{"id":90790,"date":"2025-10-20T21:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/90790\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T21:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:08:09","slug":"its-never-too-late-to-do-the-right-thing-police-appeal-for-truth-two-years-on-from-baby-ru-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/90790\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It\u2019s never too late to do the right thing\u2019: Police appeal for truth, two years on from Baby Ru killing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PolicePolice are urging those responsible for Baby Ru’s death to come forward and “do the right thing”. Photo \/ RNZ<\/p>\n

Neither Morunga nor Ross have spoken to the media since the homicide investigation began.<\/p>\n

RNZ earlier revealed police had made significant progress in their investigation<\/a>, dubbed Operation Huia, and were assessing the evidence gathered to determine criminal culpability.<\/p>\n

Before the two-year anniversary, Pritchard told RNZ police had sought independent legal advice to assist in reviewing the investigation.<\/p>\n

He did not have a timeframe for the review because of the \u201clarge volume of material\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pritchard said police had established a timeline of the morning of Baby Ru\u2019s death and established he suffered the fatal injuries \u201cquite close to the time that emergency services were called\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was unable to comment on the information that made up the police\u2019s timeline, but said the team was \u201cconfident we\u2019ve got it as accurate as it can be\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pritchard said there remained three people of interest and declined to say whether police believed they knew who was responsible for Baby Ru\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

He said the investigation, dubbed Operation Huia, was a \u201cvery complex case\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident we have put together a really comprehensive evidential foundation for consideration for criminal culpability, and I think the team has done a fantastic job in relation to that, but like any case, there\u2019s always challenges, and the team have remained really steadfast to get the best outcome here and find justice for Baby Ru and his wh\u0101nau.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WellingtonWellington district crime manager Detective Inspector Nick Pritchard. Photo \/ RNZ, Mark Papalii<\/p>\n

Pritchard urged those in the house at the time Baby Ru was killed to come forward and talk to police.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d really like to hear from all of them. I\u2019m sure they\u2019ve got more information they can provide us in terms of what happened that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was \u201calmost certain\u201d that there were other people in the community who had information that was of value to the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a wh\u0101nau who\u2019ve lost a valuable member of their family, someone whose life was cut short far too young. It\u2019s never too late to do the right thing. It\u2019s been two years, I\u2019m sure the guilt is building up inside them. So come forward and tell us what happened. Do the right thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years on the investigation team remained \u201cdetermined\u201d to get justice for Baby Ru and his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team\u2019s been dedicated from the word go, a big team really focused on the right outcome. We\u2019re dealing with a child homicide here, that\u2019s no more important case for someone who\u2019s an investigator to be motivated to get the right outcome.<\/p>\n

\u2018They failed him\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a wee boy, not even 2 years old, so completely vulnerable, you know, relied on parents and caregivers to support him and do the right thing and create the right environment for him to thrive. And that was cut short. It\u2019s a horrific thing for that young boy and his wh\u0101nau. He relied on those people, and they failed him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wall, who has repeatedly denied being involved in her son\u2019s death, told RNZ on Monday she was happy to speak to police again and wanted to help the investigation.<\/p>\n

She recently told RNZ she had been longing for the moment she can drive to the cemetery and tell her son that charges have been laid.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just be like \u2018finally my love\u2019 … it would just be a celebration. Finally getting justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wall has previously spoken at length<\/a> with RNZ about what she alleges happened to her son and who she claims killed him.<\/p>\n

RNZ is unable to report what she alleges happened, but she says that day constantly plays in her mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a day that I lost my heart, basically I just lost everything… I will never be full capacity, my smile will never be 100%. I will never forget,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like your life flashes before your eyes… It\u2019s like darkness concave like and all you could see was just him and trying to get that darkness away while you\u2019re trying to do CPR and everything, you know, trying to escape from that surrounding and try and save him, that was the hardest. It was a living hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about being labelled a person of interest in her son\u2019s death for almost two years, Wall said she was not bothered by public opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m innocent so therefore I don\u2019t carry a burden… So in reality, I don\u2019t care about the public eye. I just care about his justice.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police are urging those responsible for Baby Ru’s death to come forward and “do the right thing”. Photo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6375,6794,6309,2082,71,42,302,11156,4507,13631,43,90,675,9979,68235,15768,223,4468,61,6173,40,38,41,39,9840,1237,1530],"class_list":["post-90790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-appeal","tag-baby","tag-do","tag-for","tag-from","tag-headlines","tag-its","tag-killing","tag-late","tag-never","tag-news","tag-on","tag-police","tag-right","tag-ru","tag-sherwood","tag-the","tag-thing","tag-to","tag-too","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-truth","tag-two","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}