Nearly 35 years after a mother was fatally hit by a stolen car, DNA helps police find suspect

(CNN) — On a late December afternoon more than 34 years ago, a mother crossed a downtown North Carolina street after shopping with her friend at a department store and was struck by a car, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.

A driver in a dark-colored vehicle, which authorities said turned out to be stolen, ran a red light and hit Ruth Buchanan, 52. “Her body landed on the opposite side of the intersection and that vehicle, according to witnesses, continued, didn’t stop, (the driver) didn’t render aid,” said Sgt. Gavin Jackson of the police department’s major crash investigation unit.

Buchanan died in a Charlotte hospital the next day from her injuries, authorities said. Her 1989 hit-and-run death remained unsolved for more than three decades, until police said DNA from a possible marijuana joint helped them find and charge a suspect, according to a news release.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg authorities identified Herbert Stanback, 68, as a suspect with the help of DNA evidence obtained from a possible marijuana joint found in the car during the investigation three decades ago.

Stanback, who admitted to authorities he was the driver of the vehicle that hit Buchanan, was already serving 22 years in prison for an unrelated crime when authorities tracked him down.

On July 17, Stanback was charged with a felony hit-and-run in connection with Buchanan’s death and sentenced to two years to be served at the same time as his current sentence, North Carolina state court records show.

CNN has contacted an attorney listed for Stanback for a comment.

Though witnesses provided a license plate number and a vehicle description, and physical evidence was taken in 1990 from the located vehicle, progress in the case stalled until early 2022, when detectives received an anonymous Crime Stoppers tip identifying a man who may have been involved in the accident, according to the police department. Investigators concluded the man mentioned in the tip was not involved.

The department’s crime lab revisited evidence and analyzed a possible marijuana cigarette taken from the car in 1990, authorities said.

“The challenge we had is the positive DNA came back to an individual named Herbert Stanback, and at the time this incident occurred, he was shown incarcerated in prison at a place called Charlotte Correctional, which no longer exists,” Jackson said.

Authorities visited Stanback twice at Scotland Correctional Institution in Laurinburg, North Carolina, according to Jackson, and on March 20, Stanback confessed to being the driver who struck Buchanan in December 1989.

“Interestingly, he was incarcerated at Charlotte Correctional, but he was on a work release program at the time where they would leave in the morning and come back in the evening,” Jackson said.

Stanback told authorities he was working at a motel in Charlotte a couple of blocks away from where Buchanan was hit, and after driving away from the motel, the vehicle he was driving hit her and he left the scene, according to Jackson.

“The vehicle was dumped at the motel and he ended up going back to prison that night,” Jackson said.

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