Some cases linger for years, not because the truth is hidden,

but because the tools needed to prove it aren't yet strong enough.

Evidence weights on shelves, memories shift,

and flawed forensic science can steer an investigation away from the person who seemed suspect from the start.

This is one of those cases.

This is a story about a young woman whose life was brutally taken, and the decades that followed

as investigators, family members, and forensic experts worked to overcome outdated science,

and finally confirm what so many had suspected all along.

I'm Kylie Lowe and this is the case of Judith Lord on Darkdown East.

Good afternoon. Thank you all for joining us here today.

I'm Attorney General John Formella, and we're here today to make an important announcement in a decades-old cold case.

The room settled into a hush just before the announcement began.

At the front of the packed space, the state's top officials stood shoulder to shoulder in a line of investigators whose careers spanned different eras of policing.

Some had gray at their temples, while others were probably not even born yet when the case

at the center of the press conference

first broke. All were gathered for the same reason. After 50 years, New Hampshire authorities were

finally ready to close the homicide investigation of Judith, Judy, Lord. Attorney General John

from Ella stepped to the podium, greeted by the soft shuffle of cameras lifting into place.

He thanked the crowd, then spoke plainly.

After five decades, he said, they were here to announce the resolution of a case that had haunted a family and unsettled a community.

Judy's relatives, including some of her surviving siblings, sat in the front row as

officials acknowledged their loss and their patience. Her son, just a toddler when she was

...