BOSTON (WWLP) – An Oregon man will be charged with the murder of a woman back in 1979 in Boston after admitting to police last month that he hit her in the head with a hammer.
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney, 68-year-old John Michael Irmer will be arraigned Monday at a Boston court after being transported from Portland, Oregon. He will be charged with the murder of then-24-year-old Susan Marcia Rose on October 30, 1979.
Irmer walked into a Portland FBI office last month and told agents he had met a woman with red hair at a skating rink around Halloween in 1979 in Boston. He said the two walked down the road to a Beacon Street building that was being renovated. That’s where he allegedly grabbed a hammer and hit her in the head. Irmer also told the FBI agents he left for New York City the next day.
Authorities linked those details to Rose, who was found murdered on Beacon Street with the cause of death as blunt injuries to the head, with fractures to her skull and lacerations of the brain.
“Nearly 44 years after losing her at such a young age, the family and friends of Susan Marcia Rose will finally have some answers,” Suffolk County DA Kevin Hayden said in the news release. “This was a brutal, ice-blooded murder made worse by the fact that a person was charged and tried—and fortunately, found not guilty—while the real murderer remained silent until now. No matter how cold cases get resolved, it’s always the answers that are important for those who have lived with grief and loss and so many agonizing questions.”
A man was previously tried and found not guilty of Rose’s murder in 1981.
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