Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Jonquilyn Hill: E
very morning, around 10:30, I get a text from my mom. It's usually
along the lines of "Good morning, how are you?" We used to talk about what we
were up to that day. My hair appointment or a workout class my dad's taking at the
Y. Now, she asks how I'm doing on staples like toilet paper or talks to me about the
latest headlines.
One time, though, I forgot to answer her text. I was at work writing a script and I got
really caught up. My phone was set to Do Not Disturb. Around 1:30, she called my
desk phone and my coworker answered.
"Your mom called, LOL," my coworker messaged me. "She says to text her."
Not everyone has this relationship with their mom. I get that. But what about their
coworkers or their friends? Their roommates? Everyone has someone who would
notice their absence. The question is, how long would it take?
This is what I think about every time I think about Relisha Rudd.
Relisha Rudd disappeared nearly seven years ago in 2014. She was eight years old.
She was a second grader at Payne Elementary School in southeast D.C. By the time
the city formally declared Relisha as missing, 18 days had passed since the last time
she'd been seen at school or in the shelter.
Relisha Rudd: T
he shelter gives us a place to stay.
Relisha Rudd: S
ay it louder?
Jonquilyn Hill: E
veryone in Relisha's life has a slightly different memory of where she
was in the days before she went missing. She was in an aunt's care or her mom's
care. She was at school or with a doctor. D.C. police began an intense search for her
and the whole city took note.
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Jonquilyn Hill: R
elisha's story stuck with me throughout the years. And I'm not the
only one in D.C. who still thinks about her. People all over the city were fixated on
finding her long after the trail went cold. Years after her disappearance, I saw her
photo on a missing poster at Union Station.
Relisha Rudd: A
ll kids need a place to play.
Relisha Rudd: A
ll kids need a place to play.
Jonquilyn Hill: T
his is the only known recording of Relisha Rudd's voice.
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, like Relisha.
Patrick Madden, WAMU: H ow can you have a young girl abducted at a shelter
that's run by the city and apparently she's taken by an employee of the city who
works at this shelter. How does that happen before anyone notices?
Jamila Larson, Playtime Project: T he city never was all in to say, you know, this is a
family shelter, let's make the best of it. Let's make it safe, let's make it bright. And
that really wasn't the case and that was very clear.
Jonquilyn Hill: M
onths after Relisha went missing, the city said that there was
nothing they could have done to prevent it. So, on the first season of Through The
Cracks, that's what we're investigating. We're trying to figure out if anything could
have stopped Russia's disappearance. We'll look at the world she grew up in. Her
school. The shelter where she lived. Her family.
Antonio Wheeler: Last thing I remember was Relisha telling me she's coming back.
She's going to her aunt's house. She never came back.
Jonquilyn Hill: I moved to D.C. back in 2009 to go to Howard University. I wanted to
go to a historically Black college and to live in a big city. And, not just any city –
Chocolate City. D.C. was definitely less chocolate by the time I got here, it was once
over 70 percent Black. Now the Black population hovers around 46 percent.
There's a lot of stuff I didn't know at first, like the crazy amounts of gentrification that
I saw happen in real time. Or the very stark intraracial class divides that determine
how you're treated and what you have access to. Even with all of that, you can still
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feel the soul of the city. There are pockets here where Black people can live and work
and love and just be – as the default. That's one of the reasons that this story sticks
with me. If there's any place little Black girls should be cared for, it's here.
Relisha had a lot of adults in her life. There was Relisha's mom, her grandmother,
extended family. And there were teachers at the school and staff members at the
shelter. There was also her stepdad, Antonio Wheeler.
Antonio Wheeler: She's like, "I'm hungry, I'm hungry," So I said, I'm going to fix her
something to eat. I fixed all the kids something to eat. But she's picky.
Jonquilyn Hill: A
ntonio is now 34 years old. He'd look a lot younger than that if it
weren't for his goatee. He's tall and skinny, and although he's tired from his
overnight shift as a cook, he's still animated. He talks with his hands a lot and
sometimes accidentally hits the table that sits between us. He really wanted to let
me know that being a dad is important to him. He still remembers the first time
Russia saw him as a father figure.
Antonio Wheeler: So she picked some noodles and I fixed the noodles. She [said],
"Oh my God, these noodles are so good, Daddy. Aren't you my daddy?" I was, I was
stuck because she was two, you know. That's when I first met her, she was just
turning two, so I was stuck. I never know what to say. I didn't, I actually didn't
respond to that until, like, a day later.
Jonquilyn Hill: W
hen she met Antonio, Relisha's mom, Shamika, had two children,
Relisha and her little brother. Shamika and Antonio had two more kids together,
Relisha's youngest brothers.
Antonio Wheeler: She like riding bikes with her brothers, she liked to race her
brothers. She used to always win the races on their bikes. She liked to play Big Sister.
Well, not play. She was a big star. She was the oldest sibling. But she was a really
good big sister. Like, she would get on her brothers when they be acting out.
Jonquilyn Hill: T
he family of six lived in an apartment in Congress Heights in
southeast D.C. Despite the name, it's nowhere near Capitol Hill. It's a majority Black
neighborhood and low income. Like a lot of neighborhoods east of the Anacostia
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River. In 2013, the family was evicted from their apartment. That's when they moved
into D.C. General, a huge city shelter for families. It was right near a soccer stadium, a
jail and a methadone clinic. At the time of Relisha's disappearance, Antonio was
working on a construction job in Pennsylvania. So, he was in and out of town quite a
bit. He says he was heading back to the shelter after running an errand when he
found out Relisha was missing.
Antonio Wheeler: As I'm getting closer to the shelter, I have a vibe like something's
not right.
So everytime I get these vibes – get sweaty, my hands get to shaking. So I slice me a
cigarette. And, I'm standing outside the shelter, I get off the bus, light my cigarette.
The director come to me and say, "You need to come upstairs with me right now.
You put that cigarette out." So I'm like, "What you talking to me like that. I'm
smoking my cigarette."
"No, Mr. Wheeler. Come on. Please. Put the cigarette out.".
I'm like, "okay." Thought she was being disrespectful. So I went, "okay."
Jonquilyn Hill: A ntonio was annoyed, but then he heard the urgency in the
director's voice.
He just asked me. "You really need to come upstairs because Ms. Young is not
cooperating with the police. They're saying they don't know where Relisha is." So I
looked at her, she looked at me. So I'm like, "What you mean?"
Jonquilyn Hill: M
s. Young is, of course, Relisha's mom, Shamika. She was already in
the conference room along with a few detectives, but she wasn't cooperating.
Antonio Wheeler: And a detective told me to ask Shamika what's going on. So I'm,
"Shamika, what's going on?" She just, [sighs]. The detective said, "Mr. Wheeler, you
know where your daughter is?".
I was like, "Y'all stop playing with me. She's at Ashley's house." You know? So they
were like, "Are you sure?" And I said, "Yeah. Why, what's up?"
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"Shamika, what they talking about?".
These whole FBI agents are detectives, so I asked, "Can you please send someone
over to Ashley's house?"
Ashley Young: W
hen the weekends came and they was in a shelter, my niece and
my nephews, all of them was at my home. They call my home baby bootcamp.
Jonquilyn Hill: A
shley is Shamika's younger sister. Relisha's aunt. The detectives
went directly from the shelter to Ashley's house, also in southeast D.C.
Ashley Young: T hey came to my door. They had their guns drawn and they asked
me, did they have permission to search because Relisha was missing and I gave
them permission to come in, to look around and basically to feel free to see that she
was not at my home.
Jonquilyn Hill: A
nd she wasn't. Relisha was not at Ashley's house.
Ashley Young: F rom that moment, that's when I found out that she was missing. I
didn't even know that she was gone.
Jonquilyn Hill: A
shley hadn't seen Relisha either. For about 18 days.
The extended family, especially Relisha, spent a lot of time at Ashley's house. So
when the police came, there were other kids there. Relisha's little brothers and their
cousins and Ashley's mother, Relisha's grandmother. She hadn't seen Relisha either.
Jonquilyn Hill: M
elissa Young has a very clear memory of this day, March 19th, 2014.
Melissa Young: T
hey didn't even really feel like spring. It felt more like the beginning
of summer versus the spring coming in.
Jonquilyn Hill: S
he remembers the police took her from Ashley's place to the shelter.
Antonio and Shamika were still there in the same conference room talking to
detectives.
Melissa Young: I didn't know what was going on. The police officer..."You know, your
granddaughter Relisha Rudd is missing."
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"Yes, she is, ma'am."
Jonquilyn Hill: S
o, let's stop here for a minute before I tell you about Kahlil Tatum.
I know how this must seem. How could a family lose track of a child for 18 days? How
does that happen? Well, one way to think about it is, it's a really extreme example of
something that can happen in a big, extended family. One parent is out of town. The
other is busy with the other kids. The aunt and the grandmother are doing their
thing. Wires get crossed. You forget which parent is picking up which kid from
where on what day. Or, think a child is with friend one when she's really with friend
two. And most of the family thought they knew where she was. With Kahlil Tatum.
Tatum was a janitor at D.C. General. A friend of the family. Sometimes he and his wife
would look after Relisha. Her family says that she was friends with Tatum's
granddaughter and the two girls would play together. From Melissa's point of view,
Tatum and his wife were just another part of the village taking care of Relisha and
other kids at the shelter, too.
Melissa Young: W henever she went, she came and told everything they did, who
she was with, who she did it with, everything. She never had nothing negative to say
about him, his wife or nobody else.
Jonquilyn Hill: A ll the family members I talked to had an opinion about Kahlil Tatum.
It's complicated. We'll get into it more in a later episode. Just know that some people
in her life did think the arrangement was a little weird. Why would anyone trust a
shelter staff member to take care of their kid?
Also, the shelter had a policy. Staff members were not supposed to have social
relations with clients. On the other hand, what reason did they have not to trust
Tatum? He was a reliable shelter employee and Relisha seemed perfectly happy
spending time with him and his wife. And Shamika said that everything was fine and
everyone knew that when it came to Relisha's care, Shamika was in charge.
Antonio and Shamika split up after Relisha went missing. We've asked Shamika for
an interview, but she hasn't sat down with us. I get it. When Relisha first went
missing, she was interviewed on TV a lot and people blame her for Relisha's
disappearance. Even now. Some people seeing her in the street even try to jump her.
So while we would like to speak with her, we also get why she's declined our
requests.
Okay, back to Khalil Tatum. Ashley had met him, too. In fact, Kahlil had picked
Relisha up from Ashley's house before.
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Ashley: It's been a minute, so I don't remember the exact date, but all I do
remember is he came to pick up an Easter dress for her to go get some shoes. And
she was at my home and I was told that he will be picking her up, too.
And I know I shouldn't fault myself as her aunt, but I asked myself, what could I
have done better for her not to be missing? What could I have done for her not to
be in this situation?
TV anchor #2: T
he little girl was last seen with Kahlil Tatum, a janitor at the local
homeless shelter where she lived.
Jonquilyn Hill: R
elishals disappearance hit the news almost immediately and the
search began. Investigators knew that she was most likely with Kahlil Tatum, so they
started trying to figure out where he was. Then came the shocker. In a Red Roof Inn,
just outside of D.C., in Maryland, police found the body of Kahlil Tatum's wife, Andrea.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier: Shortly after the homicide of Mr. Tatum's wife in
Prince George's County on March 20th, 2014. We have not had additional confirmed
sightings of Mr. Tatum.
Jonquilyn Hill: A
fter that, there was a hotline for tips about where Relisha and
Tatum might be. TV news stations played grainy security footage of the two of them
walking down a hotel hallway and going into a room. The video was recorded back
in February before Relisha was formally declared missing.
Jonquilyn Hill: A t the time, I was working my first job out of college. I was a desk
assistant at NBC's Washington bureau and they shared a building with NBC4, the
local affiliate station. I didn't realize it then, but reporter Jackie Bensen was on the
other side of the building hard at work on the story of Alicia's disappearance during
this video.
Jackie Bensen, NBC4: . ..we're going to show you just grips at your heart. It shows
how small and defenseless an eight year old is.
Jonquilyn Hill: I recently got a hold of Jackie on Zoom and asked her about covering
Relisha's disappearance.
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She got the job done, but sometimes it was hard.
Jackie Bensen, NBC4: E specially seeing that video from the motel with Tatum
holding her hand and how I had children that were not that much older at the time.
Usually when a child, you know, you're at a hotel or a motel, it's a new place. They're
all, you know, kind of excited to look around and see what this is. And I just
remember her staring straight ahead at her eyes looked so flat and I realized that
this is an eight-year-old child. It's something she's already aware of, that something
awful is happening to her and that it is likely to get worse or continue. And I just, it
ripped my heart apart.
Jonquilyn Hill: O
ver the next week or so, more details about Relisha's disappearance
came into focus. Relisha had missed more than 30 days of school that year. Some
absences were excused, some weren't. School officials say that they were told several
times that she was in the care of a doctor, a doctor by the name of Tatum.
But they never realized that Tatum was actually a janitor at the shelter.
Mark Segraves, NBC 4: R elisha Rudd, her mother and her three brothers all lived
here at the D.C. General shelter for about 18 months. Kahlil Tatum was a janitor
here. Tatum has an extensive criminal record that spans from 1993 to 2004.
Jonquilyn Hill: M
eanwhile, Relisha's family was struggling to figure out what had
happened.
Were you and your sister talking about it, were you and your mom talking about it?
Were you guys getting together about it?
Ashley Young: I do remember it was tough on the family. All of us was at each
other's neck. We wasn't staying together. We was all pointing fingers because we
felt like each other was at fault, even when certain individuals was not at fault.
Jonquilyn Hill: E
ven today, different members of the family have different theories
about what went wrong.
Antonio Wheeler: I think she was at Ashley's house. I think she went missing from
Ashley house.
Jonquilyn Hill: T
his is Antonio again.
Antonio Wheeler: And the reason why I say that is because that's where the kids is
always at, when they wasn't at the shelter. They was Ashley's house.
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Jonquilyn Hill: O
ver the next week or so, the search continued, for both Relisha and
Kahlil Tatum.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier: Relisha was in the company of Mr. Tatum with the
permission of her mother. On March 2nd, we know that Mr. Tatum purchased,
among other items, a carton of black, 42-gallon self-tie contractor trash bags within
the District of Columbia. Not long after that purchase, Mr. Tatum was in the area of
the aquatic gardens for a period of time.
Jonquilyn Hill: T
hen a few days later, in a shed in Kenilworth Park in northeast D.C.,
they found Khalil Tatum. According to police, he was dead from a self-inflicted
gunshot wound. Police said that the bullet came from the same gun that had killed
his wife.
NBC 4 Washington TV anchor: D espite searches by land, air and water, there's
been no sign of the eight year old girl…
Shomari Stone, NBC 4: Well, good evening, yellow crime scene tape like this right
here surrounds Kenilworth Park.
TV anchor #3: There has still been no sign of Relisha and searchers have not given
up hope.
Jonquilyn Hill: A
fter the break, the community's long search for Relisha.
–
Jonquilyn Hill: L
ots of people came out to search for. People who didn't know her
and people who did. Shannon Smith was her cheerleading coach in first grade.
Shannon Smith: We were over by Kenilworth Avenue in the park and we walked
through the park.
Some of the park police would be out there with us and we would split up and
everybody would just be out there walking until we just couldn't walk no more
trying to find her.
Jonquilyn Hill: A
ntonio tried to join the search parties, but he stopped when he
started getting threats. A few weeks before Relisha disappeared, Antonio posted
some pictures on his Facebook timeline. There was a photo of him with a wad of
money in his mouth and pictures of new shoes he and Shamika had bought for the
boys. Antonio told me the wad was his tax return money. The pictures were taken in
early February, weeks before he knew Relisha was missing. Some people didn't
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square the timeline of Relisha's disappearance with the date of the photos, and they
started posting stuff like this online.
It's pretty clear in my mind that her parents sold her to this Tatum guy.
I have no sympathy.
Antonio Wheeler: Like I said, I had people in my inbox, on Facebook and people on
Instagram calling, just calling me all types of pedophiles and rapists and all that. I
hate to say... I hate the people in it. I deal with 'em.
Jonquilyn Hill: T
he attacks on social media were just one affliction. D.C.'s Child and
Family Services Agency had also taken custody of Antonio and Shamika's other kids.
Jonquilyn Hill: I lost my kids. Relisha's missing, don't know where she is. A bunch of
lies going on my name. I was really angry at a time. So if I was assaultin' people, it
wouldn't have been pretty or somebody would got hurt really, really bad.
Jonquilyn Hill: O
n April 3rd, about two weeks after it began, the city's official search
concluded. They hadn't found Relisha. No one knew if she was dead or alive. But
people close to Relisha are still looking. There are even some Facebook groups still
dedicated to finding her.
Antonio Wheeler: For the first year I didn't have a job. I would drink a lot of alcohol. I
would smoke a lot of cigarettes. Never...sleep less. I would eat less for a whole year.
So it was hard for the first year. It was hard. Even with my kids being in foster care, it
was really hard. Eating, sleeping. Just trying to get up in the morning. Just wanted
to lay there all day. Then when I was up, I went, found myself at the liquor store,
buying liquor, buying cigarettes, you know. Smoking marijuana. Tryna hide the
pain.
I'm just now coming to grips that I couldn't control a lot of things that I could. But
I'm still, I haven't really processed the fact that she – that Relisha is missing.
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Jonquilyn Hill: W
hen the search ended, the city started investigating itself, what
exactly went wrong here? Who was at fault for Relisha's disappearance? Was it her
parents, her school, the shelter system? Where did the breakdown happen?
It took the city six months to write the report. It's 12 pages long.
Here's a little bit from the preface: "the safety and well-being of any child is
ultimately the responsibility of his or her parents or legal guardians and family." It
goes on to say, "even if all the policy and practice recommendations in this report
had been in place and fully implemented, the review team did not find evidence that
these tragic events were preventable. I wanted to understand how the city arrived at
this conclusion, so I talked to Patrick Madden.
Now, he's regional news director at WWNO in New Orleans. But back in 2014, he was
a reporter here at WAMU and he covered Relisha's disappearance.
Patrick Madden, WAMU: I mean, how can you have a young girl abducted at a
shelter that's run by the city? And apparently she's taken by an employee of the city
who works at this shelter, is missing for weeks before people at the school get in
contact with family services. How does that happen before anyone notices? And if
you do read it and you read between the lines, it basically says almost like the
family's at fault here, like the family dropped the ball, the family wasn't doing this or
that. It has nothing to do with the conditions that were left to fester at D.C. General.
Why the city was putting these families into this place where they would be
vulnerable. Why was this Tatum guy allowed to work there, given his prior felony
convictions to work with the families there? I mean, it didn't address any of that.
Jonquilyn Hill: S
o does that seem like...
Patrick Madden: I think it's a CYA..."cover your ass." I think everyone realized they
effed up.
Jonquilyn Hill: Y
eah.
Patrick Madden: F rom the school when they had their student not there for a
number of weeks. To the CFSA, the Child Family Services Agency, to the mayor. I
mean, everyone, everyone and no one wanted to take responsibility for this. So I
think that's what this is.
Jonquilyn Hill: B
efore we keep going, these are serious claims against the city.
Vincent Gray was the mayor at the time and he ordered the report. He's now a
member of D.C. Council. We've reached out to his office multiple times for a
response and they said they'll get back to us. The offer still stands. Admittedly,
Relisha's disappearance was complex. The city was in a delicate position, ensuring
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the safety of people within its care without overpolicing their lives. We'll continue to
unpack the nuances of what this means throughout this season. And we'll keep
giving officials opportunities to speak with us.
Melissa Young: S
ure, why not? I'd rather you keep your shoes than look at my
carpet.
Jonquilyn Hill: O
h, you're fine.
Jonquilyn Hill: I t's been almost seven years since Relisha went missing. In the last
year, I've been visiting with family members to get their side of the story and just to
check in. Relisha's grandmother Melissa is a gatekeeper for the young family, their
matriarch. I've had to go through her to get to other members of the family. In her
apartment, there are always kids playing, food cooking, a TV on. When I visited, she
took me to her bedroom.
Melissa Young: R ight now, what you all are looking at is my dresser, that I
decorated with my granddaughter Relisha Rudd's picture that I done had now for
five years from the first event when she went missing. All her little teddy bears, like
this one right here, the elephant, is saying, I love you. That's her first teddy bear.
When she was like two, her father gave it to her on Valentine's.
Jonquilyn Hill: I 've gone to her home several times and each time she's added
something new to the tribute. Some of the items are Relisha's things. Her first baby
hat, a photo or a toy. Other times they represent milestones Relisha has missed. A
photo from a cousin's graduation or an uncle's funeral program.
Melissa Young: T
his is my dedication and my tribute to help deal with the situation.
Jonquilyn Hill: M
elissa still buys Relisha Christmas and birthday gifts every year, just
in case she comes home. They don't want her to come back and have nothing under
the tree.
Melissa Young: M ainly since she's older, I'm pretty much done bought her, you
know, jewelry with her name on it. I had to send that with my father, her great
granddad, so could nobody take it because her earrings was like real diamonds.
So she don't play with toys. She stopped playing with toys when she was eight, so I
say, well, OK. She like makeup now. Nail polish, stuff like that smell good. So I just
buy a little stuff dropping a little, it's like...what I call it? Her little treasure chest.
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Jonquilyn Hill: O
n this season of Through The Cracks, we'll explore the institutions
that touched Relisha Rudd's life. Her school, her family, the shelter, the city services
that supported her, what her life was like. In the next episode, we'll look into the lives
of her family and how they fell through the cracks, too.
Antonio Wheeler: I was Daddy when things got hard with the family, but when
things is easy and everybody wanted to do what they want to do and go out and
send the kids to this place and that place, I wasn't Daddy.
Jonquilyn Hill: A
nd later this season on Through The Cracks...
Lakia Barnett, former DC General resident: You know, why would we have to go
here? Look at this place, it's a old hospital. I'm just being transparent, old hospital.
And you guys got a bunch of families in here. Like, no.
Alexis Kelly, Tatum's stepdaughter: I don't know if he became this monster when
he came home or when he started working at the shelter or if it was always there.
But that's just not who I saw.
Beth Mellen Harrison, Legal Aid: I know you asked me, like, what more could she
have done? But I kind of want to focus instead on what more could the system do
for somebody like Ms. Young.
Natalie Wilson, Black and Missing: Relisha, if you hear us, we want you to know
that we will never, ever stop searching for you.
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
Rustch is our senior producer and I'm your host. Jonquilyn Hill. Our editor is Curtis
Fox. Mike Kidd mixed this episode. Osei Hill designed our logo. Monna Kashfi
oversees all the content we make at WAMU. You can find out more about the show
at WAMU.org/ThroughTheCracks. This week, we're sharing a timeline of the key
dates in Relisha's disappearance.
This podcast would not be possible without the generosity of listeners like you. To
support the investigative reporting that goes into Through The Cracks, give at
WAMU.org/SupportThroughTheCracks. Finally, this story has been in the works for a
long time, so we'd like to thank a few more folks who got us here. Stephanie Kuo,
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Julia Karron, Paige Osburn, Rupert Allman, Daisy Rosario, Phyllis Kim, Lindsay Foster
Thomas and the entire Project Catapult cohort. Thank you for the gift.
We'll be back next Thursday with another episode of Through The Cracks. Thanks for
listening.
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