A man suspected of killing a 64-year-old grandfather in a hit-and-run nearly 30 years ago has been arrested after police received a tip from someone who was watching a rerun of America’s Most Wanted.
Leslie Ruby, 64, was killed outside his home in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 29, 1997. He was a married Korean War veteran, and his wife and daughter died before the killer could face justice.
Ruby was crossing the street in front of his house with his riding lawn mower while on the way home from cutting his daughter’s grass when he was struck by a car.
‘He was hit in front of the driveway to the house next door and ended up in front of our driveway, so he was carried about 150 feet by the impact,’ neighbor Dan Anderson, who still lives next to Ruby’s former house, recalled to WBAL.
The car ‘continued on, didn’t even stop to help,’ said Des Moines Police Sergeant Paul Parizek in a video posted to Facebook.
Police eventually identified a suspect named Gerardo Garcia-Michel, who was 28 at the time, but it appeared that he had fled the state. Some information led investigators to believe Garcia-Michel had gone to Southern California, but that was a dead end.
America’s Most Wanted covered the case a year later, and police hoped the exposure would bring new leads.
Almost exactly 29 years later, the old episode led to a Crime Stoppers tip. It was submitted by a man in New Jersey who said he recognized Garcia-Michel as his neighbor.
Leslie Ruby, 64, was killed in a hit-and-run while on his way home on his riding lawn mower in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 29, 1997
Ruby’s wife, Patricia Ruby, died before her husband’s killer could face justice. The couple (pictured together) had one daughter and a granddaughter
America’s Most Wanted covered Ruby’s case a year after he was killed. The man was a veteran of the Korean War and is pictured in his uniform as a young man
A suspect named Gerardo Garcia-Michel was featured in the America’s Most Wanted episode. He was arrested last month because of a tip submitted by a man who saw the episode
The Des Moines Police Department identified Garcia-Michel as a suspect soon after the hit-and-run, and they had a warrant out for his arrest for nearly 30 years.
Investigators in 1997 interviewed witnesses, but no one was able to give a precise description of the driver who hit Ruby, Parizek said.
The only information police were able to uncover was that Ruby was hit by a large, dark-colored car with no license plates.
A few days later, an officer on patrol found a parked car that matched the description with extensive damage to its bumper and windshield. Police looked into who purchased the vehicle to identify Garcia-Michel.
They believed he was going to Southern California because he had family there, but the lead did not pan out.
After the America’s Most Wanted episode aired, police received a few tips and followed up on those additional leads, but those did not lead anywhere either.
That was until August 4 of this year, when the tip came in from New Jersey. Parizek said that the tip included a picture, and Garcia-Michel ‘had certainly aged, but we compared those photographs, and we were pretty confident.’
Des Moines Police reached out to authorities in New Jersey, who followed up on the case and arrested Garcia-Michel on August 26, according to Ocean County Jail records.
Garcia-Michel was 28 at the time of the hit-and-run, and he is pictured at that age. Police said he evaded arrest by slightly changing his name and date of birth
Police identified Garcia-Michel as a suspect after discovering he had purchased this damaged car that matched the description of the car that hit Ruby
He was charged as a fugitive from justice, the records show. Parizek said that his department is working on extraditing Garcia-Michel to Iowa.
The sergeant also said that over the years, Garcia-Michel slightly changed his name and date of birth, which is how he was able to evade arrest for so long.
Ruby was killed just a few months before he would have celebrated his 40th wedding anniversary with his wife, Patricia Ruby. She died three years after he was killed.
‘I always think it was from a broken heart,’ Ruby’s granddaughter, Shonna, said in the video released by the Des Moines Police Department.
Shonna’s mom, Shirley, who was also Patricia and Leslie’s only daughter, died in 2013.
‘They both would have wanted to find some kind of justice in this,’ Shonna said.
Ruby’s wife, Patricia, and his daughter, Shirley, both died before Garcia-Michel was arrested. They are pictured holding his wanted posted
Ruby’s granddaughter, Shonna, said her mom and grandma ‘can finally rest in peace knowing that almost 30 years later people don’t give up on you’
‘I think they would’ve been happy now, and they can finally rest in peace knowing that almost 30 years later people don’t give up on you,’ she added through tears.
‘It doesn’t matter if its 29 minutes, 29 days or 29 years after a crime. Getting answers for the family is one of the most important things we can do as an organization, and our detectives work hard every day to do that,’ Parizek said.
