Two little girls snatched while riding their bikes near their B.C. homes and murdered more than 35 years ago.

Two mothers devastated by their losses and wondering if they would ever get justice.

That changed Friday when police arrested Garry Taylor Handlen, a 67-year-old Ontario man now charged with killing Kathryn-Mary Herbert in Abbotsford in September 1975 and Monica Jack near Merritt in May 1978.

Their mothers — Shari Greer and Madeline Lanaro — wept as they expressed relief at a Surrey news conference on Monday.

Herbert, just 11, was heading to her Abbotsford house when she disappeared on Sept. 24, 1975. Her remains were found two months later near Harris Road.

And Jack, 12, was riding her bike north on Highway 5A near Merritt when she vanished on May 6, 1978. Her bike was found the next day, but it would be 17 years before her remains were located about six kilometres from where she was last seen.

Lanaro, Jack’s mom, said her daughter “was a beautiful little girl right from the day she was born. She was always happy.”

Family, friends and neighbours searched tirelessly for her after she vanished and were devastated when they couldn’t find her.

“Everybody was at a loss about where she could be,” Lanaro said. “We never gave up.”

She said Jack always wanted to be like her mom and become a social worker.

“To be totally honest, I don’t know how we lived through those months. When I think back, it wasn’t easy and even today it’s not easy because no matter what happens and what you do in your life, that hurt never goes away,” she said, tears streaming down her face.

She said when she was recently shown a photo of Handlen from the 1970s, she thought she had seen him in Merritt around the time her daughter went missing.

Greer, Herbert’s mom, also spoke through tears, thanking the police and everyone who helped keep her daughter’s case active over the years.

“There is no such thing as a cold case to the families,” Greer said. “These little, little girls — Monica and Kathryn-Mary — made a difference while they were here.”

She also thanked God for answering her prayers.

“I promised her at her graveside I would never give up. I didn’t. I thought I had failed her. I didn’t. I thank God for that,” Greer said, her voice breaking. “I thank God who loves us all including Garry Taylor Handlen.”

She thanked the RCMP for their hard work, and God for answering her prayers.

“There is no such thing as a cold case to the families,” Greer said. “These little, little girls — Monica and Kathryn-Mary — made a difference while they were here.”

Chief Superintendent Jim Gresham, who heads the RCMP’s Major Crime Section in B.C., praised both Lanaro and Greer for being “amazing advocates for their daughters.”

“Ensuring they had the answers they so rightly deserved was a powerful force that guided us over these many years. While these investigations were led by two different investigative and integrated teams, information has been constantly shared and efforts combined when the same suspect was identified in the two cases,” Gresham said.