"Ice-blooded murder": John Michael Irmer allegedly confesses to killing Susan Marcia Rose in Boston cold case
BOSTON - An Oregon man has confessed to the "brutal" 1979 murder of a woman in her Back Bay apartment, Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden announced Monday. John Michael Irmer, 68, was arraigned in a Boston courtroom and charged with the murder of 24-year-old Susan Marcia Rose.
Irmer walked into a Portland, Oregon FBI field office last month and admitted to the crime, Hayden said. Irmer said he met a woman with red hair at a skating rink in the city around Halloween of 1979. After the two walked into 285 Beacon St., an apartment building that was being renovated, Irmer allegedly said he grabbed a nearby hammer and hit the woman on the head.
Rose, who had red hair, was found murdered in the apartment building on October 30, with the cause of death being blunt injuries to the head. She was from Johnston, Pennsylvania and lived on Dartmouth Street in Boston when she was killed.
Back in 1981, another man was tried and found not guilty of her murder. DNA from Irmer proved to match samples recovered from the murder scene, Hayden said.
"Nearly 44 years after losing her at such a young age, the family and friends of Susan Marcia Rose will finally have some answers. 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," Hayden said in a statement. "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."
During his arraignment on Monday, Irmer stayed mostly hidden behind a wall in court.
A judge ordered Irmer to be held without bail on charges of murder and aggravated rape.