Accused double murderer Perry Kouroumblis finally faced court on Wednesday in what authorities hope will be the start of the close of a horrific crime that has haunted Australia for almost five decades.

Police allege the 65-year-old Kouroumblis stabbed two women to death in a frenzied attack in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Collingwood in January 1977.

A dual Australian-Greek citizen, he appeared bleary-eyed as he sat in the dock of the Melbourne Magistrates Court after arriving on Australian soil on Tuesday night.

Kouroumblis was extradited from Italy to face two charges of murder and one count of rape, three months after he was arrested at a Rome airport.

Kouroumblis was interviewed by Victorian detectives for hours on Wednesday before he was formally charged over the killings.

Known as the “Easey Street murders”, the grisly murders shocked Australia in 1977 and have remained in the public consciousness since.

Kouroumblis stared straight ahead as family members of the victims watched on.

He was remanded in custody and will return to court in February for a committal mention hearing.

This is the horrific crime police waited more than 47 years to solve.

Who were the victims?

Suzanne Armstrong (28) was a single mother who gave birth to a son, Gregory, while staying in Naxos, Greece.

Susan Bartlett (27) was an arts and crafts teacher at the Collingwood Education Centre.

Both women were originally from the regional Victorian town of Benalla and rented a house together at 147 Easey Street, Collingwood in October 1976.

What happened?

Bartlett’s brother and his girlfriend visited the house on the night of January 10, 1977, for dinner. They left about 9pm.

Concerns were first raised the next day when a puppy belonging to the women was found wandering the neighbourhood.

The women’s next-door neighbours noticed the back door open and had heard Armstrong’s 16-month-old son crying in the subsequent days.

On January 13, the neighbours finally entered the house by the back door. There, they found the infant unharmed in his cot and saw the body of Bartlett near the front of the house.

Police were alerted and Armstrong was found dead on the floor of her bedroom.

Armstrong and Bartlett were found by neighbours at home on Easey Street in 1977.

The attacks

Police determined that Armstrong was stabbed 27 times and sexually assaulted after her death.

Bartlett, who was found face down outside Armstrong’s bedroom near the house’s front door, had been stabbed 55 times and bore wounds that indicated self defence and an attempt to escape.

An inspection of the bathtub and towels in the bathroom showed evidence that the killer had tried to clean up before fleeing via the back door and leaving it open.

There were no signs of forced entry, although a footprint was found on a front window sill that indicated a possible entry point.

The murder weapon was never found.

On the front door was pinned a message from Armstrong’s boyfriend – who had visited the house after the murders – as well as a note regarding the lost puppy.

The investigation

Victoria Police established a list of 130 “persons of interest” related to the murders. It included builders working on a site on Hoddle Street behind the women’s home.

After a lengthy investigation by a team of 16 detectives, the case went cold.

In 1977, a reward of $50,000 was offered for information leading to the murderer’s arrest.

A semen sample was found at the scene and in 1999 – with the advent of reliable DNA testing – detectives cross-matched the sample against the case’s eight prime suspects, without success.

The case was quietly re-opened in 2011, under the supervision of veteran homicide detective Ron Iddles.

On the 40th anniversary of the murders in 2017, police offered a reward of up to $1 million for information leading to conviction of murderer.

The arrest

On September 19, 2024, Kouroumblis, a dual Australian-Greek citizen was arrested at an airport in Rome.

Kouroumblis was a student at the Collingwood Education Centre when Bartlett worked there as a teacher. He was 17 years old at the time of the murders.

He was arrested was executed under an Interpol red notice and remanded in custody in Italy.

Police revealed that Kouroumblis had been a suspect since at least 2017. He had been asked to submit a DNA test with the other suspects, but emigrated to Greece prior to providing a sample.

Due to his residency status and a 20-year statute of limitations on a possible warrant for murder, police were unable to seek his arrest while he remained in Greece.

Kouroumblis’s travel outside Greece – to Italy – was the first opportunity police had to execute an Interpol arrest warrant.

The baby

Gregory Armstrong was adopted and raised in Queensland by his mother’s younger sister Gayle, who has continually lobbied for the case to be solved. His name was changed.

On Wednesday, Gayle was in court in Melbourne. She said she was “half-ecstatic and very scared” at the prospect of the alleged murderer facing trial.