Accused killer returns to Spokane to face murder charge in 40-year-old South Hill cold case
Feb. 24—A 62-year-old man accused of killing a Spokane businessman at his South Hill home more than four decades ago is back in Spokane.
Tracy Pruitt made his first appearance Friday in Spokane County Superior Court on suspicion of first-degree murder in the slaying of 58-year-old Archie Rutherford.
Law enforcement used fingerprint and DNA evidence to arrest Pruitt Oct. 27 in Los Angeles, where he lives. Pruitt was extradited to the Spokane County Jail, arriving there Thursday, according to the jail roster.
On Friday, Court Commissioner John Stine set Pruitt's bond at $1 million, deeming Pruitt a "flight risk" who could commit other "violent offenses" if released. Pruitt spent 27 years in prison for committing robberies and rapes in Ohio a little more than two months after the Spokane killing.
Pruitt's attorney, Stephanie Vick, called the $1 million bond "unnecessary." Pruitt is scheduled for an arraignment March 7.
Police made no arrests in the 40 years following Rutherford's death. But in October 2020, the Spokane County Sheriff's Office Forensic Unit told Spokane police they had a match to a fingerprint from Rutherford's car, which was stolen and discovered in downtown Spokane hours after Rutherford was found dead, according to court documents.
Police had lifted fingerprints from the stolen Honda in 1982, but the prints did not identify anyone at the time.
Last year, the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab determined that blood from Rutherford's kitchen submitted to the lab in April belonged to an unknown male, court records said. The DNA from the blood was then entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), the database of known DNA profiles maintained by the FBI. The DNA profile matched Pruitt.
Rutherford's wife, Eleanor Rutherford, discovered her husband dead in a bedroom of their home at 1207 E. 27th Ave. on the afternoon of May 25, 1982. She had just returned from a weekend trip in the Seattle area.
She told police she expected her husband to meet her at the airport, but he never arrived. A friend picked up Eleanor Rutherford, who died in 1996, and took her home. She noticed her green 1979 Honda was gone, newspapers were piled up at the front door and a towel was outside the unlocked door.
An officer found the stolen Honda about eight hours after she reported finding her husband dead.
An autopsy determined Archie Rutherford died from multiple stab wounds. He also had a skull fracture and brain hemorrhage, according to documents.
In a walkthrough of the home with police, Eleanor Rutherford noted stolen items, including the Honda, keys to the house and car, her husband's wallet, which included credit cards, and a 19-inch color television set.
She told police other items were out of place in the house.
Pruitt's name first appeared in the murder investigation on June 26, 1982, about a month after the killing, according to documents. His name was written on a couple of checks that were allegedly payment for the sale of Rutherford's stolen credit cards.
On Sept. 29, 1982, a man involved in the credit card transaction learned the cards he bought were involved in a homicide and was worried he would be tied to the killing.
A couple of months earlier, on July 8, 1982, a woman told Spokane police at High Bridge Park that Pruitt, who was an acquaintance of hers, was driving her 1972 Ford Galaxy when she got out of the vehicle to go to the bathroom. Pruitt and the car were gone when she returned, she told police. The vehicle was found abandoned in Grinnell, Iowa, later that month, and the robberies and rapes stemmed from an incident on July 31, 1982.
