A decades-old cold case in New Hampshire has finally been resolved, identifying the murderer as the initial suspect, who evaded arrest due to an erroneous FBI report that derailed the investigation.

Attorney General John M. Formella announced on Monday that Judith Lord, aged 22, was discovered dead in her Concord apartment on May 20, 1975, just a few months after she had moved in.

The grim discovery was made by a building manager who entered Lord’s apartment in search of overdue rent and found her lifeless in an upstairs bedroom.

Remarkably, her 20-month-old son was found safe and unharmed in a crib in a nearby room.

An autopsy revealed that Lord had been strangled to death.

Evidence around the disarrayed room pointed to a violent struggle and a sexual assault, with hairs found on Lord’s body and bed, while seminal fluid was found hardened on top of a still-damp towel.

Investigators identified a suspect as Lord’s neighbor, Ernest Theodore Gable, who was 24 at the time.

Despite having Gable as a suspect, he could not be properly accused because “the case was severely hindered by a flawed forensic report issued by the FBI in 1975,” Formella said.

“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 found.

Other evidence contradicted the analysis results, with Gable’s fingerprints being found at the scene and witnesses revealing Lord had feared him.

During their investigation, detectives discovered Lord had been afraid of both her husband and Gable for some time because of his “persistent and unwanted advances.”

“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,’” the attorney general’s report found.

Lord had moved into the Concord Gardens apartment complex with her husband, Gregory, and their son three months earlier after moving back from Germany.

Gregory Lord was stationed in the European country for several months before going on leave and returning to the US.

The couple lived together until Lord was assaulted by her husband on May 4, 1975, 16 days before her murder.

Gregory Lord was arrested and immediately entered a guilty plea for simple assault and was fined $100.

He moved out of the shared apartment, relocating to his grandmother’s across the street, taking everything with him besides Lord, their son, a bed and a crib.

Gregory Lord was initially the primary suspect but was cleared after his brother and grandmother corroborated his alibi.

Lord resigned from her job at a nearby nursing home after the assault and was left without anything.

She cashed her final paycheck the day before her death and returned to the apartment complex to hang out with neighbors.

She returned home just before midnight. Gable’s wife told police she heard Lord in the shower minutes later.

At around 12:50 a.m., neighbors reported hearing screaming from Lord’s apartment before sounds of moaning, believed to be intercourse, resonated through the walls.

After Lord’s murder, several witnesses came forward and revealed Lord’s disturbing interactions with Gable, including when he knocked on her door at 2 a.m. while his wife was out of town, asking his future victim 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 detailed.

Gable was never charged with the murder.

He was fatally stabbed nearly 13 years later on Feb. 1, 1987, in Los Angeles, California.

If he were alive today, Gable would’ve been charged with First Degree Murder, both for knowingly causing Lord’s death during the commission of aggravated felonious sexual assault, and for purposely causing her death by strangulation, Formella said.

“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.”