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U.S. NEWS Thursday 21 February 2019

Arrests made in decades-old

killings of 2 California kids

By AMY TAXIN on a number listed for Neal.
Associated Press Linda was walking home
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — from summer school in
Authorities said Wednes- Newport Beach on July 6,
day that they solved two 1973, when she vanished.
decades-old cold cases She was last seen talking
that stunned Southern Cal- to a stranger in a van and
ifornia, arresting suspects never made it home, New-
in the separate killings of port Beach police Chief
a boy and a girl who dis- Jon Lewis said.
appeared while walking Neal lived in Southern
Eyana Spencer, principal at Manzanita Community School, home from school. California when Linda was
left, and Katherine Carter, a principal at Oakland School of Linda O’Keefe was stran- killed and went to Florida
Language, look over their schedule for meeting with California gled in 1973, and William soon afterward, where he
lawmakers about Oakland school funding during a visit to the Tillett was suffocated in changed his name, pros- This undated booking photo
Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2019. 1990. They were both 11. ecutors said. provided by the El Paso
Associated Press James Neal, 72, was ar- Authorities said they never County, Colo., Sheriff’s Office
shows James Neal.
Oakland teachers rested in Colorado Springs, gave up the search for her Associated Press
Colorado, and charged
killer, even after decades “significant and compel-
get ready to strike with murder with special passed and her parents ling physical evidence
circumstances in Linda’s
had died. Linda’s two liv-
which implicates Edward
over pay, class sizes death — a case that has ing sisters have been told Thomas in the murder of
long shaken the seaside
about the arrest, authori-
William Tillett,” Capt. Mark
community of Newport ties said. Fried said Wednesday. He
By JOCELYN GECKER not expect school as usual, Beach, Orange County In the 1990 case, a 50-year- declined to elaborate.
Associated Press it said. District Attorney Todd old Edward Donell Thomas The boy disappeared while
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Negotiators were meeting Spitzer said. was in custody in connec- walking home from school
Teachers in Oakland, Cali- Wednesday and hoped “The detectives dogged tion with the kidnapping in Inglewood on May 24,
fornia, prepared Wednes- to avoid a walkout, district this case,” Spitzer told re- and killing of William Tillett 1990. His body was found
day to walk off the job in spokesman John Sasaki porters, saying advances outside Los Angeles. Pros- in a dark carport later
what could be the nation’s said. in technology have made ecutors said they charged that day. The coroner de-
latest strike over classroom Oakland teachers have it possible to close old him with murder Tuesday. termined he had been
conditions and pay. been working without a cases. “We have every Inglewood police have suffocated.q
Oakland’s 3,000 teach- contract since 2017 and opportunity in the world
ers planned to pack up say their salaries are not to solve so many of these
personal items from class- keeping up with the exorbi- cold cases that we never
rooms and say goodbye tant cost of living in the San had hope in the past of
to students then begin the Francisco Bay Area. solving.”Authorities pub-
strike Thursday, “barring an They want smaller class lished sketches of the sus-
unlikely change from the sizes, more counselors and pect last year based on
district,” union officials with full-time nurses, and a 12 genealogical evidence
the Oakland Education As- percent retroactive raise taken from a DNA sample
sociation said. covering 2017 to 2020 to at the crime scene. Inves-
The walkout would af- compensate for what they tigators got a hit from a
fect 36,000 students at 86 said have been some of genealogical database
schools. the lowest salaries among earlier this year and got
In a message to parents, public school teachers a DNA sample from Neal
the Oakland Unified School in the San Francisco Bay that matched, Spitzer said.
District said schools would Area. Neal was expected in court
remain open, staffed by The district has offered a in Colorado on Wednes-
non-union employees and 5 percent raise over the day. It was not immediately
substitute teachers. How- same period, saying it is clear if he had an attorney
ever, picket lines were ex- squeezed by rising costs who could speak on his be-
pected and parents should and a budget crisis.q half. The voicemail was full