On June 12, 1984, 15-year-old Kelly Morrissey left her Lynbrook home after dinner and never returned. Five months later, on Nov. 10, 1984, 16-year-old Theresa Fusco, who worked at the Hot Skates roller rink, vanished after her shift. In an era without cellphones or social media, teens roamed freely and it was easier to disappear without a trace.
Kelly and Theresa had become close after Kelly’s family moved to Lynbrook. Friends remember mall hangouts, pen pal letters and nights at Hot Skates, the local roller rink where teens met and socialized. Kelly’s disappearance initially was treated like a runaway case; police at the time said they had no reason to suspect foul play. Her family, however, feared otherwise.
When Theresa didn’t show up for a planned sleepover and then failed to go to school, alarm grew. Nearly a month after she vanished, Theresa’s body was found near the Long Island Rail Road tracks, close to Hot Skates: beaten, raped, strangled and buried under leaves and wooden pallets. The discovery shocked the Lynbrook community and surrounding Nassau County. Investigators had little to go on — no murder weapon, no clear footprints or fingerprints. Hair samples and a sexual assault swab were collected, but DNA testing in 1984 lacked the sophistication available decades later.
Police focused on local men connected to the victims’ social circles, including 21-year-old landscaper John Kogut, who had briefly dated Kelly. Kogut denied involvement but, after hours of interrogation and a polygraph which police said he failed, he gave a videotaped confession implicating himself and two others — John Restivo and Dennis Halstead — in Theresa’s rape and murder. Kogut described committing the killing; authorities believed they had solved the case.
Not long after, in March 1985, 19-year-old Jackie Martarella disappeared from Oceanside. Her body was found in April, raped and strangled and left on a Woodmere golf course. With multiple young women missing or murdered in the area, investigators considered links among the cases. By June 1985, Kogut, Restivo and Halstead were charged in Theresa’s murder and ultimately convicted in 1987, receiving lengthy sentences.
For Theresa’s family and friends, convictions seemed to promise closure, but two decades later advances in DNA testing unraveled the case. In 2003, DNA testing that wasn’t available in the 1980s excluded Kogut, Restivo and Halstead and pointed to an unknown male. Their convictions were overturned and the three men were released after nearly 18 years in prison. The revelation devastated Theresa’s loved ones and raised questions about how the original investigation had been conducted.
Kogut’s videotaped confession became a central issue: his defense argued it was coerced. Kogut had been interrogated for many hours, awake for nearly 30, and he later recanted. His lawyer portrayed him as vulnerable — with limited education and substance issues — and said police lied about his polygraph results and pressured him into confession. Prosecutors contended the confession and other evidence were compelling, but in a 2005 bench trial the judge rejected the videotaped confession as unreliable and Kogut was acquitted; charges against Restivo and Halstead were dismissed days later.
The overturned convictions led to lawsuits against Nassau County. Two of the exonerated men were later awarded damages; Kogut received none in his civil suit. For Theresa’s family, the setbacks were wrenching. “If they didn’t do it, then who did it?” became a haunting question.
The mystery remained for years until new forensic tools — notably genetic genealogy — reopened possibilities. DNA evidence collected from Theresa in 1984 had remained unidentified for decades, but advances allowed investigators to reanalyze and compare it against broader genetic databases. The FBI and genealogists traced the unknown DNA to 63-year-old Richard Bilodeau of Center Moriches. In October 2025, Nassau County officials announced Bilodeau had been arrested and indicted on Theresa’s murder.
Prosecutors say surveillance of Bilodeau led to the recovery of discarded trash, and DNA from a straw in a discarded smoothie cup matched the unidentified sample from Theresa, a key piece they say confirms his connection to the crime. At the time of Theresa’s killing Bilodeau was 23 and living about a mile from both Hot Skates and the Fusco residence. He has denied the charges. At his arrest in 2025 he was working stocking shelves at a Walmart. Prosecutors described him as someone who had lived largely under the radar; friends and family of Theresa did not recognize him as someone connected to her.
Bilodeau’s defense attorneys acknowledge the DNA match is the principal evidence but challenge its significance and the investigative history. They note that decades earlier prosecutors had argued the opposite — that the unidentified DNA was meaningless — when Kogut, Restivo and Halstead were prosecuted. Defense counsel for the newly indicted suspect say the same DA’s office once relied on other evidence and that historical missteps and wrongful convictions will be raised if Bilodeau goes to trial.
Theresa’s exonerated defendants and their advocates warn Bilodeau’s defense may try to shift blame back to them, a prospect that deepens old wounds. Kogut’s former lawyer says the men were wronged by earlier investigations and that those injustices “have no ending.” The county’s handling of the earlier prosecutions and later settlements remains a contentious backdrop to the new case.
Bilodeau is not charged in the unsolved cases of Kelly Morrissey or Jackie Martarella. Kelly remains missing, and Jackie’s murder from 1985 is still unresolved. Families of those victims continue to seek answers. For Theresa’s father and friends, Bilodeau’s indictment offers a chance at closure they have waited 41 years for — but also uncertainty as legal processes reopen painful memories and raise new legal battles over evidence and responsibility.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said the DNA match provided the scientific certainty investigators had lacked for decades. Defense attorneys counter that science alone does not resolve every question and point to the county’s past prosecutorial decisions as material to the current case. Both sides anticipate a contentious trial where the origins of the evidence, investigative conduct, and the reliability of decades-old forensic work will be scrutinized.
For those who grew up in Lynbrook, Hot Skates and the suburban routines of the 1980s are reminders of how ordinary life was shattered by violence. Friends who remember Theresa as a close, guarded companion insist she would not have been sexually active and reject suggestions made in past retrials that she might have engaged in consensual encounters leading up to her murder. Families wait to see if this new scientific breakthrough will finally resolve at least one of the tragedies that changed their lives.
If Bilodeau is convicted, some hope it will end a decades-long search for justice in Theresa’s case, and perhaps provide leads for the other unsolved killings. If not, the unresolved questions and the history of wrongful convictions will continue to haunt the community and the families involved. For now, the DNA on a straw has brought a suspect to court after 41 years — and reopened a chapter of grief, doubt and the long pursuit of closure.