Child in Alleged Sex Abuse Photos Found

A toddler believed to have been photographed as she was being sexually molested was found at her parents’ Orange County home Thursday night, hours after investigators launched a nationwide search for the adult suspects in the case, authorities said.

A San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman said her department’s role in the search led to the home in an undisclosed city, where officers discovered the girl “safe and sound.”

“The parents knew nothing about this,” Deputy Laurie Savage said of the alleged sexual abuse.

The hunt for the child and her alleged attackers--identified by authorities Thursday as Ronald Ruskjer, 44, and his girlfriend, Evelyn Bacilio, 33--was touched off after photos of a man and woman molesting the girl turned up in Los Angeles’ Koreatown.

“The mother is now hysterical,” Savage said, adding that both parents “are being very cooperative.”

Savage would not provide further details or divulge the child’s age or whether there was a relationship between her parents and the suspects. But KCAL-TV Channel 9 reported that the mother used to work with the woman police are seeking and that the woman sometimes baby-sat the child while her parents were on business trips. Channel 9 also reported that the family lives in Newport Beach.

Meanwhile, Savage said, informants told sheriff’s investigators that Ruskjer-- thought to have recently been a member of the faculty at Loma Linda University--and Bacilio are the adults seen in the photos. Both had been living in Grand Terrace, a town on the outskirts of San Bernardino, authorities said.

Savage said Thursday night that investigators were “on the trail of the female suspect, and we have an idea where the male may be.”

The case began last weekend when someone gave Los Angeles police some instant-camera photographs. Code numbers on the photos indicate a November date.

Several of the photographs--edited to black out sexually explicit details--were shown in TV broadcasts and published in newspapers in the hope that someone would recognize the adults and the little girl. 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 having left just minutes before detectives knocked on the door of her apartment. Deputies said they found additional photographs and other evidence at her home.

A visitor who went to Bacilio’s 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.

Broadcast reports indicated that Ruskjer was headed for Andrews University, a small coeducational college in Berrien, Mich., affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

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.”