Relisha Rudd (Courtesy DC Police) WASHINGTON — New information led investigators to resume the search for 8-year-old Relisha Rudd Friday in the shadow of the D.C. homeless shelter where she lived before her disappearance almost four years ago. D.C. police said that they searched the Anacostia River for evidence related to Relisha, who was last seen in March 2014, based on the fresh information. They recovered no evidence however, police said NBC Washington’s Mark Segraves was the first to report the search along the river across from the shelter. He told WTOP that searchers used sonar, boats, divers and cadaver dogs to scour the shoreline and investigate a sewer outlet in the river plus another spot beneath a railroad bridge. Past searches have focused parks north of the shelter along the river. The search efforts began before dawn and wrapped up about lunchtime, Segraves said. Investigators have long believed Rudd to be dead but her remains have never been found. Police however found the remains of her suspected captor Kahlil Tatum, who worked as a janitor at the shelter, in Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens weeks after Relisha went missing. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced this week that the troubled shelter would close this fall. Short-term housing facilities spread across the city will replace the crumbling structure that once served as a hospital.
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Stay with WTOP for updates on this developing story.
The Smithsonian Institution has decided to put the National Museum of the American Latino into an existing, historic building, rather than constructing a new one.
The Smithsonian Board of Regents on Monday designated the Arts and Industries Building, a 145-year-old redbrick Victorian structure located between the Smithsonian Castle and the Hirshhorn Museum, as the permanent site of the National Museum of the American Latino, which Congress authorized in 2020.
In 2022, the Smithsonian narrowed its survey for permanent locations for the National Museum of the American Latino and the American Women's History Museum to four locations near the National Mall on land owned by the National Park Service. The Arts and Industries Building, located at 900 Jefferson St. SW, was one of the four sites.
New construction on National Park Service land would require congressional approval. However, since the Smithsonian already owns the Arts and Industries Building, the institution can place the National Museum of the American Latino in the existing building without additional legislation.
