Police search five homes for items in relation to Baby Ru homicide case

Friday, 10 November 2023

Detective Inspector Nick Pritchard gives an update about the homicide of Ruthless-Empire, including information about a vehicle of interest.

Police have searched five homes in the Wellington region for items linked to Baby Ru’s homicide.

Detective Inspector Nick Pritchard told a media conference on Friday that police were looking for items taken from the crime scene that they believed were deliberately removed.

The search warrants were carried out on the same day but police were not able to say whether any items had been found, to protect the investigation, a spokesperson said.

Police were also interested in any sightings by the public of a car — a light coloured Nissan Sentra seen at Hutt Hospital the night Baby Ru was taken to hospital.

Pritchard said the items taken from the crime scene were removed in a Nissan Sentra vehicle with the licence plate TE6972.

Police would like to hear from anyone who has seen the vehicle anywhere in the Wellington region and those who may have footage of the car.

Pritchard said police were most interested in video, CCTV or cellphone footage of the car between the morning of October 22 and the middle of the afternoon on October 24.

Police want to hear from anyone who may have seen the car in the Wellington region, especially those who may have video footage.

Police were also still talking to three people deemed persons of interest, who police believed had information relevant to the case.

The three people of interest were believed to have been in the car at the time it went to Hutt Hospital.

Pritchard said police were getting varying accounts and degrees of engagement from the three people of interest.

The house where Baby Ru lived in Taitā, Lower Hutt.

He outlined that Baby Ru had multiple head injuries that could have been caused up to 12 hours before his death, but police believed they were the morning of his death.

Ruthless-Empire Ahipene-Wall, or ‘Baby Ru’ died just shy of his second birthday – after he was taken to Hutt Hospital in Wellington in an unresponsive state.

Police said he died of blunt force trauma and had serious injuries and bruising on his body.

Pritchard said the injuries were not accidental. He was aware that a welfare check had been carried out on Baby Ru while he was in Waikato and there was nothing adverse in it.