Duo Busted in Murder of 5 Teens Missing 32 Years

Jersey police have busted 2 men in a missing-persons case that baffled investigators for decades. The pair have been charged with murder and arson in the deaths of 5 teenage boys who vanished from a Newark street in 1978, AP reports. The arrests are a "bittersweet victory," said an aunt of one of the boys. The boys—who became known as the Clinton Avenue 5—were last seen with a carpenter who often hired teens for odd jobs.

Lee Evans was initially cleared in the investigation but was arrested yesterday, police tell the Star-Ledger. Evans and an accomplice forced the teens into a building at gunpoint, locked them in and burned it to the ground, said sources, who didn't reveal a motive. The friends often played basketball together. One mom said she especially missed her son in the evening when she could hear "his basketball bouncing, bouncing, as he walked home from the park." (More Clinton Avenue 5 stories.)