Missouri woman acquitted of murder in 2017 death of autistic teen daughter she gave up for adoption as a baby

A decide on Friday acquitted a southwestern Missouri woman on murder and two different felony fees in the death of the autistic teenage daughter that she gave up for adoption as a baby.

Greene County Circuit Court Judge Calvin Holden discovered Rebecca Ruud not responsible of first- and second-degree murder, tampering with proof and felony abuse or neglect of a youngster however discovered her responsible on the remaining cost, illegally abandoning a corpse. The fees stemmed from the July 2017 death of 16-year-old Savannah Leckie, whose stays had been discovered in a burn pit on Ruud’s distant property close to the Arkansas-Missouri border.

Ruud is scheduled to be sentenced on the final cost Sept. 15 by Holden, who heard the case as an alternative of a jury in Springfield after a change of venue from Ozark County to the southwest. Ruud might get up to 4 years in jail.

Prosecutors described Savannah as the sufferer of extreme abuse after she left her adoptive household in Minnesota and moved to Missouri to be along with her organic mom. Ruud mentioned the woman disappeared after operating away as a result of she blamed herself for beginning a fireplace on the household’s property.

Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s workplace declined to remark in regards to the decide’s resolution. A public defender representing Ruud didn’t instantly reply to a cellphone message searching for remark.

Ruud lived outdoors Theodosia, a village about 250 individuals roughly 45 miles (72 kilometers) east of Branson, a in style trip vacation spot. According to a possible trigger assertion filed together with the costs towards Ruud in 2017, the woman’s adoptive mom requested Ruud to take her as a result of Savannah didn’t get alongside along with her adoptive mom’s fiancé.

Authorities mentioned that after the woman moved to Missouri, she was home-schooled and had “almost no social contacts.”

Ruud reported Savannah lacking two days after the hearth on the household’s distant property, authorities mentioned. Several searches turned up human enamel, a meat grinder, a knife and 26 bottles of lye, which can be utilized to speed up the breakdown of bodily tissue, based on court docket paperwork. Human bone fragments had been discovered in a discipline about 400 yards (365 meters) from Ruud’s dwelling, about two weeks after Savannah’s reported disappearance.

An ex-boyfriend of Ruud’s advised investigators that he had seen her self-discipline Savannah by forcing the teen to crawl by a hog pen and making her bathe in a pond, authorities mentioned. Ruud acknowledged that this was true and advised investigators that when Savannah minimize her arm “in a suicidal gesture,” she compelled the woman to clean the wound every day with alcohol and salt as punishment.