Six full-time investigators still working on the case a year later – Te Ao Māori News

This article was first published RNZ.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Baby Roo’s death, but no one has yet been charged in the brutal attack that left the baby’s tiny skull fractured.

Wellington Police still have six full-time investigators working on the case and insist they are focusing on the person or persons responsible for the case.

Hutt Hospital is only an eight-minute drive from Poole Street in Taita – quicker if you’re speeding – and we can guess there was one car parked on this quiet Sunday morning at about 10.30am.

The 20-year-old gray and green Nissan Sentra was occupied by three adults and a small boy who was deeply unconscious, although his mother later said she could still feel his tiny heart fluttering.

Ruthless Empire Soulja Rain Rind Shepard Wall, since officially named Ngā Reo Te Huatahi Reremoana Ahipene-Wall, died shortly after arriving in the emergency room.

“Baby Roo” was two days shy of her second birthday.

His mother Storm Angel Wall, her housemates Rosie Morunga and her partner Dylan Ross, who owned the car, were the only people in the house at the time he was injured.

They remain the only “persons of interest” in the case, police said.

In an interview with RNZ, Detective Inspector Nick Pritchard said police remained determined to make changes to the circumstances surrounding the death.

“That was the goal from the very beginning and it still remains our goal.

“We are working with a one-year-old boy who cannot tell us what happened.

“There were three adults in the house when he received these injuries.

“No one from this group has taken responsibility. Therefore, we are working hard to put together all the evidence to achieve this result.”

Days after Baby Roo’s death, police confirmed the cause as blunt force trauma, caused either by a weapon or by the impact of her skull on a hard floor or table.

At a news conference, Pritchard ruled out other causes, such as a piece of cloth tied around the little boy’s neck, and denied reports that he may have swallowed baby wipes that were found at the scene.

Pritchard said the investigation has made “significant progress” over the year.

The investigation was handled by six full-time officers who spent a year conducting a large number of investigations, interviewing witnesses, reviewing forensic evidence, executing search warrants and “constantly testing and re-evaluating evidence,” he said.

All three suspects contacted police and offered “various degrees of cooperation.”

“Some of the things that were said to the police do not match what the police have established in terms of evidence and facts,” Pritchard said politely.

“So the door is still open. “We would like whoever is responsible to come forward and tell us exactly what happened.”

He said it was impossible to simply charge three people with a crime “because they were there” when it happened.

“In order to bring charges under the law, we need to reach a certain threshold, a criterion for prosecution.”

In the weeks following his death, Wall and Morunga posted messages on social media about their innocence, and Wall also gave interviews to several media outlets.

Other whānau members have publicly voiced their concerns about Baby Roo and attempts to alert authorities.

In September, Morunga was sentenced to 18 months in prison on various charges, including theft and four assaults – one on a journalist who was punched several times outside the court during a previous appearance.

Early in the investigation it emerged that before police cordoned off the scene, the car in which Nga Reo was taken to hospital returned to the Poole Street site three times and removed vital evidence.

It included a duvet cover, a belt, a hard drive, and a backup power supply.

Pritchard said in February that police believed they knew who cleaned up the crime scene but did not have enough evidence to charge anyone.

It is unknown whether these things were destroyed or hidden somewhere.

Police were still seeking to find the hard drive containing CCTV footage from the house, he told RNZ this week.

When asked if he had any regrets about the initial investigation (such as the time it took to obtain a search warrant), Pritchard said he was “proud” of the team.

When hospital staff notified police of Baby Ruthless’ unexplained death, it “set off a chain of events,” he explained.

At this stage, working on behalf of the coroner, they spoke to hospital staff and family members to understand what had happened before his admission.

“Then, once the investigation is complete, part of our investigation will be to obtain a search warrant for the home.”

“Looking back, I’m proud of the team’s effort, proud of everything they did, and on that day (they) worked as efficiently as they could and based on the information they received.”

Experienced CIB investigators are used to dealing with serious crimes, including murder, but such investigations still bear fruit, he said.

“Like anyone in society, when you see a crime like this, where a defenseless one-year-old child is abused by an adult or adults, it is quite disgusting and you ask yourself, ‘How could this happen?’ How could someone do this to a defenseless little child?

Even a year later, the police were open to new information.

“We would like anyone who has any information to come forward and speak to us, no matter how minor or insignificant they think it is.”

– RNZ