[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish deputies seek leads in 2008 murder

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish deputies seek leads in 2008 murder
by Chris Kirkham, The Times-Picayune 
Friday March 13, 2009, 3:18 PM

It's been more than a year since neighbors found the badly beaten body of
83-year-old Peter Ruiz beneath a sheet of plywood in his Arabi backyard, and
leads in the unsolved murder have largely dried up.

The St. Bernard Sheriff's Office is seeking any new information on the
grisly murder from January 2008. Despite finding DNA evidence on the murder
weapon, a two-by-four piece of lumber, deputies have not been able to match
the information with any known criminals in a federal database. 

Detectives also haven't received a single tip since the crime happened. 

"Right now it's a total mystery to us," said Col. John Doran, the chief of
detectives for the Sheriff's Office. 

The murder stands as the lone unsolved murder in St. Bernard since Hurricane
Katrina. 

Known in the neighborhood as an animated character, though sometimes an
argumentative one, Ruiz had recently moved back into his house from the FEMA
trailer in his front yard at the time of his murder. Deputies said he sold
cars out of his house, and was known to carry and display lots of cash. 

Initially Doran said the motive appeared to be robbery. At the murder scene,
Ruiz's pants pockets were turned out and empty. But the heinous nature of
the crime - he was beaten to the head and found with post-mortem wounds to
the neck - has led detectives to believe he may have known the killer. 

In the next month the Sheriff's Office plans to submit information on the
case to the FBI, in hopes of creating a psychological profile of the
suspect. 

"This is a vicious, ferocious attack on an old man," Doran said. 

Recently the Sheriff's Office learned that Ruiz had stayed for several
months at Camp Premier, a tent city for volunteers set up after Hurricane
Katrina near the St. Bernard Port. Detectives are trying to get a list of
people who stayed there from FEMA, with hopes of discovering someone who may
have known about Ruiz's associates. 

Ruiz was frequently on the phone with friends and family members, but he had
only re-established a phone line in his house a week before his death.
Tracking calls prior to that, on a FEMA-provided cellular phone, is
impossible, Doran said. 

His niece, who declined to comment Friday, is now living in his red brick
house on Sable Drive. 

Anyone with information on the Ruiz murder is asked to call the St. Bernard
Sheriff's Office at (504) 271-2501, or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.