South Carolina Man Pleads Guilty in 1998 East Hampton Cold Case Homicide

EAST HAMPTON, CT – A man arrested three years ago in South Carolina plead guilty Wednesday to the 1998 strangulation death of an East Hampton woman whose homicide went unsolved for more than a decade.

Gerald Brian Tuddle, 54, plead guilty in Middlesex Superior Court to first degree manslaughter and kidnapping in the death of Gertrude "Trudy" Ochankowski, according to a release.

Ochankowski was reported missing on Jan. 11, 1998, when her car was found running in a parking lot on Main Street in East Hampton. Her body was found the next day in an Engel's Falls stream, and an autopsy showed she had been strangled.

Tuttle was arrested in Dec. 2013 at his home in Surfside Beach, South Carolina and charged as a result of an investigation by the East Hampton Police Department.

Tuttle plead guilty under the Alford doctrine, in which a defendant does not admit guilt but agrees that the state has enough evidence to get a conviction. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 6, when he is expected to be ordered to serve 30 years in prison to be followed by five years probation.