A frantic search is underway for an 8-month-old Kentucky girl who tested positive for meth at birth after her parents failed to report her missing when she was last seen in April.
Kentucky State Police on Tuesday searched roughly five acres of woods near where 8-month-old Miya Tucker Rudd lived with her parents, Tesla Tucker, 29, and Cage Rudd, 30, and her grandfather, 56-year-old Ricky Smith — all of whom were arrested last week in connection to her disappearance.
“We have no evidence she’s deceased,” Kentucky State Police Trooper Cory King told WFIE of the search. “But we have no evidence she’s alive, either.”
The missing infant’s parents were arrested last week at a nearby motel, where police found them with meth 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 the agency’s records have proven to be untrue.
Family services previously removed Miya’s three older siblings from the home over drug issues and placed them in the care of Miya’s maternal grandmother, but authorities confirmed no social workers or police had gone to the parent’s home to remove the infant, WHAS 11 reported.
Family services had plans for Miya to join her siblings until family members alerted police on May 30 that they hadn’t seen Miya, whose umbilical cord at birth tested positive for meth, since late April.
While King said investigators remained hopeful that Miya might be found alive, he cautioned: “The longer this goes, the more grim of an outcome this will be.”
Police announced the arrests of Miya’s parents and grandfather on Thursday. All three were booked on allegations of child abandonment and fentanyl-related charges.
Three days later, police also arrested Miya’s grandmother, 49-year-old Billie Smith, after discovering she had an active domestic violence warrant on file when they went to her home to look for the baby.
While at her house they also saw a man, identified as Timothy Roach, 37, toss “unprescribed” drugs under his car, leading to his arrest on suspicion of having a controlled substance.
It’s not immediately what relationship Roach has with the family, if any.
Both were taken to the Ohio County Detention Center.
Miya, whose umbilical cord tested positive for meth 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.
