Inset left: Miya Rudd (Kentucky State Police). Inset middle: Brodie Payne (Daviess County Detention Center). Inset right: Ricky Smith (Daviess County Detention Center). Background: The home in Reynolds Station, Kentucky, where the victim's body was found (WBKO/YouTube).
Two men have learned their fates in an ongoing case tied to the death of an infant who was found decomposing inside a duffel bag in western Kentucky.
Miya Rudd was just 8 months old when authorities declared her missing on June 6, 2024. Roughly a week later, her "decomposed" body was found inside her family's home in Reynolds Station, Kentucky, an unincorporated community about 90 miles southwest of Louisville.
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Her remains were reportedly stuffed inside a duffel bag and "hidden in a concealed manner," police said. With the charges handed down, authorities alleged that the killing of Miya and the concealment of her body was a conspiracy between the group living at the rural home.
As the Kentucky State Police announced in several updates to the case, five people were ultimately charged: Ricky Smith, 58, Brodie Payne, 30, Tesla Tucker, 29, Cage Rudd, 30, and Taletha Tucker, who was 50 years old at the time of her arrest in November 2024.
Smith was Miya's grandfather, while Tesla Tucker and Cage Rudd were her parents. Taletha Tucker was the child's grandmother. It is unclear what Payne's relation to the family was, but he "had been residing at the Rudd household for approximately six months prior to his arrest."
The alleged presence of drugs in the individuals' lives has been a key component of the case. Every one of them, except for Taletha Tucker, was charged with drug trafficking, and meth was reportedly the controlled substance at the heart of it all.
Last week, Smith and Payne accepted plea agreements to have certain charges against them, including murder, dismissed. In exchange, Smith and Payne pleaded guilty to trafficking a controlled substance, and Payne also pleaded guilty to wanton endangerment, local NBC affiliate WFIE reported. As a result of their pleas, Smith and Payne were each sentenced to five years in prison.
Prosecutors have also reportedly filed notices of aggravating circumstances against Tesla Tucker and Cage Rudd, opening up the possibility that the jury could recommend the death penalty for the two of them if they are found guilty of murder.
Meth was found in Miya's system when investigators found her body, according to The Owensboro Times, and there was extensive evidence of neglect. Her body was reportedly in such a state of decomposition that an autopsy could not explicitly state what killed her.
Kentucky State Police Public Information Officer Trooper Corey King told the newspaper that the Rudd family home was "cluttered" inside and out. He added that there were so many drugs and drug residue inside the house that they had to ensure it was safe before conducting a more thorough search.
"It was a danger for anyone in there," King said. "So they had to make sure that this house was sanitized to the point it wasn't going to harm us or any of our investigators overdose while searching this house."
Miya's body was ultimately found with a "substantial amount of debris" on top of her, the officer continued.