Man faces charges in 1980 killings
GETTYSBURG - A man has been charged in a 35-year-old murder case in Adams County, accused of killing a mother and her teenage daughter during an early morning burglary at their home, authorities said Tuesday.
GETTYSBURG - A man has been charged in a 35-year-old murder case in Adams County, accused of killing a mother and her teenage daughter during an early morning burglary at their home, authorities said Tuesday.
Abraham Cruz Jr., 54, was charged with criminal homicide, conspiracy, arson, and burglary in the 1980 slayings of Deborah Patterson, 17, and her mother, Nancy.
Prosecutors said the arrest of two others in the case in recent years helped lead them to Cruz.
Cruz has a lengthy arrest record. Court officials said they did not know of a lawyer representing him.
Two masked men broke into the Pattersons' home outside Gettysburg about 3 a.m. Aug. 30, 1980, and set fire to the kitchen, authorities said. As the women tried to flee, the men shot and killed them, authorities said.
A son of Nancy Patterson's was charged. He was acquitted in 1981.
The case was dormant until the Pennsylvania State Police picked it up as a cold case in 2008, said Adams County District Attorney Shawn Wagner. Patterson family members told police that just before the murders, she had broken up with a boyfriend, Erasmo Cruz.
Erasmo Cruz, Abraham Cruz's uncle, pleaded guilty last year to two counts of third-degree homicide in the case. A third man, Ruperto Garcia Jr., pleaded guilty last year to a burglary conspiracy charge in the case.