Detectives tasked with solving the savage 1977 murders of two women may have lured the accused killer out of his safe haven in Greece with a cunning deception.
Perry Kouroumblis was just 17 years old when Suzanne Armstrong, 27, and Susan Bartlett, 28, were found dead in their Easey St share house in Collingwood on January 13, 1977.
Now aged 65, Kouroumblis was arrested on Thursday over the slayings that shocked Australia at Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci Airport in Italy.
Police sources have told Daily Mail Australia they suspected Victorian detectives could well have set up the alleged killer to leave Greece, where he shared dual nationality with Australia.
‘It’s actually a pretty sound idea because it would have been near-on impossible to have extradited him from Greece,’ a source said.
Australia shares a healthy extradition treaty with Italy, which assures Kouroumblis’ Greek nationality won’t impede his return to Melbourne.
But he was effectively untouchable while in Greece because local laws meant he could not be extradited over the 47-year-old murder hunt.
Professor of international law at the College of Law, Donald Rothwell, said the alleged killer likely would never have been apprehended had he stayed in Greece.
The Easey Street murders turned Melbourne into a city of fear back in the 1970s when people knew their neighbours and left their front doors wide open at night
Perry Kouroumblis (pictured) was arrested at Leonardo Da Vinci Airport, in the Italian capital Rome, over the slayings that shocked Australia
‘It would seem that the individual had some level of immunity while they remained in Greece,’ he told the ABC.
‘Now there are two distinctive factors there, one is … a possible issue with respect to the historic nature of these crimes and effectively a statute of limitation, which might have been relevant in terms of Greek extradition law.
‘But the other information we have is that the individual in question is a dual Greek, (Australian) citizen.
‘And some countries are very reluctant to even consider extradition of their own nationals. So those are two distinctive aspects that are now not in play.’
Last year, Australian detectives were suspected of luring a man to Australia for United States detectives so they could extradite him.
Former US pilot Daniel Edmund Duggan had received security clearance to receive an aviation licence and return from China to work in Australia in 2022.
A few days after his arrival, the clearance granted by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was removed and he was arrested.
The former marine had been accused of illegally aiding China by training pilots for the state government’s military.
In May, a New South Wales court found him eligible for surrender to the US and made an order for the father-of-six to be committed to prison.
Life in 1977 was very different. Detectives are pictured outside the Easey Street home where two were murdered
Suzanne Armstrong (pictured) was murdered in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood in 1977
Susan Bartlett (left) and Suzanne Armstrong (right) were murdered in their home on Easey Street in Collingwood in 1977
In 1999, United Kingdom cops set a trap for 80 suspected criminals by sending them letters saying they had won valuable electrical goods.
Named ‘Operation Bastille’, the sting led to 38 arrests of people wanted for failing to appear on warrants in connection with alleged offences.
The ‘prey’ were asked to telephone a free winners’ hotline and confirm they would be at home on the day their prizes were to be delivered.
Oblivious to the closing trap almost three-quarters rang the undercover operations room, The Guardian reported at the time.
‘We left details of the prize to their imagination,’ Detective Bruce Ballagher said.
‘People have been so greedy some were so excited they tried to flag down the undercover delivery vans before we arrived at their addresses.’
On Sunday, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton claimed not to know why Kouroumblis made the mistake of leaving his safe haven.
‘There is a 20-year, as I understand, statute bar on initiation of murder charges (in Greece).
‘Our warrant wasn’t issued within that 20-year period and so it was a matter of waiting, if you like, until he was outside of Greece,’ he told reporters.
‘I don’t know the reason why the suspect was in Italy, or was transitioning through or to Rome.
‘All I know is that through having the warrants in place, through working with Interpol, the red notice has worked.’
The Interpol red notice, which triggered the suspect’s arrest in Italy, included two charges of murder and one charge of rape.
Mr Patton described the murders as ‘an absolutely gruesome, horrific, frenzied homicide’.
He said advances in technology, investigative techniques and retracing statements had contributed to the breakthrough.
Neighbours raised the alarm after hearing a toddler crying inside the house
A newspaper story about the Easey Street deaths in 1977
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton (pictured) described the murders as ‘an absolutely gruesome, horrific, frenzied homicide’
‘This is Victoria’s most serious cold case and longest cold case that we have ever solved, and that’s why it is such a significant achievement,’ the Chief Commissioner said.
‘There is simply no expiry date on crimes that are as brutal as this.’
On Monday, police declined to deny speculation it was involved with luring Kouroumblis out of Greece and refused to comment on the case.
Ms Armstrong and Ms Bartlett were last seen alive on January 10, 1977, and their bodies were found three days later.
At the time, Kouroumblis lived in Bendigo St, Collingwood, close to the home where Ms Armstrong and Ms Bartlett were killed in what became known as the ‘Easey Street murders’.
On Sunday, it emerged the then-teenager had been pulled over by a junior police officer who found a knife in the boot of his car, which had traces of the same blood type as one of the victims.
But when questioned, he had claimed to have found the weapon on nearby railway tracks – a claim police initially accepted.
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