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The New Hampshire Cold Case Unit has identified Ernest Theodore Gable as the killer ‘based on the overwhelming evidence’
Andrea CavallierThursday 27 November 2025 12:52 GMT
open image in galleryJudith ‘Judy’ Lord was 22 years old when she was found strangled to death in her home in 1975. Now, her killer has been named. (New Hampshire Cold Case Unit)
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A baby’s cry was the first clue that something was off in a quiet New Hampshire apartment.
On the afternoon of May 20, 1975, the operations manager at an apartment complex in Concord, New Hampshire, knocked on 22-year-old Judith “Judy” Lord’s door to collect unpaid rent. When no one answered, he let himself inside and found Lord’s 20-month-old son crying alone in his crib. In an upstairs bedroom, the manager found the slain mother’s naked body on the bed, a blue plastic sauna suit pulled tight over her face.
The brutal slaying and the question of who killed Lord has haunted the community and the young mother’s family for generations.
One of Concord’s most enduring mysteries, it’s a case that went cold not because detectives lacked a suspect, but because the science they depended on failed authorities and her family.
But after 50 years, advances in forensic technology, and a reexamination of long-dismissed evidence, investigators finally announced what many long believed – Lord’s next-door neighbor, Ernest Theodore Gable, who she long feared – had killed her.
open image in galleryJudith ‘Judy’ Lord was 22 years old when she was found strangled to death in her home in 1975. Now, her killer has been named. (New Hampshire Cold Case Unit)The neighbor she feared
Judy Lord, the 11th of 14 children, grew up in Maine before her family moved to New Hampshire. She met her husband Gregory Lord while he was on military leave, and later joined him in Germany, where their son was born.
The young family settled into the Concord Gardens complex just two months before Lord’s murder. Then on May 4, 1975, things took a violent turn when her husband repeatedly struck her in the face during an argument.
Police responded to the domestic violence call and Gregory Lord was arrested for simple assault. He entered a guilty plea and was fined $100. In the wake of the incident, he moved with his grandmother, who lived across the street, taking with him all the furniture except for a bed and a crib.
open image in galleryConcord Gardens Apartment Complex where Judy Lord was murdered (New Hampshire Cold Case Unit)Neighbors remembered Lord as warm, outgoing, and always with her guitar – often singing on the front steps as her son played on the lawn.
“In the brief time that Judith lived at the complex before her murder, she made many friends and was reportedly very popular within the community,” the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit wrote in its report.
But she was also afraid. In the days before her death, she told family and neighbors she feared the man who lived on the other side of her bedroom wall.
Gable was 24 years old at the time and had allegedly made unwanted sexual advances toward her, several witnesses, including her sister, later said. The cold case closure report also reveals a witness who heard Gable say about Lord, “Some day I’m going to get me a piece of that white meat.”
open image in galleryErnest Theodore Gable raped, strangled, and suffocated Judy Lord inside her Concord Gardens apartment on May 20, 1975 (New Hampshire Cold Case Unit)Lord’s fear grew so much that on the night of May 19, she asked a neighbor to walk her home and check her apartment before she locked the door behind her.
“She had voiced that to people even the day before her murder,” said R. Christopher Knowles, chief of the Cold Case Unit. “She was telling people how she was afraid of him.”
The night of the murder
On May 19, 1975, Lord had joined a group of neighbors, including Gable’s wife Linda Gable, for a game of volleyball behind her apartment building.
After the game, Lord and another neighbor, Jeff Cota, went to Linda Gable’s apartment for coffee. Her husband was not home.
Lord returned to her apartment around 11:30 p.m., about the same time Gable returned to the complex. She had her neighbor Jeff Cota check the apartment and give the all clear before settling in for the night.
Linda Gable, who shared a common wall with Lord, would later tell investigators that she heard her taking a shower just after midnight.
open image in galleryOn May 19, 1975, Judy Lord had joined a group of neighbors, including Gable’s wife Linda Gable, for a game of volleyball behind her apartment building (pictured in 1975). Hours later, she was dead (New Hampshire Cold Case Unit)Sometime after 1 a.m., screams tore through the thin walls. One neighbor heard moaning and banging – noises “consistent with sexual actions,” investigators later said.
Another neighbor “positively identified the voice as Judith Lord’s and heard her yell ‘leave me alone, leave me alone’ before the sound was abruptly muffled, as if a hand had been placed over her mouth.”
The commotion lasted only minutes. Then silence.
Inside the apartment, the signs of a violent struggle were unmistakable – a ripped curtain rod, a lamp shade askew and an alarm clock frozen at 1:47 a.m.
The prime suspect who got away
Detectives first zeroed in on Lord’s husband. But he had an alibi that placed him with his grandmother all night.
It was physical evidence collected at the crime scene that ultimately led to Gable, even if it took decades. His fingerprints were found on Lord’s bedroom window, “consistent with pushing it open to gain entry,” according to the report. Semen was found on towels still damp from her shower.
Scratches on her face were consistent with his long fingernails – while her husband had nails that were bitten too short to leave such marks.
Five hairs were discovered on Lord’s body and on the bed. The hairs were determined to have come from an individual of African American descent, aligning with Gable’s racial identity.
The hairs, along with cuttings from the semen-stained towels and blood-stained pillowcase, would become central to solving the case.
open image in galleryA Concord police officer points to fingerprints on the front window of Judy Lord’s apartment. Fingerprints recovered from the glass were determined to belong to Gable (New Hampshire Cold Case Unit)Investigators had difficulty getting Gable to provide voluntary hair and blood samples to compare with those at the scene, leading to a landmark New Hampshire Supreme Court Case, State v. John Doe (who was Ernest Gable), according to authorities. This resulted in the precedent of law enforcement being able to obtain DNA samples with a search warrant.
“Something that investigators do routinely every day in investigations, collect a sample, was made possible as part of the legacy of Judith Lord,” Knowles said.
According to Knowles, the collection of DNA at a crime scene in the 1970s was cutting-edge, as DNA forensics did not become more commonplace until the 1980s.
Detectives were preparing to arrest Gable for first-degree murder. Then science failed them.
open image in galleryA photo from Lord’s bathroom showing her jeans on the floor andt he toilet seat up, suggesting a man was the last person to use it. (New Hampshire Cold Case Unit)When Gable’s hair samples were sent to the FBI for microscopic analysis, the examiner concluded that they “did not originate” from Gable, per the report, which stated incorrectly that they were “microscopically different.”
With no other leads to pursue, the case went cold.
“When I say that it went cold, it had no new investigative leads,” Knowles said. “That’s one of the reasons this case went cold, ultimately.”
A breakthrough after 50 years
The case remained dormant until investigator Todd Flanagan reopened it in 2003. At that time, advances in DNA testing made it possible to reexamine the evidence the FBI once dismissed.
The results were unmistakable – the semen on both towels was a “statistical match” to Gable, a probability of 1 in 6.5 million among Blacks, according to the report.
Microscopic hair comparison had falsely ruled him out.
The FBI now acknowledges its microscopic analysis overstated or misstated results in more than 95 percent of reviewed cases.
“Scientific advances and the discrediting of this method ultimately led to confirming what investigators 50 years ago had suspected to be true,” Knowles explained.
open image in galleryA purple towel at the foot of the bed was noted by lab technicians as being 'noticeably damp' with three 'hardened stained areas...consistent with semen' (New Hampshire Cold Case Unit)On November 24, 2025, the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit announced what many Concord residents had whispered for half a century – Gable killed Judy Lord.
“If Ernest Gable was alive today, we’d be able to prosecute him,” Knowles said, acknowledging he would have been charged with first-degree murder.
But Gable was stabbed to death in Los Angeles in 1987 at the age of 36.
A violent pattern
In reexamining the case, investigators uncovered a chilling pattern of violence in Gable’s history, from break-ins and armed robbery to disturbing allegations from former partners, including attempts to strangle them or put pillows over their faces during sex.
One ex said he talked about killing a woman with a plastic bag – eerily similar to the blue plastic covering found on Lord’s face. He also exhibited disturbing sexual violence toward other women he dated.
Another former girlfriend said he wanted her “to act like he was raping (her). He wanted (her) to scream and kick and scratch.”
A different former girlfriend said he put a pillow over her face during sex and stopped only when she told him. Gable once described a plan to kill a woman by covering her head with a plastic bag – “a close parallel to the blue sauna suit found on Ms. Lord’s face,” investigators wrote.
At last, an answer
At the press conference this week, Lord’s family sat in the front row as the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit declared the case closed after 50 years.
“I don’t remember my mother,” her son, Gregory Lord Jr., had written in a statement. “I was young. I always keep her memory inside my heart. She will always be with me. I’m told I look just like my mom, and I’m proud of that.”
“We lost someone that can never be replaced,” her sister, Joanne Buck, added.
open image in galleryLast known photos of Judith Lord, taken on May 17, 1975. Her family says they can now start the healing process that her suspected killer has been identified. (New Hampshire Cold Case Unit)Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood addressed the family directly when announcing the development in the case: “Concord has never forgotten Judy, and we hope this can bring you peace.”
No trial will follow, no sentencing, no courtroom confrontation. But the answer, the one her mother, siblings, husband and son waited decades to hear, is no longer in doubt.
“It’s lived with the family,” Knowles said. “Closure, to family, to community, it’s the first step in the healing process.”
