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A baby’s cry was the first clue that something was wrong in a quiet New Hampshire apartment.
On the afternoon of May 20, 1975, the operations manager at an apartment complex harmony, new Hampshire, Knocked on 22-year-old Judith “Judy” Lord’s door to collect unpaid rent. When no one answered, she let herself in and found Lord’s 20-month-old son crying alone in his crib. In an upstairs bedroom, the manager found the naked body of the murdered mother on the bed, a blue plastic sauna suit pulled tight over her face.
The brutal murder 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 had no suspects, but because Science He was dependent on failed officials and his family.
But 50 years later, with advances in forensic technology and the re-examination of long-dismissed evidence, investigators finally announced that what many had long believed – Lord’s neighbor, Ernest Theodore Gable, whom she had long feared – had killed her.
the neighbor she was afraid of
Judy Lord, 11th of 14 children, grew up in Maine before her family moved new HampshireShe met her husband Gregory Lord when he was on military leave and later joined him GermanyWhere his son was born.
The young family settled in the Concord Gardens complex just two months before Lord’s assassination. Then on May 4, 1975, things took a violent turn when her husband repeatedly hit her in the face during an argument.
Police responded to a domestic violence call and arrested Gregory Lord for simple assault. He entered a guilty plea and was fined $100. In the wake of the incident, he moved in with his grandmother, who lived across the street, taking with her all the furniture except a bed and a cradle.
Neighbors remembered Lord as warm, friendly, and always with his guitar on – often singing on the front steps while his son played on the lawn.
“In the brief time that Judith lived on the premises before her murder, she made many friends and was reportedly very popular within the community,” new Hampshire cold case unit Wrote in his report.
But she was also scared. A few days before her death, she told family and neighbors that she was afraid of the man who lived on the other side of her bedroom wall.
Gable was 24 at the time and he allegedly made unwanted sexual advances towards her, as several witnesses, including her sister, later said. Cold case closure reports also reveal a witness who heard Gable say about God, “Someday I’m going to have a piece of that white meat.”
His fear of God became so great that on the night of May 19, he asked a neighbor to go to his house and check his apartment, before he locked the door behind him.
Head of Cold Case Unit R. “He even told people this the day before he was murdered,” Christopher Knowles said. “She was telling people how she was afraid of him.”
murder night
On May 19, 1975, Lord joined a group of neighbors, including Gable’s wife Linda Gable, for a game of volleyball behind their apartment building.
After the game, Lord and another neighbor, Jeff Cota, went to Linda Gable’s apartment for coffee. Her husband was not at home.
Lord returned to his apartment around 11:30 p.m., returning to the Gable complex at approximately the same time. He asked his neighbor Jeff Cota to check out the apartment and give him the all-clear before staying the night.
Linda Gable, who shared a common wall with Lord, later told investigators that she heard him taking a shower after midnight.
After one in the night, screams were piercing the thin walls. Investigators later said that a neighbor heard moaning and banging sounds – sounds “consistent with sexual acts”.
Another neighbor “recognized the voice definitely as Judith Lords and heard her shouting ‘Leave me alone, leave me alone’ before the voice suddenly slowed down, as if a hand had been placed over her mouth.”
The commotion lasted only for a few minutes. Then silence.
Inside the apartment, signs of a violent struggle were evident – a torn curtain rod, a skewed lamp shade and an alarm clock frozen at 1:47 am.
the main suspect who ran away
Detectives first focused on Lord’s husband. But he had an excuse due to which he stayed with his grandmother the whole night.
It was physical evidence collected at the crime scene that ultimately led to Gable, even though it took decades. According to the report, Lord’s fingerprints were found on his bedroom window, which were “consistent with pushing the window to gain entry”. Semen was found on the still-wet towel from his shower.
The scratches on her face were consistent with her long nails – whereas her husband’s nails were too short to leave such marks.
Five hairs were found on Lord’s body and bed. It was determined that the hair belonged to a man of African American descent, matching Gable’s racial identity.
The hair, along with the semen-stained towel and blood-stained pillowcase, will play a central role in solving the case.
According to authorities, investigators had difficulty providing voluntary hair and blood samples from Gable to compare with those present at the scene, resulting in the landmark New Hampshire Supreme Court case, State v. John Doe (who was Ernest Gable). This resulted in the precedent of law enforcement being able to obtain DNA samples with a search warrant.
“Something that investigators routinely do every day in an investigation, collecting a specimen, was made possible as part of Judith Lord’s legacy,” Knowles said.
According to Knowles, the collection of crime scene DNA was state-of-the-art in the 1970s, as DNA forensics did not become more common until the 1980s.
Detectives were preparing to arrest Gable for first-degree murder. Then science failed them.
When samples of Gable’s hair were sent to the FBI for microscopic analysis, the examiner concluded that they “did not originate” from Gable, according to the report, which incorrectly stated that they were “microscopically different.”
The case went cold as no other leads were found.
“When I say it went cold, there were no new investigative leads,” Knowles said. “That’s ultimately the reason this case went cold.”
A breakthrough after 50 years
The case remained inactive until it was reopened by investigator Todd Flanagan in 2003. At the time, advances in DNA testing made it possible to re-examine evidence once discarded by the FBI.
The results were unremarkable – the semen on both towels was a “statistical match” for Gable, with a 1 in 6.5 million chance among blacks, according to the report.
Microscopic hair comparison had wrongly dismissed him.
The FBI now admits its microscopic analysis exaggerated or misrepresented results in more than 95 percent of the cases reviewed.
“Scientific advances and the notoriety of this method ultimately confirmed what investigators had suspected 50 years ago,” Knowles said.
On November 24, 2025, the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit announced what many Concord residents had been whispering for half a century – Gable killed Judy Lord.
“If Ernest Gable were alive today, we would be able to prosecute him,” Knowles said, acknowledging that 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
Upon re-examining the case, investigators uncovered a horrific pattern of violence in Gable’s history, ranging from vandalism and armed robbery to disturbing allegations from former partners, including attempts to strangle him or place a pillow over his face during sex.
An ex said he talked about hitting a woman with a plastic bag – similar to the blue plastic wrap found on God’s face. He has also displayed disturbing sexual violence towards other women he has dated.
Another ex-girlfriend said he wanted her to “act like he was raping (her). He wanted (her) to scream, kick and scratch.”
Another ex-girlfriend said he put a pillow over her face during sex and only stopped when she told him. Gable once described a plan to kill a woman by covering her head with a plastic bag — “an exact parallel to the blue sauna suit found over Ms. Lord’s face,” investigators wrote.
Finally, an answer
At the press conference this week, when the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit announced the case was closed after 50 years, Lord’s family was sitting in the front row.
“I don’t remember my mother,” her son, Gregory Lord Jr., wrote in a statement. “I have always kept her memories in my heart since I was little. She will always be with me. I have been told that I look just like my mother and I am proud of that.”
His sister Joan Buck said, “We lost a man who can never be replaced.”
Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood addressed the family directly when announcing developments in the case: “Concord has never forgotten Judy, and we hope this can bring you peace.”
There will be no trial, no punishment, no court confrontation. But the answer that her mother, siblings, husband and son waited for decades to hear is no longer in doubt.
“It stays with the family,” Knowles said. “Closure from family, from community, is the first step in the healing process.”