Tucson restaurant owner arrested in teen's killing

The 37-year-old Chandler man arrested in connection to the gruesome killing of a Nebraska teen near Apache Junction last month owned Tucson’s Pastiche Modern Eatery restaurant, records show.

Anthonie Ruinard had owned the 25-year-old restaurant on North Campbell Avenue since 2021. He bought it from Costas and Judie Georgacas.

Pastiche has been closed since a small fire caused water and electrical damage in early February, according to city officials.

Ruinard was arrested July 5 in connection with the stabbing death and dismemberment of 18-year-old Parker League of Nebraska, who was in Arizona visiting friends.

League was stabbed multiple times in his back with an unknown sharp instrument. An unknown sharp weapon was used to dismember League, with his head and hands removed and placed near his legs, the Arizona Republic reported, citing court documents.

League was last seen alive on June 11 at a gas station in Chandler with Ruinard. His body was found two days later in a bonfire pile in a remote area of the Tonto National Forest northeast of Apache Junction, according to the Associated Press.

Detectives obtained video footage from multiple locations where League’s bank card was being used after he was reported missing by his family. A search warrant served at Ruinard’s house uncovered forensic evidence in the trunk of Ruinard’s car that matched Parker’s DNA, the AP reported.

Charging documents say a human blood spot the size of a basketball was found in the car’s trunk, along with blood on the vehicle’s rear bumper, according to the Arizona Republic. Ruinard told investigators he met League at a Circle K and purchased bank cards from him.

Ruinard was found in possession of cocaine worth about $27,000, the Republic reported, citing charging documents.

Ruinard was booked into jail on suspicion of abandonment/concealment of dead body parts, drug charges, credit card theft and possessing a weapon while being a prohibited person, according to officials. He is being held on $2 million bond and officials said Ruinard is expected to be charged with first-degree murder at his initial court appearance.

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League’s family had reported him missing to Mesa police on June 12, the day he was expected to return to Nebraska from Arizona, court documents show. League, who had recently graduated high school, had taken a flight on June 9 to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, court documents noted.

It is unclear how Ruinard ended up buying Pastiche or when. The Georgacases ran the restaurant for four years after buying it in spring 2017 from the family of the original owner Pat Connors weeks after Connors died of cancer.

In a Facebook post on May 17, 2021, the couple announced their retirement, but no details on the restaurant’s fate or ownership was mentioned. Four months later, Ruinard announced that he and his wife, Petrian, owned the restaurant in a Facebook post inviting patrons to Pastiche to celebrate his 36th birthday on Sept. 8, 2021. The state issued a liquor license to “Ruinard Inc.” two weeks later.

Not long after he took over the restaurant, Ruinard hired longtime Tucson jazz musician and producer Pete Swan to establish a nightly music program. Ruinard, Swan said, was charismatic and friendly, pulling up to the restaurant once a week or so in expensive cars.

“He could be smooth,” said Swan, a drummer who had played in jazz trios and other ensembles at Pastiche for years when Connors was alive.

But almost from the start, Swan said, Ruinard had trouble paying the musicians and the restaurant’s employees. He would pay them days late or his checks would bounce. At one point, Swan insisted the restaurant pay everyone in cash, but Ruinard would still pay late, making excuses as to why he didn’t have the money on him.

By July 2022, Swan had seen enough and pulled his Swan Productions program out Pastiche.

In social media posts, employees also complained of not being paid. Swan said the employees formed a private Facebook group and quit en masse not long before the February fire, which city officials said was minor.

In a Pastiche Facebook post on Feb. 4, Ruinard insisted the restaurant was not permanently closed, saying that they were fixing “major water damage” to the restaurant and planned to reopen soon.