REMEMBERING EVANGELINA

Evangelina Wing was two years old.

She was still a toddler, only weeks away from her third birthday when her life ended.

She lived in Seaside, Oregon, with her mother, Dorothy Wing, her brothers and Dorothy’s boyfriend, Randy Roden.

Evangelina should have been spending December surrounded by ordinary childhood things.

Instead, investigators would later find blood throughout the apartment where she lived.

Her body carried the evidence of prolonged violence.

Her brothers were injured too.

And by the time emergency responders were finally called, Evangelina had already been dead for hours.

She was a tiny child in a home where the adults responsible for protecting her failed her in devastating ways.

EVANGELINA’S STORY

By the autumn of 2014, Randy Roden was living with Dorothy Wing and her children.

Roden already had a serious criminal history involving domestic violence and other violent offenses.

He had recently been released from prison.

He was also under supervision and was not authorized to simply change his residence and move into Dorothy’s home.

Still, he lived there with Evangelina and her brothers.

Prosecutors later alleged that all three children were subjected to repeated abuse.

Evangelina suffered bruises, burns and other injuries.

Her left arm was fractured and had not received proper medical treatment.

She had injuries to her face and head.

Her brothers were injured as well.

One of the children later described being restrained inside the apartment.

According to prosecutors, the abuse became increasingly severe during the final months of Evangelina’s life.

On December 20, 2014, around 5:00 a.m., emergency personnel were called to the apartment because Evangelina was not breathing.

When responders arrived, they found her lying on a bed.

She was already dead.

Her body was in full rigor mortis.

The position of the lividity on her body did not match the position in which responders found her.

That indicated Evangelina had been moved after death.

The postmortem evidence showed that she had likely been dead for many hours before emergency services were called.

Her body revealed extensive trauma.

She had two black eyes.

She had bruising across her face and chest.

There was hemorrhaging around her head.

Her left arm was broken.

She had burns and other injuries across her body.

Investigators also found extensive evidence of violence inside the home.

The autopsy determined that Evangelina died from blunt force trauma.

Her death was ruled a homicide.

At only two years old, Evangelina had endured violence no child should ever experience.

WARNING SIGNS

Evangelina’s case contained warning signs before her death.

Randy Roden had a documented history of violence.

He had previously been charged in a domestic violence case involving another woman.

He eventually pleaded no contest to coercion and served time in prison.

After his release, he moved into Dorothy Wing’s home even though he had not received permission from the Oregon Department of Corrections to change his residence.

The children then suffered escalating injuries.

Evangelina had bruising.

She had burns.

She had an untreated broken arm.

Her brothers were injured as well.

Those were not ordinary childhood accidents.

A fractured arm in a two year old child requires medical attention.

Repeated bruising and burns demand questions.

And when several children living in the same home display unexplained injuries, the possibility of abuse must be taken seriously.

Evangelina could not remove herself from the home.

She could not call police.

She could not make a medical appointment.

She depended entirely on the adults around her to recognize the danger and protect her.

JUSTICE FOR EVANGELINA

Dorothy Wing and Randy Roden were both prosecuted after Evangelina’s death.

Dorothy was initially charged with murder by abuse, manslaughter and multiple counts of criminal mistreatment.

In January 2016, she agreed to plead guilty to first degree manslaughter and two counts of first degree criminal mistreatment.

As part of the agreement, she testified against Randy.

Dorothy admitted that she had failed to protect her children.

She was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.

Randy Roden went to trial later that year.

Prosecutors accused him of repeatedly abusing Evangelina and her brothers.

In October 2016, a jury convicted Randy of murder by abuse, murder, manslaughter, assault and criminal mistreatment.

He was acquitted of aggravated murder.

He was originally sentenced to approximately 35 years in prison.

But that was not the end of the case.

In 2019, the Oregon Court of Appeals overturned Randy’s homicide related convictions after finding that expert bite mark testimony introduced at trial had not been supported by an adequate scientific foundation.

The reversal did not mean that the court found Evangelina had not been abused or killed.

It meant that improperly admitted forensic evidence may have affected the verdict.

Rather than conduct another murder trial years later, prosecutors and Randy reached a new agreement.

In 2020, Randy pleaded guilty to first degree manslaughter.

The original murder convictions were dismissed.

He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, calculated from the time of his arrest in December 2014.

Dorothy Ann Wing

Relationship to Evangelina: Mother

Convictions: First degree manslaughter and two counts of first degree criminal mistreatment

Outcome: Guilty plea

Sentence: More than 15 years in prison

Randy Lee Roden

Relationship to Evangelina: Mother’s boyfriend and caregiver

Original outcome: Convicted at trial of murder related offenses, assault and criminal mistreatment

Appeal: Homicide related convictions reversed in 2019 because improperly supported bite mark testimony was admitted at trial

Final conviction: First degree manslaughter

Final outcome: Guilty plea

Final sentence: 20 years in prison from his December 2014 arrest

FOREVER REMEMBERED

Evangelina Wing was only two years old.

She had not even reached her third birthday.

The photographs of the apartment, the autopsy findings and the criminal proceedings reveal a home filled with violence.

But Evangelina was more than evidence from a crime scene.

She was a little girl.

She had brothers.

She should have been growing up beside them.

She should have been learning new words, developing a personality and discovering what she loved.

Instead, her body carried injuries that no toddler should ever have known.

Her death later became part of complicated criminal proceedings involving disputed forensic evidence, an overturned murder conviction and a new plea agreement.

Those legal developments matter because the truth must be recorded accurately.

But they should never overshadow the child whose name sits at the center of the case.

Evangelina was not a conviction.

She was not an appeal.

She was not an autopsy.

She was a two year old little girl whose life mattered.

Her third birthday should have come weeks later.

There should have been many birthdays after that.

Abuse Angels remembers Evangelina Wing.

Remembered. Honored. Never Forgotten.