Ruud found not guilty of murder, all other charges except abandonment of a corpse


Rebecca Ruud

Circuit Judge Calvin Holden has found that Theodosia resident Rebecca Ruud is not guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, abuse of a child, and tampering with evidence. 

She was found guilty of only one charge, abandonment of a corpse. It is a class E felony with a maximum sentence of four years. Ruud has already served five years in pre-trial custody. It is unclear if she will be given credit for time served. 

Sentencing is set for Sept. 15, in Greene County.

Holden took the case under advisement and studied the evidence for 29 days following Ruud’s June 27-30 trial. Ruud and her defense team chose to have a bench trial rather than a jury trial in the case, meaning Holden heard the evidence and deliberated instead of a jury of her peers. 

 

Background in the case

Ruud reported her biological daughter Savannah Leckie missing on July 20, 2017. 

Officers and dozens of volunteers spent countless hours searching for the girl on land and by air. 

After the investigation raised some red flags, a human remains scent dog was brought to the property and alerted to a burn pile where officers found 13 teeth, a jawbone and a metal zipper pull and button from a pair of jeans. The day the remains were found, Ruud married her boyfriend and co-defendant in the case, Robert Peat Jr. 

 

Recording where Ruud admits to burning the girl’s body

In their opening arguments, the defense team admitted that Ruud had burned the body of the girl. That confession wasn’t a surprise to the prosecution because they’d heard Ruud admit to throwing Savannah’s body into a fire in an interview Ruud had with a Missouri Public Defender investigator which she secretly taped and gave to her husband Robert Peat Jr. 

The recording was the subject of a heated pre-trial battle between the prosecution and defense as to whether it was admissible at trial or not. The defense argued that the recording was privileged information between Ruud and her attorney. The state argued that Ruud gave up that right when she gave the recorder to Peat. Ultimately, the decision was brought to the Missouri Supreme Court, which ruled that the recording could be used at trial. 

 

Suicide or murder

Although Ruud admitted to burning the girl’s body, she and her lawyers say she only did that after she found the girl “cold” and dead in a camper on the property from an apparent suicide. In the taped recording that way played in court, Ruud said she was afraid she and then-boyfriend Peat Jr. would be charged with neglect in connection with the suicide.

The prosecution argued and laid out evidence that Ruud killed the girl - either by drugging or burning the body. A human remains expert testified that no human remains were detected in the camper trailer even though the dogs can alert to the smallest piece of scent left behind from remains. He testified that the dogs can alert to the smell almost immediately after death. 

Two of the three jailhouse informants that testified said that Ruud talked to them while in custody with them (in separate jails during separate instances). The first informant said Ruud said she crushed up pills and put them into the girl’s Kool-aid and asked if the fellow inmate knew if that would show up on toxicology screenings. The second informant said Ruud told her she’d drugged the girl and once she thought she was dead, she took the girl’s body to a burn pile on the hill. She said she put the girl’s body into the fire, where the girl woke up and started screaming. Ruud then hit the girl with a rake until she stopped screaming, the informant said Ruud told her. None of the informants were offered leniency in their own cases in exchange for testifying. 

 

Witnesses to take the stand

The trial included testimony from former Ozark County Sheriff Darrin Reed, along with former Chief Deputy Winston Collins, former Sheriff’s Sgt. Curt Dobbs and former Deputy Tiffany Fox. Other witnesses to take the stand were former TAVFD Fire Chief Tim Jeffery and Capt. Michael Williams, Caney Mountain VFD Chief Robert Peat Sr., Ruud’s then-boyfriend (now husband) Robert Peat Jr., scent dog handler Joe Marsillo, adoptive mother Tamile Montague, ex-boyfriend Buddy Smart and three jailhouse informants.  

Ozark County Times

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