Through The Cracks | Episode 1: Relisha Goes Missing (Transcript) 

Jonquilyn Hill: E
​ very morning, around 10:30, I get a text from my mom. It's usually 
along the lines of "Good morning, how are you?" We used to talk about what we 
were up to that day. My hair appointment or a workout class my dad's taking at the 
Y. Now, she asks how I'm doing on staples like toilet paper or talks to me about the 
latest headlines.  

One time, though, I forgot to answer her text. I was at work writing a script and I got 
really caught up. My phone was set to Do Not Disturb. Around 1:30, she called my 
desk phone and my coworker answered.  

"Your mom called, LOL," my coworker messaged me. "She says to text her."  

Not everyone has this relationship with their mom. I get that. But what about their 
coworkers or their friends? Their roommates? Everyone has someone who would 
notice their absence. The question is, how long would it take?  

This is what I think about every time I think about Relisha Rudd. 

Relisha Rudd: ​R-E-L-I-S-H-A. 

Relisha Rudd disappeared nearly seven years ago in 2014. She was eight years old. 
She was a second grader at Payne Elementary School in southeast D.C. By the time 
the city formally declared Relisha as missing, 18 days had passed since the last time 
she'd been seen at school or in the shelter. 

Relisha Rudd: T
​ he shelter gives us a place to stay. 

Project Playtime employee: T

​ hat's good! And then you say to her, "And that's 
good."  

Relisha Rudd: S
​ ay it louder? 

Project Playtime employee: S

​ ay to her, "And that's good." 

Jonquilyn Hill: E
​ veryone in Relisha's life has a slightly different memory of where she 
was in the days before she went missing. She was in an aunt's care or her mom's 
care. She was at school or with a doctor. D.C. police began an intense search for her 
and the whole city took note.  

NBC 4 Washington TV anchor: N ​ ew developments now in the search for Relisha 

Rudd. D.C. police will continue to comb through the Kenilworth Gardens area... 
(​video​) 

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Jonquilyn Hill: R
​ elisha's story stuck with me throughout the years. And I'm not the 
only one in D.C. who still thinks about her. People all over the city were fixated on 
finding her long after the trail went cold. Years after her disappearance, I saw her 
photo on a missing poster at Union Station. 

Project Playtime employee: N

​ ow, I want you to say, "All kids need a place to play." 

Relisha Rudd: A
​ ll kids need a place to play. 

Project Playtime employee: T

​ hat was funny the way you said that. Try it one more 
time. 

Relisha Rudd: A
​ ll kids need a place to play. 

Jonquilyn Hill: T
​ his is the only known recording of Relisha Rudd's voice.  

I'm Jonquilyn Hill and from WAMU and PRX, this is Through The Cracks, a podcast 
about the gaps in our society and the people who fall through them, like Relisha.  

Patrick Madden, WAMU: H ​ ow can you have a young girl abducted at a shelter 
that's run by the city and apparently she's taken by an employee of the city who 
works at this shelter. How does that happen before anyone notices? 

Jamila Larson, Playtime Project: T ​ he city never was all in to say, you know, this is a 
family shelter, let's make the best of it. Let's make it safe, let's make it bright. And 
that really wasn't the case and that was very clear.  

Jonquilyn Hill: M
​ onths after Relisha went missing, the city said that there was 
nothing they could have done to prevent it. So, on the first season of Through The 
Cracks, that's what we're investigating. We're trying to figure out if anything could 
have stopped Russia's disappearance. We'll look at the world she grew up in. Her 
school. The shelter where she lived. Her family.  

Antonio Wheeler: ​Last thing I remember was Relisha telling me she's coming back. 
She's going to her aunt's house. She never came back.  

Jonquilyn Hill: I​ moved to D.C. back in 2009 to go to Howard University. I wanted to 
go to a historically Black college and to live in a big city. And, not just any city – 
Chocolate City. D.C. was definitely less chocolate by the time I got here, it was once 
over 70 percent Black. Now the Black population hovers around 46 percent.  

There's a lot of stuff I didn't know at first, like the crazy amounts of gentrification that 
I saw happen in real time. Or the very stark intraracial class divides that determine 
how you're treated and what you have access to. Even with all of that, you can still 

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feel the soul of the city. There are pockets here where Black people can live and work 
and love and just be – as the default. That's one of the reasons that this story sticks 
with me. If there's any place little Black girls should be cared for, it's here. 

Relisha had a lot of adults in her life. There was Relisha's mom, her grandmother, 
extended family. And there were teachers at the school and staff members at the 
shelter. There was also her stepdad, Antonio Wheeler. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​She's like, "I'm hungry, I'm hungry," So I said, I'm going to fix her 
something to eat. I fixed all the kids something to eat. But she's picky.  

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ ntonio is now 34 years old. He'd look a lot younger than that if it 
weren't for his goatee. He's tall and skinny, and although he's tired from his 
overnight shift as a cook, he's still animated. He talks with his hands a lot and 
sometimes accidentally hits the table that sits between us. He really wanted to let 
me know that being a dad is important to him. He still remembers the first time 
Russia saw him as a father figure.  

Antonio Wheeler: ​So she picked some noodles and I fixed the noodles. She [said], 
"Oh my God, these noodles are so good, Daddy. Aren't you my daddy?" I was, I was 
stuck because she was two, you know. That's when I first met her, she was just 
turning two, so I was stuck. I never know what to say. I didn't, I actually didn't 
respond to that until, like, a day later.  

Jonquilyn Hill: W
​ hen she met Antonio, Relisha's mom, Shamika, had two children, 
Relisha and her little brother. Shamika and Antonio had two more kids together, 
Relisha's youngest brothers.  

Antonio Wheeler: ​She like riding bikes with her brothers, she liked to race her 
brothers. She used to always win the races on their bikes. She liked to play Big Sister. 
Well, not play. She was a big star. She was the oldest sibling. But she was a really 
good big sister. Like, she would get on her brothers when they be acting out. 

"Oh, daddy, they get on my nerves." 

I'm like, "Relisha, you ain't got no nerves.". 

"I do got nerves, daddy, they gettin' on it!". 

Oh, my God, Relisha. 

Jonquilyn Hill: T
​ he family of six lived in an apartment in Congress Heights in 
southeast D.C. Despite the name, it's nowhere near Capitol Hill. It's a majority Black 
neighborhood and low income. Like a lot of neighborhoods east of the Anacostia 

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River. In 2013, the family was evicted from their apartment. That's when they moved 
into D.C. General, a huge city shelter for families. It was right near a soccer stadium, a 
jail and a methadone clinic. At the time of Relisha's disappearance, Antonio was 
working on a construction job in Pennsylvania. So, he was in and out of town quite a 
bit. He says he was heading back to the shelter after running an errand when he 
found out Relisha was missing.  

Antonio Wheeler: ​As I'm getting closer to the shelter, I have a vibe like something's 
not right. 

So everytime I get these vibes – get sweaty, my hands get to shaking. So I slice me a 
cigarette. And, I'm standing outside the shelter, I get off the bus, light my cigarette. 
The director come to me and say, "You need to come upstairs with me right now. 
You put that cigarette out." So I'm like, "What you talking to me like that. I'm 
smoking my cigarette." 

"No, Mr. Wheeler. Come on. Please. Put the cigarette out.".  

I'm like, "okay." Thought she was being disrespectful. So I went, "okay." 

Jonquilyn Hill: A​ ntonio was annoyed, but then he heard the urgency in the 
director's voice.  

He just asked me. "You really need to come upstairs because Ms. Young is not 
cooperating with the police. They're saying they don't know where Relisha is." So I 
looked at her, she looked at me. So I'm like, "What you mean?" 

Jonquilyn Hill: M
​ s. Young is, of course, Relisha's mom, Shamika. She was already in 
the conference room along with a few detectives, but she wasn't cooperating.  

Antonio Wheeler: ​And a detective told me to ask Shamika what's going on. So I'm, 
"Shamika, what's going on?" She just, [sighs]. The detective said, "Mr. Wheeler, you 
know where your daughter is?". 

"Yeah, she's at Ashley's house." 

"Are you sure?" 

I was like, "Y'all stop playing with me. She's at Ashley's house." You know? So they 
were like, "Are you sure?" And I said, "Yeah. Why, what's up?" 

"Well, we got word that she's missing.". 

Woah, wait a minute.  

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"Shamika, what they talking about?". 

"I don't know what they talking about. They lyin'." 

These whole FBI agents are detectives, so I asked, "Can you please send someone 
over to Ashley's house?" 

Ashley Young: W
​ hen the weekends came and they was in a shelter, my niece and 
my nephews, all of them was at my home. They call my home baby bootcamp.  

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ shley is Shamika's younger sister. Relisha's aunt. The detectives 
went directly from the shelter to Ashley's house, also in southeast D.C. 

Ashley Young: T​ hey came to my door. They had their guns drawn and they asked 
me, did they have permission to search because Relisha was missing and I gave 
them permission to come in, to look around and basically to feel free to see that she 
was not at my home. 

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ nd she wasn't. Relisha was not at Ashley's house.  

Ashley Young: F​ rom that moment, that's when I found out that she was missing. I 
didn't even know that she was gone.  

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ shley hadn't seen Relisha either. For about 18 days.  

The extended family, especially Relisha, spent a lot of time at Ashley's house. So 
when the police came, there were other kids there. Relisha's little brothers and their 
cousins and Ashley's mother, Relisha's grandmother. She hadn't seen Relisha either.  

Melissa Young: I​ t wasn't even really cold.  

Jonquilyn Hill: M
​ elissa Young has a very clear memory of this day, March 19th, 2014. 

Melissa Young: T
​ hey didn't even really feel like spring. It felt more like the beginning 
of summer versus the spring coming in. 

Jonquilyn Hill: S
​ he remembers the police took her from Ashley's place to the shelter. 

Antonio and Shamika were still there in the same conference room talking to 
detectives. 

Melissa Young: I​ didn't know what was going on. The police officer..."You know, your 
granddaughter Relisha Rudd is missing." 

"No, she's not.". 

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"Yes, she is, ma'am." 

"No, she's not. She's with Kahlil Tatum." 

Jonquilyn Hill: S
​ o, let's stop here for a minute before I tell you about Kahlil Tatum. 

I know how this must seem. How could a family lose track of a child for 18 days? How 
does that happen? Well, one way to think about it is, it's a really extreme example of 
something that can happen in a big, extended family. One parent is out of town. The 
other is busy with the other kids. The aunt and the grandmother are doing their 
thing. Wires get crossed. You forget which parent is picking up which kid from 
where on what day. Or, think a child is with friend one when she's really with friend 
two. And most of the family thought they knew where she was. With Kahlil Tatum.  

Tatum was a janitor at D.C. General. A friend of the family. Sometimes he and his wife 
would look after Relisha. Her family says that she was friends with Tatum's 
granddaughter and the two girls would play together. From Melissa's point of view, 
Tatum and his wife were just another part of the village taking care of Relisha and 
other kids at the shelter, too. 

Melissa Young: W​ henever she went, she came and told everything they did, who 
she was with, who she did it with, everything. She never had nothing negative to say 
about him, his wife or nobody else.  

Jonquilyn Hill: A ​ ll the family members I talked to had an opinion about Kahlil Tatum. 
It's complicated. We'll get into it more in a later episode. Just know that some people 
in her life did think the arrangement was a little weird. Why would anyone trust a 
shelter staff member to take care of their kid?  

Also, the shelter had a policy. Staff members were not supposed to have social 
relations with clients. On the other hand, what reason did they have not to trust 
Tatum? He was a reliable shelter employee and Relisha seemed perfectly happy 
spending time with him and his wife. And Shamika said that everything was fine and 
everyone knew that when it came to Relisha's care, Shamika was in charge. 

Antonio and Shamika split up after Relisha went missing. We've asked Shamika for 
an interview, but she hasn't sat down with us. I get it. When Relisha first went 
missing, she was interviewed on TV a lot and people blame her for Relisha's 
disappearance. Even now. Some people seeing her in the street even try to jump her. 
So while we would like to speak with her, we also get why she's declined our 
requests. 

Okay, back to Khalil Tatum. Ashley had met him, too. In fact, Kahlil had picked 
Relisha up from Ashley's house before.  

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Ashley: ​It's been a minute, so I don't remember the exact date, but all I do 
remember is he came to pick up an Easter dress for her to go get some shoes. And 
she was at my home and I was told that he will be picking her up, too.  

And I know I shouldn't fault myself as her aunt, but I asked myself, what could I 
have done better for her not to be missing? What could I have done for her not to 
be in this situation? 

TV anchor #1: ​Police are trying to find eight-year-old Relisha Rudd.  

TV anchor #2: T
​ he little girl was last seen with Kahlil Tatum, a janitor at the local 
homeless shelter where she lived. 

Jonquilyn Hill: R
​ elishals disappearance hit the news almost immediately and the 
search began. Investigators knew that she was most likely with Kahlil Tatum, so they 
started trying to figure out where he was. Then came the shocker. In a Red Roof Inn, 
just outside of D.C., in Maryland, police found the body of Kahlil Tatum's wife, Andrea.  

She had a gunshot wound to the head.  

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier: ​Shortly after the homicide of Mr. Tatum's wife in 
Prince George's County on March 20th, 2014. We have not had additional confirmed 
sightings of Mr. Tatum.  

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ fter that, there was a hotline for tips about where Relisha and 
Tatum might be. TV news stations played grainy security footage of the two of them 
walking down a hotel hallway and going into a room. The video was recorded back 
in February before Relisha was formally declared missing. 

NBC 4 Washington TV anchor: N ​ ew developments tonight in the search for Relisha 

Rudd. New video appears to show the girl, and the man accused of taking her in, a 
D.C. hotel. 

Jonquilyn Hill: A ​ t the time, I was working my first job out of college. I was a desk 
assistant at NBC's Washington bureau and they shared a building with NBC4, the 
local affiliate station. I didn't realize it then, but reporter Jackie Bensen was on the 
other side of the building hard at work on the story of Alicia's disappearance during 
this video.  

Jackie Bensen, NBC4: .​ ..we're going to show you just grips at your heart. It shows 
how small and defenseless an eight year old is. 

Jonquilyn Hill: I​ recently got a hold of Jackie on Zoom and asked her about covering 
Relisha's disappearance. 

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She got the job done, but sometimes it was hard. 

Jackie Bensen, NBC4: E ​ specially seeing that video from the motel with Tatum 
holding her hand and how I had children that were not that much older at the time. 
Usually when a child, you know, you're at a hotel or a motel, it's a new place. They're 
all, you know, kind of excited to look around and see what this is. And I just 
remember her staring straight ahead at her eyes looked so flat and I realized that 
this is an eight-year-old child. It's something she's already aware of, that something 
awful is happening to her and that it is likely to get worse or continue. And I just, it 
ripped my heart apart.  

Jonquilyn Hill: O
​ ver the next week or so, more details about Relisha's disappearance 
came into focus. Relisha had missed more than 30 days of school that year. Some 
absences were excused, some weren't. School officials say that they were told several 
times that she was in the care of a doctor, a doctor by the name of Tatum.  

But they never realized that Tatum was actually a janitor at the shelter. 

Mark Segraves, NBC 4: R ​ elisha Rudd, her mother and her three brothers all lived 
here at the D.C. General shelter for about 18 months. Kahlil Tatum was a janitor 
here. Tatum has an extensive criminal record that spans from 1993 to 2004.  

Jonquilyn Hill: M
​ eanwhile, Relisha's family was struggling to figure out what had 
happened. 

Were you and your sister talking about it, were you and your mom talking about it? 
Were you guys getting together about it? 

Ashley Young: I​ do remember it was tough on the family. All of us was at each 
other's neck. We wasn't staying together. We was all pointing fingers because we 
felt like each other was at fault, even when certain individuals was not at fault.  

Jonquilyn Hill: E
​ ven today, different members of the family have different theories 
about what went wrong.  

Antonio Wheeler:​ I think she was at Ashley's house. I think she went missing from 
Ashley house. 

Jonquilyn Hill: T
​ his is Antonio again. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​And the reason why I say that is because that's where the kids is 
always at, when they wasn't at the shelter. They was Ashley's house.  

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Jonquilyn Hill: O
​ ver the next week or so, the search continued, for both Relisha and 
Kahlil Tatum. 

D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier: ​Relisha was in the company of Mr. Tatum with the 
permission of her mother. On March 2nd, we know that Mr. Tatum purchased, 
among other items, a carton of black, 42-gallon self-tie contractor trash bags within 
the District of Columbia. Not long after that purchase, Mr. Tatum was in the area of 
the aquatic gardens for a period of time. 

Jonquilyn Hill: T
​ hen a few days later, in a shed in Kenilworth Park in northeast D.C., 
they found Khalil Tatum. According to police, he was dead from a self-inflicted 
gunshot wound. Police said that the bullet came from the same gun that had killed 
his wife.  

NBC 4 Washington TV anchor: D ​ espite searches by land, air and water, there's 
been no sign of the eight year old girl… 

Shomari Stone, NBC 4:​ Well, good evening, yellow crime scene tape like this right 
here surrounds Kenilworth Park.  

TV anchor #3: ​There has still been no sign of Relisha and searchers have not given 
up hope.  

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ fter the break, the community's long search for Relisha.  

– 

Jonquilyn Hill: L
​ ots of people came out to search for. People who didn't know her 
and people who did. Shannon Smith was her cheerleading coach in first grade.  

Shannon Smith: ​We were over by Kenilworth Avenue in the park and we walked 
through the park.  

Some of the park police would be out there with us and we would split up and 
everybody would just be out there walking until we just couldn't walk no more 
trying to find her.  

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ ntonio tried to join the search parties, but he stopped when he 
started getting threats. A few weeks before Relisha disappeared, Antonio posted 
some pictures on his Facebook timeline. There was a photo of him with a wad of 
money in his mouth and pictures of new shoes he and Shamika had bought for the 
boys. Antonio told me the wad was his tax return money. The pictures were taken in 
early February, weeks before he knew Relisha was missing. Some people didn't 

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square the timeline of Relisha's disappearance with the date of the photos, and they 
started posting stuff like this online. 

Is it possible she was trafficked? 

It's pretty clear in my mind that her parents sold her to this Tatum guy. 

If they cared at all about her, they would... 

I'm not saying the mother is guilty, but... 

They should be prosecuted. 

I have no sympathy. 

I suspect they may have given her away. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​Like I said, I had people in my inbox, on Facebook and people on 
Instagram calling, just calling me all types of pedophiles and rapists and all that. I 
hate to say... I hate the people in it. I deal with 'em. 

Jonquilyn Hill: T
​ he attacks on social media were just one affliction. D.C.'s Child and 
Family Services Agency had also taken custody of Antonio and Shamika's other kids.  

Jonquilyn Hill: I​ lost my kids. Relisha's missing, don't know where she is. A bunch of 
lies going on my name. I was really angry at a time. So if I was assaultin' people, it 
wouldn't have been pretty or somebody would got hurt really, really bad.  

Jonquilyn Hill: O
​ n April 3rd, about two weeks after it began, the city's official search 
concluded. They hadn't found Relisha. No one knew if she was dead or alive. But 
people close to Relisha are still looking. There are even some Facebook groups still 
dedicated to finding her.  

Antonio Wheeler: ​For the first year I didn't have a job. I would drink a lot of alcohol. I 
would smoke a lot of cigarettes. Never...sleep less. I would eat less for a whole year.  

So it was hard for the first year. It was hard. Even with my kids being in foster care, it 
was really hard. Eating, sleeping. Just trying to get up in the morning. Just wanted 
to lay there all day. Then when I was up, I went, found myself at the liquor store, 
buying liquor, buying cigarettes, you know. Smoking marijuana. Tryna hide the 
pain. 

I'm just now coming to grips that I couldn't control a lot of things that I could. But 
I'm still, I haven't really processed the fact that she – that Relisha is missing.  

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Jonquilyn Hill: W
​ hen the search ended, the city started investigating itself, what 
exactly went wrong here? Who was at fault for Relisha's disappearance? Was it her 
parents, her school, the shelter system? Where did the breakdown happen? 

It took the city six months to write the report. It's 12 pages long.  

Here's a little bit from the preface: "the safety and well-being of any child is 
ultimately the responsibility of his or her parents or legal guardians and family." It 
goes on to say, "even if all the policy and practice recommendations in this report 
had been in place and fully implemented, the review team did not find evidence that 
these tragic events were preventable. I wanted to understand how the city arrived at 
this conclusion, so I talked to Patrick Madden. 

Now, he's regional news director at WWNO in New Orleans. But back in 2014, he was 
a reporter here at WAMU and he covered Relisha's disappearance. 

Patrick Madden, WAMU: I​ mean, how can you have a young girl abducted at a 
shelter that's run by the city? And apparently she's taken by an employee of the city 
who works at this shelter, is missing for weeks before people at the school get in 
contact with family services. How does that happen before anyone notices? And if 
you do read it and you read between the lines, it basically says almost like the 
family's at fault here, like the family dropped the ball, the family wasn't doing this or 
that. It has nothing to do with the conditions that were left to fester at D.C. General. 
Why the city was putting these families into this place where they would be 
vulnerable. Why was this Tatum guy allowed to work there, given his prior felony 
convictions to work with the families there? I mean, it didn't address any of that.  

Jonquilyn Hill: S
​ o does that seem like... 

Patrick Madden: I​ think it's a CYA..."cover your ass." I think everyone realized they 
effed up. 

Jonquilyn Hill: Y
​ eah. 

Patrick Madden: F ​ rom the school when they had their student not there for a 
number of weeks. To the CFSA, the Child Family Services Agency, to the mayor. I 
mean, everyone, everyone and no one wanted to take responsibility for this. So I 
think that's what this is. 

Jonquilyn Hill: B
​ efore we keep going, these are serious claims against the city. 
Vincent Gray was the mayor at the time and he ordered the report. He's now a 
member of D.C. Council. We've reached out to his office multiple times for a 
response and they said they'll get back to us. The offer still stands. Admittedly, 
Relisha's disappearance was complex. The city was in a delicate position, ensuring 

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the safety of people within its care without overpolicing their lives. We'll continue to 
unpack the nuances of what this means throughout this season. And we'll keep 
giving officials opportunities to speak with us. 

Jonquilyn Hill: I​ s it OK to keep shoes on? 

Melissa Young: S
​ ure, why not? I'd rather you keep your shoes than look at my 
carpet.  

Jonquilyn Hill: O
​ h, you're fine. 

Jonquilyn Hill: I​ t's been almost seven years since Relisha went missing. In the last 
year, I've been visiting with family members to get their side of the story and just to 
check in. Relisha's grandmother Melissa is a gatekeeper for the young family, their 
matriarch. I've had to go through her to get to other members of the family. In her 
apartment, there are always kids playing, food cooking, a TV on. When I visited, she 
took me to her bedroom. 

Melissa Young: R ​ ight now, what you all are looking at is my dresser, that I 
decorated with my granddaughter Relisha Rudd's picture that I done had now for 
five years from the first event when she went missing. All her little teddy bears, like 
this one right here, the elephant, is saying, I love you. That's her first teddy bear. 
When she was like two, her father gave it to her on Valentine's.  

Jonquilyn Hill: I​ 've gone to her home several times and each time she's added 
something new to the tribute. Some of the items are Relisha's things. Her first baby 
hat, a photo or a toy. Other times they represent milestones Relisha has missed. A 
photo from a cousin's graduation or an uncle's funeral program. 

Melissa Young: T
​ his is my dedication and my tribute to help deal with the situation.  

Jonquilyn Hill: M
​ elissa still buys Relisha Christmas and birthday gifts every year, just 
in case she comes home. They don't want her to come back and have nothing under 
the tree.  

Melissa Young: M​ ainly since she's older, I'm pretty much done bought her, you 
know, jewelry with her name on it. I had to send that with my father, her great 
granddad, so could nobody take it because her earrings was like real diamonds.  

So she don't play with toys. She stopped playing with toys when she was eight, so I 
say, well, OK. She like makeup now. Nail polish, stuff like that smell good. So I just 
buy a little stuff dropping a little, it's like...what I call it? Her little treasure chest.  

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Jonquilyn Hill: O
​ n this season of Through The Cracks, we'll explore the institutions 
that touched Relisha Rudd's life. Her school, her family, the shelter, the city services 
that supported her, what her life was like. In the next episode, we'll look into the lives 
of her family and how they fell through the cracks, too. 

Antonio Wheeler:​ I was Daddy when things got hard with the family, but when 
things is easy and everybody wanted to do what they want to do and go out and 
send the kids to this place and that place, I wasn't Daddy. 

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ nd later this season on Through The Cracks... 

Lakia Barnett, former DC General resident: ​You know, why would we have to go 
here? Look at this place, it's a old hospital. I'm just being transparent, old hospital. 
And you guys got a bunch of families in here. Like, no.  

Jamila Larson, Playtime Project: W ​ e were constantly bumping up against the 

clear reality that the children in D.C. General were not valued.  

Alexis Kelly, Tatum's stepdaughter: I​ don't know if he became this monster when 
he came home or when he started working at the shelter or if it was always there. 
But that's just not who I saw.  

Beth Mellen Harrison, Legal Aid: ​I know you asked me, like, what more could she 
have done? But I kind of want to focus instead on what more could the system do 
for somebody like Ms. Young.  

Natalie Wilson, Black and Missing: ​Relisha, if you hear us, we want you to know 
that we will never, ever stop searching for you. 

Jonquilyn Hill: T
​ hrough The Cracks is a production of WAMU and PRX. This podcast 
was made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private 
corporation funded by the American people and also by the Fund for Investigative 
Journalism. Patrick Fort is our producer. Ruth Tam is our digital editor. Poncie 
Rustch is our senior producer and I'm your host. Jonquilyn Hill. Our editor is Curtis 
Fox. Mike Kidd mixed this episode. Osei Hill designed our logo. Monna Kashfi 
oversees all the content we make at WAMU. You can find out more about the show 
at WAMU.org/ThroughTheCracks. This week, we're sharing a timeline of the key 
dates in Relisha's disappearance. 

This podcast would not be possible without the generosity of listeners like you. To 
support the investigative reporting that goes into Through The Cracks, give at 
WAMU.org/SupportThroughTheCracks. Finally, this story has been in the works for a 
long time, so we'd like to thank a few more folks who got us here. Stephanie Kuo, 

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Julia Karron, Paige Osburn, Rupert Allman, Daisy Rosario, Phyllis Kim, Lindsay Foster 
Thomas and the entire Project Catapult cohort. Thank you for the gift.  

We'll be back next Thursday with another episode of Through The Cracks. Thanks for 
listening. 

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