80-Year-Old Arrested in 30-Year SF Cold Case

Donald Lee Clark, an 80-year-old Stockton man, was arrested on April 22 in connection with the 1994 killings of Eugene Cates and Lawrence “Larry” Loehr, according to Stockton police and local news reports. The two men, both 23, were found dead on May 23, 1994, at a construction site on Thornton Road in north Stockton. Police said the case went unsolved for decades before renewed cold-case work identified Clark as a suspect. Clark has since been charged with two counts of murder and made an initial court appearance in San Joaquin County. ### Who were the two men killed in 1994? Lawrence Loehr and Eugene Cates were lifelong friends and criminal justice students at San Joaquin Delta College, according to reporting by SFGATE and The Stockton Record. Loehr was working an overnight security shift at the Spanos Park construction site when he was killed. Cates stopped by after finishing work at a nearby Chevron station, the reports said. Both men were engaged and preparing for careers in law enforcement. SFGATE reported that Loehr had taken the entrance exam for a Stockton Police Department training program, while Cates had passed tests to become a state corrections officer pending a background check. Donna Whitlatch, Cates’ sister, told The Stockton Record, “He was a good kid.” ### What did police say happened at the construction site? Stockton police said officers were sent to the 10000 block of Thornton Road at about 3 a.m. on May 23, 1994, after a report of an assault. When officers arrived, they found Cates and Loehr dead, according to police accounts carried by ABC10 and other local outlets. SFGATE reported that Loehr was found inside a security trailer, bound, gagged and shot once in the back of the head. Cates was found near a chain-link fence, beneath fencing that appeared to have been knocked down by a car, the report said. Cates’ vehicle was later found abandoned and burned about 3 miles away. ### How did investigators identify Clark more than three decades later? The San Joaquin County Cold Case Task Force reopened the investigation and submitted evidence for new forensic analysis, according to Stockton police and SFGATE. ABC10 reported that Stockton cold case detectives worked with the San Joaquin County Cold Case Task Force and the California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services during the renewed investigation. SFGATE reported that the breakthrough came in 2025, when evidence from the original investigation was sent to Othram, a private forensic laboratory in Texas. Forensic Magazine reported that investigators compared Clark’s DNA profile with DNA developed from crime-scene evidence, a step that helped identify him as the suspect. ### When was Clark taken into custody? April 22, 2026, is the date Stockton police gave for Clark’s arrest. ABC10 reported that members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force found Clark in Stockton and took him into custody that day. Police said he was later booked into the San Joaquin County Jail on two counts of homicide. Donald Lee Clark appeared in court on April 24, according to ABC10, The Stockton Record and other local reports. ABC10 reported that he appeared in a wheelchair while a judge read the two murder charges in court. ### What is known about the case against him now? San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas said, according to SFGATE, that investigators had struggled for years because the perpetrator appeared to have no known connection to either victim or the construction site. That detail was one reason the case remained unsolved for so long, the report said. The Stockton Record, as cited in republication, reported that Clark also faces special-circumstance allegations tied to multiple murders. Local reports said prosecutors have described the case as the result of renewed investigative work and advances in forensic technology. June 1 is the next court date cited in local coverage of the case. Clark is expected to return to San Joaquin County Superior Court then as prosecutors continue the murder case over the deaths of Cates and Loehr.