Washington Cops Identify, Arrest Suspect In L.A. In Connection With Businessman’s 1982 Cold Case Murder

Authorities in Washington said they recently identified a suspect in a 40-year-old cold case homicide and took him into custody in California.

On Oct. 27, Spokane Police Department Major Crimes detectives traveled to Los Angeles and joined forced with the LAPD to arrest 62-year-old Tracy Sabron Pruitt on fugitive charges.

According to officials, on May 5, 1982, Eleanor Rutherford found her businessman husband, Archie Rutherford, 58, murdered in their bedroom. He had suffered fatal stab wounds and a skull fracture and he had an electrical cord tied around his neck.

Police were unable to make any arrests in connection with the case.

Later in the year of the murder, police said Pruitt was arrested in Ohio for an unrelated robbery and rape, and he spent 27 years behind bars after he was convicted of those crimes.

Pruitt is expected to be extradited from California to Washington to face homicide charges.

Police have not released details on how detectives zeroed in on Pruitt in the Rutherford case, but Spokane police spokeswoman Julie Humphreys told The Spokesman-Review that DNA played a part in the case.

The investigation is ongoing.