have answers. We don’t know exactly if that’s the case, but it’s the only thing at this point that makes sense and that’s where we’re focusing our concentration.”
King is hoping someone will still come forward as having the baby but has been too afraid to come forward.
“You’re not in trouble. We just need to have this baby. If you are holding this child, please reach out to us,” King said.
KSP is requesting anyone with information regarding the missing child to contact the agency at 270-826-3312.
Read here for our detailed coverage about the investigation to this point, including a timeline of arrests and charges.
