Desperate search underway for missing 8-month-old last seen in April

US News

By Isabelle Keane

A frantic search is underway for an 8-month-old Kentucky girl who tested positive for methamphetamine at birth after her parents failed to report her missing when she was last seen in April.

Kentucky State Police searched about five acres of woods Tuesday near where 8-month-old Miya Tucker Rudd lived with her parents, Tesla Tucker, 29, and Cage Rudd, 30, and her grandson. -father, Ricky Smith, 56 – all of whom were arrested last week in connection with her disappearance.

“We have no evidence that she is deceased,” Kentucky State Trooper Cory King told WFIE of the search. “But we also have no proof that she is alive.”

The parents of the missing infant were arrested last week at a nearby motel, where police found them with methamphetamine and fentanyl pills in plain sight, police said.

When asked where the baby was, the parents told police that Family Services had taken her — a claim police say agency records have proven to be false.

Family Services had previously removed Miya's three older siblings from the home for drug problems and placed them in the care of Miya's maternal grandmother, but authorities confirmed that no social workers or police officers had gone to the parents' home to remove the child, WHAS 11 reported.

Family Services planned for Miya to join her siblings until family members alerted police on May 30 that they had not seen Miya, whose umbilical cord at birth had tested positive for methamphetamine, since the end of April.

While King said investigators remain hopeful that Miya could be found alive, he cautioned: “The longer this goes on, the darker the outcome will be.” »

Police announced the arrest of Miya's parents and grandfather on Thursday. All three were convicted on allegations of child abandonment and fentanyl-related charges.

Three days later, police also arrested Miya's grandmother, Billie Smith, 49, after discovering she had an active arrest warrant for domestic violence on her record when they went to her house to look for the baby.

While at her home, they also saw a man, identified as Timothy Roach, 37, throw “non-prescribed” drugs under her car, leading to his arrest on suspicion of having a controlled substance .

What relationship Roach has with the family, if any, is not immediately determinative.

Both were taken to the Ohio County Detention Center.

Miya, whose umbilical cord tested positive for methamphetamine at birth, is described as having brown hair and green eyes. She was last suspected to be in the care of her parents.

The investigation is ongoing.