Charlotte's Unsolved Case of Ruth Buchanan | How a marijuana cigarette butt helped solve a 35-year-old North Carolina hit-and-run case

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WTVD) – In Charlotte, DNA from a decades-old joint was used to solve a fatal hit-and-run accident that occurred nearly 35 years ago.

The crash occurred on December 29, 1989.

Ruth Buchanan, 52, was crossing 5th Street at North Tryon Street in Uptown that day when she was hit.

“Her body landed on the opposite side of the intersection and the vehicle, according to witnesses, did not stop, render aid and continued to flee the scene of the accident,” said Sergeant Gavin Jackson of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department's Major Accident Unit in a video posted on social media.

She died the next day at Charlotte Memorial Hospital.

Although several witnesses described the car and several wrote down the license plate, the case was soon closed. It turned out that the license plate had been stolen from another car.

On New Year's Day 1990, investigators received a tip about a suspicious vehicle in front of a Comfort Inn. Officers found that the license plate matched the stolen license plate of the car that had hit Buchanan.

They were also able to secure evidence on the outside of the car (a 1990 Mitsubishi Galant) that confirmed that the car was involved in the hit-and-run accident.

Officers seized several items from the car as evidence, including the marijuana cigarette, which later proved to be the key to the case.

Despite all the detective work, the case remained unsolved until 2022, when investigators received an anonymous tip from someone who claimed to know who hit Buchanan.

The CMPD crime lab was called in to test the marijuana cigarette

DNA traces led the police to 68-year-old Herbert Stanback, but he was not the suspect the informant claimed was the perpetrator.

In addition, Stanback was incarcerated in a Charlotte prison at the time.

Nevertheless, the DNA was his, and so CMPD investigators visited a correctional facility where Stanback was serving a prison sentence for another crime.

According to CMPD, Stanback made a full confession after two visits.

Although he was in prison at the time of the hit-and-run, he was participating in an inmate work release program in which inmates leave in the morning and return in the evening.

“He worked at a hotel a block or two up Tryon Street,” Jackson said. “So he drove this vehicle after leaving his work release spot at the hotel, ran over Mrs. Buchanan and fled.”

According to police, Stanback returned to prison that same evening as if nothing had happened.

Stanback remains in prison to this day, serving a 22-year sentence for this unrelated offense.

“It's a once in a lifetime thing,” Jackson said. “It's a very satisfying feeling to be able to notify the family.”

He added that he was able to speak with Buchanan's son and give the family a sense of closure.