Man Admits Killing Woman With Hammer In Boston After More Than 40 Years: DA

An Oregon man has confessed to beating a 24-year-old woman to death with a hammer and raping her in a Massachusetts apartment building more than four decades ago, officials said.

Susan Marcia Rose was brutally murdered in a Boston apartment in 1979. She was just 24 years old. An Oregon walked into an FBI office in August to confess to the crime more than 40 years later, the Suffolk County District Attorney said.
Photo Credit: *Suffolk County District Attorney's Office*

Ben Crnic

09/11/2023 5:02 p.m.

John Michael Irmer, age 68, of Portland, Oregon, was scheduled to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court Central Division on Monday, Sept. 11, for the rape and murder of 24-year-old Pennsylvania native Susan Marcia Rose in October 1979, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office announced.

According to the DA's Office, in August, Irmer walked into the Portland Federal Bureau of Investigation field office and told agents that sometime around Halloween in 1979, he had met a woman with red hair at a skating rink in Boston and had walked with her to 285 Beacon St., which was under renovation at the time.

Irmer said that after they walked into the building, he grabbed a nearby hammer and struck her in the head, killing her. Irmer told agents he raped her and ran away to New York the day after the attack.

Irmer's story matched with what the police already knew. Officers had found Rose's badly beaten body at that address on Oct. 30, 1979. She had severe head wounds from a blunt object that matched Irmer's description of the attack, the prosecutor's office said.

His DNA also matched samples investigators had preserved from the murder scene, the DA said.

This is the first major development in the case since a man was tried and found not guilty of the killing in June 1981.

Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said that he hope it brings some closure to Rose's family.

"Nearly 44 years after losing her at such a young age, the family and friends of Susan Marcia Rose will finally have some answers," Hayden said. "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,” Hayden continued.

At the time of her death, Rose had moved to Boston from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and had been living on Dartmouth Street.

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