Suspected Abductor's Body in Park at Least 36 Hours, Police Chief Says

The body of Kahlil Tatum, the suspected abductor of a missing 8-year-old girl, Relisha Rudd, was likely in a DC park for at least 36 hours, police said Tuesday afternoon.

"It's not an exact science," said Police Chief Cathy Lanier in a news conference from Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in northeast DC. "It appears he had been here for at least 36 hours but could have been here for several days." Police determined that Tatum killed himself.

Lanier also said on Tuesday that police are not ruling out that Relisha could be alive. She was last seen March 1 with Tatum, a 51-year-old janitor at the homeless shelter where Relisha had been living. 

The search continued in a DC park Tuesday for the abducted girl. "She could still be alive," Lanier said. "But we don't have a crystal ball... information is still coming in. All possibilities are still open."

Police had originally come to the park looking for a gravesite for the little girl, she said.

Police have 200 people working in the 700-acre park on day and night shifts searching the park and its ponds, using dogs, technology from the air and police and volunteers searching the grounds, shoulder to shoulder, Lanier said.

She said police will continue to search the park for another day or two.

Read Patch's earlier coverage:

UPDATE: Dead Man Found in Park 'Appears to Be' of Relisha Rudd, Police Say

UPDATE: Police Search DC Park for Missing 8-Year-Old Relisha Rudd

UPDATE: Police Say D.C. Man May Have Killed Missing Girl, Has Atlanta Ties

Video Released of Man Sought in Wife's Murder, Missing 8-Year-Old Girl

(UPDATED) AMBER ALERT: 8-Year-Old Girl Still Missing; Body of Woman Found