Closure in Judith Lord’s Murder Case

Fifty years after the tragic murder of a young mother in Concord, New Hampshire, the state attorney general’s office has announced that the case will be officially closed and labeled “solved.”

Judith “Judy” Lord, just 22 years old, was discovered deceased in her apartment on May 20, 1975. An autopsy revealed that her death resulted from “homicidal strangulation.”

The individual responsible for her murder was identified as Ernest Theodore Gable, who met his own end in 1987 at the age of 36. The case report firmly states that “irrefutable DNA evidence, fingerprint analysis, compelling witness testimony, and Mr. Gable’s history of criminal behavior” all confirm him as the perpetrator. It’s interesting, I think, how initial investigations, despite being thorough, were hindered by the limitations of forensic science at the time, particularly concerning hair comparison, which was unreliable. Thankfully, modern DNA technology has finally shed light on this long-standing tragedy.

The FBI Forensic Laboratory’s earlier conclusions about the hair had prevented Gable’s prosecution. They stated, in a report from December 16, 1975, that the hair found at the scene was distinct from Gable’s. This finding set back the case for many years. However, DNA analysis performed later during a cold case review ultimately pointed back toward Gable.

The analysis conducted by the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory revealed matches with DNA found on evidence collected from the crime scene. It stated that the likelihood of the DNA matching someone other than Gable was approximately 1 in 6.5 million among the African American population—pretty striking, really.