Informants say while in jail with them, Ruud gave disturbing details about drugging, murdering and burning daughter; Murder trial concludes, verdict will likely come before July 15


Savannah Leckie with biological mother Rebecca Ruud

The trial for Theodosia resident Rebecca Ruud, charged with murdering her 16-year-old biological daughter Savannah Leckie and burning the girl’s body on her farm in July 2017, was held June 27-30 at the Greene County Courthouse in Springfield. It was a bench trial, before Circuit Judge Calvin Holden, meaning there is no jury to determine her guilt or innocence. The judge will render a verdict in the near future. 

Ruud admitted to burning the girl’s body after an audio recording was released and used as evidence where she tells Missouri Public Defender staff that she did put Savannah’s body in the fire. 

The main question now lies in how the girl died. Ruud maintains that Savannah committed suicide, while the prosecution says Ruud killed the girl.

Due to the Times press deadlines, our coverage is split in two sections. An article detailing the first day of trial was published in the June 29 edition. This article continues with the following three days of trial. 

 

Former OCSD Cpl. Curtis Dobbs 

Said prescription thought to contribute to death was never found

The second day of trial opened with former Ozark County Cpl. Curtis Dobbs taking the stand again, as a continuation from questioning on the first day of trial. 

The prosecution opened with a line of questioning involving the hydrocodone prescription bottle of Ruud’s that co-defendant Peat Jr. reported to officers after the girl was reported missing on July 20 and before human remains were found on Ruud’s off-grid farm on Aug. 4. 

Dobbs said that he collected a lot of evidence in the case, but there was never a pill bottle recovered. He testified that all structures on the property were thoroughly searched. 

Dobbs also testified that on Aug. 1, 2017, about two weeks after Savannah was reported missing, but before her remains were found, Ruud emailed him a 17-page document that the prosecution later referred to as “the manifesto” in which Ruud detailed dreams about Savannah burning in a fire and being torn apart by animals. 

 

Former deputy Tiffany Fox

Takes an hour to come and unlock gate, Ruud urinates herself and posts photo to Facebook

The second witness called to the stand was Tiffany Fox, who was employed as a deputy with the OCSD when Leckie was reported missing. 

Fox testified that she was at the Ruud farm in a supportive role to her fellow law enforcement colleagues on Aug. 4, 2017. She told the court that she arrived with others at the gate at 7 a.m., and the gate was locked this time (unlike other times officers came to the property). 

Fox said officers contacted the defendant to tell her that they were there to execute a search warrant, but it wasn’t until about an hour later at 8 a.m. that Ruud and Peat Jr. met them at the gate to unlock it. 

Fox said Ruud and Peat Jr. were told not to interfere with the investigation, but they were free to do what they wanted. The two defendants stayed near Fox during part of the day. 

At some point, Fox said that there was a flurry of activity at the top of a hill which included the cadaver dog expert switching out dogs and officers gathering tools from a vehicle near where Ruud, Peat and Fox were waiting in a lawn chair a couple hundred yard from the burn pile. 

Fox said she later learned the flurry of activity was prompted by the discovery of a human bone in a large burn pile. But at the time, officers did not inform Fox or the two defendants of what was happening. 

Fox said Ruud then told her that she’d urinated herself, although she hadn’t mentioned anything about needing to use a bathroom prior to that time. Fox said she was very calm when she mentioned it, and “didn’t have a lot of emotion.” 

The officer said Ruud complained that she was being detained, but Fox told her several times that wasn’t the case. 

At some point after that, Ruud and Peat Jr. left the property. A marriage license filed in Howell County later that day show that they were married. Some speculate that was to engage spousal privilege, which generally allows someone to refrain from testifying against their spouse. However, in murder cases of children, spousal privilege is not honored. 

 

Joe Marsillo, Troop G Command Canine Search Team coordinator

Says dogs alerted to burn pile, found nothing inside camper where Ruud says Savannah died

Next to the stand was Joe Marsillo, the main coordinator for the Troop G Command Canine Search Team who travels in the Troop G area and beyond at the request of law enforcement officers to help search for missing persons. 

Marsillo said he first began training dogs nearly 50 years ago in 1970. Since that time, he’s worked for several agencies and has underwent a lot of training in working with dogs to find missing persons or human remains. 

He says his dogs are human remain detection dogs, who are trained to smell and alert the handler to decomposing human remains. Marsillo said human remains begin the decomposition process immediately after death and dogs can pick up the scent of the smallest bit of human remains that are in an area or had been in an area. He said they can also detect scent for decades afterward - maybe forever. 

Marsillo’s dogs have a dozen confirmed human remain detections in cases that he’s worked. Their soonest find was 30 minutes after death in a case in which a person had drowned and was submerged under 22 feet of water. 

On Aug. 4, 2017, Marsillo brought two dogs to the Ruud property at the request of Ozark County Sheriff Darrin Reed. Marsillo answered a long line of questioning from both the prosecution and defense about Marsillo and his dog’s experiences and training and their conduct that day.

Marsillo said MSHP Sgt. Warren Widemann acted as his “flank,” a person who walks alongside them and looks out for potential dangers to the dogs as they’re searching.

Marsillo said that he searched about half of the property, including a large 8-10 foot tall brush pile of burned and non-burned cedar limbs. It was in that area, the dog gave an alert signaling it had detected human remains. Widemann suggested they move the pile to get a clearer view of what was underneath it, but Marsillo told him not to and instead switched the dog out for the other one he had on site. He walked it around the brush pile, and the second dog also alerted, confirming the find.

That’s when officers worked to dismantle the pile where they found a 6-foot by 3-foot section of light colored ash, along with a jawbone, 13 teeth, a metal zipper pull and button from a pair of jeans. 

 

Robert Peat Jr., co-defendant and husband

Saw Savannah night before she disappeared, later found recording where Ruud admits burning body

Robert Peat Jr. took the stand and told the court he was married to Ruud on Aug. 4, 2017, but they had an on-again, off-again relationship for years. Peat Jr. said he was living on Ruud’s off-grid farm at the time of Leckie’s disappearance about half of each week. 

He testified that he, along with Ruud, slept in an apartment that was being built inside a metal barn on the property. He said the girl slept in a 32-foot camper situated a short distance from the barn. 

He said he’d been around Savannah on the farm since she’d moved there and a few times before when he’d traveled with Ruud as her boyfriend to visit Savannah at her adoptive mother’s house. 

Peat Jr. testified that he drove from his parents’ house to Ruud’s farm on July 18, 2017, after she called him to say a fire had broke out and was out of control. He arrived at the farm and stayed that night. 

Peat Jr. said that on July 19, the day after the out-of-control brush fire and the day before Savannah was reported missing, he saw her several times throughout the day. He said that he left the buildings and went to an area on a hill where he worked to clean up and burn cedar and other brush that was left from the blaze the day before. He said Savannah helped him with the clean up some, and he remembered her out that evening catching fireflies. He said at some point during the evening, he remembered Ruud and the girl arguing about homework. 

He said Savannah left to go to bed that night while he was still burning the brush. After awhile, late into the evening, he allowed the fire to burn to just coals and also went to bed in the apartment in the barn. 

He said when he awoke the next morning, Savannah was not there. He and Reba began searching for her, honking a horn in a vehicle to try and alert her to come home. He said Ruud then called the OCSD to report the disappearance. Peat Jr. said at no point did Ruud tell him she did anything to the girl, much less burned the girl’s body. 

In a pointed line of questioning, Peat Jr. described finding a recording device inside a box of items Ruud gave him to put up for her sometime after human remains were found on the farm but before she was arrested in the case. 

He said he hadn’t paid much attention to the items in the box when she gave them to him, but a year later when he began preparing to gather items for a TAVFD yard sale, he found the box and recorder inside. He said he played the recorder and heard an interview with Ruud and an investigator with the Missouri Public Defender’s office. In the recording Ruud told the interviewer that she found Savannah’s body cold and clammy in the camper one night, and, fearing she would face neglect charges, she took the body up to the bed of coals at the top of the hill and put it in it. She said she relit it several times to decompose the body, and at some point returned to the trailer to get Savannah’s bedding and computer case to burn too, because she knew people wouldn’t believe she ran away without those items. 

Peat said he stopped playing the recording when he heard that she burned the girl and immediately contacted his attorney, who then contacted the OCSD and handed over the recording. 

John Garrabrant, who is prosecuting this case with the Attorney General’s office, says that Peat Jr. was not promised anything in exchange for the recording or testifying against Ruud except that his cooperation would be noted. 

Peat Jr. was asked at one point if he wanted a divorce. He said yes. The defense objected to it, and it was sustained; but, the information allowed those watching the trial to better understand his feelings for Ruud at this point. 

 

Tamile Montague - Savannah’s adoptive mother

Questioned about Savannah’s mental health, suicidal tendencies before coming to Missouri

Tamile Montague took the stand as the last witness on the second day of trial. Her testimony continued on for more than four hours on day 3 of the trial. 

Tamile adopted Savannah at a young age from Ruud, who stayed present in Tamile and Savannah’s life. When Savannah was having trouble in Minnesota, the adoptive parents and Ruud together decided Savannah could move to Ozark County with Ruud. She did that in 2016. 

During most of the defense’s questioning involving Savannah’s mental health and reports, Tamile said she couldn’t recall details of Savannah’s behavior, specific treatment or medication at that time. 

Frustrated by what she referred to as a “hostile witness,” Public Defender Kate Welborn brought a large box of medical records into the courtroom and had Tamile read details from the pages for hours. 

The medical records showed that Savannah had been in counseling and hospitalized due to depression and potential suicidal tendencies two times (in 2015 and 2016). She’d attended several counseling appointments and was put on medication for ADHD and other issues. 

The defense questioned Tamile about sending a power of attorney form to allow Ruud to take her to medical appointments and get her medication, and she said she did send one immediately after Savannah left, but unbeknownst to her, it never arrived. Ruud requested another one in 2017, and she sent it soon afterward, she said. 

 

Buddy Smart, ex-boyfriend

Testified to hosing Savannah down, bathing in pond, crawling in pig pen

Gainesville resident Buddy Smart took the stand next. He said that he had meet Ruud at the Isabella VFW sometime in 2015-16, and a relationship developed. 

Smart said he moved to Ruud’s farm with her in September 2016, and Savannah was living there at the time along with Ruud’s “business partner” Elmer Gutherie. He said Gutherie was a truck driver and stayed at the farm when he was between driving jobs. 

He described Savannah as a “happy kid.”

While he was living there, Smart said that Savannah had some hygiene issues and refused to bathe for days at a time, causing her to smell. He said at least two times Ruud used an outdoor water hose to hose the girl down. Another time, he said Ruud told Savannah to get in the pond. He said that must’ve been sometime in December, January or February, but he noted it wasn’t an exceptionally cold day and Savannah was able to get out, take a shower and get warm inside the camper immediately afterward. 

Another set of questioning asked Smart about Savannah crawling through a hog pen. Smart said that at some time when he was living on the property, there was a pen where a couple hogs had been raised. He said Ruud took her back to the pen and told the girl to crawl through the muck. 

The last incident he was questioned about involved a punishment in which he said Ruud told Smart to go into Savannah’s camper and get her pet guinea pig and “get rid of it.”

 

Jailhouse informants and jail staff

Said Ruud talked to them in jail about crushing up drugs in Kool-aid, burning body

Three jailhouse informants took the stand, as well as a Taney County jailer to round out the trial. The informants were not promised anything for their testimony.

Informant #1 said that she shared a pod with Ruud and informant #2 in the Ozark County Jail sometime after Ruud was arrested in the case. Informant #3 said she was housed in Taney County Jail with her. 

#1 said at some point after she and Ruud had become acquainted, Ruud came to her and asked if she knew if drugs could be detected in a body after death and said that she’d crushed up pills and put them in Kool-aid that she then gave to her daughter. She said she talked about her husband Peat Jr. and said he couldn’t testify against her because they’d been married. 

Informant #2 took the stand next and said Ruud hadn’t talked to her about the murder and just told her she was worried about finding her daughter, who’d run away.

Informant #3 said she and Ruud became friendly after being housed together. The informant said she wasn’t familiar with the allegations.

“She said she murdered her daughter, drugged her daughter and after she drugged her daughter, she had some kind of farm. She took her to a burn pile and placed her daughter in there where she came back to life in the middle of burning her, and she beat her in the face with a rake until she was gone.”

Jail staff took the stand last, called by the defense. The first jailer gave testimony that would essentially mean informant #3 was in lock down and did not have access to talk to Ruud. The jail supervisor clarified that the timing the first jailer gave is not always used for first-time offenders, and therefore the two women could have been together in jail at some point. 

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