Maryland State Police are conducting an investigation into the death of Ralph Ruark, an 80-year-old inmate at the Western Correctional Institution in Allegany County.
Ruark was serving a sentence in the maximum security prison for a triple homicide committed in Salisbury, Maryland in 1972. On October 14, 1972, Ruark fatally shot his estranged wife, Glenda Smack Ruark, 25, at a bookstore in the Salisbury Mall. News reports at the time said that the incident took place in front of several customers and that Ruark was apprehended shortly after the shooting.
Investigators were initially unaware that the shooting was not Ruark’s first murder that day. When police arrived to inform Glenda Ruark’s parents of her death, they discovered her father, Glen, 53, shot to death, and her mother, Louise, 49, bludgeoned to death at their residence.
Ruark remained in prison for the remainder of his life until his recent death at the Western Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland.
On June 22, 2024, at 4:10 p.m., the Maryland State Police Homicide Unit was contacted by investigators from the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Internal Investigative Unit (DPSCS IIU) regarding Ruark’s death, which occurred shortly before 3:30 p.m. the same day. The Homicide Unit is leading the investigation, with support from State Police crime scene technicians and DPSCS IIU investigators. Once the investigation is completed, it will be reviewed by the Allegany County State’s Attorney’s Office officials said last week.
Ruark’s body wastransported to the Office of Chief Medical Examiner in Baltimore for an autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death. The findings will be presented to the Allegany County State’s Attorney’s Office for further review.