Suspect in Victoria's 1977 Easey Street murders extradited from Italy
A man wanted over Melbourne's 1977 Easey Street murders is expected to arrive back in the city on Tuesday evening, after being extradited from Italy.
Perry Kouroumblis, an Australian-Greek national, is a suspect in the stabbing deaths of Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Barlett, who were killed in their Collingwood share house almost half-a-century ago.
Mr Kouroumblis was detained at an airport in Rome on an Interpol Red Notice in September after arriving on a flight from Greece.
He was held at the Italian capital's Regina Coeli prison since September 19 while the courts considered the request by police in Victoria to extradite him.
The 65-year-old was put on a Qatar Airways flight from Rome on Monday afternoon, local time, and is expected to arrive in Melbourne late Tuesday night.
At the time of the arrest, Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton described the Easey Street murder's as the state's "most serious cold case".
"It was an absolutely gruesome, horrific, frenzied homicide," Chief Commissioner Patton alleged.
Susan Bartlett (left) and Suzanne Armstrong were murdered in 1977.
It's understood Mr Kouroumblis had been working as a welder in Athens, and had lived in Greece since 2016.
He could not be extradited from that country because of a statute of limitations, which requires charges be laid within 20 years of an alleged offence.
However, there are no such parameters in Italy, and when he arrived there, police pounced.
Mr Kouroumblis's arrest came after a long investigation by police in Victoria into the murders of the two women.
Ms Armstrong, who was 27, and Ms Bartlett, who was 28, were found dead at their home on Easey Street on January 13, 1977.
The two were high school friends who had last been seen alive three days earlier.
Police said Ms Armstrong had been sexually assaulted and stabbed. Her 16-month-old son was left unharmed in a cot.
Ms Bartlett was also stabbed to death.
At the time of Mr Kouroumblis's arrest, the women's families released a statement, in which they said their lives had been changed "irrevocably" by the murders.
"For two quiet families from country Victoria it has always been impossible to comprehend the needless and violent manner in which Suzanne and Susan died," the statement read.
Last month, Mr Kouroumblis's Italian lawyer Serena Tucci told the ABC her client was "lucid" and that he had been "surprised" to be arrested.
"He had no idea he could be stopped and was surprised to be stopped for something that went back to 1977 in Australia. So he did not give any resistance. He did exactly what the police told him," she said.
"Then he's just been taking it day-by-day, trying to work out the logistics of how best to face his upcoming trial."
