DNA at heart of Arizona trial. Aspiring model's killer fights to clear his name. Plus, Relisha Rudd.

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Speaker 5 Hey, good morning.

Speaker 6 You're listening in to to the Dateline story meeting.

Speaker 5 We can go ahead and get started. Let's go.

Speaker 7 Let's go.

Speaker 9 Our producers are catching up on breaking crime news.

Speaker 10 So it sounds like you just snapped, too, right?

Speaker 12 This fraudulent insurance claim kind of hints at this double life.

Speaker 5 There's a Fibbet that actually shows a spike in a heartbeat and then it just goes flat.

Speaker 13 Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning.

Speaker 2 It's November 6th, and here's what's on our docket.

Speaker 16 In Illinois, a convicted killer is fighting to clear his name and the names of his parents, too.

Speaker 18 They said that there was nothing that links this family to the crime.

Speaker 8 In Dateline Roundup, Brian Koberger back in court, a verdict in the college professor murder trial, and updates in the Sandra Birchmore case.

Speaker 5 A new indictment claims that by killing Birchmore, he also caused the death of her unborn child.

Speaker 23 Plus, an eight-year-old girl went missing from a homeless shelter in 2014.

Speaker 24 A new documentary is looking for answers.

Speaker 7 We're hoping that someone with information can help us close this chapter in this missing person's case.

Speaker 13 But before all that, we're heading to an Arizona courthouse for the long-delayed murder trial of a man accused of killing a 31-year-old sales rep.

Speaker 12 A few days after Valentine's Day in 2015, Allison Feldman was found beaten to death in her Scottsdale, Arizona home.

Speaker 6 At first, detectives believed Allison's killer was someone she knew.

Speaker 24 They interviewed her boyfriend and one of her exes.

Speaker 8 They questioned a UPS driver who left her his phone number and checked out tips about her pharmacist.

Speaker 2 In total, they interviewed nearly 500 people and took the DNA of more than 70, but still the case went cold.

Speaker 14 Until three years later, in a stunning development, the police announced they'd arrested a man by the name of Ian Mitchum.

Speaker 14 He had no apparent connection to Allison, but they said cutting-edge DNA analysis proved Mitchum was the killer.

Speaker 27 Here's Allison's dad, Harley Feldman, talking to NBC affiliate News 12 in Phoenix.

Speaker 28 I want to make sure that he doesn't get away, that he's put away for hopefully the rest of his life.

Speaker 8 What Harley didn't know is that it would take another seven years for the case to go to trial.

Speaker 14 Mitchum pleaded not guilty, and his defense team challenged the legitimacy of the DNA all the way to Arizona's top court.

Speaker 21 Here to tell us more about the courtroom deadlock behind the delay and what we can expect when the trial starts next week is Dateline Field producer Brittany Morris.

Speaker 29 Hey, Brittany.

Speaker 30 Hi, Andrea.

Speaker 17 To start, take us back to what happened the day Allison was murdered.

Speaker 30 So it was a Wednesday,

Speaker 30 and she wasn't answering her phone. She wasn't responding to text messages.
This was very unlike her. So that afternoon, Allison Feldman's boyfriend decided to go check on her.

Speaker 30 He let himself into her house and found Allison lying in a pool of blood. We later learned that she had been sexually assaulted and died from asphyxiation and blunt force trauma to the head.

Speaker 25 This is awful.

Speaker 10 Allison's brutal murder really puzzled investigators.

Speaker 30 It stumped them because Allison was loved by everyone that knew her. By all accounts from friends and family, she did not have any known enemies.

Speaker 31 Yeah.

Speaker 10 So let's talk about what kind of evidence, if any, was left behind

Speaker 17 that indicated who might have done this.

Speaker 30 So according to the probable cause affidavit, there were at least three separate sets of DNA found at the crime scene. There was Allison's DNA, her boyfriend's DNA, and one unknown DNA sample.

Speaker 30 And investigators told me that they ruled this boyfriend out as a suspect, but that did not happen immediately and decided to turn their attention to making an identification for that unknown DNA.

Speaker 17 So, Brittany, I'm assuming they put it into CODIS, which is a national DNA database.

Speaker 8 Did they get a match at all?

Speaker 30 No match.

Speaker 8 After that, investigators did something controversial.

Speaker 30 So, years into their investigation, police submitted that unknown DNA for what they call a familial test. At that time, it was a very new technique and it was only being used in 12 other states.

Speaker 30 Listeners might be wondering if it's the same technology as genetic genealogy. It's a little different than that.
Familial testing involves running DNA samples through government databases.

Speaker 30 So people who are already known to law enforcement, genetic genealogy involves running those DNA samples through private databases.

Speaker 30 Anyway, that familial testing revealed that the unknown DNA likely came from a relative of a convict named Mark Mitchum. He was in prison here in Arizona for an unrelated offense.

Speaker 29 So investigators found that Mark had a brother named Ian,

Speaker 17 and he was actually arrested for a DUI just a couple miles from her home around the time of the murder.

Speaker 30 Yeah. And at that time, he consented to giving a blood sample.

Speaker 30 The Scottsdale Police Department decided to test that blood sample against the unknown male DNA found at Allison's home, and it was a match.

Speaker 30 Mitchum's arrest and how investigators identified him as their suspect was really big news in the Valley.

Speaker 35 We did the familial DNA search, which we have never been able to do before. This is the first one in the history of the state of Arizona.

Speaker 35 It's the first case ever submitted, and we were able to link it on the first time we tried it.

Speaker 30 Ian Mitchum, at the time of his arrest, told police he did not know Allison and said several times that he had never been in her home and did not know why his DNA was there.

Speaker 17 So, Brittany, then ahead of Ian Mitchum's murder trial, his defense team raised questions that would really have a big impact on this case.

Speaker 10 They asked if the state's DNA evidence was admissible in trial.

Speaker 14 What was their argument?

Speaker 30 That it was against Ian Mitchum's Fourth Amendment rights to use that DNA evidence at trial.

Speaker 30 The defense team said that the blood sample given during his DUI arrest should have been destroyed years before.

Speaker 30 The defense team also argued he had not consented to his 2015 DNA sample being used in that way.

Speaker 31 The prosecution hit its first major roadblock when the trial judge agreed with the defense.

Speaker 30 Yeah, the judge ruled the state could not use their DNA evidence. An appeals court later overturned that ruling in 2023.
And then the Arizona Supreme Court agreed.

Speaker 30 They said while police did violate Mitchum's rights, the DNA evidence could still be used in a trial.

Speaker 10 And the poor family, friends, you know, all these delays.

Speaker 26 It's been 10 years since Allison's murder.

Speaker 30 Yes, a devastating amount of time. And what's so incredible is their strength.
Allison's dad, Harley, is in the courtroom for every single hearing.

Speaker 9 All right. So finally,

Speaker 9 Ian Mitchum heads to trial next week.

Speaker 23 Court documents, you know, they're giving a preview really of what the defense's strategy will be.

Speaker 30 That's right. We learned that Mitchum's defense team is pointing a finger at a person police pursued as a potential lead during the murder investigation.

Speaker 30 This person was Allison's pharmacist and made comments that implicated him in the homicide. He viewed Allison's dating profile and lived near her.

Speaker 26 And the man being implicated by the defense, has he made any comments?

Speaker 30 So, as of now, Dateline has not spoken with this person, but he was in court last week with his attorney, and his attorney told the court his client plans on fleeting the fifth.

Speaker 23 Okay, Brittany, thank you.

Speaker 39 So many moving pieces still in this case as the trial finally gets underway.

Speaker 8 Thank you so much for bringing us the latest from the courtroom in Arizona.

Speaker 30 You are so welcome. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 16 Coming up, a man who was convicted, along with his parents, of murdering his ex-wife, is fighting to clear their names.

Speaker 40 Some stories never make national headlines, but stories from small towns and coastal communities deserve recognition too.

Speaker 40 I'm Kylie Lowe, host of Dark Down East, a true crime podcast that gives voice to victims through investigative journalism and powerful storytelling.

Speaker 40 Set in my home state state of Maine and the greater New England area, it's my goal to dig through the archives to bring the stories of the people at the heart of these cases to light.

Speaker 40 Listen to Dark Down East, wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 25 Hey, everybody, it's Rob Lowe here.

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Speaker 34 And basically, it's conversations I've had that really make you feel like you're pulling up a chair at an intimate dinner between myself and people that I admire, like Aaron Sorkin or Tiffany Haddish, Demi Moore, Chris Pratt, Michael J.

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Speaker 41 There are new episodes out every Thursday.

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Speaker 33 On September 27, 1996, police found an abandoned car on the side of Interstate 72 in central Illinois.

Speaker 27 The engine was running, the headlights were on, but the car's driver, 23-year-old Karen Hearn Slover, was nowhere to be found.

Speaker 6 A few days later, in a lake miles away, a boater made a horrifying discovery.

Speaker 14 A garbage bag containing a body part.

Speaker 27 Law enforcement soon found more bags and more body parts nearby.

Speaker 16 It was Karen.

Speaker 8 A years-long investigation led to the arrests of Karen's ex-husband, Michael Slover Jr., as well as both of his parents.

Speaker 36 In 2002, a jury found them all guilty of Karen's murder.

Speaker 24 But now, almost three decades since Karen's death, the case is back in court with bombshell new evidence that could turn this case on its head.

Speaker 14 Here to bring us up to speed is Karen Isert, an anchor with NBC-owned station WAND in Decatur, Illinois.

Speaker 49 Thanks for coming on the podcast, Karen.

Speaker 18 Oh, thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 8 Let's just start by telling us a little bit more about the the victim in this case, Karen Hearn Slover.

Speaker 18 She was an aspiring model. Her friends described her as beautiful inside and out,

Speaker 18 and she just got a divorce from her husband, Michael Slover Jr. They had a three-year-old son, Colton, at the time.

Speaker 8 Okay, so as we said, the mystery begins on September 27th, 1996, when police found a car on the side of a highway.

Speaker 25 Yeah.

Speaker 18 So Karen was last seen leaving work at the Herald and Review, which is a local newspaper in Decatur. She worked in advertising there.

Speaker 18 And that was the last time anybody had seen her. But her car was found, and the car belonged to David Swan, her boyfriend.
And he had told police that she had had some car issues.

Speaker 18 And so he had lent her his vehicle.

Speaker 36 We mentioned the gruesome discovery of Karen's dismembered body days later.

Speaker 8 Where does the investigation go from there?

Speaker 18 Yeah, so now it's why did this happen?

Speaker 18 Who did this? Investigators obviously looked at her boyfriend, David Swan. They checked him out.
He had an alibi at the time that all of this was unfolding on the 27th.

Speaker 18 And so then it started to ask people around town. Well, there was a story that had been told that three people in Decatur had kind of claimed that they knew the details of what happened to Karen.

Speaker 18 And so police obviously looked at these three people closely as well, but ruled them out. So what comes next is the ex-husband.
ex-husband.

Speaker 6 What did the police learn about the relationship between Karen and her ex-husband?

Speaker 18 Yeah, so friends had described that their relationship was just a little rocky. And now they're divorced and they have their son Colton.
And so there became issues with the custody over Colton.

Speaker 18 Karen had an opportunity to go out of state to model.

Speaker 18 And that obviously threw a wrench in this custody issue.

Speaker 31 Police don't just look at Michael Jr.

Speaker 17 They go a step further and not something you hear every day.

Speaker 9 They start looking into Michael's parents, Michael Sr.

Speaker 33 and Jeanette.

Speaker 18 Yeah.

Speaker 18 And what I really thought was very interesting in the case was they looked closely at the business that Michael Sr. owned.

Speaker 18 And they had noticed that there were certain concrete cinders is how I would describe them that they noticed was on the property.

Speaker 18 But they also found those same cinders in the car that Karen was last seen in. They also saw it in the plastic bags that Karen's body parts were in as well.

Speaker 18 So they really wanted to take a look at the Miracle Motors property that Michael Sr. owned.
And they were able to dig up dirt.

Speaker 18 They have these five-gallon buckets and in those buckets, they end up finding buttons. And they looked closely at the brand.

Speaker 18 They look closely at, you know, is this exactly the button that it is of the jeans that she would wear? And it was.

Speaker 9 Wow. So finally, three years after Karen's death, authorities charged Karen's ex-husband, Michael Slover Jr., and both of his parents with Karen's murder.

Speaker 27 All three Slovers were found guilty after a five-week trial.

Speaker 24 Michael Sr., Michael Jr.

Speaker 8 sentenced to 65 years each. Jeanette got 60 years.

Speaker 33 Things seemed pretty set, but now this case is back in the news all over again.

Speaker 18 Well, yeah, the Slovers have always maintained their innocence, and they have been fighting to appeal their conviction since their sentencing date.

Speaker 18 The Illinois Innocence Project stepped in, and about 10 years ago, they were able to get a judge to grant them more DNA testing on evidence that was collected from the crime scene.

Speaker 18 And that's where we are now because the Innocence Project has claimed that they have found two profiles on the duct tape that was wrapped over those plastic bags that Karen's body was found in.

Speaker 18 And they say that that DNA profile on that duct tape does not link the Slovers to it. They say one of them is a female.
It's not Jeanette's.

Speaker 18 And then they also claim that there was a fingerprint found in blood on the railing of the bridge where, you know, she was found.

Speaker 18 They say that that was a DNA profile that does not link the Slover family as well. The Innocence Project has claimed that this was almost like a botched investigation.

Speaker 18 They said that there was no eyewitnesses, there was no weapon, there was nothing that links this family to the crime.

Speaker 8 We should say that the police and the prosecutor stand by their original investigation and still believe the Slovers murdered Karen.

Speaker 14 So what happens now with the DNA samples?

Speaker 22 We know, of course, that there's CODIS.

Speaker 23 I would imagine that the Illinois Innocence Project wants this to be run through that.

Speaker 18 Right. So CODIS for Illinois is actually run by the Illinois State Police.
The Illinois State Police are saying you cannot put this DNA that you have collected into the system.

Speaker 30 Why?

Speaker 18 Well, yeah, their reasoning is we don't know how you got it. We don't know where you obtained this.

Speaker 18 And so, for them, they think it would jeopardize almost the entire database by just entering in this, as they say, a random evidence into their database, into their system that they have to manage.

Speaker 10 All right, so Karen, there was a hearing last week in this case to discuss this new DNA.

Speaker 15 What happened?

Speaker 18 So, basically, what they've done is the Illinois Innocence Project says that it has an expert that can prove that this DNA was collected correctly and that it needs to be submitted into CODIS.

Speaker 18 The AG's office, representing the Illinois State Police, saying, No, no, this can't go into our system.

Speaker 18 So now in the new year, we're going to have a hearing where these experts are going to testify in front of a judge to decide if this DNA goes into the system.

Speaker 29 Okay, so, I mean, here's yet another

Speaker 8 crazy element to this story: is that Michael Slover Jr., he's out of prison, but his parents both died.

Speaker 18 Yeah, so Michael Sr. died in 2022 while serving his sentence.
Jeanette actually died earlier this year. And so when I asked the Illinois Innocence Project, you know, Michael Jr.

Speaker 18 is already on parole at this point. Why keep pushing? They say that this family is innocent.
And so they're going to keep pushing no matter what to try to overturn this conviction.

Speaker 24 How do Karen's family and friends feel about this case being opened up again?

Speaker 18 We've been able to hear from a couple of her friends friends, and everyone just really wants this case to go to bed.

Speaker 18 They don't want to be insensitive in any way, but it's more or less like just let Karen Hearn Slover lie in peace.

Speaker 21 Yeah, thank you so much for bringing us all this insight into this case.

Speaker 18 Thank you so much.

Speaker 6 Up next, it's time for Dateline Roundup.

Speaker 8 We've got updates in the Brian Koberger and Sandra Birchmore cases, plus a new quest for answers in the case of an eight-year-old who disappeared from a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C.

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Speaker 17 Welcome back to the show.

Speaker 2 For this week's roundup, we're joined by Dateline producer Mike Nardy.

Speaker 23 Hey, Mike.

Speaker 5 Hey, Andrea.

Speaker 9 So this is a story I know well, of course, Mike.

Speaker 20 We're off to Massachusetts for an update in a case that I've been covering for more than a year now, the alleged murder of 23-year-old teacher's assistant, Sandra Birchmore, a very disturbing case.

Speaker 8 Mike, just remind us of it.

Speaker 5 So, Sandra was found dead in her apartment in February 2021.

Speaker 5 The local medical examiner ruled her death a suicide, but three years later, federal prosecutors charged a former police officer by the name of Matthew Farwell with murdering Sandra and staging the scene to look like a suicide.

Speaker 5 Prosecutors allege he was trying to cover up a relationship with Sandra that started years ago when she was a minor and enrolled in a police explorers program at the Stoughton Police Department.

Speaker 5 He was one of the instructors.

Speaker 29 So Matthew Farwell has denied having sex with Sandra Birchmore when she was underage and has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.

Speaker 12 But this week, the stakes seem to be getting higher for him.

Speaker 13 Farwell was hit with an additional criminal charge.

Speaker 12 What's that all about, Mike?

Speaker 5 So Sandra was pregnant at the time of her death, and Matthew Farwell has been charged with violating a federal law that protects unborn children.

Speaker 5 A new indictment claims that by killing Birchmore, he also caused the death of her unborn child. So if convicted, he'll face a mandatory life sentence.

Speaker 29 In this superseding indictment, we also learned that Sandra Birchmore was around eight to 10 weeks pregnant at the time of her murder.

Speaker 8 I know she was very excited about it. Farwell has yet to be arraigned for this additional charge, so no plea has been entered yet.

Speaker 37 But right now, his murder trial is scheduled for October 2026.

Speaker 5 Yep, and we'll have to wait and see if this additional charge impacts that trial's timing.

Speaker 17 Okay, so up next is Brian Koberger.

Speaker 9 He was back in court this week.

Speaker 8 He's, of course, the man who pleaded guilty earlier this summer to killing four University of Idaho students. What is the latest with this case?

Speaker 5 So Koberger pled guilty to killing Kaylee Gonsalves, Madison Mogan, Ethan Chapin, and Zana Kernodle in their off-campus home back in 2022.

Speaker 5 He was back in court on Wednesday for a scheduled restitution hearing.

Speaker 22 In this hearing, an Ada County judge heard arguments about whether the convicted killer should pay for funeral urns that were recently purchased by the Gonsalves and Mogan families to carry the victim's ashes.

Speaker 5 Right. His defense team said Koberger has no income and no chance of making money anytime soon because of his four consecutive life sentences.

Speaker 22 The judge said he'll issue his ruling at a later date.

Speaker 8 Also, this week, Mike, and for the first time publicly, we saw photos of some of the evidence that tied Koberger to the murder early on in the investigation.

Speaker 49 And I know one of those items was that K-bar, the knife, the knife sheath.

Speaker 5 Right, right.

Speaker 5 The Idaho State Police released thousands of documents related to the Koberger investigation, including photos of that knife sheath you were talking about that Koberger left at the scene of the crime.

Speaker 27 Which is, you know, chilling when you actually see it.

Speaker 8 And finally, we have a verdict in the murder trial of Jorge Rueda Landeros, the man accused of murdering American university professor Sue Ann Markham.

Speaker 49 Mike, Lester talked about this trial in the the podcast last week, but if you could just give everyone a quick recap.

Speaker 5 Sure. So 15 years ago, Sue Ann Markham was found dead inside her Bethesda, Maryland home.
She died as a result of blunt force trauma and asphyxiation.

Speaker 5 A year after her death, authorities issued a warrant for the arrest of her friend and business partner, who was hiding out in Mexico until his arrest in 2023.

Speaker 8 So prosecutors told the jury that Landeros had seduced Markham into handing over hundreds of thousands of dollars, taken out a life insurance policy on her, and then killed her.

Speaker 8 Take a listen to Prosecutor Debbie Feinstein. When he met Sue, he had found a mark.

Speaker 8 He had found someone that was vulnerable to his charms.

Speaker 29 So, Mike, after an eight-day trial, the jury came back with a verdict.

Speaker 17 What did they decide?

Speaker 5 They found Landeros guilty of second-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years behind bars.

Speaker 17 When will Landeros be sentenced?

Speaker 5 His sentencing is scheduled for February 6th.

Speaker 31 Okay, Mike, thank you so much for all these updates.

Speaker 5 Thanks for having me.

Speaker 8 For our final story this week, we wanted to talk to two people who may be familiar to you from season one of our podcast series, Dateline Missing in America.

Speaker 9 Dereka and Natalie Wilson.

Speaker 8 They are the founders of the Black and Missing Foundation, an organization dedicated to shining a spotlight on cases involving missing people of color.

Speaker 7 If you are white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, the world wants to jump in and help. And for missing women and young girls of color, even men, their cases are not taken seriously.

Speaker 26 Nearly 40% of missing persons in the U.S.

Speaker 2 are people of color. And black children make up about 33% of all missing child cases.

Speaker 8 But Dereka and Natalie are here today to talk about one case in particular.

Speaker 30 R-E-L-I-S-H-A.

Speaker 42 R-E-L-I-S-H-A.

Speaker 5 That's a nice name.

Speaker 1 How are you?

Speaker 30 Abe.

Speaker 8 That is the voice of Relicia Rudd talking in 2014 to someone from the charity, The Homeless Children's Playtime Project.

Speaker 6 She was living with her family in a Washington, D.C.

Speaker 2 homeless shelter at the time.

Speaker 14 Shortly after this interview was taped, Relicia went missing.

Speaker 15 She was last seen with the shelter's janitor at a nearby motel.

Speaker 6 Last week on what would have been her 20th birthday, the Black and Missing Foundation premiered a two-part documentary called The Vanishing of Relicia Rudd, A Cold Case Re-Examined.

Speaker 31 Dereka and Natalie are here to tell us why it was so important to them to tell her story.

Speaker 2 Thank you both so much for being here.

Speaker 7 Thank you for having us.

Speaker 11 Thank you.

Speaker 8 So before we get to Relicia's case, tell us more about your organization, the Black and Missing Foundation.

Speaker 7 We are the sole non-profit organization that focuses primarily on missing people of color. My background is media relations to bring that visibility.

Speaker 7 Dereka's is law enforcement to get the resources needed from law enforcement so that we can get the community engaged.

Speaker 7 Many times we are the last resort for these families, and we have thousands of missing persons in our database, and they simply want answers as to what happened to their missing loved ones.

Speaker 8 Yeah. So ladies, tell us about Relicia Rudd.

Speaker 2 She was going to a local school in the DC area, an elementary school, and then she just

Speaker 12 stopped showing up.

Speaker 7 So yes, she lived in a shelter with her family and she was attending a local school.

Speaker 7 By the time she was declared missing, 18 days had passed since she was last spotted at school or the shelter where she lived.

Speaker 25 What does her mom say?

Speaker 8 Why did it take her mom so long to say why she wasn't attending school?

Speaker 11 Well, we actually haven't heard from her mother.

Speaker 11 The school, they are the ones that actually reported Relicia missing. They elevated it to law enforcement.

Speaker 25 Let's Let's talk about this janitor, Khalil Tatum, who worked at the shelter. Relicia's mother allowed him to care for her on certain occasions.

Speaker 12 How did this dynamic work?

Speaker 26 And why was he even in her life in any way beyond cleaning the shelter?

Speaker 11 There is a no-fragilization policy that was in place, however, that was violated because Khalil Tatum gave gifts to Relicia and her mother.

Speaker 11 We don't know why her mother felt so comfortable turning her over to him.

Speaker 17 The last sign of Relicia live, there's chilling security camera footage you show in the documentary of her walking down a motel hallway with Khalil Tatum.

Speaker 7 Yes. And the question that we have is, we see her going into the room, but we never see her coming out.

Speaker 7 Assistant chief of police, Diane Groom, said that that hotel was known for a lot of things, and sex trafficking was one of them.

Speaker 8 So, authorities started looking for Tatum and made a horrifying discovery.

Speaker 32 They found his wife shot dead in another motel, and a few days later, they found Tatum's body in a city park, but no sign of Relicia.

Speaker 24 NBC News 4 covered the story.

Speaker 51 The man wanted for kidnapping an eight-year-old girl and killing his wife is found dead.

Speaker 51 Police say Tatum killed himself in the same park where they've been searching for Relicia Rudd for the last five days.

Speaker 11 Actually, we were out there at Kiddenworth Park searching for Alicia when Tatum's body was found.

Speaker 11 Allegedly, a gunshot wound, self-inflicted. And so what we are hopeful is that when he passed away, that everything didn't go to the grave, right?

Speaker 11 We know that someone out there knows something.

Speaker 11 There are so many people

Speaker 11 that was in that shelter.

Speaker 8 The Department of Justice has reported that children experiencing poverty and housing insecurity are more vulnerable to kidnapping or trafficking.

Speaker 39 You argue in your documentary that the social safety net in DC failed to protect Relicia.

Speaker 11 I mean, the fact that it took 18 days to even report her missing, but we would not have known about this case if that digital educator didn't bring it to everyone's attention that something just wasn't right.

Speaker 11 I think everyone can learn from that person. You know, see something, say something.

Speaker 20 Where can our listeners watch your documentary?

Speaker 7 So they can go to our YouTube channel. It's the Black and Missing Foundation YouTube.
Okay, great.

Speaker 39 Derek and Natalie, thank you for sharing Relicia's story, but also for all the amazing work that both of you do and for helping so many families in many different ways.

Speaker 7 Thank you so much.

Speaker 11 Thank you so much.

Speaker 37 That's it for this episode of Dateline True Crime Weekly.

Speaker 13 To get ad-free listening for all our podcasts, subscribe to Dateline Premium.

Speaker 19 Coming up this Friday, a brand new story Dateline has been working on for years.

Speaker 27 The murder of Crystal Rogers, a mom of five, devastated her small Kentucky town. But her murder wasn't the first in Bardstown, and it wouldn't be the last.

Speaker 52 America's most beautiful small town. Now, people are wondering what is going on here.

Speaker 27 Watch The Trouble in Bardstown at 9-8 Central on NBC.

Speaker 6 Thanks for listening.

Speaker 12 Dateline True Crime Weekly is produced by Carson Cummins and Caroline Casey.

Speaker 37 Our senior producer is Liz Brown Kurloff.

Speaker 21 Production and fact-checking help by Audrey Abrahams.

Speaker 37 Veronica Mazeka is our digital producer.

Speaker 33 Rick Kwan is our sound designer.

Speaker 8 Original music by Jesse McGinty. Paul Ryan is executive producer.

Speaker 37 And Liz Cole is senior executive producer of Dateline.

Speaker 11 Okay, bye.

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