California man, 80, charged in 1994 killing of 2 criminal justice students

On the morning of May 23, 1994, two best friends, Lawrence “Larry” Loehr and Eugene Cates, were brutally killed at a north Stockton construction site. Both were 23 years old, engaged to the women they planned to marry and on the verge of careers in law enforcement. For 32 years, no one was held accountable. Now, authorities say they have solved the case: Donald Lee Clark, 80, a lifelong Stockton resident, has been arrested and charged with murder.

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Loehr was working an overnight security shift at the Spanos Park construction site on Thornton Road. On that early Monday morning, Cates stopped by after finishing his shift at a nearby Chevron station on Benjamin Holt Drive. At around 3 a.m., police received a report of an assault at the site. When Stockton police officers arrived, they found both men dead. 

Loehr had been bound, gagged and shot once in the back of the head inside a security trailer. Cates was found near a chain-link fence surrounding the site, his body beneath a section of fencing that had seemingly been knocked down by a car, police said. That car was Cates’ own vehicle, which the killer used to smash through the fence and flee. It was found abandoned and burned about 3 miles away two hours later. Police were initially uncertain whether Cates had been shot or run over. Nothing appeared to have been taken from the site, and robbery was ruled out as a motive.

Both men were criminal justice students at San Joaquin Delta College. Loehr had already taken the entrance exam for a Stockton Police Department training program. Cates had passed the tests to become a state corrections officer and was ready for his first assignment, pending a background check. Donna Whitlatch, Cates’ sister, told the Stockton Record that her brother’s death robbed her of everything. “He was a good kid,” Whitlatch said. “I’d give my life for him.” The lifelong friends were buried next to each other in Lodi in San Joaquin County. 

Despite evidence collection and numerous interviews, investigators were unable to identify a suspect and the case went cold, in part, San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas said, because the perpetrator had no known connection to the construction site or either victim.

The breakthrough came in 2025 when the San Joaquin County Cold Case Task Force submitted evidence from the original investigation to Othram, a private forensic laboratory in Texas. Its analysis pointed to a now-80-year-old Stockton resident.“Investigators identified Donald Lee Clark as a potential contributor of the DNA from the crime scene,” Othram said in a statement. 

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Investigators then obtained a reference DNA sample from Clark and confirmed it matched evidence recovered from the crime scene. On April 22, members of the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force arrested Clark at his Stockton home. No motivation or connection between Clark and the victims has been revealed by prosecutors. 

“San Joaquin County does not have an expiration date on justice,” Freitas said at a news conference. “We will follow the evidence as long as it takes.”

Clark faces two counts of murder, two special circumstance allegations of multiple murders, firearm and deadly weapon enhancements, and, prosecutors say, potentially the death penalty. Bail has been denied.

On April 24, Clark was brought into a San Joaquin County courtroom in a wheelchair, wearing an orange jumpsuit. He said nothing as the charges were read, the Record reported. Clark is being held at the San Joaquin County Jail. His next scheduled court date is June 1.