EAST HAMPTON — Police have made an arrest in connection with the 1998 killing of Gertrude Ochankowski, a 60-year-old home health aide found dead in a stream off Tartia Road.
Gerald Brian Tuttle, 51, is in custody in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He was arrested Tuesday at a home in Surfside Beach, S.C. and is being held as a fugitive from justice.
Connecticut authorities have an arrest warrant that charges Tuttle with murder and intend to extradite him. When he returns to the state, his bail will be $1 million.
East Hampton and state police investigated Ochankowski’s killing, but the case went cold.
The cold case squad in the chief state’s attorney’s office investigated more recently and working with East Hampton police and Middlesex State’s Attorney Peter McShane obtained the arrest warrant.
The state had offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for Ochankowski’s death, and in 2008 increased the reward to $50,000.
In 2008, police said they had a suspect, but did not have enough information to charge him.
Ochankowski was reported missing Jan. 11, 1998, the same day her body was found. Her car was found outside a laundromat at 82 Main Street. The medical examiner determined that she’d been strangled.
Police initially focused on a suspect who lived above the laundromat and followed him for weeks.
By David Owens and Dave Altimari, Hartford Courant
