DNA Match Helps Solve 1989 Hit-And-Run Cold Case
CHARLOTTE, N.C. β A DNA match helped police obtain an arrest warrant and solve a fatal hit-and-run case from 1989.
Around 4 p.m. on December 29, 1989, 52-year-old Ruth Buchanan was crossing the street along 5th Street near North Tryon Street when she was struck by a vehicle running a red light. Buchanan died at the hospital the next day.
Witnesses of the crime helped provide police with a description and license plate of the vehicle. Police determined that the suspectβs vehicle was stolen and found it, a 1990 Mitsubishi Gallant, on South Tryon Street in January of 1990.
The case remained open due to lack of further evidence until police received an anonymous tip in early 2022. Although the callerβs tip wasnβt involved in the incident, it led investigators to analyze evidence locked up in the CMPD headquarters.
Subsequently, police obtained a DNA match from the evidence and identified 68-year-old Herbert Stanback as the suspect.
Stanback was serving a 22-year sentence in Laurinburg, North Carolina for an unrelated case. Police interviewed Stanback, and he confirmed that he was behind the wheel in the fatal hit-and-run crash that killed Buchanan.
Stanback was transported to the Mecklenburg County Sheriffβs Office in June of this year. He was formally charged with felony hit and run, resulting in serious injury or death.
