Unsolved Easey St Murders Collingwood * ARREST MADE

[Satan]

Police have arrested a man in Italy over the 1977 murders of Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett in their Easey Street home. He fled Australia in 2017 after he became aware he was a suspect.

The man fled to Greece and couldn’t be arrested because local laws meant charges must be laid within seven years of the offence.

The Easey Street murders are still unsolved.CREDIT: STEPHEN KIPRILLIS

Police have waited those 15 years for him to leave Greece so he could be arrested. They will now seek to extradite him to Melbourne to face the charges.

A police spokesperson confirmed a 65-year-old dual citizen of Australia and Greece was arrested at an airport in Rome in the early hours on Friday.

For you russian bots , long unsolved double murder in Melbourne

 

[Kurve]

Who knows ... maybe the point of Casefile's dedicated podcast was made with the specific intention to lay heat everywhere else so this guy in Greece feels safe to go on holidays to Rome.

 

[GreyCrow]

We need to tell GreyCrow Bunk Moreland NSWCROW

Got it

Makes him 17-18 at the tie but they didnt mention if he was charged as an adult or child - different reporting issues ie name withheld etc

 

[GreyCrow]

Peter Brock can now rest in peace


Well apart from the wife bashing

 

[CrazyJoeFevola]

Peter Brock can now rest in peace


Well apart from the wife bashing

Still an absolute pig. The fact that it seemed instantly plausible when I first heard the whisper years ago speaks volumes about his character.

 

[GrayRanga]

Who knows ... maybe the point of Casefile's dedicated podcast was made with the specific intention to lay heat everywhere else so this guy in Greece feels safe to go on holidays to Rome.

Nah

The Million dollar reward was offered in 2017

A per post above, he's been on the radar since 2017

He was shopped.

Probably by a close family member, so that you have familial DNA for comparison before actually obtaining a sample of his from Greece.

A family member would know of his planned movements giving enough time for VicPol to organise his arrest with the Italian authorities

Within the EU and he wouldn't have to apply for a visa so passport controls wouldn't pick his movements up in time

A quick Google search shows the Greek retirement age as 67 but the general requirements for receiving a full pension is the accumulation of 40 insurance years (12,000 days of employment) and being 62 years of age.

First O/S trip after retirement?

 

[GreyCrow]

Nah

The Million dollar reward was offered in 2017

A per post above, he's been on the radar since 2017

He was shopped.

Probably by a close family member, so that you have familial DNA for comparison before actually obtaining a sample of his from Greece.

I disagree but not strongly. Going back over the old files and linked reports ie 'man stopped on Easy St with knife ' would/should trigger a lets look shall we. Then either a familial trace through sites offering DNA links ie gedmatch - some further genealogical research - before heading over to Greece and gathering samples

It may well be through passport tracking or SM posts or indeed getting 'shopped' but I put that low on the list

 

[Visions]

A quick Google search shows the Greek retirement age as 67 but the general requirements for receiving a full pension is the accumulation of 40 insurance years (12,000 days of employment) and being 62 years of age.

First O/S trip after retirement?

Seems to be the $1 million reward helped someone out this guy.

But has he been been in Greece for 40+ years, or did he skip Oz more recently in 2017 once he found out the police were hot on his trail?

Anyhow, this is a huge break in the case. I thought the Claremont Serial Killer was the biggest murder mystery to be solved in this country, this would up it in my opinion.

 

[Sqotty from office works]

Settle down, he may be innocent

 

[Kurve]

Settle down

 

[CrazyJoeFevola]

Going to be fascinating to see what comes out in the wash. Leaning more and more toward a close family member going to the coppers given the timing of the million quid reward and DNA sample from a relative in 2017.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Staggering

 

[GrayRanga]

Who would’ve thought it was the guy wandering the streets at the time with a knife

Being roughly the same age as the suspect, the best answer to this is the opening lines of L P Hartley's novel The Go-Between; "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there,”

Seeing people walking around with sheath knives hanging from their belts wasn't unusual, bit like 20 years ago seeing people wearing leather mobile phone cases attached to their belts.

Many men always carried a knife, especially in tougher areas, and 1977 was just on the cusp of the inner suburbs (Carlton esp) changing from slums to "Des Res"

A collator has done some signicant research through Court Records or old police note books to pick up the name and address of a person stopped in the street for having a knife it their possession

He may have been charged and therefore a Court appearance, but he may have got off with a warning

 

[wintermutes_]

Im going to go over Helen Thomas' book to see if there was a mention in there.

Although a little confusion with the waiting for 15 years since 2017?

After reading it it seems to me that they have literally been sitting and waiting until he left Greece

 

[wintermutes_]

Here we are. So basically they have had to wait since 2017

How police tracked the Easey Street suspect​

The Easey Street suspect was identified through a DNA test when police undertook to check the 131 people listed in the original police file in the murders of housemates Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett, who were stabbed to death in their rented Collingwood home.
In 2017, when the suspect learnt he was being investigated over the double murder he fled to Athens and as he is an Australian-Greek citizen he was protected from extradition under Greek law.

The 1977 murders of Susan Bartlett (top) and Suzanne Armstrong in Easey Street, Collingwood are still unsolved.Credit:Stephen Kiprillis
The original file showed that on the night of the murders – January 10, 1977 – a teenage boy was stopped and searched by a local police patrol and found to be carrying a large knife. But as the crime was not discovered for three days, it appears he was not listed as a suspect at the time.
It was understood the youth was never interviewed as police concentrated on key suspects – men who knew the victims and may have previously been to the Easey Street house.

In January 2017, police announced they would test 90 living and 41 dead people connected to the file.
In the process, the boy found with the knife – by then a 57-year-old man – was contacted and agreed to undergo a DNA test, but failed to attend a meeting to provide a sample.

The man, of Greek descent, flew to Athens about seven years ago and refused to return despite saying he was going for a short holiday. A DNA sample taken from a close relative has matched to a semen sample found under the body of Armstrong, 28.
Under Greek law, an extradition can only be granted if the offence is punishable under local law. In Greece, there is a strict statute of limitations which means a prosecution can only begin within 15 years of the offence.


The Easey Street murders were committed more than 40 years before the suspect fled and under the Greek criminal code (Sec 111 to 116), is time-barred.



Victoria Police used international lawyers to try to find a way to have the man return to face charges. Detectives also meticulously checked the suspect’s past to see if they could find any recent offences that would justify an extradition. It is understood the case was discussed through diplomatic channels.


Frustrated, police decided to play a waiting game and move if the suspect left a country with appropriate extradition laws. For six years this masthead has agreed to keep the breakthrough secret to avoid alerting the suspect.
Three days after the 1977 attack neighbours found the bodies. Armstrong was on the floor in her bedroom. She’d been stabbed 27 times, with three wounds piercing her heart. She was also r*ped. Arts teacher Bartlett was found near the front door. She had been stabbed 55 times. Defensive wounds on her hands and arms indicated she had tried to defend herself before she was overwhelmed.

Police believe Bartlett may have tried to help her friend before she was also attacked. Lack of signs of forced entry led police to think one or both of the women may have known the killer.
The two Benalla schoolfriends had been renting the small cottage for about 10 weeks before the attack. They routinely left the backdoor and side gate open.

Armstrong had returned from Greece just months earlier. She had a baby son to a fisherman in the Greek Islands. The baby, Greg, was found severely dehydrated when the bodies were discovered on January 13, 1977.
The then head of the homicide squad, Detective Inspector Noel Jubb, described it as “one of the most barbaric and sadistic sex murders in Victorian history”.

Initial investigators found blood through the house and in the bath, showing the killer stayed in the house for some time to wash. He made no effort to clean the crime scene. Both women were in sleepwear, the lights were on and the blinds drawn, indicating the attack happened on the evening of January 10.


Police had a shortlist of eight suspects from the original investigation, including a local crime reporter and a national sports figure. In 1998, detectives DNA tested all the key suspects without a match. The key semen sample was found the previous year in a storeroom with other Easey Street exhibits.

In 2017, the homicide squad announced a $1 million reward and plans to test the DNA of all persons of interest: 90 of them living and 41 who had since died.
The then head of the homicide squad, Detective Inspector Mick Hughes said: “We have good DNA evidence and we obviously believe that is the key to the investigation. We’ve narrowed the field considerably. We haven’t got a match. If we did, I’d be knocking on someone’s door and making an arrest.
“We have been working through a lot of persons of interest. They come from a variety of sources. We’ve narrowed the field considerably.”

For more than 30 years there was a shortlist of eight men suspected of the murders.

While the case remains unsolved, all eight, including a Melbourne journalist, were finally cleared through DNA testing. Interestingly, one who wasn’t was a champion sportsman is no longer with us.
Among Bartlett’s 55 stab wounds were slashes to her arms and hands from where she’d bravely tried to fight back. She was found lying face down near the front door.
There were smears along the hallway as if she’d made a lunge for it with bloodied hands. As she’d desperately tried to escape, she was knifed in the back and legs over and over. The killer hadn’t rushed away after the attack either.

The bathroom was a mess of bloodstains as though the killer tried to clean himself or wash away evidence. Then he’d walked out the back door and into the night.
Armstrong’s 16-month-old son, Gregory, was unharmed and was found in his cot three days later.
DNA evidence and advancements in testing resulted in police relaunching the investigation, including the $1 million reward.

 

[Visions]

Settle down, he may be innocent

It may be just a huge misunderstanding that he fled Australia to a country that couldn't extradite him after being asked to provide a DNA sample, and a resulting DNA sample from a family member showing a familial match to semen taken from Suzanne Armstrong's body at the crime scene.

Or it may not.....

 

[GreyCrow]

Armstrong had returned from Greece just months earlier. She had a baby son to a fisherman in the Greek Islands. The baby, Greg, was found severely dehydrated when the bodies were discovered on January 13, 1977.




Just terrible for ' Greg ' if this person is connected to him