Cold case detectives say the man from Heathfield in East Sussex was detained on Thursday, December 3, in connection with the deaths of Wendy Knell and Caroline Pierce in 1987 and taken into custody.
Wendy Knell, who was 25, was discovered dead in her bedsit in Guildford Road, Tunbridge Wells on Tuesday June 23, 1987.
She had been sexually assaulted and beaten to death.
Five months later, on Tuesday November, 24, 1987, Caroline Pierce, aged 20, was murdered after being attacked outside her bedsit home in Grosvenor Park, Tunbridge Wells.
Her body was found the following month, on 15 December, in a field near St Mary in the Marsh, Romney Marsh.
The case has remained unsolved and subject to periodic reviews by cold case detectives from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate.
Families of both victims have been informed of the arrest and are being kept updated.
