No, wait, I can't subtract. If he's 71, he was born in 1940. So he was 17. Okay, I guess that's not as odd....
He’s been living with a murder since the dawn of his adulthood. I wonder if he ever thought he’d get caught.
Why would two years make such a difference? I'd be more inclined to suspect a fifteen year old. When I was in high school, a little girl went missing in Richmond Hill (Queens). They found the body about a week later in attic of a neighbor, whose grandson was about fifteen. Of course all the news accounts were of the "He was a nice boy, everyone was shocked" variety. Guys I know who lived in the area said they suspected him from day one. The cops had him "help" them by riding around "looking" for his neighbor. He'd always been a weird kid, apparently.