Couple in Child Sex Abuse Photos Held : Crime: Acting on a tip, authorities arrest the man in Detroit and the woman in Las Vegas. Bail of $2 million has been set for each of them.

Thanks to a tipster who knew their travel plans, a man and woman suspected of molesting a 4-year-old Newport Beach girl were arrested Friday morning--the man in Detroit, the woman in Las Vegas.

Evelyn (Evie) Bacilio, 33, a secretary at a medical equipment company in Ontario, was taken into custody by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies at 6:22 a.m. as she was preparing to fly to Chicago from Las Vegas’ McCarran Airport under an assumed name.

Less than 2 1/2 hours later, Ronald Ruskjer, 44, a onetime faculty member at Loma Linda University’s school of public health, was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after landing there on a flight from Tokyo.

The suspects--identified from photographs allegedly showing them molesting the little girl--were taken into custody without incident and were being held on $2 million bond apiece, pending extradition. Officials said that based on evidence in the photographs, Ruskjer and Bacilio will each be charged with two counts of child molestation. Efforts were under way to extradite them to California.

Investigators said they were preparing to execute a search warrant for a storage building outside Detroit, where they hoped to find more evidence linking the couple to the molestation of the girl.

The girl, who has not been identified, was found at her parents’ home in Newport Beach on Thursday night.

Deputy Laurie Savage, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Department, said the parents had been unaware of the crime and were shocked to learn what had happened to their daughter. She said they were cooperating fully in the investigation.

Detectives said they were led to the family Thursday night by a tipster who said Bacilio had frequently baby-sat the daughter of a co-worker for extended periods of time.

Investigators also were tipped off late Thursday to the two suspects’ travel itineraries. San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies took overnight flights to Las Vegas and Detroit and were waiting when Ruskjer and Bacilio showed up, Savage said.

It was unclear whether Ruskjer realized he was being sought for arrest, Savage said. But because Bacilio had used another name to book her flight, authorities assumed that she knew she was wanted. Detectives say it is believed that Ruskjer and Bacilio were on their way to a rendezvous in the Michigan area at the time of their arrests.

The case began last weekend when someone gave police instant-camera photographs found near Normandie Avenue and 1st Street in Los Angeles. Detectives theorize that thieves who stole Ruskjer’s car had tossed the pictures out the window.

Some photographs show a man and a woman performing sex acts on a little girl, but police initially had no clue as to the identities of the suspects or the victim.

State law prohibits anyone from distributing pictures showing sex with children, but a judge gave police permission to release three of the photos to the news media in the hope that someone would recognize the adults and the girl.

Edited to delete sexually explicit detail, the photos were shown on television Wednesday night. Within hours, police received 40 calls identifying Ruskjer and Bacilio as the suspects.

Sheriff’s deputies descended early Thursday on the suspects’ homes in Grand Terrace, a small town on the outskirts of San Bernardino, but Ruskjer and Bacilio were gone. Officers said incriminating evidence was found in Bacilio’s apartment.

Detectives believe that Bacilio fled her apartment, carrying only a purse, a few hours after the pictures were broadcast on television and just a few minutes before the deputies arrived with a search warrant.

Authorities say Ruskjer apparently left his home Tuesday after shipping his belongings to a storage facility in Detroit.

Ruskjer’s neighbors said he had talked of a new job at Andrews University, a small coeducational college in Berrien, Mich. Andrews--like Loma Linda University--is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Ruskjer was hired as an associate professor at Andrews’ business school Oct. 1, but he called the college’s dean Wednesday or Thursday to say he could not accept the position, according to Michele Jacobsen, a spokeswoman for the college.

Jacobsen said Ruskjer may have gone to Tokyo on business for the college, and had not been expected to assume his teaching duties at the campus until later this month.

From 1988 to 1991, Ruskjer was employed as an associate professor of clinical health at Loma Linda University’s public health school, according to the university’s vice president for public affairs, Gus Cheatham. Ruskjer taught health administration to graduate students, Cheatham said.

Ruskjer, a divorced father of two teen-age sons, left Loma Linda of his own volition, Cheatham said, taking a job with the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health. Cheatham said he believed that Ruskjer had been working “on an anti-smoking campaign, or something,” for the health department. Because Friday was a furlough day for San Diego County employees due to budget cutbacks, Ruskjer’s employment with the health department could not be confirmed.

Bacilio has been working as an office secretary for Curaflex Health Service in Ontario, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Although detectives said their investigation is largely completed, they said several questions remain, including when and where the photographs were taken. Code numbers on the film indicate a November date.

Without explaining why, Savage said the little girl in the photographs is believed to be the suspects’ only victim.