Through The Cracks | Episode 5: Janitor, Doctor, Godfather (Transcript) 

Jonquilyn Hill: I​ 'm Jonquilyn Hill and from WAMU and PRX, this is Through The 
Cracks, a podcast about the gaps in our society and the people who fall through 
them. 

Relisha Rudd: R
​ -E-L-I-S-H-A. 

Melissa Young: I​ didn't know what was going on. The police officer..."You know, your 
granddaughter Relisha Rudd is missing." 

"No, she’s not." 

"Yes, she is, ma'am." 

"No, she's not. She's with Kahlil Tatum." 

Jonquilyn Hill: T
​ his season on Through The Cracks, we're investigating the 
disappearance of Relisha Rudd. 

Relisha disappeared when she was eight years old and her family was living in a 
homeless shelter in southeast D.C. It took 18 days for anyone to realize she was 
missing. 

We'll look at the world Relisha grew up in. Her school, her family, the shelter where 
she lived. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​Everybody asked how he got so close to the family. When I first 
met Kahlil Tatum, he wasn't always a janitor at the shelter. He was a kitchen staff. 
Cafeteria dude. 

Jonquilyn Hill: W
​ as Relisha's disappearance really, as the city claimed, 
unpreventable? And why was Kahlil Tatum, who would become the prime suspect in 
her disappearance, working in the shelter to begin with? 

Cathy Lanier, Metropolitan Police Department: ​Relisha has not been seen by 
anyone since March 1st. Yet, Mr. Tatum continued to go to work and was seen in 
multiple locations throughout the District of Columbia between March 2nd and 
March 20th. Relisha was not with Mr. Tatum in any of those sightings.  

Jonquilyn Hill: O
​ n this episode of Through The Cracks, who was Kahlil Tatum and 
why did Relisha's family trust him?  

– 

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Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ fter Relisha went missing, Kahlil Tatum quickly became the top 
person of interest. That's because some of Relisha's family members said the last 
time they saw her was with Tatum. Tatum wasn't just the janitor at D.C. General, the 
shelter where Relisha and her family lived. For Shamika, Relisha's mom, he seemed 
to be a trusted family friend, and he looked after Relisha when she asked him to. 

And, it wasn't just Relisha's family who trusted Kahlil Tatum. Tatum was well-liked 
and trusted by a lot of the people he knew, especially by the people living in D.C. 
General. His own family, too. They knew him as Karl. 

Alexis Kelly: K
​ arl was his name. Kahlil was the name that he changed to when he 
went to prison.  

Jonquilyn Hill: T
​ hat's Alexis Kelly, her mother Andrea, was married to Tatum. Alexis 
had no idea that one day Tatum would be wanted for her mother's murder and that 
he would take his own life before he could answer any questions. 

Alexis Kelly: K
​ arl was like extremely smart, extremely smart. He can talk to you 
about any thing. And he was funny. He was well-dressed. He was caring. He was 
giving. Anything anybody needed, he would give someone the shirt off his back. 

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ lexis knew Tatum most of her life. She was a little girl when her 
mom began her relationship with them. 

Alexis Kelly: H
​ e came into our lives...I was maybe four or five? But he was in and out 
of prison so much so it wasn't like a constant thing. Like, he wasn't there every day, 
all day. He had done, like, long stints in jail, like, 10 years here, eight years here, two 
and three years here. So, he spent most of his time in prison. 

Jonquilyn Hill: T
​ atum had a criminal record for larceny, burglary and breaking and 
entering. As we mentioned in the last episode, his record should have disqualified 
him from having any position at the shelter. It was against the shelter's policies. 

With Tatum in and out of prison, Andrea's marriage to him wasn't always the most 
traditional often. Andrea had to live life on her own and that was OK. 

Alexis Kelly: S
​ he had a lot of friends. My mother was loved and I was kind of jealous 
of that because I felt like they were taking my time away from me sometimes. So I 
would get jealous if she was, like, on the phone with other people or if she was going 
somewhere with other people. And I would just get mad and I wouldn't talk to her 
for two, three hours because I was jealous. But she didn't care, she was like, OK, call 
me when you're over it!  

Jonquilyn Hill: I​ t sounds like she was really outgoing. 

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Alexis Kelly: S
​ he really was. She was outgoing, she was outspoken, she loved to 
laugh. My mom had this laugh that was like, tongue-out laugh. It was just, it was so 
funny. She just had this bubbly personality and she very rarely got upset. Very rarely 
got upset.  

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ lexis told me her mom wasn't perfect. She worked through a drug 
problem, kept a job at a health club and raised her five kids. As for Kahlil Tatum and 
his frequent absences, Alexis described her mom's attitude as out of sight, out of 
mind.  

Alexis Kelly:​ I don't think her last name was ever legally changed. So, she's gone by 
Tatum sometimes, I guess, when it was necessary for her. But Kelly has always 
been... it may have been hyphenated. I don't know. I just always...it was Andrea 
Kelly. 'Cause Kelly is my last name and it's also my siblings' last name 

Jonquilyn Hill: W
​ hen they were together, though, things were good. 

Alexis Kelly: H
​ e worshiped the ground my mom walked on. Whatever my mom 
wanted, she got it. She wanted a new car. That February, I believe, he went and 
bought her a brand new car. Whatever jewelry she wanted -he knew she loved 
jewelry. Like he would always buy her jewelry. And some people were saying he was 
buying her silence or whatever, but...he always spoiled my mom. Always. 

Jonquilyn Hill: S
​ o that's a picture of Kahlil Tatum's family. In the shelter where he 
worked, he was mostly well-liked. 

Former D.C. General residents: E ​ verybody knows that. You know, he bought my 
daughter a fish tank, but I stopped it there. Mm-mm, no more gifts. 

Jonquilyn Hill: D
​ .C. General had a policy against fraternization, meaning employees 
were supposed to be extremely professional with shelter residents and not develop 
personal relationships with them. Relisha's family's relationship with Tatum didn't 
develop overnight. 

In D.C. General, parents were supposed to be with their children at all times. In the 
cafeteria, going to the showers, in the play areas. But Relisha's grandmother, Melissa, 
remembers Kahlil Tatum making sure Relisha and her brothers got a meal even if 
their mom wasn't with them in the cafeteria. 

Melissa Young: L​ ike I said, Relisha would do the mother, big daughter thing and 
take them down for breakfast. That's how Relisha came in contact with Tatum. 
Because he would always say, well, you know, her mother's in the bathroom. That's 
why they're down here. She asked me to make sure they get their breakfast, 
something like that, so my daughter wouldn't get in trouble. 

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Jonquilyn Hill: A​ t some point, Kahlil Tatum transitioned into a different job at the 
shelter. He became a janitor. And he grew even closer to Shamika and her kids. This 
is Antonio, Relisha's stepdad.  

Antonio Wheeler: ​By this time, Shamika was like, "Did you know he was her 
godfather?" No, he's not her godfather. 

And I told him to his face, you know, you're not her godfather. Stay away from my 
daughter. Told Shamika, keep Relisha away from this man. Did she listen? No. 

Jonquilyn Hill: S
​ hamika hasn't agreed to an interview with us, but multiple people 
we've spoken with confirmed that she trusted Tatum. 

Melissa told us that Relisha would play with Kahlil Tatum's granddaughter. 
Occasionally, she'd even sleepover. Ashley, Relisha's aunt and Shamika's sister, 
thought the arrangement was a little weird, just like Antonio did. As the months at 
D.C. General went by, Relisha spent more and more time at her Auntie Ashley's. 
Because she hated living at the shelter. So, the first time Ashley actually met Kahlil 
Tatum, it was when he came to her house to pick her up. 

Ashley Young: I​ never knew him before then. That was the first time I got to meet 
him and the questions that I had for him was, well, where do you know my family 
from? Basically, how did you get my number? How did you get my address? Me, 
honestly, I'm just auntie. No, I didn't really know who he was. Did I fully trust him? 
I'mma be honest, no, because I didn't know him like that. But, at the same time, 
hearing the things that he was doing with my niece, they was going to little parks 
with the kids or things like that. I didn't have any problem. At the same time, I guess 
I do wish I would have stood my ground and say, no, she couldn't go. 

But again, you can't overstep with what the parents is saying. 

Jonquilyn Hill: I​ n Relisha's life, there were a number of adults looking after her. Her 
mother Shamika, her stepfather Antonio, her grandmother Melissa, her aunt Ashley 
and...Kahlil Tatum. 

She also went to Payne Elementary School. And there were a lot of adults in her life 
there. Antonio remembers going to school to pick up Relisha's younger brothers and 
running into the school social worker Labone Workman. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​I seen him and I was askin' where the boys was at. He was like, 
yeah the boys is in the cafeteria and I went to the cafeteria to get them. And as I'm 
walking back out, he was like, oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that Relisha's doctor 
called and everything, and she's in the clear. Because she hasn't been in school a 
couple of days ago. I'm like, huh? She hasn't been in school? I didn't know. 

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Jonquilyn Hill: L
​ abone is not just the school social worker. He's also Payne's 
homelessness liaison. So, in addition to his job, he also keeps track of unhoused kids 
and makes sure the school is meeting their needs. One of his responsibilities is to 
keep an eye on school attendance. If a student has missed three, five and then 10 
days of school, school staff is supposed to intervene. We really wanted to interview 
Labone, but officials at D.C. Public Schools really didn't want us to talk with him. They 
delayed and delayed and then finally denied our interview request. 

Quotes from Labone Workman: Q

​ uiet kids sometimes don't get the notice, and 
that's how she was.  

Jonquilyn Hill: B
​ ut in 2015, Labone did speak with The Washington Post. We asked 
one of our colleagues to read his quotes from that interview. Labone had seen 
excuse notes for Relisha. And this is when our investigation gets murky and 
complicated. 

The school got a number of notes excusing Relisha's absence. According to The 
Washington Post, at least one doctor's note was given to the school by Relisha's 
grandmother Melissa. And that note said Relisha was out sick and it included the 
doctor's phone number. When we asked the police to verify who wrote and 
delivered the notes. They declined, saying that they can't provide this amount of 
detail about an open and active case. Melissa says she didn't write or deliver any 
notes excusing Relisha from school. Labone says at the time he didn't think anything 
was amiss. 

Quotes from Labone Workman: I​ 've heard of doctors taking a special interest in 
patients. I was glad someone was trying to help her. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​And I said so, OK, so you talked to her doctor? He was like, yes, so 
ok cool, that's fine. 

Jonquilyn Hill: A​ t the time, Antonio was working a job in Pennsylvania. So, he was 
back and forth a lot and probably not up to speed with what was going on with the 
kids. Labone told The Washington Post that he and the doctor exchanged phone 
calls several times over the next week. The doctor told Labone that he was treating 
Relisha for "neurological issues" and that Labone should fax him the dates when 
Relisha missed school so that he could write the excuse notes. Labone told the Post 
that, in retrospect, the doctor sounded, quote... 

Quotes from Labone Workman: N

​ ot doctor-ish. 

Jonquilyn Hill: .​ ..on the phone. 

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On March 19th, the heat wasn't working in half of Payne Elementary. Labone 
happened to take a phone call with the doctor from the principal's office where the 
heat was working. And, the principal told him to go get the excuse note directly from 
the doctor. But, Labone didn't know where the doctor's office was. So he went to the 
shelter and started asking around. The doctor's name was Tatum. So Labone asked 
the shelter employees, where was this Dr. Tatum? He was told, No, there's no Dr. 
Tatum here. But there was a janitor whose name was Tatum. 

This is the moment when the first city official in Relisha's life realized something 
wasn't right. And I think it's worth asking, why didn't someone at the school notice 
sooner? I didn't get to ask that question, but I think I know the answer. There were a 
lot of kids living at D.C. General, and most, if not all went to Payne Elementary. So, 
Labone was keeping tabs on a lot of children.  

Once Labone realized something was up, he took action immediately. He called the 
city hotline for child abuse. 

That same day the police got involved and Labone was at the shelter when 
detectives began questioning Relisha's family. Antonio arrived in the middle of the 
chaos. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​When I walked in, he was asking do I know a Dr. Tatum. And I 
said, no, I don't know a Dr. Tatum, I know Mr. Tatum. Then he looked at me with a 
like, with a stupid look on his face like, "Oh, shit." 

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ ntonio says this was the first time he'd heard that the note excusing 
Relisha had the name Tatum on it. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​Me and him had a dispute because he told me everything was 
fine, but he never told me who wrote it. 

Jonquilyn Hill: S
​ o at this time, no one knows where Relisha is, not her family, not the 
school, but everyone thinks she's with Kahlil Tatum. 

Antonio told us something very strange and inexplicable. When the police were still 
there questioning everyone in that conference room at the shelter, he says he went 
outside for a smoke. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​So I had to be escorted out because they wouldn't let me outta 
they sight for some reason. "Y'all come outside with me so I can smoke a cigarette?" 

By this time, I'm nervous. And by this time I didn't, I didn't know what was going on. 
All I know is she was supposed to be at aunt's house, but somehow Tatum got her. 

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So, I'm outside scratching my head, smoking a cigarette and I see Tatum. He's 
pushing his cart. I'm not gonna never forget. Pushing his cart. 

Jonquilyn Hill: H
​ is janitor's cart. Something you would see him do every day outside 
the shelter. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​And I asked. I said, "Mr. Tatum, they talkin' 'bout Relisha missing." 

He like, "Who?" 

"Police! Like, where my daughter at?" 

"Oh, no, no, no, she's at my house with my wife. I'mma go get her right now. I ain't 
tryin' to keep your daughter." 

Those were his words with me. 

"I'm not trying to keep your daughter." 

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ fter this encounter, Antonio says he went back to the conference 
room. 

Jonquilyn Hill: D
​ id the police know he said that to you? 

Antonio Wheeler: ​I told them. You know, the police got on me. "Why you alarm 
him? You know, we already had this in play.” 

I'm like, I wasn't supposed to say nothing? Y'all didn't tell me not to say nothing. But 
I think any parent woulda asked where they child was at. 

Jonquilyn Hill: T​ here's a lot here that makes me skeptical. If police went outside with 
Antonio, why didn't they also see Tatum pushing his cart? When Antonio went back 
inside and told them they had just seen Tatum, why didn't police rush out and 
apprehend him? I don't think Antonio is necessarily making up what he saw, but I 
also can't fact check it. The police declined our interview requests. 

We do know that on this day, March 19th, the first missing posters for Relisha Rudd 
were made. 

After the break, everyone in the shelter finds out that Relisha is missing. We'll be 
right back. 

– 

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Jonquilyn Hill: T
​ here's more to Through The Cracks than what you hear on the 
podcast. On our website, you'll find photos of Relisha and transcripts of every 
episode. You can also sign up for our email list where I share behind-the-scenes 
stories about making the show. If you subscribe, you'll be the first to hear about 
future seasons of the podcast. So head to our website, 
WAMU.org/ThroughTheCracks, and thanks. 

– 

Jamila Larson: Y
​ eah, so it was the most surreal time ever. 

Jonquilyn Hill: O​ n the day Relisha's disappearance made the news, Jamila Larson, 
who runs the Playtime Project at the shelter, happened to have a meeting with one 
of the police lieutenants to discuss a different case. 

Jamila Larson: T ​ he story just broke that morning, and so I was able to leave that 
meeting with a stack of FBI fliers with Kahlil Tatum, the suspect, on them. And we 
went straight to D.C. General and started putting them up everywhere because it 
was, like, the one thing that we felt like we could do with our grief and anxiety. And, 
within hours, the fliers were taken down, allegedly by staff - former colleagues of 
Kahlil Tatum in the shelter. So it was a very, very tense, very scary environment.  

Jonquilyn Hill: S
​ helter employees apparently didn't believe that Kahlil Tatum had 
anything to do with Relisha's disappearance. But word was out anyway. And many of 
the children who lived in the shelter were on edge. 

Jamila Larson: T ​ he kids were obviously extremely anxious because it's like the worst 
nightmare come true. Like, a man who you know, who has keys to your room, is 
accused of doing the worst thing possible. And I remember many kids coming 
home from the metro, from school. They would come running up to us and say, did 
they find her yet? Did they find her yet? There's just this palpable anxiety that you 
could just feel in the air still. 

Jonquilyn Hill: K
​ ahlil Tatum - no one could believe he was involved. 

Jamila Larson: A​ lot of the teens had known him and some of them even referred 
to him affectionately as their godfather as well, and had a really hard time 
believing that he would do something like that. 

So, we heard a lot from families that he didn't necessarily have the creepy vibe that 
you would maybe expect and that he really endeared himself to a lot of residents, 
like a lot of predators actually do. And then, some parents had super acute parental 
instincts and were really suspicious of the gifts and things that he had offered their 
kids. But the teens were feeling really conflicted because, again, like they had a 

8
hard time wrapping their head around, how could this man that we trusted and 
seen, who was nice to us, do something like that? 

Jonquilyn Hill: N
​ obody apparently saw anything seriously wrong with Kahlil Tatum. 
He was a trusted member of the shelter staff. Yes, there were a few parents who 
thought that his generosity might have been a little odd, but otherwise there were 
no obvious red flags. 

Alexis Kelly:​ I don't want you to think that I was not really feeling him. 

Jonquilyn Hill: F
​ or Alexis, Tatum's wife's adult daughter, her view of Tatum changed 
March 20th.  

Alexis was at work, scrolling through Instagram, and saw a picture of her mom's car 
(the new one). She says she wouldn't have recognized it, but it was next to a car she 
did recognize because it had the vanity plate KAHLIL. The Instagram post was asking 
for more information about Relisha Rudd, a missing girl she had never met. 

After she saw the post, Alexis and a coworker got in a car and drove to the home her 
mother shared with Kahlil Tatum - to try to figure out what was going on. She knew 
it was unlikely that Andrea would be there. She'd called Alexis to say she was staying 
at a hotel because her heat was out. When Alexis got to Andrea's home, she found 
that the police were standing at the door. They said it was a crime scene and that no 
one was inside. They let Andrea go in to look around the unit and she saw nothing 
was out of place. Then one officer took her aside. 

Alexis Kelly: S​ o, he kind of talked around the situation. So at this point, I'm getting 
nervous. I'm like, where's my mom? So he was like, they were at a hotel, which I 
knew they were at a hotel because her heat was out and my mom was anemic and 
she didn't like being cold. So she left the house to go to the hotel until her heat was 
fixed. So he's like, she was at the hotel. I said, I'm aware. Where is she now? 

So he's like, well, when we got to the hotel, there was someone, there was someone 
suffering. He said there was someone laying in the bed. And he said, we pulled the 
covers back and it was your mom, she was suffering from a gunshot wound. So I'm 
like, okay, if she was suffering from a gunshot wound, like, where is she? Like, is she 
at the hospital? Did she make it, like what? What? Where is she? At this point, I'm 
panicking. He's like, calm down. It's OK. 

I said, look me in my face. And I'm going to look in your face and I need you to be 
honest with me. I said, Is my mom dead? And he looked at me, and he said yes. And 
everything else went numb after that. 

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I got out of the car and my coworker said, like, I fell in the middle of the street. She 
picked me up in the middle of the street, she set me on the curb. And first thing that 
was going through my head was like, my son was supposed to be with her that 
night. And I have no doubt in my mind that he would have killed my son. 

Then a second thing is like, my mom is gone, like she's really gone. And I could not 
wrap my head around that. I could not wrap my head around it, and every time, like 
I constantly called her phone, kept calling her phone, calling her phone. Just like, 
she's gonna answer, she's gonna answer. And she never answered. 

And that was like...Yeah, it was...that was the hardest day of my life. 

Jonquilyn Hill: A
​ lexis told me again and again that the Karl she grew up with and 
the Kahlil Tatum on the news did not seem like they were the same person. But in 
hindsight, she remembered that she and her mom sensed a change earlier that 
year. 

Alexis Kelly: O
​ ne time, he asked her if he could get a gun. 

My mom's like, you're a convicted felon. How are you gonna get a gun? Like, how 
you gonna do that? You can't just go to a gun store and say, hey, I'm a convicted 
felon, I need a weapon. So I feel like he already had this weapon. And my mom, she 
was terrified of guns. So I feel like, he already had this weapon in the house. He just 
was trying to get her to agree to it before he told her it was there. So had we gone 
to the house to see if it was there, we probably would've found the weapon that he 
killed her with. 

I don't know if he became this monster when he came home or when he started 
working at the shelter, or it was always there. But that's just not who I saw. 

Jonquilyn Hill: K
​ ahlil Tatum died before he could be arrested and charged. But 
Alexis doesn't need a trial. She's certain that Tatum killed her mother. And even 
though she's still very much grieving, she's forgiven him. She says she's had dreams 
about Tatum and her mom and that these dreams have brought her some peace. 

But what happened? It's fundamentally changed her. 

Alexis Kelly: I​ t definitely made trusting people hard. It made loving people hard. I 
just didn't want to be loved the way that Karl loved my mom. Because I felt like if 
someone can love you the way that I know he loved my mom and can still kill you, 
like, I don't want that. I don't want that kind of love. So much that they feel that they 
can't live without me, or they don't want me in this world without them, or I don't 
want someone to think maybe she had something to do with this and she may 

10
have to suffer consequences for what I've done, so let me kill –I don't want that type 
of love. So trusting and loving has definitely been difficult. 

It's definitely been difficult. 

Jonquilyn Hill: I​ n the search for Relisha Rudd, the discovery of Andrea's body added 
an extreme urgency to the search for Kahlil Tatum. Before, he was a person of 
interest in a girl's disappearance. Now, he was the primary suspect in a homicide. 

His car was still at that hotel. But no one knew where he was or where Relisha was. 

Antonio Wheeler: ​Then they were like, she wasn't there. But we found Kahlil wife 
with a gunshot wound to the head, dead in the room. The TV was left on cartoon's 
though. 

Jonquilyn Hill: N
​ ext time on Through The Cracks, the search for Relisha. 

Jackie Benson: ​Oh, we had no idea she was missing. I believe that she was 
declared missing that day. We had no idea this child was missing since February, 
nor apparently did a lot of other people, including people who were responsible for 
her.  

Jonathan Rosnick: ​You know, we were literally like ping-ponging with Kahlil Tatum. 
He'd be somewhere and we'd be there right after him. There was this, like, cat and 
mouse chase that was going on where we were like right, right there. 

Derrica Wilson: ​Before we were able to really get into the meat-and-potatoes of 
the search, it concluded within about, I would say, 40 minutes. Because that's when 
Tatum's body was discovered. 

Jonquilyn Hill: T ​ hrough The Cracks is a production of WAMU and PRX. This podcast 
was made possible in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private 
corporation funded by the American people and also by the Fund for Investigative 
Journalism. Patrick Fort is our producer. Ruth Tam is our digital editor. Poncie 
Rutsch is our senior producer. Special thanks to Greg Wynn for reading quotes for 
us. Our editor is Curtis Fox. Mike Kidd mixed this episode, Osei Hill designed our logo. 
Monna Kashfi oversees all the content we make here at WAMU. You can find out 
more about the show, look at photos of Relisha and read transcripts of our episodes 
at WAMU.org/ThroughTheCracks. You can also sign up for email updates. That way 
you'll be the first to know when we drop a new episode or bonus content. This 
podcast would not be possible without the generosity of listeners like you. To 
support the investigative reporting that powers Through The Cracks, give at 
WAMU.org/SupportThroughTheCracks. 

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I'm Jonquilyn Hill. We'll be back next Thursday with another episode. Thanks for 
listening. 

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