80-Year-old CA Man Arrested In Double-Murder Cold Case 3 Decades Later

STOCKTON, CA — More than three decades after two best friends were found dead in Stockton, officials say they have arrested an 80-year-old man suspected of killing the young men.

Donald Lee Clark is expected to appear in court June 1 after he was arrested last month in connection with the murders of Lawrence "Larry" Loehr and Eugene Cates, both 23, according to the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office.

Authorities said Loehr was working overnight at a construction site near the 10000 block of Thornton Road on May 23, 1994, and Cates arrived after he left his job the morning they were killed.

Around 3 a.m., police received a report of an assault at the construction site. When they arrived, Cates and Loehr were both dead, authorities said.

Police found Loehr bound and gagged inside of a security trailer. He had been shot once in the back of the head. Cates' body was found near a chain-link fence outside of the construction site, lying underneath some fencing that police said they believed was run over by a car the killer used to flee to scene. It was located hours later 3 miles away.

Both men were criminal justice students at San Joaquin Delta College when they died.

Investigators collected evidence and conducted interviews but the case went cold.

There was a breakthrough in the case last year when SJCSO investigators submitted evidence to a private forensics lab in Texas, which came back to Clark. Investigators received a DNA sample from Clark and confirmed it matched the evidence sent to the forensics lab, officials said.

Clark was arrested at his Stockton home on April 22. He is facing two counts of murder, two special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, firearm, and deadly weapon enhancements. He is being held without bail, officials said.

Investigators still do not have a motive for the deaths of Cates and Loehr. The suspect had no known connections to Cates and Loehr, nor the construction site, officials said.

"San Joaquin County does not have an expiration date on justice," San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas said during a news conference. "We will follow the evidence as long as it takes."