5 Teen-Agers Wanted in Oregon Killing Held : Crime: Youths age 15 to 17 are arrested in Moorpark. They are suspects in the beating death of a 103-year-old man during a burglary.

Five Oregon teen-agers wanted in the slaying of a 103-year-old World War I veteran near Portland have been arrested in Moorpark, Ventura County sheriff’s detectives said Friday.

The youths--one age 15, three 16 and one 17--waived extradition Friday to Oregon on charges of murder and burglary in the death of Ulisse Edera, sheriff’s Senior Deputy David Lea said.

Lea said Oregon authorities allege that the teen-agers broke into Edera’s house on Nov. 5 in Milwaukie, Ore., a suburb of Portland.

They beat him to death with a wooden chair or table leg and made off with jewelry and liquor found in the house, Lea said.

The five--whose names were withheld because of their age--were ordered held in Ventura County Juvenile Hall for Oregon authorities, who are expected to take them home by Monday night for prosecution, Lea said.

The case came to light in Moorpark on Thursday night when two plainclothes detectives spotted five youths standing around a pay phone outside the Tipsy Fox liquor store, near a car with Oregon license plates, Lea said.

“It was a 1982 Mustang, lime green,” Lea said, adding that police do not know whether the car had been stolen. “They had all their sleeping bags. You could see they’d been living out of” the car.

The detectives, their curiosity aroused, struck up a conversation with the teen-agers.

The youths told the detectives they were out of school and traveling with their parents’ permission, and that they were trying to reach an aunt in Moorpark, Lea said.

But on learning that one of them had been reported as a missing person, the detectives asked them to come to the sheriff’s station for questioning, and the five came in voluntarily, Lea said.

Telephone calls to Oregon revealed that police were seeking the youths on suspicion of burglary and murder. At that point, Ventura County detectives arrested the five on suspicion of murder.

Lea said that Oregon detectives gave this account:

“On Nov. 5, five juveniles were a couple blocks away (from Edera’s house) at a party. They went outside the party to mess around with cars in the area, probably to break into them. They stumbled around to the house and saw several newspapers stacked up on the front porch, which gave them the impression no one was home.”

The youths knocked on the door and ran back to the street, Lea said.

When no one answered, three of the teen-agers forced their way in through a rear window, but fled when they noticed someone was in the house, Lea said. “They went back to where the party was and talked about it for a while, then decided to go back in,” he said.

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They encountered the elderly Edera, and one or more of them beat him to death with the chair or table leg they had brought into the house, Lea said.

The youths took jewelry and bottles of champagne, beer and wine from the house and fled. Later they returned for a third time to try to wipe away their fingerprints, Lea said. They did not leave town for at least two days, he said.

Edera’s body was not found until Monday. “From all the indications I’m getting, he lived by himself,” Lea said. “He was a decorated World War I veteran. His family was well known. They owned quite a bit of property around the area.”

Oregon authorities could not be reached for comment.