Disappearance of Relisha Rudd

Relisha Tenau Rudd, born October 29, 2005, was an 8-year-old girl living with her mother at the D.C. General Shelter in Washington, D.C., in 2014 when she disappeared. A shelter janitor, Kahlil Tatum, a 51-year-old man with a felony record for burglary, larceny, and breaking-and-entering who had served prison terms from 1993 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2011, had befriended the family, buying Rudd a tablet and taking her to see Disney on Ice. Tatum was known at the shelter for inappropriately fraternizing with residents and paying particular attention to young girls. Rudd's mother eventually allowed Tatum to take her daughter away overnight, allegedly so she could stay with him and his granddaughter.

Rudd stopped attending school in February 2014. Her grandmother gave the school a note saying Rudd was ill and in the care of a "Dr. Tatum." After Tatum failed to appear for a meeting school staff had scheduled with him, a counselor contacted police, by which point roughly a month had passed since Rudd had last attended class. Surveillance footage reviewed by investigators showed Tatum and Rudd together in a hallway of a Holiday Inn Express in Northeast Washington, D.C., on February 26, 2014, and showed her walking with Tatum toward a room at a Days Inn on New York Avenue in Washington, D.C., on March 1, 2014 — the last confirmed evidence that she was alive. Tatum himself was last seen on March 2, 2014, buying a shovel, lime, and 42-gallon trash bags. The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia did not open a missing-persons investigation until March 19, 2014.

On March 20, 2014, the day Rudd's disappearance was reported, Tatum's wife, Andrea Tatum, was found fatally shot in the head in a motel in Prince George's County, Maryland. Surveillance video showed the couple entering the motel room together the night before. Police obtained an arrest warrant for Kahlil Tatum in his wife's killing, but on March 31, 2014, his body was found in a shed in the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C., dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound from the same firearm used to kill Andrea Tatum.

Rudd's fate has never been confirmed. Authorities have said they believe she was most likely killed by Tatum or sold to a sex-trafficking operation, though the trafficking theory has since been ruled out by Metropolitan Police Department detectives. Some relatives have said they believe Rudd may still be alive, noting that her body has never been found. In an interview with The Washington Post, a senior law-enforcement official said investigators suspected Tatum had been sexually exploiting Rudd and may have been prostituting her to others, and suggested this could be why he killed his wife. A relative of Tatum's was also examined as a possible person of interest in Tatum's death but was ultimately ruled out.

Rudd's case drew comparatively little news coverage outside the Washington, D.C., area, and commentators have said the limited attention reflects her marginalization as a Black girl from a low-income family. Rudd has never been found, and no one has been charged in connection with her disappearance.