Jersey City man arrested in 1978 murders of teens

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

NEWARK - Two men were arrested tonight and charged with the murder of five teenage boys who vanished from a Newark street nearly 32 years ago, authorities said, in one of the most baffling missing persons cases in state history.

The suspects, one from Irvington, the other from Jersey City, were charged with murder and arson in the case that has confounded police because the boys left behind no traces of evidence, and were all unlikely runaways, the Essex County Prosecutor's Office said.

The names of the suspects were not released tonight and the prosecutor's office did not immediately say how the case was solved.

However, two law enforcement officials with knowledge of the investigation said the five teenagers were led into an abandoned house on Camden Street in Newark, where they were locked inside at gunpoint. The house was then burned to the ground.

The officials asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

A press conference has been schedule for 10 Tuesday morning at the prosecutor's office in Newark where details of the arrest and investigation were to be discussed. The boys' relatives have been notified about the arrests, authorities said.

The victims, Melvin Pittman and Ernest Taylor, both 17; and Alvin Turner, Randy Johnson, and Michael McDowell, all 16, were last seen on a busy street near West Side Park, where they had played basketball, in August 1978.

THE STAR LEDGER