Key Highlights
- Ruby Rose says she was wrongly accused of murdering a four-year-old boy when she was 15.
- Rose found the injured child in Australian bushland and carried him inside for emergency treatment.
- She was cleared after the boy’s older brother recovered his memory of what happened.
Ruby Rose recalls being accused after child’s death
Ruby Rose has revealed that she was wrongly accused of murdering a child when she was a teenager. Rose, now 40, discussed the traumatic incident during her appearance on the Off the Vine podcast with Kaitlyn Bristowe.
The interview was Rose’s first podcast appearance, according to Page Six. She said she was 15 and attending a gathering with her mother and family friends in the Australian bushland when she encountered a four-year-old boy in a nearby playground.
Rose said she had been smoking her first cigarette when she noticed what she initially believed was a doll on a slide. She and a friend approached the object and realised that it was an injured child.
“My friend and I locked eyes and we started walking towards it,” she said. “As we got close enough, we could tell this was a real human.”
Rose said the boy had suffered severe injuries and was bleeding from several parts of his body.
“There was blood coming out of his ear, nose, mouth. It was very traumatic.”
After finding the boy, Rose picked him up and carried him into the house. The adults began performing CPR while emergency services were called. When an ambulance took the child to hospital, Rose initially believed she might have helped save his life because he was still breathing inside the ambulance.
Police questioned Rose after the boy died
Rose later learned that the boy was unlikely to survive. She said doctors had placed him on life support, but eventually decided to withdraw it after determining that he had been ‘brain dead for so long’.
“I got a call saying that he probably wouldn’t be okay, that they were keeping him on a machine and it didn’t look great,” she said. “I just sent love to the family.”
The day after the boy’s death, police went to Rose’s high school to speak with her. She said people began accusing her of being responsible for the child’s death, leading to intense emotional distress.
“People were like, ‘Baby killer!’ I was breaking down,” she said.
Rose said the boy’s older brother had witnessed what happened, but initially suffered from ‘dissociative amnesia’ and could not remember the events clearly. Because Rose had been present at the scene, the lack of an immediate explanation raised questions about her involvement.
Older brother’s recovered memory cleared Ruby Rose
The boy’s older brother eventually recovered his memory and returned to police with an account that exonerated Rose. She said investigators had not believed she was responsible, but that the accusation still had a lasting impact on her.
“He went back to the police and thank goodness told them, because they didn’t think it was me anyway, but that doesn’t always happen,” she said.
Rose said she was cleared but was not permitted to attend the child’s funeral at his mother’s request.
“He remembered and I was cleared, but [the child’s mother] still didn’t want me at the funeral. So everyone went except me.”
Rose later built a successful acting career. She subsequently stepped back after suffering an injury to her spine while filming Batwoman.
Why This Matters
Rose’s account highlights the long-term consequences of being publicly associated with a child’s death despite later being cleared. It also shows how a witness’s temporary memory loss complicated the investigation and left Rose facing accusations while authorities sought to establish what had happened.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old was Ruby Rose when the incident happened?
Ruby Rose said she was 15 years old when she found the injured four-year-old boy in a playground in the Australian bushland.
Why was Ruby Rose accused of murdering the child?
Rose was present at the scene, while the boy’s older brother initially could not remember what had happened because of ‘dissociative amnesia’. His recovered memory later clarified the events and Rose was cleared.
What happened to Ruby Rose’s acting career?
Rose went on to have a highly successful acting career before stepping back after suffering a spinal injury while filming Batwoman.
