Parents Too Busy Doing Meth To Notice Baby Rotting Away

for many families a child is a welcome blessing but for many others they try to do everything right and a child never comes then there’s the family in today’s story that had child after child in a filthy house where they exposed their children to drugs there were many adults that knew what was going on that could have come forward and saved these kids but nobody was willing to speak up because of their inaction it led to an 8-month-old baby girl being stuffed away in a bag and left to rot like a pile of garbage this is one of the most shocking

missing person’s cases in Kentucky State history my rud was born in the early morning hours of October 12th 2023 in Owensboro Kentucky she was the fourth and youngest child born to Tesla Tucker in cage rud her oldest sibling was about 6 years older but the other two were barely toddlers when Maya was born Maya’s family called her Smiley due to her toothless baby smile which was a common sight in the Tucker rud home her siblings were enamored with their new baby sister Maya was especially close with her brother who was a little over a

year older than she was he always knew how to make her laugh by the time she was 8 months old she was close to crawling and sitting up on her own she had toughs of brown hair and green eyes Maya was described as an ambitious and willing mind Tiny Toes and a smile that was contagious a Beacon of Hope hope a bundle of Sunshine from the very start but while all seemed perfect from the outside there were plenty of signs from the very start that Maya was in immediate danger Tesla Tucker and cage Rudd were married in January of 2015

their first child a girl was born in the summer of 2017 they had a boy in 2021 and a girl in 2022 and finally Maya in 2023 now the couple were not well-liked in their Community they lived in Reynolds station an unincorporated area in Kentucky about 25 mi from Owensboro along with their General bad attitudes it said that Tesla and cage were known for their reckless driving around the community one resident claims they stole parts from his friend’s car the extended Tucker rud family were all known to the justice system Maya’s father cage and

grandfather Ricky Smith were both felons cage was previously charged for possessing and promoting illegal substances and he pled guilty March of 2024 instead of serving time in custody he was under supervised diversion for one year Ricky also had previous drug offenses and was charged for violating his parole conditions her other grandfather David Tucker had court fines that went unpaid may his maternal grandmother ttha Tucker had theft and check fraud charges filed against her in Indiana she evaded these charges by not

showing up to her court dates she was also charged for failure to maintain liability insurance in 2003 which she only served 5 days of 180 day sentence in October of 2023 Maya’s paternal grandmother Billy Smith was involved in a devv incident with another man notably not her husband Ricky Smith this man claimed to be her intimate partner for about 8 months they were outside his home when he claims Billy wanted money in the keys to his truck which he refused to give her he claims Billy hit and kicked his head and body and

eventually knocked him unconscious he was hospitalized for his wounds and the next day someone reported a woman asleep in a car to the police when they arrived to check on her they realized it was Billy she admitted to getting into the altercation but claimed it was self-defense on her part she said the man had attempted to beat her with a wooden baseball bat Billy wasn’t detained on the spot but she would eventually have an arrest warrant for second degree assault filed against her neither parent nor any of her

grandparents made any progress towards a better path they evaded consequences instead of facing them at any point these people could have been taken into custody leaving the young children in the hands of more dangerous family members or even the foster care system not everyone in the Tucker rud Smith extended family was involved in illegal activities but it seemed Tesla and cage didn’t see their clean record relatives as proper caretakers May three siblings were each taken from their parents’ home at separate times due to their living

conditions they were placed in their maternal grandparents custody but Maya remained with Tesla and cage the process to remove her began soon after she was born but it wasn’t Swift Enough Social Services had Maya on the radar early on when her umbilical cord tested positive for Crystal it was then that they began the process of removing her from her parents custody they tried the traditional ways but they were ignored every time Social Service tried to contact Tesla and cage their calls were unanswered visiting their Reynolds

station home was just as unuseful they tried reaching out to the extended family but they either could not or would not help them the cabinet of Health and Family Services or chfs had the power to reach out to the Kentucky State Police there was enough reason to believe Maya was in immediate danger and having police resources on their side could have definitely helped sped up the process the police would later say that the chfs never asked for their aid in finding Maya when asked directly what their search efforts looked like they

said they could not answer because of the ongoing investigation a friend of Tesla in cage Brody Payne moved on to the property around December of 20123 he lived in a trailer with the VIN number removed Ricky Smith was also living with them but this wasn’t your normal couch surfing situation for months Tesla and cage were dealing illegal drugs from their home in Reynold station with Ricky and Brody’s help they did this with Maya in plain view Brody had some criminal charges in Indiana most notably for possession of 28 or

more grams of crystal in December of 2016 a court order stated that under no circumstances could the Tucker red children visit their parents’ house however the court order was violated enough times for illegal substances to eventually show up in the older children’s hair in the late spring and Midsummer of 2024 the Kentucky State Police were investigating drug traffickers in every County of the state they called this operation summer heat which received wide press coverage by Kentucky base news Louisiana Alaska

inspired by Kentucky had their own operation summer Heats in the following months by July they made over 200 arrests and just under 500 criminal charges the monetary value of the Seas Contraband told to 68495 $3.50 along with additional cash weapons and other Contraband also taken into evidence the operation was partially credited to the decrease in violent crimes and fatal ODS in the state of Kentucky by the end of 2024 Tesla cage Ricky and Brody were not as slick as they thought they were they handled their operation recklessly having their

goods mailed to them through the UN United States Postal Service it was only a matter of time before they would be caught but unfortunately as you soon will see it was not the drug trafficking that made them Infamous in the state of Kentucky fairly early into their operation a detection dog with the Davis County Sheriff’s Office took interest in a package that was set for delivery officers noted the recipient Ro Payne and tested the package for illegal substances inside was a half pound of crystal someone was mailing illegal

drugs to The Postal Service straight into Brody’s lap and law enfor forcement were going to find out why their investigation into him lasted for months and eventually LED them straight to his residents and his accomplices officers pulled into the Reynold station home driveway and delivered the package when bro came outside to pick it up he was arrested on the spot he already had a warrant out for his arrest for failing to make child support payments but that was nothing compared to the drug charges Brody could

not play dumb because there was a second package meant for him that the police seized it had counterfeit drugs containing Fentanyl and a powder cutting agent one package looks bad but two looks worse he was booked into the Davis County Detention Center on May 20th and charged with first-degree Crystal trafficking aggravated fentel trafficking and purchase and possession of drug paraphernalia his cash Bond was set at $35,000 Maya was last seen by her extended family in in April of 2024 in early June Tesla’s sister Alexis heard

from grandmother ttha that CPS had taken Maya away totha believe this or at least she pretended to Alexis however was not convinced and contacted law enforcement for a wellness check for her 8-month-old niece but per usual the parents weren’t home and nobody could get in contact with them an investigator spoke to TOA she told them her daughter said that Maya was taken away by CPS on May 1st detectives follow this lead but there were no records from CPS backing up the story Brody was arrested in connection to a drug operation in the Reynold

station home and for nothing involving Ma’s disappearance but it didn’t take long for police to put together that Brody was maintaining his illegal drug operation in the home of a missing infant they thought that maybe there was a connection and they were right on June 6th Tesla cage and Ricky were found in a super eight motel with what law enforce ment described as a multitude of really heavy street drugs the room was in Cage’s name when investigators open the door Tesla was sitting on the bed with suspected fentanyl lace pills Within

Reach and in plain view she also had Crystal stowed away in her purse Ricky was on the couch next to a glass pipe and had crystal in his pockets all three of them were arrested and upon being questioned they said they didn’t know where Maya was the trio were charged with child abandonment along with drug possession they were taken into custody at the Davis County Detention Center and held on $20,000 cash bonds this is the same jail that Brody was in during the booking process cage had weed confiscated from him he claimed he had

forgotten that he had it on him the next day the three had additional charges filed against them involving organized crime CA and drug trafficking Ricky was also charged with owning Firearms as a felon and named as a persistent felony offender on June 9th detectives visited Billy Smith In Search of Maya the baby wasn’t with her grandmother but Billy was brought into custody anyway due to the outstanding arrest warrants against her from October of 2023 if that wasn’t bad enough another man was arrested the moment officers

pulled onto the property this man Timothy roach was arrested for trying to hide a prescription only substance under a car he had a long history of drug offenses prior to this arrest on the 9th both he and Billy were booked into the Ohio County Detention Center the next day Tesla cage and Ricky had their arraignment hearing for the drug charges against them overseen by judge Misty Miller of the six judicial district later Tesla and cage were arraigned for Maya’s abandonment and other drug charges by judge Gregory Vincent of the

38th Judicial District District Ricky and Timothy were also arraigned before judge Vincent the very same day since Maya was a vulnerable helpless baby less than one-year-old locating her was obviously top priority they scoured the wooded area surrounding her parents house in the nearby Cemetery they pulled out all the stops even bringing out cadaver dogs and Publishing a tip line neighbors and members of the community joined the search efforts they didn’t care much for Tesla and cage and most people didn’t even know they had a

fourth infant child but they were willing to put their dislike on hold while the baby girl was missing on June 12th law enforcement returned to the home of Maya’s maternal grandparents David and tiifa Tucker with a search warrant once again Maya was not there but the couple was arrested for their unrelated outstanding warrants as we mentioned earlier Tia had theft and fraud charges against her in the state of Indiana and David had unpaid court fines they were held in the Davis County Detention Center Police also took their

Electronics into evidence I assist sisters and brother were promptly whisked away to safety following day Brody Payne had more charges filed against him in addition to the possession of illegal substances he was charged with trafficking them participating in organized crime and wanting endangerment neither Tesla nor cage cooperated with detectives they insisted Maya was taken away by Child Services they sent officers on a Fool’s errand despite knowing exactly what happened to their baby the grandparents didn’t help

either and the extended family were completely in the dark this period of uncertainty frightened the community they thought they lived in a safe place with kind neighbors so my’s disappearance shook them to their core there was no evidence of Maya being alive or dead if it was the latter law enforcement suspected she would be in the wooded area behind her parents’ home or in a nearby cemetery on a hill they failed to find anything with the Cav dogs alone so they made plans to return with more specialized equipment the Ohio

County coroner’s office also joined in the efforts ory King the public affairs officer for the Kentucky State Police made it clear that the coroner’s office’s involvement didn’t necessarily mean that Maya was dead however he didn’t mince words with the Press he said we’re very hopeful and optimistic that we would find her alive maybe perhaps a family member has her but the longer this goes on the more Grim it seems he also said this case was an example of how illicit street drugs can destroy lives and cause the erosion of

our community officer King also criticized the family for their uncooperative Behavior throughout the investigation saying it’s completely sad that you have a family that goes this deep in the family tree that’s not willing to cooperate with a baby’s investigation it’s saddening and I can’t say that I’ve quite seen it like this before at 1:15 p.m.

 on June 14th one week after she went missing Maya was found she hadn’t gone far in fact she was still in her home law enforcement found a black Adidas duffel bag in the entry room of the house there was some debris over the bag indicating an attempt to hide it officers opened the bag and everyone’s worst fears came true Maya was already decomposing she was so unrecognizable that no one could even tell if it was her a transport vehicle brought her to the Louisville regional office of the medical examiner for further investigation you didn’t need to be an

expert detective to see that the Reynolds Station House was not suitable for a child much less an infant the residence was filthy and dangerous with illegal substances paraphernalia and weapons found by investigators one officer found a bag tainted with Crystal only inches away from Maya’s crib initial searches left the property largely undisturbed but there were so many illegal drugs and residue inside the house that the police were worried their officers would OD just from staying inside the house for too long

investigators had to take several precautions before searching the interior this included sterilizing the house before performing the search it took multiple search warrants and visits from the police to get the house safe enough for a thorough investigation it’s not reported how or if this affected the crown crime scene but it demonstrates how bad the environment was if the police were worried for the health and safety of their trained officers imagine what that house could do to an 8-month-old infant girl in total eight people were arrested

during the search for Maya her parents Tesla and cage maternal grandparents ttha and David paternal grandparents Ricky and Billy along with Brody Payne and Timothy roach after the remains were confirmed to belong to Maya four of those eight arrested were charged for her Miss treatment and abandonment Tesla Tucker cage Rudd Ricky Smith and Brody Payne Maya’s cause of death is still undetermined even after all the time that has passed her body was too decomposed for medical professionals to come to an accurate conclusion despite

this the coroner’s office labeled her death a homicide the state coroner’s office said in their report based on information provided to me in postmortem examination findings the cause of death in this eight-month-old female Maya Rudd is undetermined the advanced state of decomposition precluded an Optimum examination given the scene circumstances and autopsy findings the manner of death is best classified as homicide more detailed results wouldn’t come until months later it would eventually be made public that my had

crystal in her system even after her death to be precise 23.3 nanogram gr per milliliter Maya’s a Alexis organized a GoFundMe to help pay for Maya’s funeral which was held on July 25th there were speeches live music prayers and a sermon the service is archived on the Glenn funeral hes website Tesla cage Ricky and Brody were all initially charged for drug possession drug trafficking and Firearm possession after Maya was found on June 14th the four were also charged for her death these were not murder charges at least not yet the charges

ranged from failure to report a child’s death mishandling her corpse endangerment and criminal CA during the June 17th preliminary hearing Tesla cried in the courtroom as the charges were read and cried even more as the hearing went on in total Tesla was found guilty for 10 charges while the three men were found guilty of 13 charges each their three extra charges were for firearm possession despite being convicted f in November the state of Kentucky filed more charges against ttha controlled substance endangerment to a child

criminal abuse and hindering prosecution titha allowed the children to stay with their dangerous parents in an unsafe environment as noted earlier she also gave Tesla and cage money she had previously stolen for safekeeping to limit her chances of being arrested for theft this possibly circles back to the theft and fraud she committed in Indiana while the coroner’s office labeled Maya’s case homicide the trial was not a homicide case it took some time roughly 6 months for the DNA evidence collected at the scene to be thoroughly tested

finally in January of 2025 investigators were confident enough in their findings to increase the charges against the four convicted adults the Kentucky State Police presented a new case in an Ohio County courtroom the result was the addition of murder charges to the four convicted parties in addition to charges they already were found guilty for the police successfully argued the four adults knowingly put Maya in a dangerous situation if not directly harming her in addition the four were accused of criminal mistreatment of Ma’s three older

siblings following the presentation a superseding indictment was filed against the four adults this means that the charges against them were amended based on the New Evidence presented in court the superseding indictment listed extra charges for each of the four convicted adults one count of murder from Maya and one count of criminal abuse of a child 12 and under for Maya and each of her three siblings in addition Ricky was charged with persistent felony offender Tesla Ricky and Brody pled not guilty to the new charges of murder and

endangerment on February 4th 2025 Tesla’s attorney filed a motion to examine and test any evidence seized by law enforcement cage was met meant to appear alongside them but his arraignment was pushed to March 4th he Tesla and Ricky will appear again in court in April in Brody Payne in may they are each held on separate $250,000 cash bonds now we should also note here since they haven’t fully gone to trial all parties are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law during and after Maya’s case some

alarming actions were taken in ky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services today the Kentucky auditor’s office houses the Kentucky Commonwealth office of um budsman before this it was under chfs control in cases where Child Protection investigation proves inadequate it’s the ombudsman’s job to investigate the how and the why according to Allison ball the public auditor the um budsman relies heavily on a database called itwist to perform these investigation the um budsman had full access to itwist previously while

it was under chfs Authority but when it transitioned to the public auditor’s office the cabinet refused to give them this access this was in July of 2024 a month after Maya’s name was published on every major news Outlet in the state the auditor’s office and the office of the umbs filed a lawsuit against the cabinet for this it was worth the effort in the end September 2024 the Ombudsman regained access to the itwist database and could resume their usual duties more recently a bill Bill advance that would protect the Young busman’s Access to

itwist during this dispute between chfs and the auditor’s office a more helpful and hopeful piece of legislation was in the works the same day Maya was found a Kentucky man named Eric Williams created a petition on change.org Eric Williams has no relation to Maya but he was so upset frustrated and heartbroken by her story but he wanted to see some changes come from it Eric proposed the creation of a new law called Maya’s law if a parent or parents lose custody of children and haven’t regained that custody they would not be allowed to

keep a newborn in their care the petition received over 2,000 signatures within the first 5 days alone and is currently at just under 8,600 Eric told news station WPSD Local 6 news I can’t go buy a car if I didn’t pay for my last car can I right um I can’t go uh adopt a dog if I was found of animal but how come I can leave with a brand new baby when I lost my my previous one Eric made it clear he didn’t want to separate families but to protect vulnerable children like Maya and her siblings the people’s call for Action

did not go unheard Kentucky state representative myON dosset sponsored baby Maya’s law officially called House Bill 574 it was approved by the house standing committee on February 20th 2025 and will be brought before the main floor for further approval currently the wording of the bill States if anyone knows of a child born to a parent or parents who have a lost custody of other children and haven’t regained that custody or B have ongoing cases of mistreatment of children against them they must report those parents to the

authorities 2023 before Maya’s passing discussions for a similar Bill began But ultimately never came to fruition one of the parties involved was heather gray executive director of The Joy closet a nonprofit organization that aids kuy’s foster children representative doset was also part of the discussions for this earlier bill so Heather was easily able to reach out to him about baby Maya’s law while it is sad it took the death of an 8mon old little girl for such measures to be taken at all Heather and the others at the joy closet are

grateful to see change being made representative doset said about the bill when a child is born to parents who already have their children and someone else’s custody due to neglect or abuse the state should intervene and ensure that the child is safe and cared for I believe in second chances but there is no second chance for a child who passes away due to abuse or neglect we have to put children’s safety first and ensure that the parents are proactively changing their lives for the better before any child especially a newborn

has returned to their custody the three older children are now in the care of their aunt Alexis and her boyfriend John in in an interview with WPSD Local 6 News Alexis recalled the day she learned that Maya was found and they told me they found her you know I was like okay is she okay you know and it was not okay she wasn’t okay and I lost a little piece of me that day it was hard they intend to raise Maya’s siblings in their home with their own children Al and John shared the following with reporters they deserve

way better than they have been given and I want to give them the best life that they deserve Alexis and John elected to take on her sister’s three kids Maya’s siblings to raise along with their own the goal to hopefully make them a permanent fixture we may not be their actual parents but we will fill that void you know we’re going to love them like their act were their actual parents we’re going to make sure that you know they are taken care of they get the best education possible you know they get to do whatever they want to do and they can

just enjoy their life as kids and they don’t deserve this nobody does my family don’t they don’t like it’s hard but I’m going to make sure that they have the best life possible