80-year-old man charged with murder, rape in 1973 Virginia cold case involving 2 teens

Credit: City of Virginia Beach

Credit: City of Virginia Beach

It's been 46 years since two Pittsburgh teenagers were murdered in Virginia, and now, police there said they've arrested the man who did it.

The suspect, who is now 80 years old and living in New York, was taken into custody Monday.

According to investigators,  brutally murdered two 19-year-old girls from Penn Hills, a Pittsburgh suburb, while they were renting a cottage in Virginia Beach for a vacation in 1973.

Their bodies were found when they missed their checkout time and an employee of the vacation property went to check on the cottage, The Associated Press reported.

Family and friends of Lynn Seethaler and Janice Pietropola told WPXI they couldn't believe after all of this time that there's finally been an arrest.

Ernest Broadnax is charged with two counts of murder and a count of rape after detectives “began aggressively researching a strong lead they had received in the case."

Police said Seethaler was shot twice, strangled and her neck cut with a wine bottle.

Pietropola, police said, was shot three times, raped and strangled, the AP reported.

Their purses were dumped on the floor of the cottage, but police said they did not consider robbery as a motive, according to AP.

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Broadnax was arrested at his Queens, New York apartment.

"He was very nice, he was very calm, I never saw him violent or say a vicious word to anyone, but you never know who you’re with," said Tiara Stewart, Broadnax's neighbor.

Cox Media Group’s National Content Desk contributed to this report.

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