The biological mother of 16-year-old Savannah Leckie, 39-year-old Rebecca Ruud of Ozark County, is being held on felony charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death, tampering with physical evidence in a case and abandoning a corpse without notifying authorities. The Ozark County Times reports Ozark County Sheriff Darrin Reed says Ruud was arrested Monday by Ozark County deputies at a Greyhound bus station in Springfield, where she had reportedly bought a ticket to Kansas City.
The case began July 20 when Ruud called the Ozark County Sheriffs Office and told officers that Leckie was missing. Leckie had been adopted by Tamile Leckie-Montague and her then-husband, David Leckie, a few months after Ruud gave birth to her in Minnesota in 2001. After growing up in Minnesota, Leckie had moved to Missouri in August 2016 to live with Ruud.
Rudd told authorities on July 20 that she had seen Leckie in bed at 11 p.m. the night before, but when she awoke at 8 a.m. the next morning, she was gone. Ruud said a neighbor helped her search the area, but they found no trace of Leckie. The girls favorite blanket, pillow and other items were missing from her sleeping area, Reed said in a statement announcing Leckies disappearance. Search teams scoured the area for days, but Leckie was not found.
Search warrant documents indicate that Ruud and her then boyfriend, who was living on the property with Rudd and Leckie, became less cooperative as officers continued to dig deeper into the disappearance. A search warrant was obtained, and when officers executed the first search of the property on Aug. 4, charred remains were discovered in a burn pile about 400 yards from the camper trailer and metal building the three lived in. The remains were later identified as human bones and teeth.
Ruud posted that day on Facebook that she had left the property during the search to seek legal counsel. A marriage license filed in Howell County indicates that she and Robert Peat Jr. were married Aug. 4, the same day the human remains were found. Several other search warrants were subsequently executed on the property, and during the final search on Aug. 9, an anthropologist sifted through the ash and found many additional bone fragments and human remains.
It is not yet known how Leckie died, but 26 bottles of lye were taken as evidence during one of the searches, and additional search warrants were issued because the lye was found. Reed has said that the forensic experts working with the human remains said an accelerant was almost certainly used in the cremation of the bones because the remains lack calcium. After one of the anthropologists commented on the extensive deterioration of the bones, Reed told her that lye was found on the property. That would do it, the anthropologist replied.
Ruud operated a soap-making business called Our Hidden Holler Farm, where she and Leckie made and sold homemade soap that was sold in local stores. The process of making homemade soap requires the use of lye. On June 3, about seven weeks before Leckie was reported missing, Ruud posted on Facebook, We are finally, officially in the soap business, just in time for Savannahs Sweet 16 she has wanted this so badly. To combine two landmark events, her Sweet 16, and the official opening of Our Hidden Holler Farm soap business is blaming herself… I think thats why she ran. The day before yesterday would mean the burn occurred on July 18.
Reed has indicated he hopes the death penalty will be sought in the cases.
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