On June 12, 1984, 15-year-old Kelly Morrissey vanished into the evening. She left her dwelling after dinner and by no means got here again.
5 months later, it was her pal Theresa Fusco. On Nov. 10, 1984, the 16-year-old left her job at Sizzling Skates, a preferred curler rink by no means to be heard from once more.
Forty-one years in the past, looking for them was a distinct job. Police needed to search for actual footprints — not digital ones, and it was straightforward to fade with no hint.
1984: Kelly Morrissey and Theresa Fusco go lacking
Kelly Morrissey and Theresa Fusco had been rising up within the suburbs of Lengthy Island.
Vikki Papagno lived across the nook from Kelly in Massapequa.
Vikki Papagno: She truly was the primary individual I ever smoked a cigarette with, was Kelly.
Vikki Papagno: I used to be from a divorced household; she was from a divorced household. We related that method … she was like my sister I by no means had.
After they had been in junior excessive, Kelly’s household moved about 10 miles away to Lynbrook. By then, Kelly had made some new buddies.
Iris Olmstead: One of many first … those that she met when she moved to Lynbrook was Theresa Fusco.
Kelly’s mom Iris and her then-fiancé Paul Olmstead watched the friendship develop.
Iris Olmstead: She was excellent buddies with Theresa. And, uh, so she — she made buddies very simply.
Olmstead Household/Fusco Household
She met her buddies at malls and in individual. Youngsters roamed round freely. Nobody might hold tabs on one another 24/7. It was a distinct time. And Kelly Morrissey and Theresa Fusco had been typical teenagers for 1984.
That was the 12 months Ronald Regan was President. “Ghostbusters” and “Footloose” had been the breakout film hits. Pop star Madonna was climbing the charts and style adopted. It was the 12 months Steve Jobs launched one thing revolutionary – the Macintosh pc.
Vikki Papagno: We did not have cellphones, social media, so we had been pen friends. We’d get our stationery and we might simply write forwards and backwards. And that is how we communicated …
When Vikki was visiting Kelly, she would generally hang around with Theresa who additionally grew to become her pen pal.
Vikki Papagno
Vikki Papagno (studying letter): … postmark 1982 from Lynbrook, New York, from Theresa Fusco.
And it says, “Expensive Vikki, Hello, what’s up? Nothing a lot right here. … when are you going to go to Kelly once more? Whenever you do, name me. Okay? … How’s all of the boys there? They cute?”
In Lynbrook, by far the most effective place to satisfy boys was at Sizzling Skates.
Vikki Papagno: … oh, we’d go to Sizzling Skates curler rink. We’d go there, curler skate round.
Erin Moriarty: How necessary was Sizzling Skates in your life?
Lisa Johnson: Oh, Sizzling Skates was an enormous deal to all people that lived within the space, even exterior of the realm. … We’d simply go there and hang around with our buddies and take heed to music.
Lisa Kaplan, now Johnson, was Theresa Fusco’s closest pal.
Lisa Johnson: … We all the time … would attempt to costume very comparable. … We’d purchase the identical clothes. We’d put on our make-up the identical …
Erin Moriarty: Did you guys open up to one another?
Lisa Johnson: About the whole lot.
Erin Moriarty: Actually the whole lot?
Lisa Johnson: Actually the whole lot.
Nobody gave security a second thought.
Lisa Johnson: You may stroll completely anyplace … and never be afraid of something in the dead of night, in the course of the day, alone, with buddies.
And that explains why it was enterprise as ordinary on the Morrissey home a pair miles away when 15-year-old Kelly walked out the entrance door alone after dinner. She stated she’d be again by 9:30. It was June 12, 1984. Iris did not give it a second thought. She and Paul had been elevating eight youngsters collectively.
Iris Olmstead: … someone got here in and I heard someone within the kitchen yelled down “I am dwelling” and, OK. … you would hear doorways opening, closing, youngsters coming out and in. … And I took it — it was Kelly. It wasn’t till the following morning when … she did not come down and go to highschool that I went down there and realized that her mattress wasn’t made and the garments was nonetheless there and she or he hadn’t are available in. …
Erin Moriarty: … and had been you panicking at that time, Iris?
Iris Olmstead: … Oh, yeah. After which we known as the police, however … they instructed us that she wasn’t lacking 24 hours, at that time they actually would not take a – a report … in these days they waited.
Nassau County Detective Freddy Goldman would assessment each Theresa and Kelly’s instances some 25 years later.
He is retired now, however he agreed to stroll “48 Hours” by way of the timeline and the proof from again then.
On the time of Kelly’s disappearance, he says police discovered no cause to assume there was a criminal offense. It appeared like she was a runaway.
Freddy Goldman: There’s tons of lacking individual’s instances each day..
Erin Moriarty: … Is that how Kelly Morrissey’s case was initially dealt with?
Freddy Goldman: … In fact, yeah.
Vikki Papagno: … at 15 years previous … She would not know tips on how to do life except someone was there to assist her … I do not foresee her ever simply working away and never speaking to anybody, not reaching out to anybody. So, I knew it was critical from day one.
Months glided by with no signal of Kelly.
Erin Moriarty: That needed to be so robust.
Iris Olmstead: Oh. it was. I imply, in all places I went, each baby from the again regarded like Kelly had stopped to look to see if it was Kelly. Um, it was horrible.
Olmstead Household
If Kelly had been written off as a runaway and never a precedence, 5 months later her case bought a re-assessment.
It was November 10. Theresa Fusco by no means confirmed up at Lisa’s home for his or her sleepover.
Lisa Johnson: I assumed possibly she went to someone else’s home. And so, I known as a couple of buddies and stated you understand, “did Theresa come over?” … At — at that time I nonetheless wasn’t overly involved.
Theresa’s mother and father had been divorced. The subsequent morning, her father Thomas had a scheduled go to and arrived at his ex’s home to choose up his daughter.
Erin Moriarty: How quickly did you understand that this was an issue?
Thomas Fusco: I do know my spouse and I, checked out one another and says, one thing isn’t proper right here. We realized that is out of norm. What will we do now?
Erin Moriarty: When did you turn out to be actually involved?
Lisa Johnson: I grew to become actually involved when she wasn’t prepared for college on Monday morning. We walked to highschool each morning. Why wasn’t she there?
Monday got here and went. It might be virtually a month earlier than anybody knew what had occurred to Theresa.
The seek for Theresa Fusco
Thomas Fusco: … that is my daughter Theresa … She was my valuable little lady.
John Fusco: … we had been joyful.
Fusco Household
For Theresa’s Fusco’s father Thomas and her brother John, it appeared as if the whole city of Lynbrook was out in search of her.
Erin Moriarty: How large was the search?
John Fusco: Everybody after which some.
Thomas Fusco: Everyone.
John Fusco: In every single place.
Practically a month later, not removed from Sizzling Skates and close to the Lengthy Island Rail Highway tracks, Theresa’s physique was found, crushed, raped and strangled, buried underneath a pile of leaves and wood transport pallets.
Thomas and John are nonetheless haunted by the place she was discovered.
John Fusco: I walked over her twice.
Thomas Fusco: Yeah. …
John Fusco: I did not know she was underneath the pallet. We simply walked over the pallet …
John Fusco: … and I am glad I did not discover her. That may’ve killed me.
Lisa Johnson: I by no means heard the phrase, murder.
So, when two murder detectives arrived at Lisa’s home, she did not but perceive what that meant.
Lisa Johnson: … and so they stated, properly, we predict we discovered her. … my coronary heart began to race. I — I began to get excited, considering, my God, thank God they discovered her. After which they instructed me that they discovered a physique …
Lisa Johnson: … at 16 … It was life shattering.
Anne Donnelly: When her physique was discovered, it was a shock not simply to the Lynbrook neighborhood, however I believe to all of Nassau County …
Anne Donnelly would develop as much as be the Nassau County District Lawyer however earlier than that she had a childhood rather a lot like Theresa Fusco’s.
Anne Donnelly: I used to hang around at (laughs) Sizzling Skates … once I was a child.
Anne Donnelly: … I used to be in faculty when it occurred …
Anne Donnelly: … it modified the way in which we noticed the world again within the 80s, it modified all that and never for the higher …
Forty-one years later, Vikki Papagno retains a tragic scrapbook. It tells the story of dropping her two buddies, Theresa and Kelly.
Newsday
Vikki Papagno: These are information articles I collected all through the years on this case. … This one, which incorporates each of them. “Lynbrook lady lacking second from the village.”
Kelly had been lacking for almost six months when Theresa was discovered.
Vikki Papagno: … it is simply too coincidental to me. … I really feel like whoever dedicated Theresa might have one thing to do with Kelly.
Erin Moriarty: You will have two women who went lacking after which one who was murdered.
Lisa Johnson: Yeah. … I used to be afraid to be dwelling alone at nighttime … it was horrifying as a result of … we had no solutions.
Investigators on Theresa’s case had little or no to go on — no footprints, no fingerprints, no homicide weapon. Hair samples had been taken from Theresa, additionally a sexual assault swab, however DNA testing had not superior sufficient to search out out who it belonged to.
Whereas in search of hyperlinks between the 2 women, they zeroed in on John Kogut, a 21-year-old landscaper who instructed detectives he had dated Kelly for a couple of week
Vikki Papagno: I’ve heard the identify John Kogut earlier than. … it was early … proper when she first began … liking him or relationship him.
Kogut was requested about Kelly’s disappearance. He additionally was requested about Theresa’s killing and denied any data of it. Kogut agreed to return in and take a polygraph check. 4 days later he did and police instructed him he failed it.
Kogut was interrogated by way of the evening and into the following morning. After almost 12 hours of questioning, his denials modified. Nassau County Detective Joseph Volpe wrote down what he stated Kogut instructed him — that on the evening Theresa went lacking, Kogut “was with John Restivo and Dennis Halstead in John’s van” after they noticed Theresa strolling away from Sizzling Skates.
Dennis Halstead was identified to investigators again then says Freddy Goldman. He’d had some minor brushes with police.
Freddy Goldman: … Dennis Halstead had an residence adjoining to the Shell gasoline station the place Kelly was final seen at that payphone.
Freddy Goldman: … we had been instructed that Kelly … frolicked in that residence incessantly. She had the important thing to his residence …
Erin Moriarty: It appears like Dennis Halstead was considered form of as a nasty affect on the youthful youngsters within the space.
Freddy Goldman: It might appear. Yeah.
John Restivo was extra of a clear slate.
Freddy Goldman: He was a working fellow. … though he was buddies with them, he did not have, uh, a background like them. He did not hand around in Dennis’s residence or that we knew of.
Police took Kogut to the District Lawyer’s Workplace the place he was videotaped.
ASSISTANT DA GEORGE PECK (videotaped interview): I need to speak to you concerning the uh, dying of uh, Theresa Fusco.
Freddy Goldman: He was interviewed by … Assistant District Lawyer George Peck. … he agreed to go on video.
With the digital camera rolling, Kogut detailed what occurred to Theresa as soon as she bought into the van that evening. Kogut instructed investigators that Theresa was raped twice by Dennis Halstead and John Restivo. When she stated she was going to inform someone, they could not let that occur.
Handout
JOHN KOGUT (videotaped interview): We determined that I needed to kill her and Dennis instructed her that she needed to die.
ASSISTANT DA GEORGE PECK: And what did uh, did John conform to this too?
JOHN KOGUT: John did not say nothing.
After which John Kogut describes how he killed Theresa.
ASSISTANT DA GEORGE PECK: After which what occurred after uh you bought the rope?
JOHN KOGUT: I umm, I wrapped it across the neck twice after which I tightened it like this (motioning along with his arms), after which her physique went limp.
John Kogut would later recant the whole lot he instructed police, however on that day, Goldman says, investigators had been assured that they had Theresa Fusco’s killer in custody and had the proof they wanted to show it. However later, on that exact same day, one other teenage lady went lacking.
March 1985: Jackie Martarella disappears
On March 26, 1985, when 19-year-old Jackie Martarella did not present as much as begin her shift at Burger King, her older brother Martin knew one thing was off.
Martin Martarella: She’s very immediate. … she was very reliable. And for her to not present up, we knew there was one thing fallacious.
Most nights, Jackie walked to work from the household dwelling in Oceanside, a city a couple of miles away from Lynbrook.
Erin Moriarty: How would she get there? For those who’re, she’s strolling, what was the route she would take to go to Burger King?
Martin Martarella: Properly — she — just about straight down Lengthy Seaside Highway …
Erin Moriarty: Did you ever fear about her strolling to work?
Martin Martarella: Probably not, no. No.
1984 Oceanside Excessive College Yearbook
Jackie had lately graduated from highschool. She was working half time and taking accounting courses, saving cash to purchase a automobile.
Erin Moriarty: How would you describe your sister?
Martin Martarella: Describe her? She was, um, very girly.
Full with posters of stripling pop stars on her bed room wall.
Martin Martarella: I bear in mind Leif Garrett, whoever he was.
Erin Moriarty: I bear in mind Leif Garrett.
Martin Martarella: There was posters of that. … she was into … Dance. … She appreciated doing that.
Martin Martarella: … she appreciated her garments, very finicky together with her garments.
And now she was lacking.
Erin Moriarty: So what did you and your father do?
Martin Martarella: Properly, I believe we known as the police, after which they took notes, after which they began wanting.
Martin Martarella: After which these different two got here up and so they had been, you understand, saying, look what’s occurring right here. … So it grew to become — all people got interested.
Practically a month glided by with no signal of Jackie.
Martin Martarella: You already know, all of the worst ideas undergo your thoughts when one thing like that occurs. … And naturally, huh, what occurred occurred … the worst of the worst. … they discovered her physique 26 days later in a Woodmere golf course.
On April 22, 1985, a person in search of golf balls within the excessive grass off the seventeenth gap discovered a unadorned physique. It was Jackie.
Martin Martarella: She was murdered clearly and discarded.
In accordance with former Nassau County Detective Freddy Goldman, Jackie was left the identical method Theresa Fusco had been: raped and strangled.
Erin Moriarty: Initially did investigators assume oh my God, these instances all should be related?
Freddy Goldman: Sure and no. However with Kogut sitting there, it form of, you understand, it threw a monkey wrench in the whole lot.
John Kogut, the person who had confessed to killing Theresa Fusco, was in police custody.
Freddy Goldman: … how might he be the killer if we had him in custody the identical day that she went lacking. So clearly it wasn’t him. Yeah. Might or not it’s a Halstead, Restivo? However no.
Jackie’s murder was not going to be straightforward to resolve. Her physique was so badly decomposed; no DNA swab could possibly be taken.
Freddy Goldman: … I am positive it heightened the — the alertness and consciousness of the neighborhood … as a result of now you understand that there is someone on the market that is, you understand, going after younger women.
Kelly Morrissey was nonetheless lacking. Police knew she had frolicked at Dennis Halstead’s residence, however there was nothing extra to tie Halstead or Kogut to her disappearance.
Erin Moriarty: Was there any proof … that indicated that they had been concerned in — in Kelly’s disappearance?
Freddy Goldman: No, no.
New York Day by day Information/Contributor, Newsday LLC/Contributor
Theresa Fusco’s killing was the one case police might pin down. By June 1985, John Kogut, John Restivo and Dennis Halstead had all been charged together with her rape and homicide and all three pleaded not responsible. Kogut went on trial first. Later, Halstead and Restivo had been tried collectively.
Lisa Johnson: … I bear in mind sitting within the witness field testifying and — and the district legal professional saying, please communicate louder.
Lisa Johnson was simply 18 and a star witness.
Lisa Johnson: And right here I’m, you understand, sitting there very meek and — and timid and in a room stuffed with strangers, testifying about my pal who was killed. It was tough. It nonetheless is tough.
John Kogut provided an alibi. And in line with a New Yorker Journal investigation, the van police stated was utilized in Theresa’s abduction was truly out of fee and up on cinder blocks the day Theresa went lacking.
However two hairs belonging to Theresa that police say they recovered from the ground of Restivo’s van, had been too highly effective to disregard. And Kogut’s detailed confession trumped the whole lot.
JOHN KOGUT (videotaped interview): … I wrapped it round her neck …
By February 1987, Kogut, Halstead, and Restivo had been convicted of the rape and homicide of Theresa Fusco and sentenced to greater than 30 years to life.
It had by then been two lengthy years for Theresa’s dad. He and the remainder of her household tried to maneuver on.
Thomas Fusco: … we thought, believing me, that there was time for closure. We had gone to Mother and father of Murdered Kids. We had assist and so they had been in search of assist. And we had been in search of assist and closure.
However there was no closure. What prosecutors had insisted was an hermetic case towards the three males was going to explode, spectacularly. In 2003, almost 19 years after Theresa was killed, extra refined DNA testing grew to become out there. It instructed a distinct story. John Kogut, John Restivo, and Dennis Halstead’s convictions had been all overturned.
JUNE 2003 | WCBS information report: Simply 6 hours in the past, after 17 years in jail, the homicide rape convictions of three lengthy island males had been overturned following gorgeous new DNA proof.
And new testing not solely dominated out Kogut, Halstead and Restivo, it pointed to another person fully: one other unknown male.
The whole lot Theresa Fusco’s household and buddies thought they knew about her killing — and her killer — was altering.
Lisa Johnson: … wait a second, there was investigations. We trusted the detectives. We trusted the police to do the best factor. … What do … how might they do that to us?
Was John Kogut’s videotaped confession coerced?
In June 2003, after virtually 18 years, John Kogut, John Restivo and Dennis Halstead had been out of jail and within the arms of their households.
Lisa Worth: I waited for this for 18 years (cries) And I am simply, I am sorry I am simply actually … I simply can’t consider it is occurring.
However their authorized issues weren’t over.
Related Press
Nassau County District Lawyer Denis Dillon had determined to retry all three for the homicide of Theresa Fusco, beginning with John Kogut, who once more pleaded not responsible.
There was nonetheless his videotaped confession, and that grew to become the centerpiece of the case towards Kogut at his second trial in September 2005.
JOHN KOGUT (videotaped confession): We determined that I needed to kill her …
The confession, the prosecution argued, was extra necessary than all different proof — even the brand new DNA.
Paul Casteleiro: When … I noticed the video, I’m going, whoa. — it is — appears to be like prefer it’s legit …
However Kogut’s protection legal professional Paul Casteleiro says the video is deceptive.
As damaging as Kogut’s statements sound, he says it is what you do not see on digital camera that issues.
Paul Casteleiro: A part of it’s, you understand … it is staged.
There’s a detective —
Paul Casteleiro: … sitting off digital camera, watching it, and monitoring it and ensuring it goes proper. … it is, it is like a play.
Within the video, Kogut struggles with names —
ASSISTANT DA GEORGE PECK: Theresa Fusco?
JOHN KOGUT: Theresa Fusco …
— even his alleged accomplices’ identify.
JOHN KOGUT: … John Restivo, Dennis Sharpir —
After which asks for assist.
JOHN KOGUT: What’s his final identify?
ASSISTANT DA GEORGE PECK: Properly, are you speaking to uh, Detective Volpe who’s additionally within the room?
Paul Casteleiro: That form of reveals it was coerced …
Kogut was a straightforward goal, Casteleiro says. He had a tenth-grade training and a substance abuse drawback that, Casteleiro says, police took benefit of.
Paul Casteleiro: … tells them about his consuming, his medicine, all — all of the stuff that they will use towards him …
After which Casteliero says, they lied to him.
Erin Moriarty: The police instructed John Kogut that he failed a polygraph …
Paul Casteleiro: No … John Kogut handed his polygraph check with flying colours.
And although Kogut had already instructed police time and again that he had nothing to do with Theresa Fusco’s killing, Casteleiro says they satisfied him he did.
Paul Casteleiro: They instructed him he blacked out, he did not bear in mind. You already know, that is what you probably did, that is the place you took her.
JOHN KOGUT: I did not even bear in mind the following second.
ASSISTANT DA GEORGE PECK: Did not bear in mind what?
JOHN KOGUT: What had occurred subsequent.
ASSISTANT DA GEORGE PECK: Properly, you bear in mind it now, do not you?
JOHN KOGUT: Yeah, I assume.
By the point the video was recorded, Kogut had been in custody for 18 hours, interrogated for almost 12 of them and awake for nearly 30.
Paul Casteleiro: In some unspecified time in the future in time, you understand, you need out, you give in.
However the confession wasn’t the one factor prosecutors must defend — they needed to cope with the brand new DNA proof pointing to an unknown male. So, prosecutors recommended that Theresa should have been with another person proper earlier than she was kidnapped by Kogut, Halstead and Restivo.
Paul Casteleiro: … then unexpectedly … she had a consensual sexual encounter. That is what they stated.
However investigators had been by no means in a position to establish anybody who had been sexually concerned with Theresa. And Theresa’s greatest pal Lisa needed to take the stand once more at this trial to speak about it.
Erin Moriarty: And I imply this can be a robust query to ask and I — I need to ask it correctly. However so far as you understand, was Theresa even sexually lively again then?
Lisa Johnson: Completely not. And we spoke about that … And that is not one thing that she was going to do earlier than she was married.
Lisa, as soon as their star witness, was this time round undercutting their case.
Paul Casteleiro: They went towards their very own witnesses … and actually argued that she went from being a virgin to being somebody who had a quickie in a skating rink the place she labored … it was — it was preposterous, it was demeaning.
Erin Moriarty: Did that make you mad?
Lisa Johnson: It did. As a result of it is not one thing she would have carried out ever. … And I’ll go to my grave saying that Theresa was not having intercourse with anyone.
Prosecutors did nonetheless have the bodily proof from the primary trial, the 2 hairs belonging to Theresa that police stated they discovered on the ground of John Restivo’s van.
Court docket exhibit
However that, too, Casteleiro argued, was tainted. There was a science to analyzing whether or not the hairs got here from somebody useless or alive.
Paul Casteleiro: They displayed a — a sure decomposition that’s solely current when the hairs are hooked up to the pinnacle of an individual who’s deceased.
That meant the hairs couldn’t have been left within the van whereas Theresa was nonetheless alive, in line with Casteleiro.
Paul Casteleiro: — we believed … that — they went in and took them from the medical expert’s workplace and … stated, they discovered them within the van. … In different phrases, they had been planted.
However in closing, prosecutors denied the hairs had been planted. After Casteleiro was in a position to increase critical questions concerning the prosecution’s case, Kogut’s destiny was within the arms of 1 individual — a single decide, not a jury. Kogut had determined to take his likelihood with a bench trial.
And after almost three months of testimony, the decide reached a verdict.
Paul Casteleiro: … that is … Choose Ort’s choice … The courtroom is not going to settle for the confession and accordingly finds the defendant not responsible of homicide within the second diploma underneath depend one.
Erin Moriarty: And what does that imply when the decide will not settle for the confession?
Paul Casteleiro: It implies that the confession is fake. It’s not credible, … And that is what the decide discovered. He didn’t consider the confession.
Eight days later, the prosecution formally dismissed the costs towards Restivo and Halstead.
Thomas Fusco: … when John Kogut was acquitted, I used to be devastated solely as a result of I’ve seen that confession of his time and again. And I consider then that he was telling the reality.
John Fusco: It makes you are feeling such as you bought hit within the face with a friggin’ shovel and you do not know tips on how to bounce again from that.
It was December 2005. Theresa Fusco had been useless for greater than 20 years and now nothing about her case could possibly be laid to relaxation.
Thomas Fusco: It is — for me, as the daddy, heartache … heartache to undergo it over once more.
Lisa Johnson: I felt as if the life had been sucked out of me, the whole lot that we fought for, the whole lot that we testified for, the whole lot that was investigated and the entire proof and the entire proof meant nothing. … In the event that they did not do it, then who did it?
On Oct. 15, 2025, Anne Donnelly — now the Nassau County District Lawyer — had a startling announcement.
DA ANNE DONNELLY (to reporters): Good morning. I might prefer to thank my investigators and my prosecutors dealing with this case for standing right here with me at present.
DA ANNE DONNELLY (to reporters): And after 20 years of this case working chilly, we have now indicted Theresa’s killer.
October 2025: An sudden breakthrough
Practically 41 years later, and because of genetic family tree, Nassau County DA Anne Donnelly was positive that they had lastly – lastly — discovered Theresa Fusco’s killer.
DA ANNE DONNELLY (to reporters): Theresa’s life was violently stolen from her greater than 40 years in the past, however the previous isn’t forgotten.
As soon as the unidentified DNA pattern was matched to 63-year-old Richard Bilodeau, surveillance started. A number of months later, prosecutors say a straw in a discarded smoothie cup confirmed he was their man.
Nassau County District Lawyer
The FBI, utilizing the brand new science of genetic family tree, had discovered a match to the unknown DNA.
DA ANNE DONNELLY (to reporters): As we speak, we prepare 63-year-old Richard Bilodeau of Heart Moriches for the homicide of Theresa Fusco.
Bilodeau has denied the costs. On the time of his arrest, he was working at Walmart stocking cabinets. On the time of Theresa’s killing, he was 23 and dwelling shut by.
DA ANNE DONNELLY (to reporters): … he was dwelling along with his grandparents … It is about one mile away from Sizzling Skates, it is about one mile away from the Fusco residence.
He was a person who had seemingly all the time lived under the radar, in line with prosecutor Jared Rosenblatt.
Erin Moriarty: Had he ever been married?
Jared Rosenblatt: No.
Erin Moriarty: … does he have household or shut buddies?
Jared Rosenblatt: … he has a brother. …
Erin Moriarty: That he is near?
Jared Rosenblatt: I can not discuss how shut they’re …
Erin Moriarty: And does he have hobbies? … does this man do something apart from go to work?
Jared Rosenblatt: I believe he gambles on sports activities rather a lot.
Handout/Newsday
DA ANNE DONNELLY (to reporters): In interviews we performed with Theresa’s family and friends, nobody acknowledged this defendant as somebody who was ever related to Theresa in 1984.
Authorities would not speculate about how Richard Bilodeau might have are available in contact with Theresa Fusco, however Donnelly says she is aware of he did.
DA ANNE DONNELLY (to reporters): … when you’ve a DNA match, 100% match, we bought the man.
William Kephart and Daniel Russo, Bilodeau’s protection attorneys, see it in another way.
Erin Moriarty: What proof are you conscious of that connects Richard Bilodeau to the homicide of Theresa Fusco?
William Kephart: The DNA.
Daniel Russo: That is it.
William Kephart: That is it.
They usually do not discover it convincing.
William Kephart: … It is being overstated and overvalued.
And what’s extra —
Daniel Russo: … this District Lawyer’s Workplace, this police division, in 1985 stood earlier than a courtroom and stated, these three males did this and so they had an ample quantity of proof to show it.
Erin Moriarty: … was {that a} concern that they are gonna level to the truth that three males went on trial, had been convicted for this crime?
DA Anne Donnelly: Sure, I’d assume that is what they’ll say. … however the distinction now could be we have now science behind us, which they did not have 40 years in the past. And to me, you do not beat the scientific proof.
However at John Kogut’s retrial in 2005, the Nassau County DA’s workplace had argued the other — that the unidentified DNA taken from Theresa was meaningless.
Daniel Russo: The identical DA’s workplace … stood up and stated … we nonetheless consider based mostly on all of this proof that these males are … chargeable for Ms. Fusco’s dying.
Daniel Russo: So I do not know … how now in 2025, since you had been in a position to put a reputation to that DNA, all of a sudden none of that issues anymore.
Paul Casteleiro: … all of their lies towards John Kogut, John Restivo, Dennis Halstead are gonna come again and hang-out them throughout this retrial.
Paul Casteleiro, John Kogut’s former protection legal professional, fears that Bilodeau’s legal professionals will put the blame on the three males who had been cleared of the homicide 20 years in the past.
Paul Casteleiro: They’re gonna have … a trial in — during which I am positive the protection is gonna be arguing they’re responsible.
And Casteleiro says that is simply extra salt within the wound for John Kogut, Dennis Halstead and John Restivo.
Paul Casteleiro: … it is unending. … what Nassau County did to them is simply has no ending to it.
All three males sued Nassau County; two of them had been awarded damages.
CAROLYN GUSOFF (CBS New York reporter): Eighteen million {dollars} every to Restivo and co-defendant Dennis Halstead, each exonerated a decade in the past for the 1984 homicide and rape of Lynbrook teenager, Theresa Fusco.
However in Kogut’s case, a jury discovered no wrongdoing by Nassau County police and gave him nothing.
Erin Moriarty: Let me ask you although … if in reality Richard Bilodeau is convicted, will both of you apologize to the three guys who had been convicted?
DA Anne Donnelly: No, as a result of I do not owe them an apology. I wasn’t even within the workplace on the time.
Erin Moriarty: I do know—
DA Anne Donnelly: I wasn’t a lawyer.
Erin Moriarty: — however you characterize yeah however for the Nassau County DA’s Workplace?
DA Anne Donnelly: Mr. Dillon did what he thought was proper when he dismissed … towards two of them. And I believe, you understand, they bought their apology at that time.
Paul Casteleiro: … the concept the district legal professional in Nassau County cannot apologize to those three guys for what they did to them is outrageous.
Whereas the Nassau County authorities say, as soon as once more, they’ve the killer of Theresa Fusco, Richard Bilodeau isn’t going through fees in both Kelly Morrissey’s or Jackie Martarella’s instances. Each stay unsolved, leaving two households in limbo.
Olmstead Household/Fusco Household/1984 Oceanside Excessive College Yearbook
Martin Martarella: I imply … you are anticipating one thing and that it by no means reveals up.
Martin Martarella: … she did not have … a nasty bone in her physique …
Martin Martarella: She missed out on simply dwelling a easy life, you understand?
Iris Olmstead: … you understand, I take a look at girls of their 50s now and assume that could possibly be Kelly, and that is how previous she could be …
When Richard Bilodeau goes on trial, for the homicide of Theresa Fusco, her father Thomas and her as soon as greatest pal Lisa will probably be again in courtroom for what they hope would be the final time.
Thomas Fusco: … closure to me is that if that is the person, then justice will probably be carried out. It is simply utterly over, 41 years is over, starting and finish.
Erin Moriarty: Do you hope, do you assume that it would lastly be resolved this time round or do you continue to have questions?
Lisa Johnson: I belief within the DNA this time. … I’m so hopeful that there will probably be a conviction and we are able to lastly put this to relaxation.
Erin Moriarty: Forty-one years afterwards.
Lisa Johnson: It is a very long time. It is — it is a lifetime.
Produced by Mary Murphy. Michael McHugh is the producer-editor. Murry Weiss is a producer. David Dow, Marc Goldbaum. Sara Ely Hulse and Tamara Weitzman are the event producers. Shaheen Tokhi is the sector producer. Nancy Bautista is the Broadcast Affiliate. George Baluzy and Diana Modica are the editors. Anthony Venditti is the content material analysis supervisor. Dylan Gordon is the affiliate producer, archives. Patti Aronofsky is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
