Discovery Made In Ongoing Search For Relisha Rudd

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A suspicious discovery in the search for a missing DC girl. She was last seen alive more than a year ago.

Tracey Leong explains what crews found.

Relisha Rudd was last seen alive in March of 2014. This weekend, search crews made the discovery they've been hunting for.

"I was shocked that it was right there," said Jerry Boylan, captain of the Garden State Underwater Recovery Unit.

Boylan volunteered to help Rudd's family search Kenilworth Park along the Anacostia River. On Saturday, they found exactly what they were searching for.

"Looked like someone had something in a bag they wanted to sink," Boylan said.

Brown, who befriended Rudd's family when the girl went missing, led the team to the area.

Rudd's suspected killer, 51-year-old Kahlil Tatum, committed suicide in Kenilworth Park, so Brown got a volunteer team to search the area last October.

"The dog picked his scent up here," she said.

Brown says a cadaver dog tracked the scent up to the water's edge but the city didn't have the resources to continue, so she turned to a volunteer dive team to help.

"We have got to do it; we would be remiss to ignore what this dog detected," she said.

"This is how I sleep; this is who I see when I sleep. This is who I hear when I wake up," said Rudd's grandmother, Melissa Young.

Young came to watch the search, keeping hope alive for the missing eight-year-old.

"Whether it's home where I can see her smile talk or whether it's sad anywhere, I have to help my daughter make the arrangements. I just need my closure. I just want my baby home," she said.

Tatum was a janitor at the DC shelter where Rudd and her family were staying.

Tatum's body was found a month after Rudd went missing; he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.