Toddler in Sex Photos Is Traced to O.C. Home

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

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

“The parents knew nothing about this,” Deputy Laurie Savage said of the hunt for the child and her attackers, after photos of a man and woman molesting the girl turned up in Los Angeles’ Koreatown, touching off a widely publicized search for the three.

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

Savage would not give any further details, including the child’s age--believed to be between 2 and 3--or whether there was any relationship between her parents and the suspects. But the mother reportedly told KCAL television Channel 9 that she used to work with the woman, who sometimes baby-sat the child while her parents were on business trips.

The television station also said the family lives in Newport Beach.

Meanwhile, Savage said, the hunt was progressing for the suspects, identified by informants 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.

An acquaintance said she last saw Ruskjer at his house 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.

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 that the film was sold last November, but police initially had no clue when or where the pictures were taken or who was depicted.

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 hopes that someone would recognize the adults and the little girl.

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 got 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. But deputies said they found more 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 a 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 Ruskjer was headed for Andrews University, a small co-ed 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.

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

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.”