The Easey Street Murders: A Brutal Unsolved Double Homicide in Australia

The Discovery of a Horrific Crime

• 💔 On January 10th, 1977, Susan Bartlett (27) and Suzanne Armstrong (28) were found murdered in their Collingwood, Australia home.
• 🔪 The victims suffered a brutal attack, with over 80 stab wounds combined, a level of violence termed "overkill" by investigators.
• 👶 Suzanne's 16-month-old son, Gregory, was found unharmed but dehydrated and malnourished after being left alone for three days.

Initial Investigation and Theories

• 🚪 Police found no signs of forced entry, suggesting the killer may have entered through an open bedroom window or the unlocked front door.
• 🩸 The crime scene, particularly the hallway with extensive blood spatter, indicated Sue Bartlett put up a significant struggle.
• ⚠️ Investigators initially suspected sexual violence due to Suzanne Armstrong being found partially nude and later confirmed to have been sexually assaulted postmortem.
• 🗣️ The excessive stab wounds suggested intense rage or passion, pointing towards a killer with a personal connection to the victims.

Key Suspects and Strange Circumstances

• 📝 Barry Woodard, Suzanne's boyfriend, left a note at the house but claimed he didn't see or hear anything unusual, raising police suspicion.
• 🚶‍♂️ Another man, claiming to be seeing Sue Bartlett, entered through her bedroom window to check the phone number but also claimed not to have seen the bodies or heard the baby.
• 🔪 A knife was found near Victoria Park Station, and later bloody items were discovered in a car in Tasmania, but forensic technology was too limited to yield definitive results.
• 📞 A journalist received a call from a man with specific knowledge of the crime scene details not yet released to the public, but police reportedly did not thoroughly investigate this lead.

Lingering Questions and Modern Investigations

• 🕵️‍♀️ Despite interviewing around 130 suspects, police could not find sufficient evidence to charge anyone, leaving the case cold for decades.
• 🧬 In 1996 and later, DNA testing on semen found on Suzanne Armstrong's body was conducted but yielded no positive matches in databases.
• 📰 In 2017, Suzanne's sister criticized the police investigation for its lack of initiative in interviewing family members.
• 💰 A $1 million reward was offered in 2017 for information, highlighting the ongoing efforts to solve this notorious case.
• 🔬 With advancements in genetic genealogy, there remains hope that the killer, even if deceased, can be identified through family DNA connections.