On Friday, a judge exonerated a woman from southwest Missouri of murder and two other felonies in the teen daughter’s death who had been adopted as an autistic child.
Rebecca Ruud was found not guilty of first- and second-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and felony abuse or neglect of a child by Greene County Circuit Court Judge Calvin Holden, but she was found guilty of the final charge, illegally abandoning a corpse.
The accusations were related to the July 2017 death of Savannah Leckie, 16, whose remains were discovered in a burn pit on Ruud’s remote property close to the Missouri-Arkansas border.
After the trial was moved from Ozark County to Springfield, Holden, who presided over the proceedings instead of a jury, will be passing judgement on Ruud on the final charge on September 15. Up to four years in prison are possible for Ruud.
Savannah moved to Missouri to be with her biological mother after leaving her adoptive family in Minnesota, according to the prosecution, and was subjected to severe abuse.
According to Ruud, the girl fled after blaming herself for starting a fire on the family’s property. She later vanished.
The office of Attorney General Eric Schmitt declined to comment on the judge’s ruling.
A phone message left for a public defender representing Ruud did not receive a response right away.
Ruud resided outside of Theodosia, a popular vacation spot 45 miles (72 kilometres) east of Branson with a population of about 250.
The girl’s adoptive mother requested Ruud to take her because Savannah did not get along with her adoptive mother’s fiancé, according to a probable cause statement filed with the charges against Ruud in 2017.
Authorities claimed that the girl was home-schooled and had “almost no social contacts” after relocating to Missouri.
Two days after the fire on the family’s remote property, Ruud reported Savannah missing, according to authorities.
According to court documents, several searches turned up human teeth, a meat grinder, a knife, and 26 bottles of lye, which can be used to speed up the breakdown of bodily tissue.
About two weeks after Savannah’s reported disappearance, human bone fragments were discovered in a field about 400 yards (365 metres) from Ruud’s house.
Investigators were told by Ruud’s ex-boyfriend that he had witnessed her punish Savannah by making the youngster bathe in a pond and make her crawl through a hog pen.
Ruud confirmed that this was accurate and informed the authorities that Savannah had cut her arm “in a suicidal gesture” and as punishment had made her scrub the wound with salt and alcohol every day.