New Hampshire cold case solved half a century after flawed FBI report allowed killer to escape
A cold‑case murder that has haunted New Hampshire for almost 50 years has finally been solved. The only suspect who was ever arrested – Ernest Theodore Gable – was never charged because a flawed FBI forensic report “thwarted” the investigation.
In 1975, 22‑year‑old Judith Lord was found dead in her Concord apartment, months after moving in with her husband Gregory and their 20‑month‑old son.
The building manager discovered her body in a bed on the sixth floor while searching for unpaid rent, and the boy was found unharmed in a crib nearby. An autopsy revealed she died from homicidal strangulation, and the crime scene evidence suggested a violent struggle and sexual assault, with hair and semen found on her body and bed.
Investigators had quickly pointed to Lord’s neighbor, 24‑year‑old Ernest Gable, as the prime suspect. He could not be formally accused, however, because “the case was severely hindered by a flawed forensic report issued by the FBI in 1975,” said Attorney General John M. Formella.
“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,” the report states. Yet other evidence contradicted that finding: Gable’s fingerprints were at the crime scene, and witnesses confirmed Lord feared him.
The Attorney General’s report also notes that “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.’”
Lord had moved into the Concord Gardens apartment complex with Gregory and their son after returning from a posting in Germany. The family kept living together until May 4, 1975, when Gregory physically assaulted her.
He was arrested, pleaded guilty to simple assault, and was fined $100 before moving out of the shared unit with only a bed and a crib. Gregory was initially the primary suspect but was cleared after his brother and grandmother provided an alibi.
After the assault, Lord quit her nursing‑home job and was left with no means of support; she cashed her final paycheck the day before her death and returned to the apartment complex to socialize with neighbors.
She was last seen arriving home just before midnight, and Gable’s wife reported hearing her in the shower minutes later. At about 12:50 a.m., neighbors recalled hearing screams from Lord’s apartment, followed by sounds that investigators believed were moaning and intercourse through the walls.
Several witnesses later recounted disturbing encounters between Lord and Gable, including a 2 a.m. visit when he knocked on her door while his wife was out of town, asking her if she “wanted to party with him.”
“One coworker specifically recalled Ms. Lord saying that this man was ‘always bothering her and hanging around her doors and windows,’” the report states. Gable was never charged with the murder, but he was fatally stabbed in Los Angeles on February 1, 1987, about 13 years after Lord’s death.
If he had lived today, Formella said he would have faced first‑degree murder charges for the aggravated felonious sexual assault and the intentional strangulation that caused Lord’s death.
“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,” Formella said. “This resolution proves that no cold case is ever truly closed until the truth is found.”
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