A superintendent found no airway obstruction after the toddler’s caregiver said she had choked on rice, court records state.
FAIRVIEW, Ore. — What began as a park employee’s effort to save an unresponsive 2-year-old girl developed into a homicide investigation after first responders found widespread bruising and doctors identified a catastrophic brain injury, according to authorities and court documents.
The child died hours after the March 28, 2025, emergency at Blue Lake Park. More than a year later, deputies arrested her mother’s boyfriend, 28-year-old Dison Ruda. He has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree assault, third-degree assault and two counts of first-degree criminal mistreatment. The state alleges that the girl suffered abusive blunt-force trauma while Ruda was responsible for her. His claims that she choked and then fell from a slide did not match the medical examiner’s conclusions, the court documents state.
The first public sign of trouble came late that Saturday morning. At about 11:47 a.m., a nature superintendent at the park saw Ruda carrying a small child. The girl appeared unconscious, was not breathing and did not respond, according to the probable cause account. Ruda was blowing into her mouth as he walked. The superintendent tried to communicate that he needed to put the girl down so effective CPR could begin. Instead of immediately stopping where she approached him, he moved back toward a parked blue Honda Odyssey and then laid the toddler on the grass, the affidavit said.
The superintendent took over the emergency response. Ruda told her the child had choked on rice, so she checked the girl’s mouth and performed the Heimlich maneuver. She did not find an obstruction. The employee called for emergency assistance while trying to revive the toddler. She also noticed another young child secured in a car seat in the vehicle. Nothing in the publicly described record indicates that the second child was physically injured at the park. The presence of that child later became relevant to the criminal mistreatment allegations filed against Ruda.
Deputies and paramedics arrived to find the girl unconscious and not breathing. The first deputy later said Ruda appeared calm and unconcerned. That description became one detail among many in the affidavit, though demeanor alone does not establish criminal responsibility and people can respond to emergencies in different ways. More important to the investigation were the physical signs observed on the child. Responders reported severe bruising on her chest, neck and jaw. They believed the marks were inconsistent with a food obstruction and were not explained by the emergency care she had received.
Some bruises around the neck and jaw appeared inflamed and grew more visible as time passed, the documents state. Additional marks were found on the child’s chin, abdomen, arms and legs. First responders had arrived expecting to treat a choking victim, but the pattern of injuries caused them to consider a different possibility. Investigators with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and the East County Major Crimes Team opened an inquiry because of what the sheriff’s office called the suspicious circumstances surrounding the child’s condition.
At Randall Children’s Hospital, the emergency shifted from an attempted rescue to an examination of severe trauma. Doctors documented bruises across much of the toddler’s body. Her initial assessment raised concern about nonaccidental injury or strangulation, according to the probable cause affidavit. Imaging showed an acute subdural hematoma on the left side of the brain, widespread swelling and enough pressure to shift structures inside the skull. Hospital staff found no blood flow to the brain and reported oxygen deprivation affecting the brain and other organs.
The medical team told investigators the child was not expected to survive. She was pronounced dead less than 12 hours after she arrived. Her mother went to the hospital and saw the injuries. “I think he hurt my daughter,” she told police, according to the affidavit. The sheriff’s office has not publicly named the girl in its communications, saying it wanted to respect the family’s privacy. The child’s age, relationship to Ruda and cause of death have been publicly confirmed, but officials have otherwise limited personal details about her.
The mother gave investigators an account of the hours before the emergency. She said the family had been staying at the Bybee Lakes Hope Center and that she recently had begun a new job. Ruda drove her to work that morning and remained responsible for her children, she said. According to her statement, neither child had visible injuries when she left. Investigators reviewed surveillance footage outside the center, and the video supported the mother’s account of when Ruda drove away with the children, KATU reported after reviewing the court documents.
Ruda’s initial choking explanation was not his only account. During an interview conducted through a Chuukese interpreter, he said the 2-year-old had climbed a playground slide’s steps on all fours. He claimed she fell from a height of about 6 feet, landed forehead-first in wood chips and could not be awakened. The new account gave investigators a location and mechanism that could be tested against the physical evidence. Detectives examined the slide area, the height involved and the surface intended to soften a child’s fall.
One detective made a recording while bouncing on the shock-absorbing wood chips near the slide. The medical examiner evaluated the surface along with published information on short falls involving children. The examiner also considered the lack of abrasions that would ordinarily be expected after a face-first impact into wood chips. The girl had injuries on multiple body surfaces, including places that the affidavit said were not commonly injured through accidental activity. Those findings led the examiner to reject the reported playground fall as an adequate explanation for the brain trauma.
The examiner determined that the toddler died from an acute left subdural hematoma caused by blunt-force head trauma. The injury was described as catastrophic. The medical findings were highly concerning for physical abuse, according to the affidavit, and the manner of death was classified as homicide on March 16, 2026. That ruling came nearly 12 months after the park emergency. The time between the death and the homicide determination reflected an investigation involving medical review, laboratory work, interviews and consultation among several agencies.
Once the medical examiner issued the homicide finding, detectives worked with the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office to obtain a court-authorized arrest warrant. The U.S. Marshals Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force helped locate Ruda near Southeast 92nd Avenue and Southeast Powell Boulevard in Portland at about 6 a.m. June 10. He was taken into custody without any publicly reported injury. Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell said the arrest followed months of work and relied on law enforcement officers, prosecutors, forensic personnel and specialized clinicians.
The prosecution now moves away from the park and hospital and into the courtroom. Prosecutors may rely on the testimony of the superintendent, deputies, paramedics, doctors, the medical examiner and detectives who reconstructed the scene. The defense will have an opportunity to question those witnesses, dispute their conclusions and present evidence supporting Ruda’s position. The references to choking, a fall and Ruda’s demeanor are allegations and investigative observations, not judicial findings of guilt.
Ruda has entered not-guilty pleas, and the state bears the burden of proving every charge beyond a reasonable doubt. No conviction or trial outcome had been reported as of Wednesday. The girl’s final hours remain central to the case, but the earliest outside witness was the park employee who saw a child in distress, tried to clear an airway and summoned the help that exposed injuries authorities say could not be explained by choking.
Author note: Last updated July 15, 2026.