Marijuana joint helps police identify suspect in fatal hit-and-run cold case from 1989

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (TCN) -- Investigators broke open a nearly 35-year-old cold case in which a woman was struck and killed by someone who ran a red light at an intersection just days after Christmas 1989.

According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, on Dec. 29, 1989, just before 4 p.m., Ruth Buchanan was crossing 5th and North Tyron streets in Uptown Charlotte when a dark-colored sedan drove through a red light and hit her. The driver reportedly continued on and did not stop to help her. She was taken to a nearby hospital, where she died the next day.

Witnesses at the scene took down the vehicle’s license plate number, but police learned the plate had been stolen off a Mercedes, which was not the same kind of car that hit Buchanan. Days after Buchanan died, police received a call about a suspicious vehicle and found a dark blue 1990 Mitsubishi Galant with the same license plate. The Mitsubishi had reportedly been stolen from a local car dealership.

Sgt. Gavin Jackson said there was evidence on the exterior of the car that linked it to the incident. Investigators retrieved personal items from inside the car, including a marijuana joint.

Despite the evidence, the case went cold and remained open for 32 years.

In 2022, Jackson received a Crime Stoppers tip from someone who said they knew the driver and they were "willing to give information on that." According to Jackson, the tipster was correct about some details, but was "completely inaccurate in who he wanted to indicate committed this crime."

Another investigator went back to the evidence and sent the butt of the joint to the crime lab for DNA testing. The lab identified the individual as 68-year-old Herbert Stanback. Jackson said Stanback was on a work release program from prison at the time and allegedly hit Buchanan as he was leaving work at a nearby hotel.

Stanback was arrested in June and charged with felony hit-and-run resulting in serious injury or death.