Trial Reveals Missouri Mom Tries To Burn Daughter's Body in Farm After Beating Her to Death When Victim Woke Screaming

On Monday, Rebecca Ruud's trial for the disappearance and death of her autistic daughter, Savannah Leckie, began.

Leckie's corpse was found dismembered and burnt weeks later - the same day Ruud married her boyfriend, Robert Peat Jr., who has also been accused.

Missouri Mom Admits Killing Daughter

It is thought that Ruud burnt the corpse to cover up the murder after she "crushed up pills and placed them in a drink - possibly KoolAid or something similar," according to prosecutor Anthony Brown, who cited women who had been detained with Ruud.

In his opening comments, Brown stated that one of the three women informed him that Ruud acknowledged crushing hydrocodone and drugging Leckie. The defendant believed Savannah was dead and took her corpse to the fire pile to dispose of the evidence, Brown explained, according to The Sun.

Prosecutors said their claims are based in part on testimonies from three women imprisoned with Rudd, who allege the mother described them, unprompted, how she killed her "bratty child" in detail.

Rudd only had Savannah for a few months before reportedly murdering the girl because she wasn't receiving child support payments, which she feared would lead to the loss of her farm, according to authorities. Rudd's counsel maintained that the only factual element of the tale was Rudd burning Savannah's body, as per The Daily Beast.

Teen Reported Missing by Mom To Conceal the Crime

Ruud put Leckie for adoption shortly after her birth, and the adolescent grew up as the child of Tamille and David Leckie in Minnesota. Prosecutors claim that the teen's life began to fall apart after the parents divorced. Although Leckie and her biological mother had kept in touch over the years, she had just recently moved in with Ruud.

Yvette Duvall, Ruud's defense attorney, indicated that Leckie moved home with Ruud when she was 15 years old and that the girl seemed to enjoy her time on the farm that Ruud shared with her then-boyfriend (now-husband) Robert Peat Jr. at first.

According to prosecutor Anthony Brown, Leckie was on the autistic spectrum and had been diagnosed with depression and ADHD. Duvall, Ruud's defense counsel, also said the kid had a history of self-harm and had been hospitalized twice for suicide ideation.

Ruud earlier claimed that her daughter's mental status deteriorated when she moved home with her. "She tried to plunge herself into the flames a couple of days before Savannah departed," Ruud said. On July 20, 2017, Ruud reported her daughter missing, telling witnesses that she suspected Leckie had run away from home. Several days of searching followed the report.

However, in a tape Ruud took while meeting with possible legal counsel shortly after Leckie's teeth and bones were discovered on the property, Ruud stated that Leckie overdosed on narcotics on July 19, 2017, and that she then burned her.

According to criminal papers acquired by Oxygen.com, Ruud's now-husband, Peat, was arrested in September 2017 for Leckie's murder. In 2020, it was stated that Peat had become a state cooperating individual after handing over the tape his wife made while speaking with her lawyer.

Peat Jr., is reportedly likely to testify that Ruud and Leckie clashed over the teenager's homework just before Leckie's murder. The trial is anticipated to last through Wednesday, Oxygen.com reported.