American man of Oregon confesses to the 1979 cold case murder of Boston woman

John Michael Irmer,68,  is expected to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on Monday for the 1979 murder of Susan Marcia Rose

By Edward Era Barbacena 

An Oregon man is being charged with the 1979 murder of a woman in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston, after last month telling federal authorities he fatally struck the woman in the head with a hammer and raped her, according to Massachusetts prosecutors.

John Michael Irmer, 68, was held without bail during an arraignment in Boston Municipal Court on Monday morning, after being transported from Portland, Oregon, by Boston police detectives, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office announced.

He is facing a murder charge for the killing of Susan Marcia Rose on Oct. 30, 1979; she was 24 years old. Irmer is also being charged with aggravated rape.

The DA's office said that Irmer walked into the Portland FBI field office last month, and told agents that he met a woman with red hair at a skating rink around Halloween in Boston back in 1979. Irmer reportedly told agents that the two walked into a Beacon Street building that was under renovation, before he grabbed a hammer and hit her in the head, killing her.

During Monday's arraignment, Assistant District Attorney John Verner said that Irmer also confessed to a murder in a southern state, and served 30 years in California for another murder.

Authorities were able to confirm that Rose was found murdered on Beacon Street, with a cause of death having been determined to be multiple blunt injuries of the head, with fractures of the skull and lacerations of the brain.

Prosecutors added that DNA from Irmer was a match to DNA samples that were preserved from the murder scene.

Rose was a native of Pennsylvania, who had moved to Boston and was living on Dartmouth Street.

Another man actually went to trial for the murder, and was found not guilty 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 DA Kevin Hayden said in the news 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. 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."

Irmer told authorities he fled to New York City following the murder.