A 65-year-old man is expected to face court later today as part of the Homicide Squad investigation into the murder of two women at an Easey Street, Collingwood property in 1977.
The suspect, 65-year-old Perry Kouroumblis, a dual citizen of Australia and Greece, was arrested at a Rome airport, Italy on September 19.
He was extradited to Australia overnight before arriving in Melbourne shortly before midnight on December 3 after being held in Rome’s Regina Coeli prison.
Kouroumblis will be interviewed by police later today where he is expected to be formally charged with two counts of murder and one count of rape.
He is expected to face the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court later today.
The arrest follows the murders of Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett, who were found dead in their Easey Street home on January 13, 1977.
Both 27-year-old Suzanne and 28-year-old Susan had been stabbed several times.
The pair had last been seen alive on the evening of January 10, 1977.
Suzanne’s 16-month-old son was left unharmed and had been unattended in his cot when police located their bodies.
Over the past four decades, a significant and tireless investigation into the murders has been conducted by detectives from the Homicide Squad.
In January 2017, police announced a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for the deaths of the two women.
In 2017, police asked Kouroumblis for a DNA sample. He fled to Greece, where police understand he was living with one of his brothers.
Due to a 20-year statute of limitations on murder charges in Greece, Australian police had to wait until Kouroumblis left Greece. When he left Greece for Italy, he was arrested.
Kouroumblis maintains his innocence.
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