Cold case murder finally solved 50 years later after FBI report allowed killer to escape

Warning: This article mentions sexual assault which some readers may find distressing.

A New Hampshire cold case has been solved some 50 years later thanks to modern DNA testing.

Back on May 20, 1975, Judith Lord was found deceased inside her Concord apartment at the age of 20.

It was a building manager that discovered Lord dead in her bed after they entered the property looking for unpaid rent.

The New Hampshire citizen's 20-month-old son was found alive and unharmed in a cot found in another room.

An autopsy found Lord died as a result of homicidal strangulation, and while investigations took place, the real killer has been discovered 50 years on.

A press release from the New Hampshire Department of Justice states: "The crime scene showed evidence of a violent struggle and sexual assault. Investigators recovered key forensic evidence, including hairs found on and near her body and towels later determined to contain seminal fluid.

"Although a suspect was identified early in the investigation, the case was severely hindered by a flawed forensic report issued by the FBI in 1975. At the time, microscopic hair analysis techniques led to an incorrect conclusion that the suspect could not have contributed the hairs found at the scene.

Judith Lord was murdered in 1975 (New Hampshire Department of Justice)

"That error contradicted other significant evidence, including the suspect’s fingerprints on the exterior of Ms. Lord’s window and witness accounts indicating that she feared him. The erroneous exclusion caused the case to stall for decades."

Lord’s neighbor, Ernest Theodore Gable, was a person initially highlighted as a suspect, while authorities found Lord had been afraid of both her husband and Gable because of his 'persistent and unwanted advances'.

Lord was assaulted by her husband just 16 days before her murder, an assault he pled guilty to and was only fined a mere $100.

Physical evidence was collected from the scene of the murder, and hairs were submitted to the FBI's Forensic Laboratory. But the test 'led to an incorrect conclusion that the suspect could not have contributed the hairs found at the scene'.

Contradicting evidence led to the case going cold as the FBI report 'created a significant evidentiary hurdle that prosecutors felt they could not overcome', according to the attorney general's report.

Ernest Gable was initially identified as a suspect (New Hampshire Department of Justice)

Subsequent DNA testing found seminal fluids found on towels were a match for Gable, while advanced forensic testing identified the hairs as belonging to Gable.

"It is my hope that this long-awaited conclusion will finally bring peace and closure to Judy Lord's family and the entire Concord community after nearly five decades of delayed justice," said New Hampshire attorney general John Formella.

"This resolution proves that no cold case is ever truly closed until the truth is found."

The news release states Gable was stabbed to death aged 36 in Los Angeles back in February 1987.