1996 Escort 1.9L

I have two of these, one has 104,500mi and the other 94000mi. I bought the second one because the first died and now both are dead and died the same way. The cars were fine, I parked each one after driving and when I went to start the car, they would barely turn over and ran extremely rough before cutting off. I had a mechanic friend look at them and one (94K) has two cylinders without compression and the other (105K) has one without compression. The timing belts are fine on both and are aligned. What would cause these both to die the same way and what can I expect after pulling the heads off? I can't afford much so I may have to junk them but I have put a LOT of work and money in the 105K car.