Australia Australia - Suzanne Armstrong, 28, Susan Bartlett, 27, Collingwood, Vic, 10 Jan 1977

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I can see someone taking a chance, on say a new love interest.
Throwing caution to the wind and perhaps thinking that the Vic police had given up on getting him back.

It would be interesting to know if there was someone waiting for him at the airport apart from police.
Or if there was never anyone, and it all was a police sting to lure him out of Greece.
 
TootsieFootsie said:
I can see someone taking a chance, on say a new love interest.
Throwing caution to the wind and perhaps thinking that the Vic police had given up on getting him back.

It would be interesting to know if there was someone waiting for him at the airport apart from police.
Or if there was never anyone, and it all was a police sting to lure him out of Greece.
Click to expand...
There has to be some compelling reason that impelled him out of Athens, into Rome. At this point in time. There is a reason why it happened now.... He is now 65,, He is a dual Greeco/AU citizen, eligible for a pension from both/either.

Healthwise, probably a few conditions, which may require ongoing attention, he had, probably, a residence, of some sort, in Athens. Alone or with a companion, not known, but something came into his vision, something took his attention with such grip that he left the safety of Greece and tootled off to Italy.

It must have seemed to him to be a good bet, a sure thing, something exciting and interesting and with such attraction that it overrode his natural intense caution that he had been living with since he was 17!
 
Here's the local area: Collingwood High School, now Collingwood College, at the bottom, Bendigo Street near the top, Easey Street between. Victoria Park station to the right. The women's house was near the corner of Hoddle Street. PK probably used to see his teacher turn in there on their way home.
1726964868914.png
Edit: source: Google Maps, and sorry, I've moved away from the specific link now.
 
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Trooper said:
There has to be some compelling reason that impelled him out of Athens, into Rome. At this point in time. There is a reason why it happened now.... He is now 65,, He is a dual Greeco/AU citizen, eligible for a pension from both/either.

Healthwise, probably a few conditions, which may require ongoing attention, he had, probably, a residence, of some sort, in Athens. Alone or with a companion, not known, but something came into his vision, something took his attention with such grip that he left the safety of Greece and tootled off to Italy.

It must have seemed to him to be a good bet, a sure thing, something exciting and interesting and with such attraction that it overrode his natural intense caution that he had been living with since he was 17!
Click to expand...
Perhaps it was just overconfidence. Perhaps he was flying between safe places and the plane was diverted due to bad weather or something.
 
JLZ said:
Perhaps it was just overconfidence. Perhaps he was flying between safe places and the plane was diverted due to bad weather or something.
Click to expand...
He was headed west , from Greece.. not many countries west of Greece that are 'safe' in that context to criminals wanted by any Au police Org. AU has treaties all across middle Europe and Western Europe, Scandinavia, France, Portugal, Spain, France and so on, Iceland, etc....

If he was headed east, to Kazakhstan, or Mongolia, maybe a bit of delay..... not much though, eventually.

I long to find out what drove him to make such a fundamental error.
 
JLZ said:
Here's the local area: Collingwood High School, now Collingwood College, at the bottom, Bendigo Street near the top, Easey Street between. Victoria Park station to the right. The women's house was near the corner of Hoddle Street. PK probably used to see his teacher turn in there on their way home.
View attachment 532691
Click to expand...
Thankyou for this. Wow it’s all so close. He knew who they were and where they lived. I take back my robbery gone wrong theory. He went there to assault Susan Bartlett and she fought back and he killed her.
 
JLZ said:
Easey Street suspect unmasked as link to victims emerges (paywalled)

PK attended, and Susan Bartlett taught at, Collingwood High School.

The Bendigo St house was sold in 1977. At some stage the parents and PK returned to live in Greece, and PK later returned to live in Victoria--dates not given.

It was more than a week after the murders that PK was pulled over and found to have the knife in the boot.

PK said he found the knife on the tracks between 10:20pm and 11pm on 10 January--90 minutes after the women were last seen alive.
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It's a bit sad that Journo / Author Tom Prior didn't live to see the day someone maybe arrested.
 
I really wonder where they all moved to between selling the Bendigo St house in 1977 and the parents' "dropping off the electoral roll" in 1980. Did they sell the house because of their son's involvement in this case? Were they already planning to sell the house and PK escalated his criminal behaviour in stress reaction? Did a similar stressful situation arise in 1980, when Maria James was killed?
 
JLZ said:
I really wonder where they all moved to between selling the Bendigo St house in 1977 and the parents' "dropping off the electoral roll" in 1980. Did they sell the house because of their son's involvement in this case? Were they already planning to sell the house and PK escalated his criminal behaviour in stress reaction? Did a similar stressful situation arise in 1980, when Maria James was killed?
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It's a shame they couldn't get any DNA from the quilt

Maria's bed quilt, a police exhibit that had been missing for decades, showed up recently.

But DNA testing has failed to find any clues pointing to her killer.

www.abc.net.au

Inquest into murder of Maria James hears DNA evidence not found on rediscovered evidence

Maria James's sons say they hope they can finally learn who killed their mother, as a coronial inquest into her death begins.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au
 
drsleuth said:
It's a shame they couldn't get any DNA from the quilt

Maria's bed quilt, a police exhibit that had been missing for decades, showed up recently.

But DNA testing has failed to find any clues pointing to her killer.

www.abc.net.au

Inquest into murder of Maria James hears DNA evidence not found on rediscovered evidence

Maria James's sons say they hope they can finally learn who killed their mother, as a coronial inquest into her death begins.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au
Click to expand...
I understand they did get DNA, a mixture of Maria's and that of an unknown person, but it didn't match any of the suspects so far tested. I wonder if they could compare this with PK's relative's. Or would that be too speculative to be legal?
Another edit: they could always compare it with the DNA from the Easey Street crime scene.
www.abc.net.au

Potential witness to unsolved Maria James murder found after podcast tip-off

At a fresh coronial inquest into the death of a Victorian woman, the coroner warns the family of Maria James they may not get the answers they hope for, however, the answers may be found in a laboratory.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au
 
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JLZ said:
I understand they did get DNA, a mixture of Maria's and that of an unknown person, but it didn't match any of the suspects so far tested. I wonder if they could compare this with PK's relative's. Or would that be too speculative to be legal?
Another edit: they could always compare it with the DNA from the Easey Street crime scene.
www.abc.net.au

Potential witness to unsolved Maria James murder found after podcast tip-off

At a fresh coronial inquest into the death of a Victorian woman, the coroner warns the family of Maria James they may not get the answers they hope for, however, the answers may be found in a laboratory.
www.abc.net.au www.abc.net.au
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I don't know , but I hope so.
 

In this interview, on the ABC, the Professor claims that the suspect is a dual ITALIAN and GREEK citizen, which , I don't know, if he is a triple citizen, but if he is an Italian citizen, even if dual with Greece, that puts a bit of a spanner in the spokes of the extradition order, as the Italians are not eager to extradite their own citizens.

Also, it possibly explains, if that is the case, why he zipped off to Rome... He probably has relatives there...

This is the first I have heard about any Italian citizenship element of this matter...
 
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JLZ said:
Perhaps it was just overconfidence. Perhaps he was flying between safe places and the plane was diverted due to bad weather or something.
Click to expand...

I don't know that there would have been any safe places. Well, no safe place that honour Interpol procedures anyway.
He was foolish to fly under his own identity.

This article says that our police had issued an Interpol Red Notice, and it was due to this notice that he was apprehended. It was likely a surprise to our police that he was nabbed at this time. imo

The article also says that Shane Patton doesn't know why he was in Italy, or was transitioning through or to Rome.
And that Shane Patton considers the case solved.



Not seeing him in the Red Notices, but maybe he has been removed from their list already. Now that they have him.
A heck of a lot of countries are Interpol member countries.

We have 196 member countries; together they create a truly global network of police.

View Red Notices

View and search public Red Notices for wanted persons
www.interpol.int www.interpol.int
 
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SouthAussie said:
I don't know that there would have been any safe places. Well, no safe place that honour Interpol procedures anyway.
He was foolish to fly under his own identity.

This article says that our police had issued an Interpol Red Notice, and it was due to this notice that he was apprehended. It was likely a surprise to our police that he was nabbed at this time. imo

The article also says that Shane Patton doesn't know why he was in Italy, or was transitioning through or to Rome.
And that Shane Patton considers the case solved.



Not seeing him in the Red Notices, but maybe he has been removed from their list already. Now that they have him.
A heck of a lot of countries are Interpol member countries.

We have 196 member countries; together they create a truly global network of police.

View Red Notices

View and search public Red Notices for wanted persons
www.interpol.int www.interpol.int
Click to expand...
He was safe in Greece, even though Greece is one of the Interpol "member countries" and has extradition agreements with Australia. He might have concluded that if we really wanted him we would have got him by now.
 
JLZ said:
He was safe in Greece, even though Greece is one of the Interpol "member countries" and has extradition agreements with Australia. He might have concluded that if we really wanted him we would have got him by now.
Click to expand...

Yes, but he was only safe in Greece because the 20 year period had lapsed - presumably prior to Australia issuing a Red Notice.

Unless Greece didn't really look for him prior to that. Just waited for him to hit one of their border check points, and that didn't happen.

The article doesn't say when the Red Notice was issued. Maybe in 2017, when he fled. Which would already have exceeded the Greek 20 year statute for murder charges.

ETA: Or probably the Red Notice was issued in 2019, because articles say they had to wait 15 years to get him.
 
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