Inset: Dison Ruda in court for the alleged murder of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter. Background: The Oregon park where Dison Ruda was allegedly found with his girlfriend’s daughter (KGW/YouTube).
An Oregon man acted “calm and unconcerned” after allegedly beating his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter to death, police say — adding that the man made up a story about the girl choking on rice and falling off a slide.
“I think he hurt my daughter,” the girlfriend told police after seeing her child in the hospital, covered nearly head to toe with “significant” bruises, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
Dison Ruda, 28, claimed the woman’s daughter “choked on rice” and suffered an “alleged fall off the steps of a playground slide” before her death on March 28, according to the affidavit. A superintendent at Blue Lake Park in Fairview called police that Saturday morning around 11:45 a.m. and reported seeing Ruda carrying a child who appeared to be “unresponsive, unconscious and not breathing,” per police.
The superintendent “observed that Ruda was blowing in the child’s mouth as he was walking and tried to communicate to him to put the child down to perform CPR,” according to the affidavit, which was filed last week by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office. “He walked back over toward his parked vehicle, a blue Honda Odyssey … before laying the child on the grass.”
The superintendent told police she “began to administer aid” and that Ruda informed her the girl choked on rice. “So [the superintendent] did mouth sweep and administered the Heimlich maneuver,” the affidavit says. “She did not locate any obstruction.”
Police and paramedics reported seeing “extreme bruising to the child’s chest, neck, and jaw, which were not consistent with choking on food,” according to the affidavit. Inflamed bruising on the girl’s neck and jawline “that were not caused by lifesaving efforts” was also reported and appeared to be “getting worse as time passed,” the affidavit says.
“Notable bruising throughout her body, concerning for possible mechanism of nonaccidental trauma/strangulation,” the girl’s initial hospital assessment read, according to the affidavit. “CT scan showed a left-sided subdural hematoma with midline shift and diffuse cerebral edema.”
Hospital staff reported a loss of “blood flow to the brain” and “lack of oxygen to the brain and other internal organs,” per the affidavit. “She was not expected to survive and was declared dead less than 12 hours later,” the document says.
Speaking through a Chuukese interpreter, Ruda allegedly claimed that he saw the victim climb up the steps of a playground slide “on all fours” and “fall away from them, landing on her forehead from a height of about 6 feet.” He alleged that she “fell into woodchips” and that he could not wake her.
The girl’s cause of death was “acute left subdural hematoma due to blunt head trauma” and the manner of death was homicide, according to police.
An examination of the child’s body showed bruising all over, including her chin, chest, abdomen and her extremities.
“[The medical examiner] considered literature on short falls in children, the impact-absorbing surface, the existence of blunt traumatic injuries on other body surfaces, including surfaces that are not commonly injured in innocent ways, and the lack of abrasions one would expect to see from fall on woodchips to conclude that the etiology of the brain injury in this case was abusive in nature,” the affidavit says. “He concluded that her presentation and injuries were highly concerning for child physical abuse.”
Ruda’s arrest came after “months of investigative work,” according to police officials. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, first-degree assault, third-degree assault, and first-degree criminal mistreatment.
Ruda is scheduled to be arraigned on June 22.
