Police have made an arrest in a cold case killing in East Hartford that was investigated for more than five decades before a separate arrest in a kidnapping from the 1980s, which had also gone cold, led to a big break in the murder investigation.

George Legere, 77, was charged Wednesday in the death of 21-year-old Janet Couture, who was found after being stabbed to death in her apartment on Cannon Road on October 13, 1973, according to Officer Marc Caruso of the East Hartford Police Department .

In a statement announcing that the decades-old case had been solved, Caruso said the arrest “is a significant step toward justice for Janet Couture and her family, who have waited” more than 50 years for “closure.”

Janet Couture faces one count of murder in the death of Janet Couture. (Courtes

See Full Page