In late April 2026, an 80-year-old Stockton man was arrested in connection with a double murder that had gone unsolved for more than three decades. Donald Lee Clark now faces two counts of homicide in the deaths of Lawrence Lower and Eugene Kates, who were killed at a construction site on May 23, 1994.
The arrest came after a cold case team used advanced DNA technology to identify Clark as the suspect. He was taken into custody at his home in Stockton on April 25, 2026, and booked into the San Joaquin County Jail.
The case began in the early morning hours of May 23, 1994. Police received a report of an assault at the Spanos Park construction site on Thornton Road. When officers arrived, they found the chain-link fence had been smashed open by a car.
Inside the security office trailer, 23-year-old Lawrence Lower was found tied up, gagged with a cloth, and shot once in the back of the head. Outside the fence, Eugene Kates lay under a pile of scrap metal. Kates had been stabbed and run over by a vehicle.
Lower and Kates were childhood best friends. Both were 23 years old, both were engaged, and both were studying criminal justice at San Joaquin Delta College. They shared the same dream of becoming law enforcement officers.
Lower had passed the Stockton Police Department entrance exam and was waiting to start training. He was working a part-time night shift as a security guard at the construction site for extra income.
Kates had just passed the California State Correctional Officer exam and was awaiting a background check. He had finished his shift at a nearby Chevron gas station and stopped by to visit his friend before heading home.
The car used to smash through the fence was Kates’ own vehicle. Police found it about three miles from the scene, abandoned and set on fire. Nothing was taken from the construction site, and robbery was ruled out early in the investigation.
Investigators found no connection between the victims and any potential suspect. Lower and Kates had no enemies and no known conflicts. The complete absence of any link between the perpetrator and the victims was a key reason the case remained unsolved for so long.
Forensic evidence was collected from the scene and preserved. But in 1994, DNA technology was not advanced enough to analyze the type of samples police had obtained. The case gradually became a cold case.
The families waited in silence for decades. Lower’s fiancée, Monica Granados, lived with the unanswered question for 32 years. Kates’ sister, Donna Whitlatch, watched her parents pass away without ever knowing who killed their son.
In 2025, the Stockton Police Department and the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office sent evidence to Oram, a specialized DNA laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas. The samples had undergone 31 years of degradation, with extremely small amounts remaining.
Oram used forensic-grade genome sequencing to build a complete genetic profile of the suspect from the degraded samples. The technology did not exist in 1994, and its availability in 2025 was the reason the case could finally move forward.
The lab’s forensic genetic genealogy team searched commercial genealogy databases, where millions of Americans had voluntarily submitted their DNA for ancestry testing. By building family trees and eliminating individuals who did not fit, they narrowed the list to one name: Donald Lee Clark.
With Clark identified, investigators obtained a DNA sample from him for comparison. The results confirmed that Clark was the person who left DNA at the Spanos Park construction site on the night of the murders.
In 1994, Clark was 48 years old. After the killings, he did not flee or change his identity. He continued living in Stockton for the next 32 years.
Clark was never on investigators’ radar during the decades-long investigation. There was no thread connecting him to the crime, no link between him and the victims or the construction site.
Prosecutors confirmed that Clark had no connection to the construction site or the victims. The three men had never met before that night. The question of why Clark was there at 3 a.m. has not yet been publicly answered.
Clark appeared in San Joaquin County Superior Court on April 24, 2026, two days after his arrest. He sat in a wheelchair wearing orange jail scrubs as the judge read the charges: two counts of murder with special circumstance allegations for multiple murders.
Clark pleaded not guilty. He was assigned a public defender, and bail was denied. If convicted, he could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole. California has had a moratorium on executions since 2019.
As of June 2026, the case is in the pre-trial phase with no official trial date set.
Granados, Lower’s fiancée, told reporters after the arrest, “It’s not fair at all. Life has been rough. Larry was a good guy, the biggest heart ever. This was not supposed to happen.”
She added, “We all waited for this moment. It’s a long time coming. I hope justice is swift with it, as swiftly as they took their lives.”
Whitlatch, Kates’ sister, said, “I miss him. I’d give my life for him if I could bring him back.”
Kates’ niece, Joanie Morrow, said, “It’s definitely going to be an emotional journey, but we’re dedicated. We’re going to be there every step of the way.”
Not everyone lived to see the arrest. Kates’ mother passed away before April 25, 2026, never knowing who killed her son. His father died around 2022. Lower’s parents were also gone.
District Attorney Ron Freitas addressed the families at a press conference, saying, “We know that 32 years is an agonizing long time to wait for this day. Justice may have been delayed, but it was never forgotten. We hope today marks the beginning of the closure you have so long looked for.”
The case highlights the power of preserving evidence. The DNA collected in 1994 was packaged, labeled, and passed down through generations of detectives. That decision made all the difference.
Forensic-grade genome sequencing is changing how cold cases are solved across the country. Files that once seemed useless because the evidence was too old or too degraded are being reopened.
The message of this case is that DNA evidence does not expire if properly preserved. Criminals who believe time is on their side may find that technology does not stand still.
As of June 2026, Clark has not pleaded guilty and has not been sentenced. The case is not yet a tidy ending with a verdict rendered. It is justice within reach but not yet in hand.