WASHINGTON — A new podcast from WAMU 88.5 is shining new light on Relisha Rudd’s story.
Relisha was a homeless 8-year-old girl who disappeared 7 years ago.
She was not reported missing until 18 days after she was last seen.
“(The) last thing I remember was Relisha telling me she’s coming back – she’s going over her aunt’s house. She never came back,” Antonio Wheeler, who is Relisha’s stepfather, said on the Through the Cracks podcast.
Jonquilyn Hill is the host of Through the Cracks.
The podcast explores all the social safety nets that exist in our society and whether they are working or not.
As the show’s introduction states, it is a podcast “about the gaps in our society and the people who fall through them.”
“There are all of these little inflection points in Relisha’s life,” Hill said. “There were just all of these moments where someone could have intervened and said something about here isn’t right – or someone could have noticed like ‘wait. Where is this little girl?’ Something’s odd.”
Relisha was last seen on March 1 in 2014 with Kahlil Tatum, who was a 51-year-old janitor at D.C. General Family Shelter, where Relisha and her family lived.
Surveillance video captured the moments Relisha and Tatum were seen walking the halls of the shelter at a Holiday Inn Express.
It wasn’t until 18 days later that Relisha's school reported her missing after being absent so many days.
News of Relisha's disappearance was sent out on March 20 that year saying she was missing and that she was probably with Tatum.
On April 1, 2014, Tatum was found shot dead at Kenilworth Park.
It was later discovered that Tatum killed himself before he could be questioned by police.
“Six months after Relisha went missing, the city put out a report saying that the tragic events were not preventable,” Hill told WUSA9. “So, that’s more what I kind of want to get at. It’s more of this thing of -- how is this not preventable?”
Hill spent time investigating what happened with nearly every institution or person that had a hand in Relisha’s life – from the homeless shelter and her school to her family.
“There’s not one person or one entity to blame. It’s a mixture of a lot of people not communicating with each other and not speaking up. There’s all these different instances that could have gone differently,” Hill said.
Hill is a Howard University graduate and was immediately drawn to Relisha’s story because of her own identity.
She said, “I think one of the things that makes this podcast unique is the fact that I’m a Black woman telling the story of this little Black girl.”
Hill hopes people who listen to and engage with her podcast will have more empathy for people in their lives and walk away thinking more about the children in their lives.
She encourages people to look out for those who are most vulnerable and make sure they are OK.
The final episode of Through the Cracks will be released on March 18.
It can be heard on Apple Podcasts, other streaming services, or on WAMU 88.5’s website.
WUSA9 released a podcast called '18 Days' in 2018 detailing what happened between the time Relisha was last seen and reported missing.
If you know anything about Relisha’s disappearance or whereabouts, call 202-727-9099.
There is a $50,000 reward for information.