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.
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.Sign up for NECN newsletters.
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.