Man tells the FBI he raped and killed a woman 44 years ago, Massachusetts officials say

An Oregon man is facing a murder charge after he told the FBI he killed and raped a woman in Massachusetts 44 years ago, officials say.

John Michael Irmer, 68, was extradited from Portland to Boston after he walked into an FBI office last month and said he killed a woman with “red hair” in 1979, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in a Sept. 11 news release.

He told investigators the pair met at a skating rink “around Halloween” before they walked to a Boston apartment building that was under renovation. He then killed the woman with a hammer he found nearby before raping her, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutors said Irmer told investigators he fled to New York the following day.

Investigators confirmed 24-year-old Susan Marcia Rose who had red hair was found dead Oct. 30, 1979, at the same address Irmer provided, prosecutors said.

Rose, who had moved to Boston from Pennsylvania, died of “multiple blunt injuries of the head,” prosecutors said.

Irmer’s DNA sample matched those found at the murder scene, prosecutors said.

Another man was tried in Rose’s death in 1981 but found not guilty, according to prosecutors.

“Nearly 44 years after losing her at such a young age, the family and friends of Susan Marcia Rose will finally have some answers,” District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in the 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.”

Irmer was arrested last week on counts of rape and murder, Boston police said in a Sept. 11 news release.

At his arraignment Monday, Sept. 11, Irmer was charged with murder and aggravated rape, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office said in an email to McClatchy News.

Irmer, who is being held without bail, pleaded not guilty, the spokesperson said.

He is expected to appear in court Oct. 17, the spokesperson said.

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