It has been 47 years since 16-month-old Gregory was found crying and dehydrated in his Melbourne home as his mother and their roommate lay murdered nearby.

The little boy was found distressed but unharmed as police arrived at the Easey Street rental in Collingwood on January 13, 1977, to find Suzanne Armstrong and Susan Bartlett with a combined 82 stab wounds.

The 27 and 28-year-old's were last seen three days earlier when they went over to Susan's brother's house for dinner, leaving around 9pm.

Watch: In 2024, police have made an arrest.

Their neighbour across the road, Gladys Coventry, who was in her 70s at the time, remembers seeing a man with a knife in the kitchen. She watched him exit out the back lane the night of the murders.

Another neighbour recalled hearing a door slam, then two car doors slam, then a car driving off.

Officials believe that Suzanne was reading in her bed when she heard a knock on the door and let a person(s) in, suggesting she may have known him.

The women were then killed, and Suzanne was raped after she was murdered.

Suzanne's body was found on her bed, while Susan's was found in the hallway near the front door. Police believed Susan was killed after she heard the disturbance and went to help her friend. The pair were old high school buddies from Benalla, and had only recently started renting together.

Their deaths shocked Australia, with the plight of the "two Sues" becoming known as the 'Easey Street Murders' as the leads dried up and it turned into one of Victoria's most infamous cold cases.

Details from the investigation have been retold again and again over the past five decades.

LISTEN: We've covered the case in detail on True Crime Conversations. Post continues after podcast.

There was no forced entry visible to the home, and men known to the women actually entered the house between the murders and the police arriving.

A man who'd been dating Suzanne, Barry Woodard, admitted that he called her multiple times after they went on a date on Sunday, January 9. When he didn't hear back he visited the house with his brother the night before their bodies were discovered. He says he went in the back door, going no further then the kitchen, leaving a note to call him.

Another man who'd been seeing Susan went to the home on the Tuesday, two days before the discovery, because she wasn't answering his calls. He entered through her bedroom window leaving a footprint on her sheets, and went through to the loungeroom where he checked their phone number. He had the right number and so left, claiming he did not see anything. His friend was waiting for him outside, who corroborated his statements.

None of the initial suspects police investigated matched the DNA profile of the killer.

A 2024 breakthrough in the case.

Police confirmed over the weekend, that a man was arrested at Rome airport on Thursday September 19th.

65-year-old dual citizen of Australia and Greece Perry Kouroumbli is in custody, with police seeking his extradition back to Victoria.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton confirmed in a press conference that Kouroumblis had been identified as a suspect several years ago and they'd been waiting for him to leave Greece, to make their arrest.

A man has been arrested as part of an investigation into the murder of two women in Collingwood in 1977.

The 65-year-old, who is a dual citizen of Australia and Greece, was arrested at an airport in Rome on Thursday evening.

Read more on the arrest > https://t.co/A451VL3W3n pic.twitter.com/vsMkKk0hhH

— Victoria Police (@VictoriaPolice) September 21, 2024

In a statement police said of the arrest, "Over the past four decades, a significant and tireless investigation into the murders has been conducted by detectives from the Homicide Squad.

"In January 2017, police announced a $1M reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for the deaths of the two women."

According to The Herald Sun, Kouroumbli was approached in 2017 to provide DNA as part of a wide ranging sweep, and soon after that request he left Australia.

Kouroumbli's brother Tony has told The Guardian, "I've just been numb….I'm 100 per cent sure it's all a big mistake. I know my brother. I don't think he's capable of doing anything like that."

As the paper reports, the Kouroumbli family lived on Bendigo street less than 300 metres from where the women were killed. Perry was 17 at the time of the murders, and as the ABC reports went to the school where Suzanne Bartlett was a teacher.

Former homicide investigator Ron Iddles told The Herald Sun he pulled Mr Kouroumblis over about a fortnight after the murders occurred, finding a knife in the boot of his car. When questioned, he said he found the weapon near the nearby railway tracks.

The families of Suzanne and Susan released a joint statement on Sunday describing their struggle to come to terms with the murders.

"For two quiet families from country Victoria it has always been impossible to comprehend the needless and violent manner in which Suzanne and Susan died," it began.

"The gravity of the circumstances surrounding their deaths changed our lives irrevocably.

"We will be forever grateful for the support and understanding shown to us by our friends and family over the past 47 years."

In their statement, police reflected on the affect the crime has had on Victoria.

"This was a crime that struck at the heart of our community – two women in their own home, where they should have felt their safest," it said.

"While we still have some way to go, this arrest is an important breakthrough."

Feature image: Newswire/AAP.