Twin Youths Face Murder Charges In Death Of Elderly Couple

SALEM, Ore. (AP) _ Twins Lydell and Laycelle White played basketball together, got in trouble at school together, had the same friends. On Thursday, the 15-year-old boys were accused of murdering together.

They were charged with breaking into an elderly couple’s home at night, beating and strangling them, then driving off in the victims’ car.

The bodies of Richard Remy, 82, and his wife, Grace, 80, were found Tuesday night in the bedroom of their Salem home, not far from the house where the twins lived with their mother and younger brother.

The streets in the quiet suburban neighborhood have names such as Song Sparrow, Chickadee and Sand Piper. The twins often played with children on the Remys’ block.

″I’m still trying to come out of shock - just to think that I knew them, that someone I was associated with could do something like that,″ said Debbie Ehnes, whose 15-year-old son played basketball with the twins.

Lydell and Laycelle have a history of criminal activity since May 1990, with charges including robbery, burglary, harassment, carrying a concealed weapon and sex abuse, according to juvenile court records.

Now they’re also charged with aggravated murder and burglary. The Marion County district attorney’s office wants them tried as adults.

Lydell, called Marcus by his friends, was described by friends as more domineering and abrasive than his shy twin.

″They were inseparable. They were buddies. They were always together,″ said Kari Schneller, 15, a former classmate.

Police had no motive for the slayings.

On Tuesday evening a state trooper went to the Remy home to tell them their car had been found abandoned. Nobody answered the door, so the trooper walked into the backyard, found evidence of a break-in and discovered the bodies.

An autopsy determined the Remys had been strangled, District Attorney Dale Penn said.

Neighbors said Richard Remy and his wife suffered health problems, and stayed to themselves for the most part - unless someone went to say hello. ″Then you’d hear his life story three times in an hour,″ said neighbor Mike Burwell.

″They were the nicest people on the block,″ said Nijel Walton, 8, who said Richard often would give neighborhood children roses out of his garden.