“This was them having the forewarning of knowing such advancements weren’t even invented back in 1973 and they didn’t know what was on the horizon”.
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The DNA hit prompted a lengthy expanded investigation which culminated in the arrest of the two men, who were expected to face murder charges, the sheriff’s department said.
Yuba County prosecutor John Vacek says William Lloyd Harbour pleaded not guilty to murder at his arraignment in California on Wednesday.
The 84-year-old Solano County rancher said he may have been one of the last people to see 12-year-old Valerie Janice Lane and 13-year-old Doris Derryberry on November 11, 1973.
The six murder charges – three for each of the victims – include one count each of premeditated murder, one count of murder committed during a rape or attempted rape, and one count of murder committed while molesting a child. According to Sheriff Steve Durfor of the Yuba County, California, Sheriff’s Department, the girls were found in a wooded area next to a dirt road in Marysville, a suburb north of Sacramento, California.
At that time, investigators for Yuba County, California, revisited the cold case, looking for DNA evidence that could be tested again using the advanced DNA testing available now. DNA technology didn’t exist at the time, but he credited investigators then for meticulously preserving the evidence until their modern counterparts submitted it as part of a cold-case review.
In March 2014, Yuba County investigators reviewed the case, and evidence items collected during the investigation were reviewed and sent to the California Department of Justice Forensic Labs for analysis. Harbour had a 1997 felony drug conviction in San Joaquin County and a 2003 conviction for drug offenses in Sutter County.
Patterson’s only known alleged crime in Oklahoma is failing to register as a sex offender, Ramsey said. Both men were 22 and living in Olivehurst, where the girls also lived, when the girls were killed. According to Patrick McGrath, the district attorney for Yuba County, California, the original pathologist who led the girls’ autopsies as well as several investigators, have since died.
He declined to discuss a motive or what the suspects may have said after their arrests, citing the ongoing investigation, but Durfor says the suspects allegedly had “a level of familiarity”, at least, with the victims’ families at the time of their deaths. Durfor said he did not know how long the extradition process would take.
Larry Don Patterson, 65, was arrested Tuesday in Oakhurst, Okla.
The twin slayings four decades ago shocked the small community and the nation, he said.
The murder case was recently reopened. Patterson is being held in Oklahoma in that case.
The arrests were the culmination of the “tremendous” work of multiple agencies, Durfor tells PEOPLE, including: the Broken Arrow Police Department, Creek County Sheriff’s Office, Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Marshals.
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“I’m sure the family will be very happy there is some closure”, Ramsey said.
