A man from Center Moriches has been arrested and charged with the 1984 cold case murder of 16-year-old Theresa Fusco in Lynbrook.
Richard Bilodeau, 63, pleaded not guilty to two charges of second-degree murder in Nassau County Judge Helene Gugerty’s courtroom Wednesday morning.
Fusco, who was a junior at East Rockaway High School at the time, was last seen alive on Nov. 10, 1984, near Hot Skates in Lynbrook, and was apparently walking down the street in tears after being fired from her part-time job there.
She disappeared and was then treated as a missing persons case before her body was discovered on Dec. 5, 1984, strangled and buried in leaves in a wooded area.
“Beginning in 2024, with the help of our partners at the FBI and investigative leads that were being developed, we began surveilling this defendant,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said. “We hoped to obtain an abandonment DNA sample from him to test against DNA evidence that belonged to Theresa’s attacker we covered more than 40 years ago. That February, our moment came. The defendant went to get a smoothie at a Tropical Smoothie Cafe location in Suffolk County, not far from his home. When he was finished, he discarded his cup and straw in the trash. Investigators obtained that cup from the garbage, and it was brought to the Nassau County Office of the Medical Examiner for testing. Richard Bilodeau’s DNA was a match to the sample that was taken from Theresa’s body.”
Bilodeau, who was 23 at the time of Fusco’s murder, was living in Lynbrook in 1984, at an address roughly one mile away from Hot Skates. Donnelly added that nobody in Fusco’s immediate circle recognized Bilodeau.
“Bilodeau has denied knowing Fusco, but science proves otherwise,” Donnelly said.
Bilodeau had been working at a Walmart in Suffolk County when his DNA was matched to the sample on Fusco.
“As we spoke with the defendant just days before his indictment, he said something very curious to us when we asked about Theresa, through his denials that he had ever known her name, he made a flippant observation about the 1980s – he said, ‘People got away with murder back then,'” Donnelly said. “Well, let me tell you something. Mr. Bilodeau; it’s 2025, and I got you.”
Bilodeau is being represented by defense attorney Daniel Russo.
“Mr. Bilodeau maintains his innocence,” Russo said. “This incident took place over forty years ago and three men were convicted after trial and served almost two decades in prison before being exonerated. If ever a case exemplifies that someone accused of a crime is entitled to the presumption of innocence, it is this case. There are four decades worth of investigatory leads, tips, evidence, and trial transcripts to review. We will make additional statements after receipt and review of such materials.”
Fusco’s mother, Concetta Napoli, died in 2019, but her father, Thomas Fusco, appeared next to Donnelly while she gave remarks.
“Hearing there is somebody to finalize my daughter’s life will bring closure to me and my family,” Fusco said. “So, I’m looking forward to all that has to be taken but I believe that they’ve done their work, and we’ll see what the future holds. I can only say it’s heartbreaking to go through this over and over again, but this seems like a finalization, and I’m very grateful for me and my family for it come to an end like this, then to constantly be a cold case situation.”
Fusco’s friend, Kelly Morrissey, had also gone missing that year, and has still not been found. Donnelly declined to say if Bilodeau was a suspect in any other cases, such as Morrissey’s.
Three men – John Kogut, Dennis Halstead, and John Restivo – were arrested and eventually convicted of Fusco’s murder after Kogut allegedly confessed to police during a 12-hour questioning, but their convictions were overturned in 2003 after a DNA swab from Fusco did not match any of them.
Kogut was retried in a 2005 bench trial and found not guilty.
All three sued Nassau County for wrongful conviction – Kogut lost the case, but Halstead and Restivo were awarded up to $18 million.
