NASSAU COUNTY, NY - On Wednesday, October 15, prosecutors announced that a Walmart worker was charged with the brutal 1984 murder and rape of a 16-year-old Long Island girl, ending a decades long cold case.
Authorities said that 63-year-old Richard Bilodeau was arraigned on murder charges for the November 10, 1984, cold-case killing of Theresa Fusco, thanks to high-tech DNA testing by the FBI, the New York Post reported.
"I never gave up hope," Thomas Fusco, the murdered teen's father said. "I always had faith in the system."
"For me, hearing that there was someone [who took] my daughter's life will bring closure to me and my family," he added.
"It's heartbreaking to go through this over and over again, but this seems like a finalization and I'm very grateful. Very grateful."
Fusco, an aspiring dancer, left her job at the popular Hot Skates skating rink in Lynbrook on November 10, 1984, and disappeared. She was found a few weeks later, dead and naked on December 5, 1984.
"The DNA was taken from a vaginal swab," Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Jared Rosenblatt said in court. "The defendant worked the overnight shift at Walmart in Suffolk County.
"When questioned, the defendant denied knowing her," Rosenblatt told Judge Helene Gugerty.
"He denied recognizing the pictures of her. When told about when the crime occurred, [he said], 'Yeah, people got away with murder back then.'"
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said Fusco left the rink in tears after being fired before she went missing. Donnelly said the teen's body was found "buried beneath leaves in a wooded area a few blocks away from Hot Skates."
Police said the bubbly teen had been raped, beaten, and strangled, then dumped in the woods.
Months after the murder, three local men — John Restivo, Dennis Halstead, and John Kogut — were arrested and convicted in the teen's murder in 1986.
However, DNA evidence later cleared all three after they had served up to 18 years behind bars.
They were released from prison in 2003, then sued and were awarded $43 million for wrongful conviction, with the verdict later upheld on appeal.
Donnelly said investigators identified Bilodeau as a potential suspect in the decades-old case and trailed him.
Their break came in February of this year when the accused killer bought a drink at Tropical Smoothie near his Suffolk County home and threw the cup into the trash, where cops retrieved it, ABC7 reported.
"The DNA from that straw, Richard Bilodeau's DNA, was a match to the sample that was taken from Therea's body," she said.
"He was 24-years-old," she added. "He was operating, according to him, a mobile coffee truck in Nassau County and he was living with his grandparents."
His grandparents were about a mile from the rink.
When asked about the earlier wrongful conviction of the three men, the DA maintained there is no doubt this time around. "Science and DNA evidence doesn't lie, period," she said.
"What happened in that case, I was not privy to. I was not the prosecutor on the case. But it's 2025, and when you have a DNA match, 100% match, we got the guy."
Defense attorney Daniel Russo denied that his client had anything to do with the murder.
"Through his denials that he had ever known her name, who she was, he made kind of a flippant comment about the 1980s. He said, 'people got away with murder,' Well, I'll tell you something, Mr. Bilodeau, I've got you now," Donnelly said.
Bilodeau was ordered held without bail pending a return court appearance on November 21.
Authorities said that 63-year-old Richard Bilodeau was arraigned on murder charges for the November 10, 1984, cold-case killing of Theresa Fusco, thanks to high-tech DNA testing by the FBI, the New York Post reported.
"I never gave up hope," Thomas Fusco, the murdered teen's father said. "I always had faith in the system."
"For me, hearing that there was someone [who took] my daughter's life will bring closure to me and my family," he added.
"It's heartbreaking to go through this over and over again, but this seems like a finalization and I'm very grateful. Very grateful."
Fusco, an aspiring dancer, left her job at the popular Hot Skates skating rink in Lynbrook on November 10, 1984, and disappeared. She was found a few weeks later, dead and naked on December 5, 1984.
"The DNA was taken from a vaginal swab," Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Jared Rosenblatt said in court. "The defendant worked the overnight shift at Walmart in Suffolk County.
"When questioned, the defendant denied knowing her," Rosenblatt told Judge Helene Gugerty.
"He denied recognizing the pictures of her. When told about when the crime occurred, [he said], 'Yeah, people got away with murder back then.'"
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said Fusco left the rink in tears after being fired before she went missing. Donnelly said the teen's body was found "buried beneath leaves in a wooded area a few blocks away from Hot Skates."
Police said the bubbly teen had been raped, beaten, and strangled, then dumped in the woods.
Months after the murder, three local men — John Restivo, Dennis Halstead, and John Kogut — were arrested and convicted in the teen's murder in 1986.
However, DNA evidence later cleared all three after they had served up to 18 years behind bars.
They were released from prison in 2003, then sued and were awarded $43 million for wrongful conviction, with the verdict later upheld on appeal.
Donnelly said investigators identified Bilodeau as a potential suspect in the decades-old case and trailed him.
Their break came in February of this year when the accused killer bought a drink at Tropical Smoothie near his Suffolk County home and threw the cup into the trash, where cops retrieved it, ABC7 reported.
"The DNA from that straw, Richard Bilodeau's DNA, was a match to the sample that was taken from Therea's body," she said.
"He was 24-years-old," she added. "He was operating, according to him, a mobile coffee truck in Nassau County and he was living with his grandparents."
His grandparents were about a mile from the rink.
When asked about the earlier wrongful conviction of the three men, the DA maintained there is no doubt this time around. "Science and DNA evidence doesn't lie, period," she said.
"What happened in that case, I was not privy to. I was not the prosecutor on the case. But it's 2025, and when you have a DNA match, 100% match, we got the guy."
Defense attorney Daniel Russo denied that his client had anything to do with the murder.
"Through his denials that he had ever known her name, who she was, he made kind of a flippant comment about the 1980s. He said, 'people got away with murder,' Well, I'll tell you something, Mr. Bilodeau, I've got you now," Donnelly said.
Bilodeau was ordered held without bail pending a return court appearance on November 21.
For corrections or revisions, click here.
The opinions reflected in this article are not necessarily the opinions of LET
Comments