Easey Street murders

Suzanne Armstrong, 28, and Susan Bartlett, 27, were old high-school friends from Benalla, Victoria, who had moved to Melbourne and rented a terrace house at 147 Easey Street, Collingwood, in October 1976. Armstrong was a single mother to a 16-month-old son, Gregory, born while she was staying in Naxos, Greece. Bartlett worked as an arts and crafts teacher at the Collingwood Education Centre.

On the night of 10 January 1977, Bartlett's brother and his girlfriend visited the house for dinner, watched television, and left around 9:00 pm. Police believe both women were killed later that night. Neighbours became concerned the next day after finding the women's puppy wandering the area, and in the following days noticed the back door open and heard Armstrong's son distressed inside. On 13 January, three days after the killings, neighbours entered the house through the back door. Gregory was found unharmed but distressed and dehydrated in his cot. One of the women's bodies was found near the front of the house.

When police arrived, Armstrong was found on the floor of her front bedroom, having been stabbed 27 times and sexually assaulted after death. Bartlett was found face down near the front door, with 55 stab wounds and signs of self-defence and an attempt to flee. Evidence in the bathtub and on towels near the rear of the house suggested the perpetrator had attempted to clean up before leaving via the back door. There were no signs of forced entry, though a footprint on the front window sill indicated a possible entry point. The kitchen light had been left on and no murder weapon was recovered. A semen sample was found at the scene, and Armstrong had been raped postmortem.

Victoria Police compiled a list of around 130 persons of interest, including construction workers building a property behind the house. The case was later linked by investigators to the 1975 disappearance and murder of Julie Garciacelay, a North Melbourne librarian; one suspect in that case, a work colleague of Garciacelay, had been staying in the house next to the Easey Street property on the night of the killings. In 1999, detectives DNA tested eight prime suspects without a match. A reward of $50,000 was offered in 1978, the case was quietly reopened in 2011 under detective Ron Iddles, and a $1 million reward was announced in January 2017.

On 19 September 2024, Perikilis "Perry" Kouroumblis, a 65-year-old dual Australian-Greek citizen who had been a student at the school where Bartlett taught, was arrested at an airport in Rome under an Interpol red notice. He had been a suspect since at least 2017 but had moved to Greece before providing a DNA sample, and legal barriers delayed action against him until he left the country. Victoria Police intended to charge him with two counts of murder and one count of rape; at the time of the offences he was 17 years old. He did not contest extradition, telling an Italian court he was innocent and wished to clear his name. He was extradited and arrived in Melbourne on 3 December 2024. A committal hearing, at which the evidence of 19 witnesses was tested over six days, commenced on 29 October 2025.

In November 2025, a magistrate committed Perry Kouroumblis to stand trial on two murder charges. A rape charge was initially struck out, then reinstated by the Supreme Court of Victoria in March 2026. As of March 2026, the accusations had not been adjudicated at trial; Kouroumblis maintained his innocence.