A former Walmart worker was charged today, October 15, with the brutal 1984 murd£r and r@pe of a 16-year-old Long Island girl, ending decades of mystery and speculation, Nassau County prosecutors announced.
Richard Bilodeau was arraigned on murd£r charges for the Nov. 10, 1984, cold-case k!lling of Theresa Fusco, thanks to high-tech DNA testing by the FBI, authorities said.
“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.”
Fusco, an aspiring dancer, left her job at the popular Hot Skates skating rink in Lynbrook on Nov. 10, 1984, and disappeared — and was found de@d and naked nearby on Dec. 5.
Police said the teen had been r@ped, beaten and str@ngled, then dumped in the woods.
The case horrified the quiet community for months, until three local men — John Restivo, Dennis Halstead and John Kogut — were arrested and convicted in the teen’s horrific murd£r in 1986.
However, DNA evidence later cleared all three after they 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.
Defense attorney Daniel Russo denied his client was behind the grisly murd£r.
The charges bring long-awaited relief for the tragic teen’s parents.
On Wednesday, October 15, her father, Thomas Fusco, hugged a relative at the courthouse and whispered in her ear, “Now you go home and enjoy the rest of your life. Enjoy your daughter.”
Bilodeau was ordered held without bail pending a return court appearance on Nov. 21.