Crime & Safety
DNA Breakthrough Leads to Arrest of Austell Man for 1974 Murder
Lonzo Guthrie, 69, is accused in the 1974 murder of Eileen Ferro of Shrewsbury, Mass.
A Massachusetts district attorney said Thursday that DNA evidence warranted the arrest of an Austell man in a decades-old murder case.
Lonzo Guthrie, 69, of Love Street in Austell, is being held in the Douglas County Jail, accused in the murder of Eileen Ferro of Shrewsbury, Mass., who was found stabbed multiple times on Feb. 22, 1974.
According to this report on MassLive.com, Worcester County DA Joseph Early said, “It was a particularly gruesome murder and we believe he was the murderer.”
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According to Douglas County jail records, Guthrie is being held without bond. He was taken into custody Tuesday evening. He awaits extradition to Massachusetts.
Early said in a Thursday press conference that DNA evidence taken after a recent traffic offense in Georgia linked Guthrie to the crime.
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Guthrie is a registered sex offender in Georgia who was convicted of rape by forced sodomy in California in October of 1974, according to online reports. Guthrie had moved to Los Angeles within six weeks of the murder.
He was registered as a sex offender in Georgia in 2011.
According to the MassLive story, Guthrie was arrested for driving without a license and was required to submit a DNA sample. Early, the district attorney, said a DNA match was found during the summer, prompting investigators to look for the connection.
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