Charlotte cold case Ruth Buchanan | How a marijuana cigarette butt helped solve a 35-year-old NC hit-and-run case [Video]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WTVD) — In Charlotte, DNA from a decades-old marijuana joint has helped solve a nearly 35-year-old deadly hit and run.

The crash happened Dec. 29, 1989.

Ruth Buchanan, 52, was walking across 5th Street at North Tryon Street in Uptown that day when she was hit.

“Her body landed on the opposite side of the intersection, and that vehicle, according to witnesses, didn’t stop, didn’t render aid and continued to flee the scene,” Sgt. Gavin Jackson with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police’s Major Crash Unit said in a video posted on social media.

She died the next day at Charlotte Memorial Hospital.

Despite some witnesses describing the car and several getting the license plate, the case soon went cold. It turned out the tag had been stolen from another car.

On New Year’s Day in 1990, investigators got a tip about a suspicious vehicle at a Comfort Inn. Officers determined that the tag number matched the stolen plate on the …