Donald Ruby jailed for the murder of Edna Posey

Our episode wasn't entirely clear about the locations in this case, but most of these were discernible from clues and other sources. It was said that Edna Posey was "no stranger to the seedy side of life" in nearby Harrisburg (Pennsylvania). Her death certificate indicated Edna's torso was found in Watts Township. And the "downtown" area where Donald Ruby and his wife supposedly dropped Edna off on May 26th was in Middletown, a smaller town than Harrisburg and likely near the Rubys' residence.

The life and times of Edna Posey

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Edna admitted that her life was "out of control". The 31-year-old (her birthday showed she was actually three months shy of her 31st birthday when she was killed) was said to quickly move in with men she met in bars. And usually sooner afterf Edna would begin to cohabitate with a new gentleman, the relationship would take a wrong turn. Edna and her son Randy would then need to relocate – this undoubtedly caused hardship in Randy's world. It was Edna's effort to seek treatment and a fresh start that led her to request that Donald Ruby and his wife take custody of Randy.

Ruby was granted legal guardianship of Randy a full year before Edna's murder. Edna Posey moved from Pennsylvania down to Virginia to get her life back on track. I can understand needing to leave an area to decouple one's self from the influences of certain actors in an area. In the 1980s after my own parents were divorced, my mother needed a similar change of scenery. Cocaine was big in south Florida, and my mom was living paycheck-to-paycheck and partying with the regulars on the bar scene (she also worked at a bar). My sister and I were living with our father, so near rock bottom, my mother packed everything she had into her Chevy Nova and drove up to Gainesville, Florida.

Away from the south Florida drug scene and connecting with my grandmother's new husband Ken, my mother sought to learn a marketable trade. Ken knew the ins and outs of technical writing, so with his help and hundreds of miles from easy-to-access drugs, my mom doctored up her resume in order to get an entry-level job as a writer. She earned her initial experience at her first contract job, and this made landing the second contract easier. She knew if she was going to have a healthy relationship with her kids, my mother couldn't afford to relapse into her life of debauchery.

If we're to believe Donald Ruby's story, Edna was dropped off for some shopping in the downtown area of Middletown. From there, it's supposed that Edna fell off the wagon, visited one (or more) of her old haunts, and likely ran into some of her former barfly friends. From there, it's unknown how or why she was murdered. Did Edna realize clean living wasn't for her – that her plans to regain custody of Randy and rejoin her boyfriend in Virginia were no longer desirable? Maybe she considered vanishing back into the Harrisburg party scene when someone found cause to want her dead?

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

This seems unlikely until you realize at least part of Ruby's story must be true. At some point shortly before her torso was discovered on May 27, 1984, Edna Posey had sex with multiple men. Assuming consent, this type of depravity is often fueled by alcohol, so it seemed Posey had visited a bar on May 26th – the day Ruby claims to have dropped Posey off downtown. His wife (Leigh Maser) was his witness to dropping Edna off downtown, but this was refuted by the prosecution during the first trial. A timecard showing Maser was at work at the time she claimed to be with Ruby indicated her deception.

Unprotected sex with at least three different men speaks to at least two scenarios: Either Enda agreed (perhaps only to a degree, depending on her level of inebriation) to have multiple sex partners or between one and all three of the men had assaulted her. This is a plausible scenario that wasn't discussed – the man or men who raped Edna Posey would had an obvious motive to want her dead. When motile sperm was found in Edna on the morning of the 27th during her autopsy, and none of it belonged to Donald Ruby, the prosecution's version of events related during the first trial became nearly impossible.

Was Donald Ruby a pedophile?

But at the time of the first trial, the deck had been stacked against Donald Ruby. It was probable that Ruby didn't want Edna to reclaim Randy, but his reasons weren't clear. We heard of scenarios in our episode that describe Ruby kissing Randy on the mouth, and of examining Randy all-too-thoroughly for ticks. Plus in the first trial, Randy testified that Donald Ruby:

• Seemed to become aroused during two "wrestling" matches
• Took him to an adult bookstore at some point
• Asked to take nude pictures of him

It was this testimony that painted Ruby as a pedophile, but the charges against Donald Ruby were for murder, not pedophilia. His disgusting deeds with Randy (if true) were the prosecution's explanation for Donald Ruby's motive to kill Edna Posey. If he kept Randy close, his awful predilections might not be discovered.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

It's curious that with Ruby's affection for children, he and his wife had none. I'm not sure his marriage to Leigh Maser was Ruby's first, but it seemed neither partner had children of their own. On the surface, Ruby's desire to provide a strong male role model for troubled young boys seems admirable – altruistic. But playing the part of a Boy Scout leader allows a perfectly valid reason for someone with subversive interests in boys to have a reason to associate with them. I honestly believe that the majority of scout leaders are genuine – they want to share their experiences and help boys grow into respectable men. But I have a colleague at work with a master's degree in psychology and a different opinion. He feels the earnest scout leader is the exception; that the majority of men who assume the role do so for at least partially the wrong (and wretched) reasons. What are your thoughts?

The first trial of Donald Ruby

As shared above, Ruby's first trial played out more like a witch-hunt. In February of 1987, the case against Donald Ruby was presented to a jury. They heard Randy's testimony about Ruby's questionable interactions. They also heard Randy's account of hearing a loud thump the night before his mother was supposedly last seen. A forensic entomologist told jurors that the insect activity found on the torso indicated the victim had been killed either Friday night, May 25th or Saturday morning, May 26th. The jury was also told about (and shown) the box in which Edna's torso was found. The puncture hole with grease was claimed to have been made by the trunk latch of Ruby's car when he transported it to Watts Township to dispose.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

The evidence of the box seemed circumstantial and superficial at best. While the size of the puncture in the box matched Ruby's trunk latch, it also matched many other similar cars' trunk latches. It also matched any number of otherwise similar-sized objects. The grease accompanying the hole seemed to tell investigators that it was made by the trunk latch, but the grease was not specifically matched to grease found in/near Ruby's trunk. It's not like an elemental composition match was made among the grease samples, and I'd guess there are many thousands of other trunks containing similar if not identical grease. And who's to say the puncture in the box occurred while Ruby (or the real killer) was moving the box into or out of the trunk on Memorial Day weekend in 1984? Isn't it possible that the hole was made any time prior to the box containing Edna's torso?

True or not, Donald Ruby's story about taking Edna shopping had its flaws. Maser's lie about accompanying her husband was problem enough. But if Edna Posey was given a ride to downtown Middletown to do some shopping on May 26th around 1pm, why hadn't Randy seen her that morning? Edna had come 150 miles back to Middletown to see and possibly reclaim her son – and we're to believe that she and Randy didn't cross paths on that Saturday morning?

Donald Ruby's second trial

May 1993 saw Donald Ruby retried for the murder of Edna Posey after a Superior Court appeals panel dismissed his original conviction a year prior. The testimony that had painted Ruby as a pedophile had unfairly biased the jury. And, lawyers for Donald Ruby had additional evidence to share this time around.

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Neal Haskell testified on behalf of the defense in 1993, and he refuted the testimony of the forensic entomologist for the prosecution in first trial. Rather than indicating Edna was killed on Friday night or Saturday morning, Haskell's analysis of the insect activity pushed her murder date ahead a full day. Donald Ruby's accountability was sketchy on Friday night, but he had a much firmer alibi for Posey's updated time of death.

Also during the second trial, Enda's son Randy, now 20 years old, no longer recalled hearing the ominous thump the first night his mother was in town. And more telling than insect activity and earwitness accounts, the live sperm found during Edna's autopsy was the defense's key evidence during the second trial. It's puzzling how this information was omitted from the first trial. Sperm only remains motile inside a deceased person for about 24 hours. This clearly pushed Edna's death into the Saturday before her torso was discovered. And finally, the sperm had three separate donors. With Donald Ruby being eliminated as a contributor of the semen, this opens the door to significant reasonable doubt. And it stands to question: Were DNA profiles generated for any of the semen's donors? Wouldn't investigators want to question the men who were among the last to see Edna Posey alive?

After the episode's 20-minute mark, we learned that Donald Ruby was found not guilty at his second trial. Edna's friends and family were baffled by this outcome, but I question why? Posey's incognito coworker from Virginia continued to label Ruby a "murderer" despite the exonerating evidence. Then, Criminal investigator William Link quips, "Never try to figure out a jury." He's also expressing his disbelief in the second jury's decision to acquit Donald Ruby, but this seems to ignore the facts of the case. This statement would've likely been better pinned to the first trial's jury who found Ruby guilty with merely circumstantial evidence and judgements after the prosecution's character assassination.

Donald Ruby leaves us with several questions

Edna Posey's torso was unidentified for seven months before she was buried in an unmarked grave. It was almost year before Edna's "ex-sister-in-law" reported her missing. My guess is that this person was Randy's aunt on his father's side. So herein lies some questions: Where was Randy's father through all of this? As Randy's aunt, why hadn't she inquired about Edna or Randy sooner? She knew Edna was a "free spirit", and she likely knew that Edna had given custody of Randy to another family. But wouldn't this person who was concerned enough to report Edna missing also be concerned about young Randy? Interestingly, another report claims that the "sister" didn't come forward to police until they "...put a small notice in the newspaper. It was then that the victim's sister came forward..."

Image credit: Episode screen capture from Forensic Files

Related to the discovery of Edna's body – why had the perpetrator gone to such extremes to dispose of all of Edna's body parts except her torso? Given how easily and quickly the torso was located after her death, it's almost as if the killer wanted it found. He'd even included her jeans and belt with the torso (but no other clothing?). So how had he successfully hidden her arms and legs? Her head? And where had the dismemberment taken place?

Lastly, I found Edna's coworker from Virginia a strange character. Why had she chosen to appear on the episode under a veil of anonymity? This would typify fear for her safety, but this seems unfounded. This woman lived 150 miles away from the crimes committed to Edna. And her perpetrator had his reasons for murdering Edna – he'd have no incentive to locate and harm this woman 10 years after the second trial and nearly 20 years after the initial incident. Finally, around the 12:45 mark in the episode, the coworker questions of the killer, "How could you do this to another person?" She goes on to suggest the killer didn't simply shoot Enda – instead she indicates that the murderer cruelly prolonged Edna's death. But the truth is, without evidence for a thorough autopsy, investigators still do not know Edna's cause of death. It's almost as if this woman knew more than she let on … so maybe that's why she requested to remain anonymous.

Where is Donald Ruby now in 2024?

Our episode shared that Donald Ruby left town shortly after being acquitted at his second trial in 1993. Including his own defense team, no one knows where the 48-year-old Ruby relocated. But later that year, he sent Dr. Neal Haskell a letter thanking him for his testimony during the trial.