Police Name 2 Suspects in Child Abuse Case

Police launched a nationwide search Thursday for a man and woman identified from photographs that apparently show them sexually molesting a little girl.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said informants identified the suspects as Ronald Ruskjer, 44, thought to have recently been a member of the faculty at Loma Linda University, and his girlfriend, Evelyn Bacilio, 33. Both had been living in this town on the outskirts of San Bernardino.

But the identity of the little girl, thought to be 2 or 3 years old, remains a mystery, police said.

An acquaintance said she last saw Ruskjer at his house on Tuesday. A neighbor said Bacilio was last seen about 1 a.m. Thursday, walking away from her apartment. The neighbor said deputies had been seen at the large apartment complex an hour earlier, but Bacilio apparently eluded them. Authorities across the nation were alerted to be on the lookout for the pair.

The case began last weekend when someone gave Los Angeles police a number of instant-camera photographs found in Koreatown. Some of the photographs show a man and woman apparently preforming sex acts on a little girl. Code numbers on the photos indicate that the film was sold last November.

State law prohibits anyone--including police--from disseminating pictures showing sex with children, but in this case, investigators felt an exception was called for.

On Wednesday, a court granted Los Angeles police permission to release three of the photographs to the news media in the hope that someone would recognize the adults and the little girl.

“Obviously, the urgency here is (that) we need to find the child and ensure the safety of the child,” Los Angeles Police Cmdr. David Gascon said in explaining why his department had taken the unusual step of seeking a court action that could lead to the identification of a child victim of sexual molestation.

Several of the photographs--edited to black out sexually explicit details--were shown on television stations and published in newspapers, and the effort apparently paid off.

San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies said they received about 40 calls late Wednesday identifying Bacilio and Ruskjer as the suspects.

Among the first calls was one from a “reliable informant” who named the couple and gave their home addresses. Armed with search warrants, sheriff’s deputies descended on the Ruskjer and Bacilio residences.

Ruskjer’s house was empty--neighbors said he had left Tuesday to take a new job in Michigan. Bacilio was gone too--apparently just minutes before detectives knocked on the door of her apartment--but deputies said they found additional photographs and other evidence at her home.

A visitor who went to Bacilio’s modest second-floor apartment after the deputies had left found a typed essay on her dining room table.

The essay, titled “Marketing a Medical Practice” and dated April 21, 1993, named Ruskjer as the author and identified him as an associate clinical professor at the nearby Loma Linda University School of Public Health.

University officials were not available to confirm that Ruskjer had served on the faculty there, but a neighbor said Ruskjer told him recently that he had been teaching at Loma Linda and was leaving for a new position with a university in Michigan.

The neighbor said a reference to the Seventh-day Adventist Church--with which Loma Linda University is affiliated--was painted on the van Ruskjer was using for the move.

A writing pad by Bacilio’s telephone listed several errands. Among them were notations to: “Pull negatives and send to Michele. . . . Call trash company, cancel service. . . . Locksmith to cut padlock.” Officials provided no explanation for any of the notations.

Two large patches had been sliced from the mattress in Bacilio’s bedroom, apparently by deputies planning to search for additional evidence through laboratory tests. Photographs of Ruskjer and Bacilio together were still in the apartment after the deputies’ search.

Tenant records identified Bacilio as an administrative assistant at Curaflex Infusion Services in Rancho Cucamonga when she rented the apartment three years ago. Officials at Curaflex Health Services in Ontario said the company used to have an infusion services department in Rancho Cucamonga but declined to comment further.

Cathy Brier, a neighbor of Ruskjer, described the divorced father of two teen-age sons as a “nice, easygoing guy.”

Brier said Ruskjer told her husband that he planned a trip to Asia after moving to Michigan.

Benita Burwell, who lives in an apartment below Bacilio’s, said Bacilio lived alone with a Dalmatian dog that children in the complex liked to pet. Burwell said Bacilio never seemed interested in making closer contact with the children.

But Mary Merquez, who lives in a nearby apartment, said she saw Bacilio walking hand in hand last week with a girl who appeared to be about 6 years old.

“We tell our children to watch out for strangers, but these are your neighbors,” Burwell said. “I don’t know what to think now.”