Perry Kouroumblis, the 65-year-old dual citizen of Australia and Greece agreed to be extradited to Australia. Kouroumblis was arrested in Italy as part of the Victoria Police Homicide Squad’s investigation into the murder of Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett at a property on Easey Street, Collingwood, in 1977.
The suspect was arrested in the early hours of last Friday, Melbourne time, at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport – 47 years after the killings. Kouroumblis who remains in custody, yesterday agreed to being extradited to Australia to face court.
Neos Kosmos asked the Federal Attorney General Mark Dreyfus about the suspect in the 1977 double murder known as the Easey St murders.
“I do not comment on extradition matters because that is the arrangements we have in place in extradition treaties and mutual assistance requires that I do not comment.
“Particularly since he is coming back to face legal proceedings, it’s not a matter that I can comment on,” Dreyfus said.
Neos Kosmos reported on the crime that shocked the nation
Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett were brutally murdered in their Easey Street home on 13 January 1977.
Both 27-year-old Suzanne and 28-year-old Susan had been stabbed numerous times. The pair were last seen alive on the evening of 10 January 1977. Suzanne’s 16-month-old son was left unharmed and was found unattended in his cot when police located their bodies.
The crime shocked Victorians, especially the many Greeks living in the area at the time.
Neos Kosmos, on 17 January 1977, reported on the double murder under the headline ‘A barbaric murder of two women – known and loved by many Greeks,”described the crime as “Horrific and unbelievable.”
The initial report stated that both victims were raped; however, it was later revealed that only one was. Armstrong was the first to be attacked, while Bartlett, who appeared to have gone to her friend’s defence, faced the same grim outcome – death at the hands of the perpetrator.
Victims were well connected to the local Greek community
Reports from Neos Kosmos suggest, both women were well-known and loved within the local Greek community. According to the same report, “Armstrong gave birth to her child (a boy) on the island of Naxos. The father of the child is a Greek man living in Naxos.”
“A young Greek student, Charlie Alexopoulos, 18, who had been a student of Bartlett’s, told reporters that the murdered teacher was ‘a really nice lady.’ ‘At our school,’ he added, ‘we had a dance group that performed Greek dances, and Bartlett sewed all the costumes in her spare time,'” the Neos Kosmos report said.
In a later report on 24 January 1977, Neos Kosmos described Susan Bartlett as a well-known teacher at Collingwood High School.
“She spent hours with the Greek children she helped form a dance troupe and often attended Greek events and dances. One of her goals was to go to Greece in 1977.
“Susan had had a child born in Naxos on a previous trip to our country.” Neos Kosmos also reported that the young teacher “was left in the middle of the hallway with 40 stab wounds.”
On 31 January 1977, Neos Kosmos reported on how Victoria Police asked Interpol “to find and question Armstrong’s ‘Greek boyfriend’.”
The article further mentioned that “police believe that the Greek father of her child, who probably lives in Greece, could provide information about Armstrong’s past, which may aid in the discovery of her killer.”
Kouroumblis has been suspected for many years
Veteran Melbourne crime reporter John “Sly” Sylvester revealed that Perry Kouroumblis has been suspected of carrying out the murders for years, with the 65-year-old having fled to Greece after being asked to provide a DNA test. In January 2017, police announced a $1million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for the deaths of the two women.
Kouroumblis said he was moving to Greece to take care of an ailing parent when he left the country in 2017 after being asked by detectives to submit a DNA sample in the nearly five-decade cold case.
Neos Kosmos reported at the time that the two women slept with their front door and blinds open and homicide detective Peter Hiscock told the media, “It was a different time, and most people were very relaxed about security around the home. It was a time when you knew your neighbours, and these types of crimes rarely happened.”
There has been criticism that the police at the time emphasised the two women were “party girls” which had multiple partners. Much of the investigation was centred on friends and partners, as well as existing sex-offenders. However, a 17-year-old man with a knife was stopped and searched at the time – but nothing came of it.
Hiscock, one of the first detectives to discover the bodies, defended the police investigation. “There were all sorts of information coming in, and much of it was unfounded or just rumour. But you must remember, it was a time when there were no CCTV cameras, no DNA evidence, and no database for fingerprints,” he said.
Now 77, Hiscock said he was stunned to learn of the arrest of Perry Kouroumblis in Rome on Friday.
