'The what-ifs are the worst': Adoptive mom of Ozark County teen opens up about homicide

The adoptive mother of an Ozark County teenager who was killed this summer said her daughter was a bright, loving girl who didn't deserve her fate.

Tamile Leckie-Montague, who adopted Savannah Leckie when the girl was 2 months old, told the News-Leader this week that she has spent the last two months grieving for Savannah and wondering what she could have done differently.

"You start speculating in your head, that's the hardest part," Leckie-Montague said. "The what-ifs are the worst."

In the summer of 2016, Leckie-Montague sent Savannah from Minnesota to Ozark County, Missouri, to live with Rebecca Ruud, who is Savannah's birth mother.

In August, Savannah's charred bones were found under a brush pile on Ruud's property. Last week, Ruud and her husband Robert Peat Jr. were indicted on murder charges.

The sordid details of the 16-year-old's death have attracted attention from news outlets across the country and abroad. There is also a Facebook page dedicated to discussing the case.

Leckie-Montague said her grief has been augmented by rumors swirling around the case and the threats she's received on social media.

Up until this week, Leckie-Montague has declined multiple interview requests. But she and her fiance Cary Steeves agreed to sit down with a News-Leader reporter on Sunday for a wide-ranging interview about Savannah's life in hopes of sharing more of Savannah's story and dispelling rumors about any wrongdoing on their part.

When Savannah was born in 2001, Leckie-Montague and her then-husband were neighbors with some of Savannah's biological family members.

Seeing that Ruud was struggling as a single mother, Leckie-Montague said she offered to adopt Savannah. 

Ruud eventually agreed to give Savannah up for adoption, but remained active in the girl's life, according to Leckie-Montague.

"It was a very open adoption," Leckie-Montague said.

Leckie-Montague said Savannah was diagnosed with ADHD and high-functioning autism and required almost constant attention.

There were laminated checklists in the family's showers, Leckie-Montague said, reminding Savannah to put shampoo in her hair, rinse the shampoo out and wash her body with soap.

When Savannah became a teenager, Leckie-Montague said, the once bubbly girl began having behavioral problems and was diagnosed with depression.

Leckie-Montague said Savannah would sometimes attack her siblings without provocation and she was hospitalized on two different occasions — once for cutting and once for possibly suicidal behavior.

"I was scared to death that she was going to try it again," Leckie-Montague said.

Leckie-Montague, who by then was divorced from Savannah's adopted father and in a relationship with Steeves, began searching for ways to help Savannah.

Unable to find an in-patient care facility for her daughter, Leckie-Montague said she began asking family members if they would be willing to care for Savannah on a trial basis.

That's when Ruud came forward and offered to bring Savannah with her back to Theodosia, Missouri, according to Leckie-Montague.

"Rebecca stepped up at that point," Leckie-Montague said. "She could see that Savannah really needed some help."

Leckie-Montague said she had regular contact with Savannah when the girl moved to rural Missouri. Although it was difficult being away from her daughter, Leckie-Montague said the change of scenery appeared to be helping Savannah. 

"Somehow going and getting this fresh start, it just completely reset her," Leckie-Montague said. "She was doing so well."

Leckie-Montague said she had no idea Savannah was suffering the abuse that authorities have now described in a probable cause statement used to charge Ruud with murder. Investigators say Ruud poured alcohol and salt in Savannah's wounds and forced the girl to roll around in a pigpen and bathe in a muddy pond.

"There were no signs," Leckie-Montague said.

Leckie-Montague said her parents visited Savannah in April and offered to bring her back to Minnesota, but the girl said she wanted to stay in Theodosia.

Leckie-Montague said she sent money to Ruud to pay for Savannah's expenses, but the timing was not always consistent since she had to wait for her child support check from Savannah's adopted father.

Ruud began complaining about finances last fall, according to Leckie-Montague.

The probable cause statement describes text messages Ruud allegedly sent Leckie-Montague saying: "It's to the point that I either need more help to care for her, or I can do nothing with her."

In mid-July, Leckie-Montague said, the communication stopped.

Leckie-Montague said several calls and text messages to Ruud went unreturned until July 20 when Ruud called to say Savannah was missing.

Authorities now believe the girl was dead by the time Ruud reported her missing.

Leckie-Montague said she panicked when she heard that Savannah was missing and sent information about her daughter to missing persons organizations across the country.

Leckie-Montague said she wanted to come down to Ozark County, but Sheriff Darrin Reed told her to remain in Minnesota in case Savannah was traveling there.

Leckie-Montague said the fact that she stayed away has opened her up to criticism from people following the case who have accused her of not caring about her daughter's disappearance.

Two weeks later, according to court documents, sheriff's office investigators found charred human remains in an area on Ruud's property where she told them she had been lighting "beacon fires" to help guide Savannah home.

Eventually, authorities confirmed the bones belonged to Savannah. Last week, Ruud and Peat (who got married during the investigation) were indicted on charges of murder, child abuse, tampering with evidence and abandonment of a corpse.

Ruud and Peat appeared in court on Monday as Steeves and Leckie-Montague sat in the courtroom.

Leckie-Montague said she has not been able to process the idea that her friend, Ruud, could be capable of killing Savannah, and that's why she felt it was important to be at Monday's arraignment.

"I need to look at her," Leckie-Montague said. "To me, there's no possibility that it wasn't her."

Leckie-Montague said she wanted to come down to Theodosia for Savannah's memorial service earlier this month, but she was told the sheriff's office could not guarantee her safety.

Safety has been a concern for Leckie-Montague over the last two months. She and Steeves share a joint Facebook account, and Steeves said the couple receives death threats from strangers on an almost daily basis.

In one of the search warrant applications for Ruud's property, a deputy wrote that Ruud told authorities she took Savannah in because Savannah could not get along with Steeves.

That information has been reported by several news outlets, but both Steeves and Leckie-Montague said it is not true.

"The relationship between Cary and Savannah has been a focus," Leckie-Montague said. "It had nothing to do with Cary."

In recent interviews with the News-Leader and the Ozark County Times, Sheriff Reed has said he is still in the beginning stages of his investigation and that he will travel to Minnesota to do further investigating there.

Reed said he wants to uncover any abuse Savannah might have suffered during her life.

Leckie-Montague and Steeves said the sheriff's statements have caused some people following the case to become suspicious of them.

"He keeps us in a negative light, either with what he doesn't say or what he alludes to," Leckie-Montague said.

Both Leckie-Montague and Steeves told the News-Leader that they did not abuse Savannah.

"This speculation on them moving their investigation up to Minnesota, to us, appears to be nothing more than a witch hunt, quite honestly," Steeves said. "Because there’s nothing up there for them to investigate."

Leckie-Montague said she's felt several different emotions over the last two months —sadness, anger, disbelief and numbness.

Lately, Leckie-Montague said she often finds herself looking through Savannah's old drawings and writings. She said Savannah was brilliant. 

"Awkward and quirky, and I say that lovingly," Leckie-Montague said. "She was just a light. That’s what I’ve always described her as is a little light."

Leckie-Montague said her goal now is to change the system so that parents of special needs children can have professional advocates that will help them navigate health care challenges and connect with resources that are available.

"I believe that she would want something good to come out of this," Leckie-Montague said.