One of the most puzzling cases to me was the double death of Arnold Arshamble and Ruby Bruigere. It was a freezing cold night and Arnold and Ruby along with Ruby's cousin Tracy Dion were driving back from a party. Suddenly there car spun out of control, rolled over and came to rest in a frozen over ditch. Ruby managed to escape from the car, Arnold wasn't in the car when it came to a stop (thats a question in itself- what happened? was he thrown from the car?) and Tracy was left stuck in the car until she was rescued by a passer-by. In the morning detectives search high and low for Arnold and Ruby but they were no where to be seen. Tracy was puzzled and asked the question 'why would ruby leave me in the car and abandon me like that?' For three months the detectives searched the area where the car accident happened for Arnold and Ruby but they had vanished. Then in March, the body of Ruby was discovered lying in a watery ditch and the next day, after detectives pumped out the ditch they found the body of Arnold submerged in the water about 15 feet from where they found Ruby. Ruby's body was apparently very decomposed and the only way they could identify her was to look at a tatoo she had on her body. Ruby appeared to be wearing the clothes she had on the night of the accident. Arnolds body was apparently 'very well kept' and there was a question as to whether he was wearing the same clothes that he was the night of the accident. I find that very strange- why would Arnold not be wearing the same clothes as he was the night of the accident? Couldn't have Tracy identified what he was wearing or maybe she didn't remember? How could two bodies who were found in close proximity to each other be found to be in different states of decomposition, when they disappeared on the same night? What happened to Arnold and Ruby during the three months they were missing? Detectives claim that there was no way the bodies could have been lying in the watery ditch for three months as they had repeatedly searched the area where the accident happened and they never found any sign of Arnold and Ruby. So what happened? were they kidnapped together and tortured at different times then their bodies dumped back in the ditch? Autospys on both bodies revealed that Arnold and Ruby had both died of exposure but detectives didn't buy that verdict. Detectives found a tuff of hair belonging to Ruby near her body that big piece of hair couldn't have possibly fell off her body if she had just died of exposure- in their opinion it was when Ruby's body was returned to the ditch was when the hair fell off of Ruby and landed nearby. Could Arnold and Ruby have been poisoned? Maybe the advanced state of decomposition hid the fact from the coronor tests during the autopsy? And what about their alcohol levels? Apparently both Arnold and Ruby had been drinking the night they disappeared so if they had died on the night of the accident wouldn't tests reveal that their alcohol levels were quite high? Whereas if they were killed elsewhere at a later date then the alcohol would have been out of their system by that time. Therefore it all depends on the alcohol tests concluded. Maybe Arnold and Ruby's bodies weren't found earlier simply due to the weather conditions at the time? It was wintertime and maybe heavy rainfall or snow concealed the bodies from searchers. They are many theories speculated and many questions left unanswered. Whats your opinion? Most of all i feel very sorry for Arnold and Ruby's little girl called Erica who is now orphaned and she may never know what happened to her parents.

Here is a big old thread where this case was talked about. http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=169203&highlight=archambeauThere is also another one (titled the same as yours if you want to search for it) that is about 2 pages long. I agree it's a very peculiar case!

I have never bought into the theory that they both took off on the cousin and literally closed the door behind them. Why would that happen? I think the cousin was a little disorientated and imagined that happening. Think about it, a car you were in just spun upside down it is very possible that there were hallucinations.

I don't think that the cousins were trying to abandone her. Maybe they got out of the car and felt it was better served to not try and touch her and then retrieve help. They walk and go right through the ice and die and the police are sloppy and don't find their bodies until the spring. That's all that happened IMO on this case, nothing else. There was no motive for anyone else to kill them, they had no known enemies, there was no evidence etc.

Also that eyewitness thing was a little bogus I thought. The only thing puzzling is the father in this case. Why in the world do you let your kid go back out on the road when he's had a few drinks and obviously is borderline at best to drive? That's who should be hoarding the guilt IMO.

I have never bought into the theory that they both took off on the cousin and literally closed the door behind them. Why would that happen? I think the cousin was a little disorientated and imagined that happening. Think about it, a car you were in just spun upside down it is very possible that there were hallucinations.

I don't think that the cousins were trying to abandone her. Maybe they got out of the car and felt it was better served to not try and touch her and then retrieve help. They walk and go right through the ice and die and the police are sloppy and don't find their bodies until the spring. That's all that happened IMO on this case, nothing else. There was no motive for anyone else to kill them, they had no known enemies, there was no evidence etc.

Also that eyewitness thing was a little bogus I thought. The only thing puzzling is the father in this case. Why in the world do you let your kid go back out on the road when he's had a few drinks and obviously is borderline at best to drive? That's who should be hoarding the guilt IMO.

Clockworkhigh

you have a good point but i still find it hard to believe that they died accidentally. Why were they found three months later? why were they both in different states of decomposition? how do you explain the big clump of Ruby's hair that was found near the body? It could have been a random act of violence maybe they stumbled across something they shouldn't have seen and were tortured for it and later dumped back in the ditch. Just a thought and yes the father bit was incredibly strange and im sure he holds alot of guilt for sending them on their way but at least he didn't let them take the baby in the car with them that would have been even more tragic.

Clockworkhigh

you have a good point but i still find it hard to believe that they died accidentally. Why were they found three months later? why were they both in different states of decomposition? how do you explain the big clump of Ruby's hair that was found near the body? It could have been a random act of violence maybe they stumbled across something they shouldn't have seen and were tortured for it and later dumped back in the ditch. Just a thought and yes the father bit was incredibly strange and im sure he holds alot of guilt for sending them on their way but at least he didn't let them take the baby in the car with them that would have been even more tragic.

Well like I suggested I believe it was sloppy police work. The detective in the segment seems like a genuine man, but he also sees no possibility of his men being human and just simply missing the bodies when they combed over the field. Hey it was winter, I don't blame them if they missed it.

Your theory may well be correct as well. Maybe they stumbled upon something. Maybe, just maybe this wasnt an accident. Yes the car spun out but the only person alive from this accident in my opinion is a dummy intellectually. She seems so dumb. So maybe she misremembers things. Maybe she hit her head and forgets that someone tried to run them off the road. Who knows. It's a baffling case, or it could just be the simplest answer. We may never know

Well like I suggested I believe it was sloppy police work. The detective in the segment seems like a genuine man, but he also sees no possibility of his men being human and just simply missing the bodies when they combed over the field. Hey it was winter, I don't blame them if they missed it.

Your theory may well be correct as well. Maybe they stumbled upon something. Maybe, just maybe this wasnt an accident. Yes the car spun out but the only person alive from this accident in my opinion is a dummy intellectually. She seems so dumb. So maybe she misremembers things. Maybe she hit her head and forgets that someone tried to run them off the road. Who knows. It's a baffling case, or it could just be the simplest answer. We may never know


Yes thats true we may never know it is the most interesting case ive ever encountered. There could be a simple answer to it but i must say the the UM segment made foul play seem like a definite possibility but it could be otherwise. I agree; the girl that survived is a bit strange and if you noticed in the segment she always said the words 'you know' after every sentence it was funny! Maybe theres something she has forgotten......

Yeah but to me the whole case is strange..I mean they were most likely drunk driving in icy weather ( as according to the grandparents who stated they had had too much to drink to take their baby home that night) and flipped the car over. It really is weird that a killer would be waiting in freezing temps outside in the middle of essestially nowhere to kill them. Plus, what's the motive? Rudy's cousin whom they left in the car never heard any screams or noises after they both exited the car. When recuse personal came to the scene, no blood was found in the area or signs of a struggle. There's just no motive. Random killings usually have a motive such as robbery, rape, ect. Yet, nothing was taken and to rape someone outside in freezing weather ( below 0) doesn't make any sense. Again, the fact that some killer was walking around in that weather in the middle of nowhere, where they flipped the car over is a little odd to me to say the least. Remember, when that happened forensic technology and things like that were in their infancy. I'v been reading some things online about it and I believe that in all probability this is what happened....All 3 were intoxicated from a long night of partying. They chose to drive. The grandparents noticed they were intoxicated and advised it would be better to pick up their daughter in the morning. I believe it was a combination of icy weather and being intoxicated that the car flipped into the ditch. Arnold freed himself from the car and went over to help Rudy get out. Why did they not help their cousin? Well, there's a few explainations...1) If they're drunk they aren't thinking in a rational state of mind. 2) Panic, they knew the cops would be to the crash scene soon and they had been drunk driving. I believe they fled the crash scene and again, as they were intoxicated weren't thinking clearly to judge where the ice was too thin and they fell threw. Anyone who's fallen into freezing water in below 0 temps knows that your body goes into shock right within seconds. Plus all the heavy winter clothes they had on would weigh them down and make it very hard to pull themselves out. Even if they pulled themselves out, hypothermia with those temps would set it immediately. Remember they were in the middle of nowhere..this was not a populated area. The medical examiner stated they died from exposure. If you research this case further..no signs of stabbing, strangling, ect was found on the bodies. Nothing. Even with just bones left many medical examiners have been able to detemain strangulation (e.i the hyoid down is broken) or stab wounds that struck the bones. However, in this case the bodies were decently preserved because of the cold. Nothing was found. In recent years, more technology and research (The Body Farm, which specializes in decomposition of bodies for investigators (thats where Caley Anthony's body was sent) has found that even 2 bodies in the same place might not decay the same depending on many factors. The hair found on the road might have blown there after the spring thaw. Their friends who stated they saw arnold after the crash and passed polygraph tests in all probability were just mistaken about the date. So, in that case they weren't lying and would've passed the lie detector. Consider Arnold was found wearing the same clothes he had on the night of the crash, it seems that his friends were just mistaken of the date. Why would he have been walking around in the same clothes for that many days? and the friends NEVER saw Ruby. So, does that mean that Arnold was spared by the killer but Ruby wasn't? And that Arnold never said anything and just went to a party with his friends? And somehow the killer came back for Arnold later? Highly doubtful. That has happened in many investigations were witnesses were mistaken about the date. Also, the police department was very small and did not have the resources that larger agencies have or the technology we have today. So they might have combed the area in the winter but in area's like that until the spring thaw many things can go unnoticed especially with as little man power as that had. Honestly, this just seems like a horrible tragic accident. Questions can always remain like "Why didn't they just stay in the car"? "Why didn't they help Ruby's cousin?" ect But like I said being drunk and being in a panic state of mind can alter rational thinking.

there was a motive though, i thought there was a 2nd car in the accident? i dunno maybe i didnt watch properly, didnt they nearly hit soemone? or someone nearly hit them? i dunno ill re watch it when i get home from work.
if this is the case, the other driver could of caused the accident and when he saw them get out freaked and killed them. still seems kinda unlikely but people have killed for less lol. maybe he didnt realise there was a 3rd victim in the car. or she passed out and he thought she was dead. more then likely though he didnt notice her.

maybe the guy killed the girlfriend accidently? she got out and yelled at him for crashing saying he could of killed them and he pushed her or something and she fell and hit her head and he freaked out and made a run for it. came back later and killed himself. thats why he was less decomposed. who knows LOL there cold be a million different explanations.

more then likely though id say they both fell through ice and the cops missed there bodies coz they were under water.

It's hard to say for sure what happened here. The Sheriff in the segment seemed absolutely positive that he and his men had searched that ditch thoroughly numerous times. But on the other hand, why would a killer bring the bodies back to the scene at such a later time? Why not just dispose of them some other way? And more importantly, what would the motive be? That was a pretty rural area and it's hard to believe that some killer just happened upon the car wreck out there in sub-freezing conditions in the middle of nowhere.

Second, I read where another medical examiner has said that the different composition rates of the bodies is not really that unusual at all in such conditions. One of the bodies could have been submerged in ice for a longer period which would have lead to a slower decomposition than a body that had thawed out sooner.

I think the most likely scenario, after weighing all the evidence, is that the police just made a mistake here.

After seeing the segment several times, it did seem the incident was over the heads of local police.

The two questions I would have is

1. Why did Ruby and Arnold leave the car and their cousin stuck? Many speculate that since it would have been a DUI, they were scared.

2. Of course the strands of hair that matches Ruby's found near the bodies.



One scenario I always thought was Ruby and Arnold were wasted and passed out? The fact that they weren't shot or beaten, and if I remember the "cause of death" was exposure, there may not have been foul play. Still a really unusual story.


I also heard from somewhere else that there may be something fishy with the Native American community and there is certainly some important details we just don't know and probably never will.

I live in South Dakota, maybe an hour or two at most from where this happened. I can tell you that during the time of year when this case happened it would have been very easy for the two fo them to have fallen through the ice and then the surface of the ditch could have very quickly frozen over to cover where they went through. Where this happened, the overnight temperatures are sub-zero more often than not during the months that they were missing. As the spring though comes on our temperatures ping pong consistently. We'll have 20 degree highs one day and 40 the next. If Arnold was a little as a foot or two further down in the ditch, his body would have thawed later and would have been at a different state of decomposition.

As much as they emphasized the mysteriousness of this case, I agree with the above that this case was just out of the investigating department's league. It's a small town area. I just think they wanted to make more of it than was really there.

As for the father letting the kids drive away after they'd been drinking, the culture about things like that is different on the reservation than we'd necessarily expect it to be. Bad judgement, maybe, but not all that uncommon.

No way were the bodies taken from the area then put back there at a later date. It was purely an oversight by the police. The two of them ran off obviously because they were drunk and fell through the ice, leaving the other girl to fend for herself was pretty gutless in my opinion.

I'm perfectly willing to believe that they died of exposure and the cops just simply missed their bodies, but the thing that's always nagged at me was that this crash apparently happened around 6 AM. Granted, I don't know the exact time the sun would rise in South Dakota at that particular time of year, but would there have been enough time for the ditch to freeze over Arnold and Ruby so that they wouldn't be seen at all after daybreak hit?

What the segment doesn't mention is how long it took the police to get there or how they were informed about the accident in the first place since it occurred in the middle of nowhere when no one else was around. I assume it couldn't have taken them too long to arrive since Tracy was rescued before she could succumb to exposure. Either way, it was still a pretty limited window for two bodies to be frozen over so much that the cops could not notice them in broad daylight.

I'm perfectly willing to believe that they died of exposure and the cops just simply missed their bodies, but the thing that's always nagged at me was that this crash apparently happened around 6 AM. Granted, I don't know the exact time the sun would rise in South Dakota at that particular time of year, but would there have been enough time for the ditch to freeze over Arnold and Ruby so that they wouldn't be seen at all after daybreak hit?

What the segment doesn't mention is how long it took the police to get there or how they were informed about the accident in the first place since it occurred in the middle of nowhere when no one else was around. I assume it couldn't have taken them too long to arrive since Tracy was rescued before she could succumb to exposure. Either way, it was still a pretty limited window for two bodies to be frozen over so much that the cops could not notice them in broad daylight.

Sunrise at that time of year happens at about 8am where they were at. With the cold temps and the late sunrise we see here, it could have very easily frozen over again before the police got there. The ditches in this area (and the Lake Andes area) can be deep enough that it would be like falling into a pond to get under the ice there. Combine that with disorientation from the alcohol and possible trauma from the accident and it is very feasible that they fell through and died there. As for leaving cousin Tracy behind, Do you think Ruby intended to just "leave her behind?" My thought is that Ruby got out of the car in a bit of a stupefied state and her first thought was to look for Arnold because he wasn't in the car. I don't think the closing of the door was intentional. Maybe it fell closed behind her due to the unnatural position of the car and she didn't notice due to looking for Arnold. Just some thoughts.

I've watched this case from the early years and seen recent reruns of it. I really believe this is one of those times that the simple, logical explanation is probably the correct one.

After the accident, Ruby and Arnold stumbled from the car and succumbed to exposure in the ditch. Being in different areas of the ditch I believe accounts for different rates of decomposition, and as for the part of Ruby's hair being found on the ground, I believe that might be something as simple as a bystander seeing her body and grabbed her by the hair to pull her from the ditch. Due to decompostion, the hair pulled away from her head and the person threw it down- before the officials arrived. Then kept quiet about it.

As for the cousin remaining in the car- these people were drunk. After the wreck she was probably so intoxicated/stunned from the accident she remained in the car. It is so tempting and easy to put a mysterious spin to a lot of UM cases, but I really think this is nothing more than a tragic case of DUI and the results of it.

I just don't see how the police could have not seen their bodies.

I agree - a very strange case.

I just don't see how the police could have not seen their bodies.

I agree - a very strange case.


Agreed something just doesn't add up and we will probably never learn the truth :(

I just don't see how the police could have not seen their bodies.

I agree - a very strange case.

It's really not that difficult. It was cold. They probably didn't care to spend a lot of time looking for two drunk Native Americans. Probably figured they got what they deserved. I wouldn't be surprised if they would have actually looked for thin spots in the ice if it had been different people.