After nearly five decades of haunting uncertainty, a brutal murder in Concord, New Hampshire, has finally been solved, exposing a staggering failure of justice that let a killer evade accountability for far too long, as Breitbart reports.

In a breakthrough that brings both closure and lingering frustration, authorities have named Ernest Theodore Gable as the man behind the savage 1975 killing of 22-year-old Judith Lord in her own apartment, a case botched by flawed forensic work from the start.

Rewind to 1975: Judith Lord, a young mother of three, had recently moved into a Concord apartment complex with her husband, Gregory, after returning from time spent in Germany.

A Family’s Life Shattered Early

Domestic strife was already brewing -- on May 4, just 16 days before the tragedy, Gregory assaulted Judith, a violent act that initially made him a person of interest in the horror that followed.

Then, the unthinkable happened: a building manager, checking on overdue rent, discovered Judith’s lifeless body in her apartment, while her 20-month-old son was found safe in a crib in another room.

The autopsy delivered a grim verdict -- homicidal strangulation -- while crime scene evidence, including hairs on her body, seminal fluid on a damp towel, and signs of a fierce struggle, suggested a vicious assault had taken place.

Early Suspicions and Fatal Flaws

Attention quickly turned to Ernest Theodore Gable, a 24-year-old neighbor, especially since Judith had expressed fear of him to her sister, disturbed by his inappropriate remarks about her.

“Judith told her sister she was afraid of both her husband and her African American neighbor next door, indicating Mr. Gable, because he ‘had made remarks to her about wanting to see her nude,’” notes a chilling excerpt from the Attorney General’s report.

Despite damning fingerprints linking Gable to the scene, a disastrously flawed FBI forensic report based on microscopic hair analysis wrongly excluded him as a contributor to the evidence, letting a likely predator slip away.

Decades of Delayed Accountability

“The case was severely hindered by a flawed forensic report issued by the FBI in 1975,” declared Attorney General John Formella, underscoring how outdated science derailed justice for an entire generation.

Meanwhile, Gregory Lord, initially under scrutiny, was cleared when family members confirmed his alibi, leaving investigators with dwindling leads as the case grew colder by the year.

In a creepy postscript to the murder, a witness later revealed Gable had knocked on her door at 2 a.m. while his wife was out of town, asking if she’d “party” with him, a detail that hints at a pattern of unsettling behavior.

A Killer’s Demise and Unanswered Pain

Justice never arrived through the courts -- Gable met a violent end of his own in 1987, stabbed to death in Los Angeles, long before modern forensic advancements could revisit the damning clues left behind.

This resolution, while a triumph of persistence, casts a harsh spotlight on a broken system that failed Judith Lord, allowing flawed methods and overlooked evidence to delay the truth for nearly half a century.

Yet, there’s a bittersweet solace in naming her killer at last, even if it can’t erase the tragedy of a young mother’s stolen life or the decades her family spent without answers.