Missing DC Girl Relisha Rudd Feared Dead; Alleged Kidnapper Purchased Trash Bags and Shovel Earlier This Month

As more details in the case of missing 8-year-old Relisha Rudd surface, law enforcement officials become more divided on her whereabouts.

D.C. police joined FBI agents on Thursday to search Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens for any clues concerning the young homeless girl who has been missing since early March.

According to USA Today, Relisha's mother Shamika Young allowed the young girl to be with Kahlil Tatum, who worked as a janitor at the D.C. Shelter for Families, where Shamika and Relisha reportedly lived for the past year.

But Metropolitan Police Department Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Shamika granted Kahlil clearance to care for Relisha weeks ago.

Police determined on March 2 that Tatum purchased black 42-gallon trash bags, a shovel and some lye - a chemical often used for burying remains - in D.C. He was then seen at Kenilworth Park, USA Today reported.

"This trash bag thing really has me scared now," Relisha's step-grandmother Belinda Wheeler told USA Today. "You're not going to do no lawnscaping, landscaping or whatever. Why you buying trash bags? Makes me think [Tatum is] trying to hid something. He's trying to hide something."

Video surveillance released on Tuesday showed Relisha and 51-year-old Tatum walking down the hallway of a hotel close to the park. The footage was recorded on Feb. 26 - the last day she was seen at the homeless facility.

"We're not making any assumptions, but I think it would be prudent for us to search, and this is a very large area," Lanier said. "We cannot ignore the possibility that he may have killed her."

For Wheeler, the prospect of finding the 8-year-old alive seems slim.

"To me, that sounds like she's dead. I don't want to think this, I want her brought back home, but once again, once you're under pressure you're liable to do anything," she said of Tatum, who she thinks might have pharmed Relisha in a blind panic.

Local law enforcement announced last week that they'd found a 1976 white GMC pick-up truck in Hyattsville, Md., just 10 miles shy of the D.C. Shelter for Families. Police also discovered a woman's body while looking around the motel where the parked vehicle was found.

D.C. police identified the deceased as 51-year-old Andrea Tatum - the janitor's wife. She had been shot to death.

"He killed his wife," Wheeler said of Tatum, who has been charged with killing Andrea. He hasn't been convicted. "If you could kill your wife of 23 years, what about a child that you've only known a year?"