Detroit cold case murder suspect arrested after more than 30 years on the lam

A fugitive from Detroit recently arrested for killing his punk rock singer roommate back in 1993 has been described in news reports as a “ghost” because he was able to elude the authorities for more than 30 years.

But during that time, Richard Werstine was no stranger to police.

While he was on the run, Werstine was arrested several times and was even shot in 1999 during a confrontation with the police in Flagstaff, Arizona, according to the U.S. marshal who tracked him down and news accounts.

“His arm is still messed up from that,” chief deputy U.S. Marshal Jimmy Allen told NBC News on Thursday.

Now, with the 56-year-old murder suspect back in Detroit and awaiting a court hearing, Allen credited the “tenacity and commitment of the United States Marshals Service working to bring Werstine and those like him into police custody.”

As to why it took so long to arrest Werstine for the fatal shooting of 23-year-old Rodney Barger, Allen said the suspect used several aliases, including Joseph Alan Stavros, and tracking down fugitives was much harder 30 years ago.

“It was the 90s,” Allen said. “This was before the internet, and fingerprint databases weren’t as accessible as they are now. So when we took over the case in 2022, I was essentially starting from the beginning.”

Using “state-of-the-art investigative resources and techniques,” the marshals and members of their Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team task force picked up Werstine’s trail and tracked him to Panama City, Panama, Allen said in his statement.

With the help of Panamanian authorities, they descended on a dog park in that city on April 29 and captured Werstine “without incident.”

“Werstine was in possession of fraudulent identification, and a subsequent fingerprint analysis led to him being identified as the fugitive Werstine,” the statement said. “Werstine confessed to his true identity and being on the run. Werstine admitted to entering Panama illegally in 2005 and never obtained legal status.”

Barger was the “wild-man vocalist” of a popular Motown-area punk rock band called “Cold as Life.” His stage name was “Rawn Beauty,” according to Revolver magazine.

Werstine was arrested for the crime several days after Barger was shot in the head as he slept on Sept. 15, 1993, police said.

But Werstine, who was out on bail, failed to appear for trial in June 1994 and a warrant was issued for his arrest, police said.

After that, Werstine vanished.

“He was a ghost since ‘94,” a federal source told the NBC affiliate in Detroit, known as Local 4. “He was very cunning, very crafty while on the run.”

Werstine’s whereabouts after that weren’t known.

In January 1999, Werstine was using the Stavros alias when he was charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of disorderly conduct and shot several times by a Flagstaff police officer.

NBC News has reached out to the Flagstaff police for more details on the confrontation and for information about what happened to Werstine after he was arrested then.

The suspect had reportedly fired 14 shots before police arrived, was wounded when he pointed his weapon at the officers and “indicated to police that he wouldn’t be taken,” according to an Associated Press article from 1999.

“He was shot when he confronted officers rather than surrendering,” the AP story said.

He wasn’t charged until after investigators sorted through his other aliases, which included Joseph Shnorock, Jim Kelley, Joe Schorck, James Elizarrey and James Blizarrey, the AP reported.

NBC News Top Stories wp:paragraph