John Irmer confesses to cold case murder of Susan Marcia Rose

An Oregon man recently walked into an FBI field office and confessed to fatally bashing a Boston woman over the head with a hammer nearly 44 years ago, prosecutors said Monday.

John Michael Irmer, 69, allegedly confessed to the “ice-blooded” 1979 murder and rape of Pennsylvania native Susan Marcia Rose, who he met at a Boston skating rink, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said.

Originally, another man suspected of the violent crime was charged, but he was acquitted during a June 1981 trial.

Irmer strolled into the Portland FBI field office last month and told agents he met a woman with red hair at a skating rink around Halloween, the DA’s Office said.

The pair walked into a home on Beacon Street, which was under renovation at the time, before he grabbed a hammer and struck her in the head, the DA’s office said. He then allegedly raped her and fled to New York the next day.

Investigators said that Rose, a redhead, was the victim found bludgeoned at the Beacon Street home a day before Halloween, prosecutors said. She suffered fractures to the skull and cuts to the brain.

Irmer’s DNA matched with samples preserved from the murder scene, the Suffolk DA’s office said.

During his Monday arraignment, Irmer mostly hid behind a wall in court, CBS Boston reported. He was remanded without bail on charges of murder and aggravated rape.

Irmer allegedly told FBI agents in Oregon he wanted to “confess to several murders,” prosecutors said in court, the Boston Globe reported.

He also confessed to killing another person in the South. The case is still being probed, Assistant District Attorney John Verner said in court.

Irmer was convicted in the 1983 robbery and murder of a drug dealer in San Francisco, the newspaper reported. He spent 30 years in prison for that killing, Verner said. 

“Nearly 44 years after losing her at such a young age, the family and friends of Susan Marcia Rose will finally have some answers,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement.

“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,” said Hayden.

“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.”