Man charged in 1980 slaying of Pennsylvania mother, daughter

GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) — Authorities in southern Pennsylvania are charging a man in a 35-year-old double homicide, saying he shot and killed a mother and her daughter during an early morning burglary.

Adams County prosecutors and Pennsylvania State Police said today that 54-year-old Abraham Cruz Jr. is charged with two counts of criminal homicide in the 1980 slayings of 17-year-old Deborah Patterson and her mother, Nancy Patterson.

Prosecutors say the arrest of two others in recent years helped lead them to Cruz.

Authorities say two men broke into the Pattersons' home outside Gettysburg about 3 a.m. on Aug. 30, 1980, and set fire to the kitchen. They say the two women were shot and killed as they tried to flee. Nancy Patterson's husband was also shot, but survived.