WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — Private detective Henderson Long goes door to door at the Kenilworth Parkside Apartments in Northeast D.C. He’s not selling anything, just looking for information that could solve the disappearance of a little girl who went missing over a decade ago.
Relisha Rudd vanished from a homeless shelter where she lived with her family on March 1, 2014. At the time, she was 8 years old.
“You never know what’s going to come up in the canvas,” Long said as he passed out flyers that contain an age-enhanced picture of what Rudd may look like now.
“You never stop canvassing, you never stop soliciting the community to come forward,” he continued.
The last time anyone saw the little girl was on security footage from a Northeast D.C. Holiday Inn Express. The footage released by the FBI was dated Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014.
There, Rudd was seen with 51-year-old Khalil Tatum, a janitor at the homeless shelter.
DC Police suspected him in the child’s disappearance.
A month after she went missing, Tatum shot and killed himself.
“I have days I feel she’s alive. I have some days, but I feel as though she’s deceased,” Long said.
He has taken part in the search for Rudd since she disappeared.
“We will be here every year. As long as I have breath, I’m gonna be here every year,” said Long.
As with previous years, his latest search came up empty, but he’s nowhere near giving up.
Relisha Tenau Rudd would be 19 years old today. She was last seen on March 1, 2014, and was known to wear a purple Helly Hansen brand winter jacket and pink boots, according to the FBI’s missing poster.
