The Mysterious Deaths of Arnold Archambeau and Ruby Bruguier
A young Native American couple vanishes from a crash site, only to be found dead under mysterious circumstances months later
The Mystery of Arnold Archambeau and Ruby Bruguier
On the morning of December 12th, 1992, Arnold Archambeau, 20, and Ruby Bruguier, 18, along with Ruby’s cousin Tracy, were involved in a car accident. Only one of them would live to tell the tale. When help arrived, Tracy was discovered at the scene, still trapped inside the overturned vehicle. However, there was no sign of either Arnold or Ruby.
In the coming days and weeks, an intense search of the area would be carried out, but the whereabouts of Ruby and Arnold remained a mystery. That is, until three months later when the bodies of the couple were located in a ditch less than one hundred feet away from the accident site.
While on the surface the most logical explanation is that the two were simply missed in the previous searches and had been there the entire time, several elements of the case continue to defy explanation and suggest that there might be another answer that is stranger — and perhaps more sinister.
Growing Up on Reservation
Arnold Archambeau, a Yankton Sioux, was born in 1972 and raised on the reservation in Charles Mix County, South Dakota. His grandmother took care of him after his mother passed away when he was in his early teens. Arnold would eventually move in with an aunt, Karen Tuttle.
Kind and popular, Arnold was close to his family and had never been in any serious trouble. He enjoyed sports and played basketball at Marty Indian School, where he was selected to be part of an all-Native American team who toured the Soviet Union in 1990. In addition to his extra-curricular activities, he worked at Fort Randall Casino.
Ruby Bruguier was born on January 11th, 1974, in Wagner, South Dakota, to parents Quentin and Myrtle. She was one of eight children. Like Arnold, Ruby was part of the Yankton Sioux Tribe and grew up on the reservation. She was described by those who knew her as a gentle and nice girl, with a good sense of humor.
Being raised on the same reservation, Arnold and Ruby had known each other since childhood. They began dating in high school and soon fell in love. The couple went on to have one child together, a daughter named Erika Marie, in 1991. By the following year, the small family was residing with Arnold’s Aunt Karen.
Night Out Turns Into Tragedy
Arnold and Ruby, both exhausted from caring for their baby, decided that they wanted to take a night off and go out partying on December 11th, 1992. Ruby’s uncle agreed to look after Erika while the two were out that night and Ruby’s 17-year-old cousin, Tracy, decided to join them.
When the three returned early the next morning, Ruby’s uncle could tell right away that they were all intoxicated.
He was uncomfortable with the idea of allowing Arnold and Ruby to take Erika home in their inebriated state, so he suggested that they leave and come back later when they’d sobered up. In the meantime, he’d keep the baby with him. For unknown reasons, Tracy decided to go with them rather than stay at her home.
Shortly before 7 a.m., they reached a stop sign at an intersection near Lake Andes, with Arnold behind the wheel. According to Tracy, he looked back and forth, said there was no one coming, and then started to pull out. It was at this point that they hit a patch of black ice and Arnold lost control of the vehicle, which flipped over and came to rest in a ditch next to the road.
What Happened Next?
Tracy’s recollection of what occurred afterward was hazy, but she said that the next thing she knew, Arnold was no longer in the vehicle, though she hadn’t seen him get out. Ruby, still in the passenger’s seat, was crying, “Oh my God! Oh my God!” and hitting the car in frustration.
Somehow Ruby managed to get the door open just wide enough so that she could slip out. Tracy tried to do the same thing but “then just like that, the door went shut,” so she remained inside the car, confused as to why Arnold and Ruby had left her behind.
When the paramedics and police officers arrived that morning, they found only Tracy. She told them, to the best of her knowledge, what had happened, admitting that all three of them had been drunk. Authorities immediately began looking for the missing couple.
Arnold and Ruby Still Missing
Deputy Sheriff Bill Youngstrom was one of the first responders. Youngstrom and his officers repeatedly walked up and down the road, on both sides — looking in the ditch as they went — as well as along the adjacent disused railbed and nearby lake, in an attempt to find any sign of Arnold and Ruby. However, they found nothing. No bodies or disturbed ice anywhere, as far as they could tell.
Family members aided in the search as well, covering the same ground, over several weeks, but came up similarly empty-handed.
Investigators wondered if the missing couple might have been scared of legal repercussions because Arnold had been driving under the influence of alcohol that morning.
They began to think that the couple was likely hiding somewhere, avoiding the police. Because of this flawed assumption, Arnold and Ruby were never entered into a national missing persons database.
Sightings
Interestingly, the police spoke to a witness who reported seeing Arnold and Ruby get into a vehicle heading east right after the accident. No other details regarding this sighting have ever been released to the public.
A woman who knew Arnold also came forward, claiming to have seen him on New Year’s Eve with three other people. She passed a polygraph exam. Conversely, two of the three people he was supposedly with that evening failed their polygraph tests. (It’s unclear if the third individual was ever brought in and questioned.)
Several other people reportedly saw Arnold as well.
A Shocking Discovery
On March 10th, three months after Arnold and Ruby had vanished, a motorist made a gruesome discovery: a body floating in the ditch along Route 281, where the accident had occurred back in December. The body was so badly decomposed it could only be identified by sight from a distinctive tattoo.
It was Ruby Bruguier. She was found approximately 75 feet away from the crash site.
Believing that Arnold was almost certainly in the same area, the authorities had the ditch drained and soon found Arnold’s body, under four feet of water and roughly 15 feet away from where Ruby’s remains had been discovered. His body was far less decomposed than hers and easily identifiable.
While Ruby was still wearing the same clothing that she’d last been seen in, it couldn’t be confirmed that Arnold was still in the same outfit. Additionally, Ruby’s shoes and glasses were inexplicably missing.
Investigators found three mysterious keys in Arnold’s pockets — one for a car and two most likely for a house. Despite their efforts, authorities were never able to find either a car or a home in the area that matched the keys.
Upon examination of the remains, the Minnehaha County coroner concluded that neither one had been badly injured in the accident and that both had died of hypothermia. However, he couldn’t determine when Arnold and Ruby had died.
Doubts
Despite the coroner’s ambiguous time of death, authorities believed Arnold and Ruby may have died elsewhere and been placed in the ditch later.
The families, who were upset at the way police handled the investigation, cited sloppiness and discrimination.
When asked, Youngstrom said that he had taken pictures of the accident scene that morning but the negatives were blank due to a processing error.
“It sounds like you’re trying to cover your butt. It sounds like you didn’t investigate in the first place,” responded Arnold’s cousin, Mike Archambeau.
Native and Indigenous Americans were often “overlooked and set aside when things like this happened,” said Ruby’s sister.
“When a Native American is charged with something it’s pursued heavily. However, when a Native American is a victim, it’s not pursued with the same perseverance,” noted Arnold’s aunt.
Suspicions of Tampering and Foul Play
Despite their raw feelings about the investigation, the victims’ families were still inclined to agree with police on one central case theory: that the bodies were moved.
Ruby’s father Quentin said:
“They had to die someplace. Somebody had to come and put them back in there again to make it look like that’s where they died.”
“I don’t think anyone feels there wasn’t foul play and that’s very frightening for a community,” said an aunt of Ruby’s.
A clump of Ruby’s hair, discovered near her body, was said to be in much better condition than one would expect after having been out in the elements for three months.
Additionally, two men spotted driving a Trailblazer were reportedly standing by the ditch shortly before Ruby’s body was found. This tip led to speculation, but neither man was ever identified.
Cause of Death: Exposure?
When a lab in New Mexico took another look at the evidence produced by the autopsies, they determined that exposure was one possible cause of death for the missing couple — but not the only one. However, they declined to speak publicly about the nature of these other possibilities.
A Haunting Cold Case
The popular television series Unsolved Mysteries covered the case in 1995. A flurry of new leads and tips came in following the episode’s first airing, but none were deemed viable.
Deputy Sheriff Bill Youngstrom remained convinced that the young couple had died elsewhere and were later brought back to the ditch.
“I myself personally walked that ditch several times during that period. I’ve gotten written affidavits from people that’s also watched, walked it, people that have nothing to do with the case. They couldn’t have been there. They couldn’t have been missed.”
Unanswered Questions
If nefarious foul play was behind the untimely deaths of Arnold and Ruby, both of whom were well-liked in their community, then who was the perpetrator? What was their motive? And how have they concealed the truth for so long in such a close-knit community? As with other aspects of this case, these are questions that remain unanswered.
The FBI eventually took over the investigation, before closing it four years later, citing a lack of evidence supporting foul play.
Special Agent Matt Miller of the Bureau’s Sioux Falls field office stated:
“There isn’t any indication of anything else. All we know is that they appeared in the ditch and that was it.”
Though the case hasn’t been actively investigated in over a decade, it continues to haunt law enforcement. Upon his retirement in 2011, Sheriff Westendorf described it as the most puzzling case of his career.
“I believe they were placed in the ditch after they passed away somewhere else. I do know that they weren’t there in January. It’s pretty hard to prove somebody was murdered when you don’t have any evidence to prove it.”
Ruby’s parents went on to adopt baby Erika. Quentin Bruguier passed away in 2001.
As of 2023, there have been no further developments. For now, the demise of Arnold Archambeau and Ruby Bruguier, two young parents who had their whole lives ahead of them, remains shrouded in mystery.
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Additional Sources
Argus-Leader, March 5th, 1993
Argus-Leader, March 13th, 1993
Rapid City Journal, September 12th, 1999
(This article was originally published on HubPages)