Missing Kentucky baby sparks frantic search, parents arrested in motel with drug stash
Eight-month old Miya Tucker Rudd was declared missing after police conducted a warrant and welfare check and couldn’t find the child
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police in Kentucky are urgently looking for an 8-month-old baby who has been missing for weeks and have arrested the baby girl’s parents who were found holed up in a motel with a stash of fentanyl and methamphetamine.
The child, Miya Tucker Rudd of Reynolds Station in Ohio County, was declared missing by Kentucky State Police Thursday after the agency said it conducted a search warrant and welfare check at the family's home but couldn’t find the child. Reynolds Station is about 90 miles southwest of Louisville.
She has not been seen by other family members since the beginning of May, a Kentucky State Police spokesperson tells Fox News Digital. Child protection services had been looking for the child and then called police when they couldn't locate her, the spokesperson said.
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Missing baby Miya Tucker, center, along with her parents Tesla Tucker, left, and Cage C. Rudd, right. Tesla Tucker was declared missing after police conducted a warrant and welfare check and couldn’t find the child. (Kentucky State Police)
The girl’s mother, 29-year-old Tesla Tucker, and her father, 30-year-old Cage C. Rudd, were found at a motel in Owensboro on Wednesday with no information on the baby’s whereabouts and in possession of a large amount of drugs, including fentanyl. Owensboro is about 25 miles west of Reynolds Station.
"[We] tried to interview the parents, and they're not being very co-operative with our investigation on this," Trooper Corey King of the Kentucky State Police told Fox News Digital.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He said they don't know where the child is and say there is a possibility she is with other family members.
"There's a lot of possibilities when it comes to something like this," King said.
Troopers arrested and charged the pair with drug trafficking and possession as well as the abandonment of a minor and child abuse. They are being detained at the Daviess County Detention Center in Owensboro, Kentucky State Police said.
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Kentucky State Police vehicle. (Scotty Perry/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Rudd was also charged with possession of methamphetamine.
Rudd was convicted of two drug offenses in March — including the possession of methamphetamine — and was on a year’s supervised release, according to the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
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A file photo of pills containing fentanyl intercepted at the border. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection )
Police have also charged another man, Ricky Smith, in relation to the case who was living with the couple at their home at Deanfield Church Road. Police say Smith was using the home as a base for trafficking drugs. He's been charged with drug crimes, child abuse and endangering the welfare of a child.
King said they found a variety of drugs at the home during their initial search.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police say Miya Tucker has brown hair and green eyes. She was last suspected to be in the care of her parents, Kentucky State Police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call 270-826-3312.