Georgia man charged in 1974 killing

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — A Douglas County man is in custody Wednesday in connection with a killing committed in 1974.
 
A commitment order filed said since Lonzo Guthrie has declined to voluntarily return to Massachusetts for prosecution in this case, he's to remain in custody without bail.
 
Guthrie, 69, appeared gray and gaunt as he walked into a Douglas County courtroom and stood before judge William H. McClain Wednesday.
 
"I brought you up here today to inform you of a demand by the state of Massachusetts," McClain said.
 
Douglas County Sgt. John Sweat said the crime for which Guthrie's charged happened 40 years ago to the month -- the 1974 slaying of 21-year-old Eileen Ferro. She was stabbed to death in Shrewsbury, Mass.
 
 Sweat said he's been assisting two Massachusetts State Police investigators from the Worcester County and the  District Attorney's Unresolved Case Unit.
 
Sweat said Tuesday he and the other authorities searched Guthrie's home with a warrant. Guthrie was arrested Wednesday on a charge the Massachusetts troopers obtained after using new technology to test old evidence.
 
Sweat said the Douglas County Sheriff's Office already knew Guthrie. He's on the sex offender registry from a rape, also involving a stabbing, also in 1974 but in California.
 
Sweat said a department in another southern state with an open homicide has inquired about Guthrie, but he is neither accused nor charged there.
 
Sweat said at times Guthrie used the alias of Norman James in Georgia and ran a mobile business called Norman's Road Service Repair. He's asking that if anyone had an unusual encounter with Guthrie through that business to call the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.

WSBTV