[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
An Oregon man is now facing extremely serious charges after cops say a year-long investigation into the death of his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter ultimately led detectives to conclude the little girl was the victim of a homicide.
According to officials, 28-year-old Dison Ruda was arrested in Portland on June 10, more than a year after the child died in March of 2025. The arrest came after investigators, prosecutors, and medical experts spent months piecing together what happened during the toddler’s AWFUL final moments…
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The case began on March 28 of last year, when deputies with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office responded to Blue Lake Park in the city of Fairview after receiving reports of an unresponsive child. When first responders arrived, they found the little girl unconscious and not breathing.
Witnesses at the park reportedly saw Ruda carrying the child while attempting to blow air into her mouth. A park superintendent who responded to help later described what she witnessed in that moment, per an affidavit reported on by multiple Portland-area media outlets:
“He walked back over toward his parked vehicle, a blue Honda Odyssey … before laying the child on the grass.”
After approaching the pair and attempting to provide aid, the superintendent was allegedly told that the child had choked on rice.
Court records indicate she immediately checked for an obstruction and attempted lifesaving measures:
“So [the superintendent] did mouth sweep and administered the Heimlich maneuver. She did not locate any obstruction.”
What followed was a long investigation that eventually raised serious questions about the explanations that Ruda had allegedly offered for her injuries.
For one, per a sheriff’s office press release published earlier this month, medical investigators later determined that her documented injuries reportedly did not appear consistent with a choking incident. According to court filings, both cops and medical personnel observed extensive bruising on multiple areas of the child’s body. And hospital assessments reportedly noted signs that medical professionals believed could indicate non-accidental trauma. Imaging also revealed a severe brain injury.
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Authorities say Ruda later told investigators that the toddler had allegedly fallen from playground equipment and landed on her forehead from a significant height, becoming unresponsive afterward. However, medical experts reportedly found substantial problems with that explanation.
In findings detailed in court documents, the medical examiner concluded that the evidence did not support the theory that the child’s fatal injuries were caused by a simple playground fall:
“[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 conclusions became even more alarming at that point, per the affidavit:
“He [the medical examiner] concluded that her presentation and injuries were highly concerning for child physical abuse.”
Nearly a year after the toddler’s death, in March of this year, the Oregon State Medical Examiner’s Office officially ruled the case a homicide. That determination became a major turning point in the investigation and ultimately led detectives to seek an arrest warrant for Ruda.
Adding another devastating layer to the case, the child’s mother reportedly voiced her own fears after seeing her daughter at the hospital, allegedly telling police that she believed Ruda had harmed the little girl. And yet it took a whole year to get to this point…
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Ruda has since been charged with second-degree murder, first-degree assault, third-degree assault, and first-degree criminal mistreatment, per multiple outlets. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Here is more on this tragic case (below):
Ruda is scheduled to return to court for arraignment on June 22.
And now, as this case moves through the court system, many questions remain unanswered. But for investigators, the arrest marks the culmination of more than a year of work dedicated to uncovering what happened to a 2-year-old child whose death authorities now believe was anything but accidental.
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
[Image created for PerezHilton.com.]
