Susan Bartlett and Suzanne Armstrong were found stabbed to death in their Easey St home. Photo: AAP
Almost 50 years after two women from Benalla were found dead in their Melbourne home, a man has been committed to stand trial accused of their double murder.
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However, Perry Kouroumblis will no longer face a rape charge after it was struck out as a magistrate found there was insufficient evidence.
The 66-year-old, who was extradited last year from Italy to face the charges, pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder as his committal hearing ended on Wednesday, November 26.
Retired detectives, next-door neighbours and people of interest in the 1977 Easey St, Collingwood, deaths of Suzanne Armstrong, 28, and Susan Bartlett, 27, gave evidence to Melbourne Magistrates’ Court over two months.
In the near 50-year journey to prosecution, Victorian police whittled 274 persons of interest down to 130 “possible suspects” in the late 1990s including seven “strong and significant suspects”, the court was told on Wednesday.
These included John Grant, a journalist who was staying next door before the women were killed; Barry Woodard and his brother, who visited the scene the day before the women's bodies were found; and Ross Hammond, who has since died.
A toddler was heard crying, leading to neighbours rushing next door and finding the lifeless bodies of Suzanne Armstrong, 28, and Susan Bartlett, 27, in January 1977 at 147 Easey St, Collingwood. Photo: AAP Image/Supplied by the Public Record Office Victoria.
Mr Hammond, who had been dating Ms Bartlett, told a detective he climbed through Ms Bartlett's bedroom window before she died, while Mr Woodard had been on a blind date with Ms Armstrong weeks before the killing.
Ultimately, police allege DNA evidence ties Mr Kouroumblis to the double murder after advances in technology connected him to semen found underneath Ms Armstrong.
She was found by a neighbour lying in her bedroom with 29 stab wounds, lying in pools of blood with her nightie pulled above her chest.
Ms Bartlett suffered 55 stab wounds and was found fully clothed, lying near the entry to Ms Armstrong's bedroom.
Ms Armstrong’s toddler was heard crying on January 13, 1977, leading to the women's two neighbours rushing next door and finding their lifeless bodies before calling police.
Victoria Police forensic officer Katherine Bradley gave evidence about her examination of items seized at the crime scene and stored for more than four decades.
She analysed bedsheets, carpet, fingernail scrapings and a nightdress, and tested them against DNA profiles including that of Mr Kouroumblis.
Mr Kouroumblis' DNA “tissue” was found in a vehicle in 2018, and tested against sperm and blood samples located at the scene.
Police later charged Kouroumblis with the two murders and “carnal knowledge without consent” of Ms Armstrong, which is now known as rape.
However, prosecution witnesses called during the committal hearing, which began at the end of October and resumed on Monday, November 24, said Ms Armstrong was raped after she died.
This included retired homicide squad detective Adrian Donehue, one of the first police on the scene, who found Ms Armstrong's body lying in the front bedroom.
“It appeared that she had been raped, she was in a classic pose you would expect to see for post-mortem rape, in my view,” he told the court in October.
Magistrate Brett Sonnet said there was no alternative offence, such as interfering with a corpse, at the time the murders were committed.
He found there was “insufficient weight” to support a jury conviction on carnal knowledge without consent and discharged that offence.
The magistrate found there was enough evidence to commit Mr Kouroumblis to stand trial in the Supreme Court on the two murder charges.
Mr Kouroumblis will remain in custody to face a directions hearing on December 17.
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