Australia Australia - Suzanne Armstrong, 28, Susan Bartlett, 27, Collingwood, Vic, 10 Jan 1977
- Thread starter 0101ABA
- Start date
-
CA CA - Calico, UncFem, UP16065, 15-25, skull & mandible, Jan'47- Latest: The4TierBridge
-
All the articles I've read so far say that he was observed on the night carrying a knife.
I'll try to find one.
Found one.
Google Search Result. The actual article is behind a paywall, I think.
He was seen around the time of the murders.
"The suspect, then a teenager, was checked by police near Easey Street around that time, and it was recorded he was carrying a knife. In a relaunched investigation in 2017, he agreed to provide DNA, but instead fled Australia. It is understood a DNA sample from a relative established a match.
Identity of Easey Street suspect revealed after arrest in Rome
Police in Victoria will seek to extradite the man from Rome over a double murder mystery dating back to the 1970s.www.theage.com.au
As Ron Iddles used to say the answer is always in the file
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2012
- Messages
- 1,718
- Reaction score
- 2,884
Yes and the fact they actually came across this man with a knife but never made the connection? I wonder what connection he had to them? He may have just lived nearby and knew of the Susan’s and that they lived alone and saw that as a perfect chance to do what he wanted to do.
a Greek Australian.... perhaps he was born in AU of Greek parents,, perhaps they all took out citizenship before this murder, , perhaps he did alone later on in his life....., perhaps...... perhaps...
Lots of relief and terrible sadness in Benalla , Vic. today, where they both came from before moving to Melbourne for jobs....
I suppose him being a dual citizen of AU and Greece will expedite the extradition somewhat.. the Italians would be finicky about sending him off to Ukraine, or Mexico, if he was a dual citizen with those countries, but it's AU asking for it, and he is an AU national, albeit a double entry. I bet he is traveling on a Greek Passport, though.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2022
- Messages
- 305
- Reaction score
- 1,268
I think we're all happy now, good work by the Victorian police and homicide squads
Well funnily enough it was Iddles that discovered the knife in the trunk of his car when he was only a constable. Handed it over to the detectives. Who knows what happened from there but here we are.
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2009
- Messages
- 58,210
- Reaction score
- 175,042
Suspect in cold-case murders nabbed at Rome airport
Police were looking for the man arrested over the 'Easey Street murders' for years, as the victim's families revealed they never gave up hope.
www.aap.com.au
''Mr Patton said the man had been one of many people of interest in the case and investigators had been “looking for him for a number of years”, but had to wait for him to leave Greece.
“He wasn’t able to be arrested in Greece. There is a 20-year, as I understand, statute bar on initiation of murder charges (in Greece),” he told reporters on Saturday.
“Our warrant wasn’t issued within that 20-year period.”
Identity of accused arrested over Easey St murders revealed
The brother of the man accused of killing two women in Collingwood in 1977 says the breakthrough arrest in Rome was a “big mistake”.Paraphrased:
Accused is Perry Kouroumblis
He lived in Bendigo St in Collingwood just a few streets away from the home where Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett were murdered.
Ron Iddles says the boy was intercepted in his car near the scene in Collingwood about a fortnight after the murders of Ms Armstrong and Ms Bartlett. He pulled PK over & searched the boot & found the knife. Ron Idles knew PK “He was alright because I knew him. I never forgot it,” “I’d go so far as to say it was a ‘68 HK Holden.”
PK claimed that he had found the weapon on bluestone at nearby railway tracks under a pedestrian overpass near Hoddle St.
Tony Kouroumblis told the Sunday Herald Sun the arrest of his brother was a “big mistake”.
“I don’t believe he has done anything, I can’t believe it,” he said.
“I don’t think he was capable of doing anything like that.
“I think it’s a big mistake. We will see what happens.”
TK lived with him in Bendigo St at the time. he has not seen PK since before Covid.
Charges against PK cannot be laid until he lands back in Australia
Identity of Easey Street suspect revealed after arrest in Rome
Police in Victoria will seek to extradite the man from Rome over a double murder mystery dating back to the 1970s.
Identity of Easey Street suspect revealed after arrest in Rome
By
Updated September 21, 2024 — 9.46pmfirst published at 9.09amParaphrased:
Italian police confirmed to The Sunday Age late on Saturday that Kouroumblis, who was born in Melbourne in 1959, was the man arrested.
PK lived in Bendigo Street in Collingwood – just a few hundred metres away from the house where the bodies were discovered.
PK was pulled over by police, about a week after the murders in a routine patrol & it was recorded in coronial proceedings that PK was carrying a knife. He was named at the inquest as the person who found the knife used in the killings. He was not called as he could not be located.
The Age spoke to a relative who said he had moved to Greece in 2017 & as far as they know was still living in Athens.
The family member asked to not be identifies. They said “It just doesn’t sound like [Perry], it doesn’t make sense to me,” They spoke to PK last week, but were unable to reaach him when they called on Saturday.
Ron Idles ( retired detective ) was on a divisional van patrol when he spotted a youth driving near Easey Street. “I knew him and decided to pull him over. There was no reason other than it was close to Easey Street,” “I searched the car and found a knife in the boot. I saw what I thought were blood stains near the handle.” PK claimed he found the knife. “He wasn’t nervous. He said he was walking home over a footbridge and saw the knife on the railway tracks near Victoria Station.”
Ron had been a policeman for 3 years, he gave the knife to detectives & “I didn’t hear any more about it,”
Ron Idles years later worked on the cold case , as a cold case investigator, hunting down people on the DNA list. He had moved from the case by the time Kouroumblis was approached for DNA.
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2012
- Messages
- 1,718
- Reaction score
- 2,884
Wow, so within a week they had him. I wonder whether they actually believed him when he said he found it or they have always thought it was him but had no more evidence?Identity of Easey Street suspect revealed after arrest in Rome
Police in Victoria will seek to extradite the man from Rome over a double murder mystery dating back to the 1970s.
Identity of Easey Street suspect revealed after arrest in Rome
By
Updated September 21, 2024 — 9.46pmfirst published at 9.09am
Paraphrased:
Italian police confirmed to The Sunday Age late on Saturday that Kouroumblis, who was born in Melbourne in 1959, was the man arrested.
PK lived in Bendigo Street in Collingwood – just a few hundred metres away from the house where the bodies were discovered.
PK was pulled over by police, about a week after the murders in a routine patrol & it was recorded in coronial proceedings that PK was carrying a knife. He was named at the inquest as the person who found the knife used in the killings. He was not called as he could not be located.
The Age spoke to a relative who said he had moved to Greece in 2017 & as far as they know was still living in Athens.
The family member asked to not be identifies. They said “It just doesn’t sound like [Perry], it doesn’t make sense to me,” They spoke to PK last week, but were unable to reaach him when they called on Saturday.
Ron Idles ( retired detective ) was on a divisional van patrol when he spotted a youth driving near Easey Street. “I knew him and decided to pull him over. There was no reason other than it was close to Easey Street,” “I searched the car and found a knife in the boot. I saw what I thought were blood stains near the handle.” PK claimed he found the knife. “He wasn’t nervous. He said he was walking home over a footbridge and saw the knife on the railway tracks near Victoria Station.”
Ron had been a policeman for 3 years, he gave the knife to detectives & “I didn’t hear any more about it,”
Ron Idles years later worked on the cold case , as a cold case investigator, hunting down people on the DNA list. He had moved from the case by the time Kouroumblis was approached for DNA.
From Tom Priors book called They Trusted Men published 1996, p 40-41
The inquest accepted a similar statement from an absent youth nicknamed "Perry" said by police to be 'in smoke', on the run, to escape burglary charges. 'Perry' had been questioned on other matters some days after the murders, police said. A bloodstained knife with a long blade had been found in a scabbard in the boot of his car, when it was searched by police investigating another matter.
There were traces of A positive blood on the knife, which had been wiped in an attempt to clean it, before being replaced in the scabbard. Suzanne Armstrong's blood was A positive, but this was a blood group shared by a large proportion of the population. There was no trace of Susan Bartlett's O positive blood, also a common blood group, on the knife.
The knife was 26.67cm (10 and 1/2 inches) long and had a handle of tightly bound brown strip plastic with red strips at each end. The brand name 'Mundial' was stamped on the blade. There was a small bend at the tip of the blade which could have been caused by it hitting a solid object such as bone, police said. The knife was almost new and forensic tests showed that it had never been sharpened. There were no serrations or file marks on it whatsoever. It was in a new brown leather sheath, with yellow stitching, which could have been worn on a belt or strapped to a leg.
'Perry', who was questioned exhaustively by police, told them he found the knife near the platform of Victoria Park railway station, on the Hoddle Street side, which would be used by travellers going away from the city, between 10:20pm and 11pm on January 10. This was about 90 minutes after the murdered women were last seen alive and, if the knife was the murder weapon, police theories about the murders happening on January 11 obviously were wrong.
'Perry' had unimpeachable corroboration for the finding of the knife and an unbreakable alibi for the possible time of the murders. At the time, 'Perry' and his companions, who repeated his account of his movements, were either intent on committing, or committing, some of the burglaries with which he was later charged. He had no suspicion of the importance of the bloodstained knife, and would have been extremely unlikely to have thrown it in the boot of his car if he had, police said. He was frightened, 'shocked out of his wits' in fact, when he realised the reason for the intensity of police questioning.
The inquest accepted a similar statement from an absent youth nicknamed "Perry" said by police to be 'in smoke', on the run, to escape burglary charges. 'Perry' had been questioned on other matters some days after the murders, police said. A bloodstained knife with a long blade had been found in a scabbard in the boot of his car, when it was searched by police investigating another matter.
There were traces of A positive blood on the knife, which had been wiped in an attempt to clean it, before being replaced in the scabbard. Suzanne Armstrong's blood was A positive, but this was a blood group shared by a large proportion of the population. There was no trace of Susan Bartlett's O positive blood, also a common blood group, on the knife.
The knife was 26.67cm (10 and 1/2 inches) long and had a handle of tightly bound brown strip plastic with red strips at each end. The brand name 'Mundial' was stamped on the blade. There was a small bend at the tip of the blade which could have been caused by it hitting a solid object such as bone, police said. The knife was almost new and forensic tests showed that it had never been sharpened. There were no serrations or file marks on it whatsoever. It was in a new brown leather sheath, with yellow stitching, which could have been worn on a belt or strapped to a leg.
'Perry', who was questioned exhaustively by police, told them he found the knife near the platform of Victoria Park railway station, on the Hoddle Street side, which would be used by travellers going away from the city, between 10:20pm and 11pm on January 10. This was about 90 minutes after the murdered women were last seen alive and, if the knife was the murder weapon, police theories about the murders happening on January 11 obviously were wrong.
'Perry' had unimpeachable corroboration for the finding of the knife and an unbreakable alibi for the possible time of the murders. At the time, 'Perry' and his companions, who repeated his account of his movements, were either intent on committing, or committing, some of the burglaries with which he was later charged. He had no suspicion of the importance of the bloodstained knife, and would have been extremely unlikely to have thrown it in the boot of his car if he had, police said. He was frightened, 'shocked out of his wits' in fact, when he realised the reason for the intensity of police questioning.
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2022
- Messages
- 307
- Reaction score
- 2,793
Attachments
- Joined
- May 24, 2012
- Messages
- 15,671
- Reaction score
- 105,685
A new client for Dermot Dann ?
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2012
- Messages
- 1,718
- Reaction score
- 2,884
Thanks DrSleuth. Unbreakable Alibi? I wonder what that was? If he was committing burglaries, did he not think the Sues were home and killed them in a panic?
And how is the word of a bunch of burglar-mates "unimpeachable corroboration"? . . . And if he did find the knife on the tracks, why wouldn't police think maybe he chucked it there first?
I wonder now if some sting operation took place to inveigle him to exit Greece and travel to Rome... maybe an offer of a job ( VICPOL undercover stuff, with Interpol and Hellenic) that was so alluring he could not resist it. Or a 'romance' thing.... some long operation, the accidental meeting, the gradual bonding and testing of waters, the slow drawing in of compromise, etc, like what the QLD coppers did in the Morecombe case...
Because , he ran such a risk, he must have known the risk, he had already fled AU on the whisper of the boots of VICPOL on his tracks, so something must have lured him out of the 'safety' of Greece, and right into the happy arms of the Carabinieri, all spiffy and smart at Da Vinci airport in Rome. All ready to hand him over to VICPOL when they turn up, while he waits in the Regina Coeli prison there in Trastevere .
Surely, after all this time he would not have wittingly, willingly given himself up, if so, why not in Athens, .. ?
.... no, he travelled to Rome for a reason, and I'm pretty sure it was not to have a face to face with the large grim detectives from VICPOL.
Last edited:
In chapter 10 , page 42 of They Trusted Men by Tom Prior
The inquest into the two deaths was held at the Melbourne Coroner's Court before Mr H. W. Pascoe SM on 12 July 1977.
Wow that was quick.
Was this the only inquest??
The inquest into the two deaths was held at the Melbourne Coroner's Court before Mr H. W. Pascoe SM on 12 July 1977.
Wow that was quick.
Was this the only inquest??
Last edited:
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2012
- Messages
- 1,718
- Reaction score
- 2,884
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.
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.
Staff online
-
FraizeAdministrator
Online statistics
- Members online
- 110
- Guests online
- 3,452
- Total visitors
- 3,562