Break in 41 year-old cold case through the aid of high-tech DNA testing by the FBI leads to Walmart worker Richard Bilodeau’s arraignment on murder charges in Nassau County on Wednesday

Theresa Fusco, 16, an aspiring dancer, disappeared after she left her job at the popular Hot Skates skating rink in Lynbrook on Nov. 10, 1984

She was found dead and naked nearby on Dec. 5, 1984, ‘raped, beaten and strangled, then dumped in the woods’

Bilodeau, 63, was charged Wednesday with the brutal 1984 murder and rape of the Long Island teenage girl

Three local men, John Restivo, Dennis Halstead and John Kogut, were arrested and convicted in Fusco’s murder in 1986

Each had served up to 18 years behind bars by the time DNA evidence cleared all three men

They were freed in 2003, then sued and were awarded $43 million for wrongful prosecution

Bilodeau was ordered held without bail, returns to court appearance on Nov. 21

Richard Bilodeau appears at the Nassau County Courthouse on Wednesday, October 15, 2025, indicted in the killing of Theresa Fusco

A Walmart employee has been charged in Nassau County with the brutal 1984 murder and rape of a 16-year-old Long Island girl, ending four decades of mystery and speculation.
Richard Bilodeau, 63, was arraigned Wednesday on murder charges for the Nov. 10, 1984, cold-case slaying of Theresa Fusco, thanks to high-tech DNA testing by the FBI, authorities said.
Bilodeau who worked the overnight shift at Walmart in Suffolk County, on Wednesday was charged with a murder for which three men had been convicted. Each had served up to 18 years behind bars before they were cleared by DNA evidence
“I never gave up hope,” Thomas Fusco, the slain teen’s dad, told reporters. “I always had faith in the system. 

Theresa Fusco was 16 when she was assaulted and murdered 41 years ago

“For me, hearing that there was someone [who took] my daughter’s life will bring closure to me and my family,” he said. “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 Nov. 10, 1984, and disappeared. Her naked body was found nearby on Dec. 5.
Discussing the march to identifying the killer, Assistant District Attorney Jared Rosenblatt said in court. “The DNA was taken from a vaginal swab,” and it pointed toward Bilodeau.

Richard Bilodeau who worked the overnight shift at Walmart in Suffolk County, on Wednesday was charged with a murder for which three men had been convicted – each had served up to 18 years behind bars before they were cleared by DNA evidence

16-year-old Theresa Fusco, [photo], an aspiring dancer. She was last seen leaving her job at the popular Hot Skates skating rink in Lynbrook on Nov. 10, 1984

“The defendant worked the overnight shift at Walmart in Suffolk County.” When questioned, the defendant “denied knowing [Fusco],” 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.”
According to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, on the night, Fusco left the rink in tears after being fired before she went missing.
The teenager’s body was found a month later, “buried beneath leaves in a wooded area a few blocks away from Hot Skates,” Donnelly said.

Investigators identified Bilodeau as a potential suspect in the case and trailed him and in Feb., DNA from a straw retrieved after he a bought a drink at Tropical Smoothie near his Suffolk County home, to the vaginal swab from the victim

Police said the bubbly teen had been raped, beaten and strangled, then dumped in the woods.
The grisly case horrified the quiet suburban community for months, until three local men, John Restivo, Dennis Halstead and John Kogut, were arrested and convicted in the teen’s horrific murder in 1986.
By the time , DNA evidence cleared all three men, each had served up to 18 years behind bars.
They were freed in 2003, then sued and were awarded $43 million for wrongful prosecution, with the verdict later upheld on appeal.

Richard Bilodeau [center], is escorted into court in Nassau County Wednesday where he was charged with rape and murder from four decades ago

Donnelly said investigators identified Bilodeau as a potential suspect in the decades-old case and trailed him.
Their break came in February, 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.
“The DNA from that straw, Richard Bilodeau’s DNA, was a match to the sample that was taken from Theresa’s body,” she said.
“He was 24-years old,” Donnelly added. “He was operating, according to him, a mobile coffee truck in Nassau County and he was living with his grandparents,” about a mile from the rink.

Bilodeau is accused of beating, raping and strangling Theresa Fusco, [photo], in late 1984. The real culprit appears to have been charged at last after three men were wrongly convicted in 1986. They were cleared and freed 18 years later

Asked about the earlier wrongful prosecution in the case, 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 his client was behind the decades-old murder.
The charges bring long-awaited relief for the tragic teen’s parents.
Bilodeau was ordered held without bail pending a return court appearance on Nov. 21.