Baby Ru killing: A neighbourhood that cannot forget
Saturday, 19 October 2024
Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find upsetting.
In suburban Lower Hutt sits an unspectacular house ‒ it has two bedrooms, one bathroom and a backyard framed by blossom trees.
In stark contrast to the bottles of alcohol that lined the window sills this time last year, the Taitā property is now pristine. Where the message “f… off” was once crudely scrawled on the windows in white marker, are now lace curtains.
Long gone are police in white forensics overalls, combing through the pastel yellow weatherboard bungalow and the blue tent on the back lawn.
With a lick of paint and a new carpet it’s as though nothing ever happened ‒ and the child born Ruthless Empire Ahipene-Wall has been forgotten. Twelve months ago the Poole St home was the scene of what police have called a horrifically violent crime.
Baby Ru, as he became known, was just three days away from his second birthday when he arrived at Hutt Hospital with a broken skull, having suffered blunt-force trauma.
By all accounts, he was a bright, smiley little boy with enchanting big brown eyes ‒ and a future ahead of him. But at some point during the morning of October 22, 2023, Ru sustained the violent injuries that would eventually kill him.
To date, no arrests have been made and whānau are seemingly no closer to knowing why they were burying a tiny body when they should have been hosting a birthday party.
The ‘house of horrors’
The new tenant of the Kāinga Ora-owned property, who The Post agreed not to name to protect his privacy, moved into the house with his teenage son in June.
“It’s better here than sleeping under a bridge. What went on in the house before us is very sad, but it was the people, not the place,” the tenant said.
“The house was empty for a while because no-one wanted to move in, thinking it was some kind of house of horrors. [Kāinga Ora] said three or four people turned it down before me,” he said.
In the year that’s passed, the property has been gutted and refurbished, and undergone a blessing.
“Everything is new. New carpet, new paint on the walls, new whiteware. I think it was in quite a bad way when the last people left.
“The neighbours were a bit frisky about who would want to live here after everything had happened, but I said they weren’t going to get no trouble out of me.”
Under its former tenants, the house had become a wreck within weeks, neighbours previously told The Post.
The carpet had been ripped up, window framing broken, and the house lined with rubbish strewn everywhere.
Three ‘persons of interest’
Throughout their investigation, police have been unequivocal ‒ there were three people in the house at the time Ru sustained his fatal injuries.
Various social media posts from those in the house at the time have asserted their own innocence, while pointing the finger of blame elsewhere. But all three ‒ understood to be Rosie Morunga and Dylan Ross, and Ru’s mother, Storm Wall ‒ are considered “persons of interest” by police.
Wall is understood to have been living at the address for a couple of weeks only before Ru’s death. In the year that has passed she has given at least three accounts of what happened on the morning of October 22.
First, she said Ru had choked on his breakfast. Four days later, she claimed on social media her son had been “murdered”, but wouldn’t say by whom. A week later she returned to her original assertion that Ru had choked, but was “drowsy” the night before.
She is last reported to have said that she saw the moment Ru suffered blunt force trauma to his head and that she has told police this.
Meanwhile, Morunga was given an 18-month jail sentence in September for a raft of charges unrelated to Ru’s death, including assault and theft.
While police previously wouldn’t answer how many calls they had received about the Poole St house since Morunga and Ross moved in, a neighbour said he had called police about 15 times and Kāinga Ora about 30 times.
Ru’s uncle is also understood to have contacted Oranga Tamariki with concerns about his living conditions.
Police have previously said the “co-operation of our three people of interest is vital to us understanding the truth of what happened to Baby Ru, and ultimately holding those responsible to account”.
‘Critical’ missing evidence
In the weeks of Ru’s death, disturbing details began to emerge.
While neither contributed to his death ‒ with police remaining steadfast in their assertion that he died from severe head injuries ‒ Ru had wet wipes in his mouth and a “piece of fabric” tied in a knot around his neck when he arrived at hospital.
“The fact that such an item was around his neck is incredibly concerning and we appeal for information from anyone who has seen this item or what it was used for,” lead investigator Detective Inspector Nick Pritchard said after the revelation.
What caused the blunt-force trauma to Ru’s head remains a mystery, with police previously saying they believe it was either inflicted by a weapon, or by slamming his skull against a hard floor or table.
Police have also said that in the hours after Ru was injured, there was a calculated effort to remove evidence and “clean and alter the crime scene”.
In early November, the investigation team appealed for sightings of a grey-green 1994 Nissan Sentra with the registration TE6972 from the morning of Sunday, October 22 through to the afternoon of Tuesday, October 24.
After Ru was taken to hospital and before police were able to secure the scene, police allege the Nissan travelled to and from the Poole St address three times and was used to dispose of “items of interest”.
The following month, police appealed for sightings of a swatch of duvet cover, a power back-up unit and a hard drive, which investigators believe contains CCTV footage from the time Ru suffered the fatal injuries to his head.
“We believe the person driving the Nissan Sentra and possibly others are responsible for disposing of this evidence,” Pritchard said.
‘Do the right thing’
Although Ru had no registered name at the time of his death, his name was posthumously registered as Nga Reo Te Huatahi Reremoana Ahipene-Wall.
Pritchard said at the time the level of violence shown towards Ru was “difficult to fathom”.
“We will work hard to ensure a thorough investigation is carried out to determine exactly what happened,” he said.
“We urge those who have information about what happened to Baby Ru to look deep, and do the right thing, and tell us what you know.”
Anyone with information that could help the investigation team is urged to contact police quoting file number 231022/1708. Information can also be passed to Crime Stoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.