Ruby Rose is revealing she was once the subject of a murder investigation.
The "Orange Is the New Black" alum, 40, recalled facing accusations that she was a "baby killer" at age 15, during an appearance on the Sept. 29 episode of Kaitlyn Bristowe's "Off the Vine" podcast. The situation unfolded during a family party "in the bush" of Australia, Rose said, when she and a friend stepped outside to try smoking their first cigarette and noticed what they thought was a doll on the play equipment.
"We looked locked eyes and we started walking towards it," Rose said. "As we got close enough, we could tell this was a real human – like a 4-and-a-half-year-old. There was blood coming out of his ears, nose and mouth. It was very traumatic."
Ruby Rose recalled witnessing the crime scene
She said her friend
ran inside "to get the adults to come and rescue" the boy while Rose attempted to keep him alive. At one point, the actress said she "picked him up, and I thought I'd saved his life because I there was a big deep breath."
"I ran in with him, they started doing CPR. We called the ambulance, hospital, all of that. As I'm sort of going home, he's gone now with the ambulance. And I'm thinking this is good, you know, he's going to be OK. Then I got a call saying that he probably wouldn't be OK," she said.
Rose explained that because she discovered the boy's body and there were no other witnesses at the scene, she was "accused of murder."
The boy ultimately died, and that is when Rose said "the police turned up at my school" to question her about the death. People then began calling her "baby killer," which she said took a toll on her wellbeing.
"I was just breaking down left, right and center," she shared. "[I thought], 'I cannot go to this school and I cannot be bullied for something like this.' Everything else, I didn't care, but this…"
Two weeks later, the "Batwoman" star said the boy's 7-year-old brother came out of an episode of dissociative amnesia – a condition where an individual forgets information due to stress or trauma of an event – and remembered that he left the scene panicked after his sibling's sweater got caught on the side of the playset slide and they were unable to free him. Rose, however, was never able to have full closure, she revealed.
"He finally had the memory, 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. "Then I was cleared, but [the children's mother] still didn't want me at the funeral. So, everyone else went except for me."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ruby Rose reveals she was accused of killing 4-year-old boy as a teen
