Arnold Archambeau and Ruby Bruguier (20 and 19 years old,respectively),a young couple were involved in a car accident in Lake Andes, South Dakota. It was winter, December 12 of 1992, and the road was icy. Apart from the young couple, Tracy Dion(Ruby's cousin) was in the car as well. Tracy was 17 years old at the time. All of them have been drinking before the accident. The driver, Arnold, ignored a stop sign while driving very fast. He lost control of the car and it ended up in a ditch on the side of the road.
Tracy, who was the only one found after the accident ,described the first minutes of the accident. She explained how the car ended up in that ditch and she claimed that Ruby was still alive inside the car.
"Arnold wasn’t in the car. I don’t know where he was. Ruby was crying. She was saying oh my God, oh my God. She just kept hitting the car. The next thing I know, the door, it was open a little ways and she had enough room where she slid out. And then so I was going to reach over and then it was just like that, the door went shut.”
When police arrived Tracy was the only one found in the car. Both, Ruby and Arnold were missing and from the looks it appeared that they had abandoned her. A huge search started. The ditch was the first place to look. The police thought, that the young couple might have tried to find help and died somewhere around. They searched the area and even the Lake near by. Nothing.
Parents of the two mentioned that they haven't received some kind of call from them. They believed that if the couple was alive and was just hiding, they would have call, at least, to tell them.
Arnold and Ruby from that day were considered missing. Over the next three months the police investigated any leads found, but they all led to dead-ends. Then suddenly, in early March, the body of Ruby was discovered 75 feet from the accident. It was weird based on the fact that all area has been searched thoroughly, included the spot where the body was found. Even weirder, the body of Arnold was found the next day a few yards away. Ruby's shoes and glasses were missing and the bodies were in decomposition. The autopsies could not determine the way they died, although Debuty Youngstorm had a theory of foul play.
He explained that they could not have missed the bodies and there are statements even from people not involved with the case that never saw anything in the area. He also explained that a tuft of hair, that was proved to be Ruby's, was found on the road. The other side was saying that the bodies were just there for months and the young couple had died from cold.
And in all weirdness surrounding the case, a witness appears saying that he saw Arnold acompanied by three people on New Year's Eve(three weeks after the accident). The witness was submitted for a polygraph exam, which he passed.
So the big question remains. Was this a murder after all? Did the accident was an opportunity for someone who wanted to kill Arnold? If not, how could the police miss both bodies, while they were in front of their noses?
Rubin's father believed that the bodies were put in the place of the accident to hide a crime.
The whole incident is considered unsolved until today,although The FBI deemed the case closed in 1999 because nothing they had in their hands, suggested foul play.
“It’s pretty hard to prove somebody was murdered when you don’t have any evidence to prove it.”.png)