Paint samples found on the bicycle ridden by a man killed in a 2004 hit-and-run on U.S. 31 do not match samples investigators found on a vehicle they believe was involved in the death.

Police had been waiting for the results of the paint tests before making an arrest in the hit-and-run death of 42-year-old Royce Dale Ramsey of Decatur. The suspect is a Limestone County resident, police said.

More than two years ago, Athens police presented evidence to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Virginia to be analyzed. Capt. Marty Bruce said the FBI Quantico Lab in Virginia was backlogged causing the delay. The report was recently returned to Athens investigators.

“It says the paint samples do no match,”said Athens Detective-Lt. Floyd Johnson. “We are still investigating.”

Those samples were sent to the FBI in 2004, several weeks after the hit-and-run. At the time, Bruce said investigators wanted to know if evidence taken from the scene, such as matter taken off the suspect’s car, matched the marks on the victim’s bicycle.

Police received a break in the case when it learned that an Athens man might have been the driver of a borrowed car when the hit-and-run occurred on U.S. 31, just south of Tanner Crossroads.

Ramsey was on his way to visit his wife Angie, who lived in Tanner, when he was killed.

The couple had been separated for months and police said he was riding his bike that night from Decatur to visit her. Police said the vehicle left what appears to be red paint on the bicycle and that it may have had its right, front turn signal broken.

Police are not sure why the driver drove away. It was late in the night, the area was foggy and it had been raining.

The bicycle showed minimal damage, as if the motorist struck it with a passing blow, Johnson said. The bicycle was in the ditch a few feet from the victim. Ramsey was pronounced dead at the scene.