This isn’t an old story, just an unfinished one

Thursday, 18 June 2026

Virginia Fallon is a staff writer and columnist based in Wellington and was awarded Best Columnist at the 2026 New Zealand Media Awards

OPINION: Forgive me, I missed it.

Two and a half years came and went for Ru, and unlike all the other so-called anniversaries I didn’t mark this one.

It wasn't because I forgot; I wish. It was because I was waiting for some development, arrest, a charge or court appearance. Anything.

Really, as we say in journalism, I was waiting for some new way into an old story. Because that’s what Ru’s is at risk of becoming.

Ru was killed on October 22, 2023, three days before he was meant to turn two. Today we are closer to what should be his fifth birthday than we are to the day his skull was broken.

Ru, Baby Ru, suffered a level of violence that police described as “difficult to fathom”.

Almost from the outset, police have said three people were living in the Lower Hutt house where it happened. Three people were in the car that took him to Hutt Hospital where he died.

Three people, police have repeatedly told us, are the only ones of interest in the death of the toddler yet have offered only various degrees of co-operation.

Those three people are Rosie Morunga, her partner Dylan Ross, and Ru’s mother Storm Wall.

While nobody doubts that police have worked extensively, passionately, to investigate Ru’s death, public updates about the case have been frustratingly rare.

There have been appeals for information – about the car that took him to the hospital, then returned to remove items from the house – and pleas for people to speak.

But the last real update was in October 2025 when, on the second anniversary of Ru’s death, Detective Inspector Nick Pritchard told The Post that police inquiries had come to a close.

“Police are currently reviewing all of the evidential material to determine if there is criminal culpability against any individuals.

“As part of that process we’re engaging independent legal advice to ensure that any decisions moving forward are well considered and well thought out.”

The Post understood the case was passed to the Crown Solicitor at the end of July.

That was 11 months ago. Last month, Pritchard told RNZ the police investigation was ongoing.

'This includes engagement and assessment of independent legal advice.'

I understand that justice is not a race. I understand that prosecutions require evidence, that legal thresholds must be met, and that rights exist for good reason.

But we live in an age of outrage. Every week brings a fresh cause, a current controversy, some new reason to demand change. We march, petition, protest and post because we know how to be furious.

And I do not understand why we haven’t been doing any of that for Ru.

Perhaps it’s because I have a little love of a similar age and can so easily picture the life that Ru never got to live. Perhaps it’s because every milestone since his death feels like another reminder of the ones he never reached in life.

Or perhaps it’s because I simply cannot reconcile the facts: A little boy was killed, police know who was there, and we even know their names.

The terrible thing about old stories is that they cease to be stories at all. Time moves on, other awful things happen, and what once felt urgent fades into the background.

But all stories have endings, even the ones that take a long time to get there.

And until somebody is held accountable, until there are answers for how a little boy came to suffer violence so horrific it was 'difficult to fathom', Ru’s isn't yet an old story.

It's an unfinished one.