A trial for an Ozark County woman accused of killing her daughter has completed its first day at the Greene County Courthouse. Rebecca Ruud is on a bench trial in Springfield on charges of first- and second-degree murder, abuse or neglect of a child resulting in death, abandonment of a corpse and tampering with physical evidence in a felony.
In his opening statement to Judge Calvin Holden, Missouri Assistant Attorney General Anthony Brown referenced a taped conversation between Ruud and a public defender in which she reportedly admits to burning the body of her daughter, 16-year-old Savannah Leckie, in 2017. The tape, which was ruled admissible by the Missouri Supreme Court, was played during Monday’s court session. In the recording, Ruud said her daughter took her own life, but she later admitted to locating Leckie’s body and taking it to a burn pile. One of Brown’s witnesses, Caney Mountain Fire Chief Robert Peat Sr., said Ruud told him Leckie threw herself into the fire.
Peat’s son, Robert Peat Jr., was also indicted by an Ozark County grand jury on the same charges as Ruud. Brown, who’s being assisted at trial by former Ozark County Prosecuting Attorney John Garrabrant, is expected to call Robert Peat Jr. as a witness.
Brown also revealed the state’s theory to the manner of Leckie’s death during his opening statement. He told Judge Holden Ruud drugged her daughter with hydrocodone and then burned her alive.
In the defense’s opening statement, Ruud’s attorney, Yvette Duvall, claimed the only thing her client was guilty of was burning Leckie’s body. Duvall also claimed Ruud’s mother abused her and, at one point, kidnapped Leckie. The defense also said after Leckie returned to Missouri, Ruud was depending on the child support provided by Leckie’s adoptive mother, Tamile Leckie-Montague to care for the child, but she reportedly seldom got paid and didn’t have the means to get her health care.
Former Ozark County Sheriff Darrin Reed was Brown’s first witness to take the stand. He said he was in Columbia when he was informed about Leckie’s disappearance and quickly returned to the area. Reed says the search started in Theodosia in July 2017, but Leckie could not be found. On Aug. 4 of that year, authorities returned to Ruud’s farm with a search warrant, and the property was locked up. Entry was gained to the property with more officers and cadaver dogs to search. Reed says the dogs reacted to finding possible human remains, which were on Ruud’s property under a pile of logs.
During cross examination, Duvall asked Reed why the investigation changed from a rescue effort to a death investigation with cadaver dogs. Reed responded, “I just knew we were looking for her body, things weren’t adding up. I had a feeling.”
The trial is expected to continue through Wednesday, and it’s being livestreamed on the Law & Crime Network channel on YouTube.
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