A 65-year-old man has been arrested in Rome in connection with the brutal 1977 murder of two women in Melbourne, Australian authorities announced on Saturday.
Suzanne Armstrong, 27, and Susan Bartlett, 28, were found dead in their home on Easey Street, Melbourne, on January 13, 1977, both suffering multiple stab wounds. Armstrong had also been sexually assaulted, while her 16-month-old son was discovered unharmed in his crib. The women had last been seen alive three days prior to the discovery of their bodies.
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Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton described the crime as a “gruesome, horrific, frenzied homicide,” involving numerous stabbings. The case, known as the Easey Street murders, had remained one of the state’s most notorious and longest-standing cold cases.
The suspect, a dual Greek-Australian citizen, had been living in Greece, where the statute of limitations shielded him from prosecution. However, according to Patton, authorities waited for him to leave Greece, and he was apprehended on Thursday at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport under an Interpol red notice.
Australian police are now preparing to initiate extradition proceedings. Patton credited “technological advances” over the years for helping the investigation. In 2017, police offered a reward of Aus$1 million (US$680,000) for information leading to an arrest and conviction after new evidence surfaced, though Patton declined to disclose further details of the case.
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A report in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper, which police did not confirm, said police had decided to check the DNA of all 131 people named in the original police file.
The suspect was on that list and had agreed to undergo a DNA test but instead fled to Greece in 2017, the paper reported.
He was linked to the crime by the DNA of a close relative, it said.
According to The Age, the suspect had been stopped and searched on the night of the murders by local police who found a large knife on him — three days before the bodies were discovered.
It is “understood” that the man — then a teenager — was not interviewed about the killings at the time as police focused on other suspects, the paper said.
A detective senior sergeant running the investigation since 2015 broke the news of the suspect’s arrest to the victims’ families on Saturday morning, Patton said.
The families were “emotional, speechless, overwhelmed, but appreciative that they hadn’t been forgotten”, he said.
“There is simply no expiry date on crimes that are as brutal as this. I think that is borne out here today.”
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