A man suspected of the brutal murders of two women in Australia nearly half a century ago has been arrested in Rome on an international arrest warrant, Italian news agency ANSA reported Saturday.
The suspect, a 65-year-old dual citizen of Greece and Australia, was arrested at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on Thursday after landing on a flight from Greece, ANSA reported. Australian police in Victoria said in a press release that the suspect was arrested at Rome’s airport on Thursday. A warrant has been issued for his arrest, police said, and the suspect is currently in custody in Italy.
Police said they would now work to secure the suspect’s extradition to Victoria.
According to Australian media reports, the man was believed to be living in Greece, where he was protected by the country’s statute of limitations.
Australian police said on Saturday they would begin the process of extraditing the suspect and that Italian courts would set the timetable.
The suspect is accused of killing two friends – Suzanne Armstrong, 27, and Susan Bartlett, 28 – in a knife attack that shocked Australia in January 1977.
The two young women were found dead in their rented home on Easey Street in Melbourne, while Armstrong’s 16-month-old son was left unharmed in his crib in another room. Armstrong and Bartlett had both been stabbed multiple times.
“This is a crime that struck at the heart of our community: two women in their own home, where they should have felt safest,” Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said in a statement.
The crime, known as the Easey Street murders, has become Melbourne’s longest and most serious unsolved case, but no one has been arrested until now.
In 2017, Victoria Police offered a $1 million reward to catch those responsible. That same year, new technology led to a breakthrough in the case, with the suspect becoming a fugitive following a request for a DNA sample.
