Phila. police make arrests in two homicide cases

Inquirer staff writer Barbara Boyer reports:

Philadelphia police this morning said they have made arrests in two unrelated murders.

The names of the suspects are to be released during a press conference scheduled for 11:30 a.m.

Authorities say they solved the murder of a soldier who returned home after completing his military training and who was shot and killed in University City.

Army Pfc. Terrance Davis, 18, of the city's Mantua section was fatally shot Oct. 17 at 40th and Ludlow Streets outside an arcade.

Police said they also solved the murder of a 90-year-old woman fatally beaten and robbed outside her Port Richmond home last year. At the time of her death, police called the attack a "particularly vicious, brutal and cowardly crime."

In September 2007, Alice Thurnau was walking near her home in the 3300 block of Thompson Street when a robber grabbed her purse, knocked her down, and severely beat and kicked her while she was on the ground. She died several weeks later in St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne, where she had been treated for severe injuries that included a crushed eye socket, cracked ribs, a broken hip, and bleeding on the brain, officials said.

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