A man accused of two “horrific” unsolved murders in 1977 has been extradited from Italy and will appear in an Australian court on Wednesday, police said.
Perry Kouroumblis65, was charged with the murder of two women in a nearly 50-year-old case dubbed the “Easey Street” murders.
The dual Australian-Greek citizen was arrested at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport in September after being named in an Interpol red notice, and has been held in prison ever since.
Victoria Police said He was returned to Australia on Tuesday evening and would be questioned by detectives before appearing in court on Wednesday afternoon.
“The man will be formally charged with two counts of murder and one count of rape during this court appearance,” they said in a statement.
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The bodies of Suzanne Armstrong, 27, and Susan Bartlett, 28, were discovered in their home on Easey Street, Melbourne, on January 13, 1977, with multiple stab wounds. The couple was last seen alive on the evening of January 10, 1977.
Armstrong had been raped. Her then 16-month-old son “remained unharmed and was unattended in his bed when police found their bodies,” police said in a statement. statement.
“This was an absolutely horrific, horrific, frenzied homicide – multiple stabbings,” Victoria Police Chief Superintendent Shane Patton said after the arrest in September.
In 2017, detectives began conducting DNA testing on dozens of suspects interviewed during the initial investigation.
Kouroumblis reportedly moved to Greece shortly after being approached to provide a sample.
Police have offered a A$1 million (US$680,000) reward for information leading to the solution of one of the state’s most infamous cold cases.
“Over the past four decades, a significant and tireless investigation into murders has been carried out by detectives from the Homicide Squad,” police said Wednesday.