A 44-year-old Boston cold case was recently resolved when a man from Oregon confessed to the gruesome murder and rape of a woman back in 1979.
John Michael Irmer, aged 68, found himself in the unyielding grip of Boston courtroom proceedings on Monday, charged with the heinous act of killing 24-year-old Susan Marcia Rose on October 30, 1979. The unforgotten crime was brought to light in a statement by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.
In a startling revelation in August, Irmer entered a Portland FBI field office and spilled the chilling details of his encounter with Rose, a woman with fiery red hair, at a Boston ice rink around Halloween 1979. The narrative dropped a shroud of silence, as he confessed to meeting and subsequently extinguishing her life.
Irmer’s fragmented recollection included a closed-off building at 285 Beacon Street, under renovation at the time of the crime. With the cold detachment of a predator recounting his prey, Irmer explained how he took a hammer to strike Rose on her head, causing her death. Adding a dark twist to his disturbing narrative, he admitted to sexually assaulting her post-mortem.
Following this grim revelation, law enforcement confirmed that Rose, a redhead, was indeed discovered lifeless on the historic Beacon Street, near the beating heart of the city. The cause of her demise was verified as multiple blunt traumas to the head, resulting in compound fractures of the skull and severe lacerations in the brain.
Investigators, spurred by this newfound lead, managed to match a DNA sample from the present-day Irmer to those collected from the original crime scene, cementing his involvement in the crime.
Adding another layer of complexity to the situation, another individual had previously been tried and acquitted for Rose’s murder back in 1981. The details of this preceding case still remain obscure.
During Monday’s arraignment, Assistant District Attorney John Verner dropped another bombshell to an already tense proceedings. As per his claim, Irmer casually admitted to a different murder committed in a southern state, a lead that the authorities are vigorously pursuing.
Furthermore, Irmer revealed to law enforcement that he spent roughly 30 years behind bars for a separate killing in California. Irmer’s attorney, Steven J. Sack, voiced no objection to his client’s bail, stating that Irmer appeared in court ‘without a fight to face these charges.’
In an ominous turn of events, Irmer currently languishes in custody without the chance at bail.
“Nearly 44 years after losing her at such a tender age, the family and friends of Susan Marcia Rose will finally receive some semblance of closure,” District Attorney Kevin Hayden professed in an official statement. He spoke of a brutal, ice-blooded murder that weighed heavily on their collective consciousness, painfully exacerbated by the fact that an innocent life had previously been tried and acquitted, while the real culprit maintained an eerie silence. He asserted that regardless of the time it takes to resolve such cold cases, it’s the answers obtained that provide solace to decades-long suffering, grief, and a litany of agonizing unanswered questions.
