Man Confesses To Killing Boston Woman In 1979

BOSTON, MA — An Oregon man is set to be arraigned Monday after confessing last month to the 1979 rape and murder of a 24-year-old woman from Boston.

John Michael Irmer, 68, was brought from Portland, Oregon to Boston over the weekend after confessing to the Oct. 30, 1979 killing of Susan Marcia Rose, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said in a news release.

Irmer walked into the Portland FBI field office last month and told agents he met a woman with red hair at a skating rink in Boston before walking with her to a Beacon Street building that was under renovation and fatally striking her over the head with a hammer, officials said.

Then, Irmer said he raped Rose before fleeing to New York the following day, according to officials.

After verifying that Rose had red hair and was murdered on Beacon Street on the day Irmer said, investigators retrieved a DNA sample from Irmer, which matched DNA samples preserved from the murder scene, officials said.

Rose moved to Boston from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and was living on Dartmouth Street at the time of her death.

Another man was tried for Rose’s murder and acquitted in 1981.

"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 District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in the news release Monday. "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."