‘In view of what happened, something had to be done to mark the spot.’

In a vacant field off Mulholland Drive, amid the usual roadside litter and within earshot of rumbling traffic on the San Diego Freeway, stand two simple wooden crosses.

The memorials, with a few parched flowers at their base, mark the site where college students Brian Edward Harris and Michelle Ann Boyd were gunned down on a September night in 1985.

Even with a fresh coat of white paint, the four-foot crosses are easily missed by commuters fighting the glare of the afternoon sun. But there they stand for the curious, the outraged and those who still grieve.

One motorist said he can’t help but notice the crosses, even as they blend into the backdrop of the dried shrubs and grasses of the Santa Monica mountains. “It tugs at me every time I go by,” said a retired homicide detective, who asked that his name not be used. “I was a cop for 20 years, and I never saw anyone care that much.”

The crosses were erected by Mary and Richard Harris of Thousand Oaks, parents of Brian Harris, last Sept. 30, on the first anniversary of the gruesome killings.

“In view of what happened, something had to be done to mark the spot,” said Mary Harris. “We go up there periodically, we take flowers . . . and we’ve repainted them once.” According to the police, Harris and Boyd were murdered execution style in the field after being abducted in Westwood by thieves who wanted the couple’s car. Prosecutors say the two were killed so that there would be no witnesses to the theft.

The killer, or killers, have yet to be brought to justice. Four suspects were arrested. Three--Donald R. Bennett, Stanley B. Davis and Damon L. Redmon--have been charged with multiple counts of first degree murder, kidnaping and grand theft auto robbery. All have pleaded innocent and have been held without bail at the Los Angeles County Jail since October, 1985.

The fourth member of the group from South Central Los Angeles--Deandre A. Brown--has agreed to testify against the others and is now in a protected witness program, according to Harvey Giss, the assistant district attorney who is handling the case.

The trial has been repeatedly postponed. Giss was locked in a 17-month murder trial that just recently ended, and the various defense attorneys were tied up in other ongoing cases.

The case has been further slowed by legal and physical technicalities stemming from some 48 hours of tape recordings, according to Giss, who would not reveal the nature of the recordings.

Giss acknowledges the delays have been unusual, and he believes the trial will get underway in January.

Meanwhile, the Harrises wait.

“Victims also need a speedy trial,” said Mary Harris. “Until we go through the trial, we can’t get on with our lives. We keep saying to ourselves ‘when the trial is over, when we get through that . . . .’ ”