Cold Case Hit-and-Run Cracked: Driver Confesses After 35 Years

Thirty-five years after a fatal hit-and-run in Charlotte, North Carolina, the driver responsible has been identified and confessed to the crime. Herbert Stanback, now 68, admitted to striking 52-year-old Ruth Buchanan with his car in 1989 while he was on work release from prison.

The chilling details of a cold case hit-and-run that claimed the life of a mother in 1989 have come to light after the driver confessed to the crime decades later.

Cold Case Hit-and-Run Cracked: Driver Confesses After 35 Years

Herbert Stanback, now 68, pleaded guilty to felony hit-and-run resulting in serious injury or death in connection with the death of Ruth Buchanan. The confession came after a lengthy investigation that utilized DNA technology and the meticulous work of law enforcement officers.

On December 28, 1989, Buchanan was crossing a street in Charlotte after leaving a department store with a friend when she was struck by a vehicle. Witnesses described the vehicle as a white truck and provided a license plate number, but the tag turned out to have been stolen.

Cold Case Hit-and-Run Cracked: Driver Confesses After 35 Years

Investigators soon discovered a black Mitsubishi parked at a Comfort Inn with damage consistent with the suspect vehicle. Inside the car, they found personal items, including a marijuana cigarette. DNA analysis linked the cigarette to Stanback, who was already in custody on an unrelated charge.

Stanback initially denied involvement in the hit-and-run, but in a subsequent interview with investigators, he made a "full confession." He admitted that he was driving the stolen car when he struck Buchanan and fled the scene.

Cold Case Hit-and-Run Cracked: Driver Confesses After 35 Years

"He was working at a hotel one or two blocks up the street," said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Sgt. Gavin Jackson of the Major Crash Unit. "So, he returned to the prison after hitting Buchanan and fleeing."

Stanback's confession was a pivotal moment in the cold case investigation. DNA evidence and the meticulous documentation of witness statements and initial reports from responding officers all played a critical role in solving the crime.

Cold Case Hit-and-Run Cracked: Driver Confesses After 35 Years

"I was able to speak to Ruth’s son and be able to bring that kind of closure for the family," Jackson said. "It’s certainly not a phone call that they would have been expecting."

Stanback was sentenced to two years in prison, which he is serving concurrently with a 22-year sentence for an unrelated offense. The conviction brings closure to a tragic case that haunted the victim's family and the community for over three decades.

"This stands as an example — of course, not every case is going to be solved this way — but you never know what is going to happen, 20, 25, 30 years down the line," Jackson said. "And the fact that the scientific means have been able to obtain DNA and link it, not to a specific gene pool, but to a specific individual over three decades later is amazing."