The two little girls, aged 8 and 6, were upstairs in their Pearl Street home that night in October 2004.

They heard crashing, screams and the sound of gunshots, police said, and ran downstairs to find their mother, 24-year-old Heather Marie Nunn, lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor.

The oldest child called for help, but their mother was already dead.

Today, more than five years later, city police plan to announce they have filed homicide charges against the four men they say are responsible for Nunn's killing in 2004.

The motive, police said, was robbery.

The robbers got nothing, except that which was most precious to those two little girls — their mother's life.

"There's nothing they can do to bring my mom back," Nunn's oldest daughter said Sunday.

But she and her younger sister are "relieved" and "happy" arrests have finally been made, the teenager said, and are glad the accused killers will finally be held accountable.

"It's a burden off my shoulders," she added, saying that for a long time they believed there was "no hope" their mother's killing would be solved.

But city police investigators, led by Detective Nathan Nickel, never gave up on the case, motivated, in part, by the horrible experience of those two little girls.

"It is difficult to think of anything more despicable than the way these cowardly killers committed this murder," city police Detective Lt. Kent Switzer said, "to actually kill her while the children were upstairs, leaving them to find her."

Charged by city police with criminal homicide are:

• Edward Leon Major, 31, Lancaster, who is currently in federal prison on unrelated cocaine delivery charges from 2005.

• David Vasquez Jordan, 28, Lancaster Township, who is currently in Lancaster County Prison awaiting trial on an unrelated homicide charge stemming from a stabbing on St. Joseph Street last year.

• Hayward Jamar Stewart, 33, Lancaster, who most recently was in Lebanon County Prison on unrelated offenses is now in Lancaster County Prison on the homicide charge.

• Michael Tyrone Stewart, 31, who last lived in Columbia and the 1100 block of Fremont Street in Lancaster. He is not yet in custody and city police are hoping the public will help them find him.

Stewart, whose nickname is "Mike Murder," is described by police as a black male, about 6 feet tall, 150 pounds, with short dark hair and dark eyes.

Anyone with information about Stewart's whereabouts is asked to call city police at 735-3300. Callers do not have to give their names.

Nunn was killed on Sunday, Oct. 24, 2004, shortly before 9:30 p.m. in her home in the 200 block of Pearl Street.

Her daughters were upstairs in the bathtub when they heard the commotion downstairs.

Police said when the girls found their mother they called their uncle, who lived nearby.

He called 911 as he rushed to the house.

Nunn had been shot multiple times in the chest and abdomen, police said. Detectives found three spent .32 caliber shell casings in the kitchen.

Because there was no sign of forced entry into the home, police believed — correctly as it turned out — that Nunn was acquainted with the intruders.

For months, police talked to friends, neighbors and everyone they could think of who might help them learn what happened that night.

Months later, police received a tip that led them to a house in the first block of Seymour Street.

There, Detective Sgt. Jarrad Berkihiser found a gun, which ballistics experts confirmed was the murder weapon.

Eventually, detectives also learned that Major, Jordan and both of the Stewarts, who are cousins, had all been at that same Seymour Street home on the day of the murder, according to court documents.

It was there, according to court documents, the four men plotted to rob the young woman. They returned there afterwards and talked about killing Nunn during the botched robbery, according to court documents.

While it was Major who police said had the gun and fired it, all four men participated in the attempted robbery and the killing, according to detectives.

The names of Nunn's daughters, and that of their uncle, with whom they now live, are being withheld by Lancaster Newspapers at their request.

But on Sunday, they spoke about the case and learning of the arrests.

"You wonder so long who they are," the uncle said, "and now you hope justice will be served. It's a closure, like a freedom."

The girls always worried that the killers would come after them, he said.

The uncle said when they learned of the arrests, the older girl told him she felt like she could stop looking over her shoulder.

The girls are doing well in school, the uncle said, citing their maturity and resiliency through all that has happened.

"I'm very, very proud of them," he said.

But the uncle was quick to credit Nunn with teaching her daughters well at an early age "and setting them on the right path."

A McCaskey High School graduate, Nunn had worked as a dialysis technician and was taking classes at Harrisburg Area Community College.

A member of Ray's Temple Community Church of God in Christ in Lancaster, Nunn was enrolled in the church's Christian discipleship program when she died.

A college trust fund for the victim's daughters has been established in Nunn's name at PNC Bank.

During the more than five years since the murder, Switzer said, every city police detective has had some part in the investigation.

"Everyone who was involved in the investigation of this case, from the very first night, had a personal investment in it, due in large part to the children," Switzer said.

"I think that the tenacity shown by every detective in this case speaks volumes to the commitment that our investigators have in solving especially these types of brutal crimes and assuring that those responsible are held accountable," Switzer said.

"No matter how long it takes."

jkelley@lnpnews.com