Advertisement After 43 years, arrests made in Yuba County girls' killings Detecives: 2 girls killed by shotgun blasts outside Wheatland Share Shares Copy Link Copy

Detectives arrested two men Tuesday in connection with the cold case homicides of two young girls who were killed 43 years ago in Yuba County.Larry Don Patterson, 65, and William Lloyd Harbour, 65, were taken into custody by US Marshals and other law enforcement agencies on homicide charges, officials said."We express our sympathy and condolences to the families of Valerie and Doris after enduring decades of not knowing who was responsible for the brutal murders," Sheriff Steve Durfor said in a news conference.Valerie Janice Lane, 12, and Doris Karen Derryberry, 13, both from Olivehurst, were good friends and were together on Nov. 11, 1973, when they left the Derryberry's house to go shopping at a mall in the nearby town of Linda.When neither of the girls returned home the next day, they were reported missing by their mothers.Just a few hours later, the bodies of the two girls were found that afternoon along a dirt road near Camp Far West Lake outside of Wheatland.Both girls were killed by shotgun blasts at close range, and evidence showed that one of the girls was sexually assaulted, according to the Yuba County Sheriff's Department."For the Olivehurst community, this was fairly shocking," Yuba County District Attorney Patrick McGrath said. "In the time of 1973, this received a lot of media attention both from Sacramento and around the country. This was a big deal, and still is, obviously."The double homicide case was an ongoing investigation until 1976, but despite significant investigative efforts and more than 60 interviews, there were no successful leads. The case remained unsolved for decades.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.Nine months later, results revealed that DNA evidence matched and were identified as Patterson and Harbour, and the case was reopened.More than a year of investigations led Yuba County officials to issue arrest warrants for Patterson and Harbour.Harbour, who was 22 years old at the time of the killings, was taken into custody about 10:35 a.m. Tuesday during a traffic stop on Rupert Avenue and Edgewater Circle in Linda. He lives at Sixth Avenue in Olivehurst, officers said.Patterson, who was also 22 years old and lived on Charlotte Court in Olivehurst when the killings happened, was arrested in Oakhurst, Oklahoma, detectives.Both had previous criminal records that showed up in the department's data base.Harbour was arrested on drug charges in 1997 and other drug offense in 2003, Durfor said.Patterson was arrested in 1976 in connection with the rapes of two women in Chico and was convicted in 1980. He served time in prison and was registered as a sex offender, Durfor said.