4 indicted for drug trafficking, child abuse in Miya Rudd death investigation

An Ohio County Grand Jury has returned indictments for drug trafficking and child abuse against four people associated with the disappearance and presumed death of eight-month-old Miya Rudd.

The grand jury, according to media reports, indicted Miya’s mother and father, 29-year-old Tesla Tucker and 30-year-old Cage C. Rudd, her paternal grandfather, 56-year-old Ricky Smith, and 28-year-old Brodie Payne, who lived with the family for six months prior to Miya disappearing in April. Smith also lived with the family in their Reynolds Station home.

All four were indicted for first-degree criminal abuse of a child (victim under the age of 12), engaging in organized crime, abuse of a corpse, failure to report a death, trafficking in a controlled substance (methamphetamine), trafficking in marijuana, first-degree wanton endangerment, trafficking in a legend drug, enhanced possession of a controlled substance, and tampering with physical evidence.

Cage Rudd, Smith and Payne were additionally indicted on three counts of possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.

No one has yet been charged with Miya’s death, as the Ohio County Coroner’s Office is awaiting test results to positively identify Miya’s decomposing body, which was presumably found in a duffel bag in the front room of the family’s Deanfield Church Road home in Reynolds Station.

K105 reported Thursday morning that drug residue and Narcan were found next to a playpen and bassinet in Miya’s home.

A Kentucky State Police detective testified in court in Ohio County earlier this week that a bag containing methamphetamine residue, as well as Narcan, an opioid overdose reversal agent, were found in Miya’s bedroom in the same residence where her body was apparently found last week.

(Headline photo l-r: Cage C. Rudd, Tesla Tucker)