Missing Kentucky child: 5 arrested, including parents, grandparents

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Police in Kentucky have arrested five people in connection with the disappearance of an eight-month-old girl who has been missing since at least early May.

Kentucky State Police on Thursday declared missing child Miya Tucker Rudd of Reynolds Station in Ohio County after the agency said it conducted a search warrant and welfare check at the family’s home but could not find the child. Reynolds Station is located approximately 90 miles southwest of Louisville.

The girl’s mother, 29-year-old Tesla Tucker, and her father, 30-year-old Cage C. Rudd, were arrested on Wednesday at a motel in Owensboro with no information about the child’s whereabouts and were in possession of a large amount of drugs, including the active ingredient fentanyl. a police spokesman told Fox News Digital. Owensboro is located approximately 25 miles west of Reynolds Station.

“(We) tried to interview the parents, but they were not very cooperative with our investigation into this case,” Trooper Corey King of the Kentucky State Police told Fox News Digital on Friday.

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Missing are Miya Tucker (left) and her parents Tesla Tucker and Cage Rudd (top right) and grandparents Ricky Smith and Billie Smith (bottom right). (Daviess County Jail and Ohio County Jail)

Police later arrested Ricky Smith, believed to be the missing girl’s grandfather, who lived with the couple at their home on Deanfield Church Road. Police say Smith was using Smith’s home as a base for human trafficking, and during a search, various drugs were found inside. He was charged with drug offenses, child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.

According to WFIE, Miya’s grandmother, Billie J. Smith, 49, was arrested Friday and charged with second-degree domestic violence assault after police discovered she had an outstanding arrest warrant out of Daviess County from October 2023

Kentucky State Police vehicle. (Scotty Perry/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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Another man, Timothy L. Roach, was also arrested after throwing the over-the-counter drug Suboxone under his vehicle. He was charged with second-degree possession of a controlled substance and first-degree possession of a controlled substance with a prescription that was not in an appropriate container, WBKO reports.

Tesla Tucker, Cage Rudd and Ricky Smith appeared in Ohio County District Court on Monday to be arraigned.

Police said other family members had not seen the child for weeks. She was described as having brown hair and green eyes and was last believed to be in the custody of her parents, Kentucky State Police said.

Kentucky State Police say they brought in a team of cadaver dogs to search near a wooded area and church on Hardin Lane in Ohio County, WEVV reports.

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File photo of fentanyl pills seized at the border. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

Child Protective Services searched for the infant and when they couldn’t locate her, they called police, which led to a series of arrests, starting with those of her parents, who were found in a motel with a cache of fentanyl and methamphetamine.

The police arrested and charged the parents with drug trafficking and possession, as well as abandoning a minor and child abuse.

Rudd, the girl’s father, was convicted in March of two drug-related offenses, including possession of methamphetamine, and was on one year of supervised release, according to the Kentucky Department of Corrections.

Anyone with information is asked to call 270-826-3312.