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The Killing of Theresa Fusco Full Episode · Weird Darkness:True crime & The unexplained

• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Kelly Morrissey was a young girl who didn't like to
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: stay home. She liked to hang out with her friends.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: June 12th, 1984, Kelly walks to a payphone near a
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Shell gas station over on Merrick Road in Lindbrook and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: meets up with another one of her friends and, um,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: They make some phone calls. After that payphone, we don't
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: know where Kelly went.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Knowing Kelly, there is no way I believe she ran away.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: No.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: And then on November 10, 1984, just five months later,
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: Teresa Fusco disappears.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 0:53
  Speaker 5: And what is the initial thought?
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: The initial thought is there might be a connection. Teresa
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: worked at a roller rink on Merrick Road in Lindbrook,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Hot Skates.
• 1:04
  Speaker 6: And for her to go to Hot Skates, she would
• 1:06
  Speaker 6: have to walk in this direction down the street.
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: Did you ever worry about her walking?
• 1:11
  Speaker 6: No, I never really worried about her walking anywhere in
• 1:14
  Speaker 6: the neighborhood.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: That evening, she apparently got fired. She's upset, and then
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: she leaves.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: Wasn't she supposed to go to Lisa Kaplan's house.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, her best friend, yeah.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: She was going to come to my house after she
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: got off of work and sleep over.
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: So it becomes like 9 o'clock. She's not there. Yep, 9.30,
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: not there.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: 10 o'clock, I just thought maybe she went home. Well,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: the next morning, her mother called, and her mom asked
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: my mom, can you please have Lisa send Teresa home?
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: And my mom said, well, Teresa's not here. Her mom
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: called the police department. We went to all the places
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: we would hang out and she wasn't anywhere that we searched.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: It's just very coincidental. Same neighborhood, same timeframe, two girls
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: who knew each other. I'm like, something's not right. Something's
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: just not right.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And then 25 days later, there's two boys coming back
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: to hang out here in the woods. They see a
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: body and they run to the deli and ask to
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: call 911. Police show up and they find Teresa Fusco.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Teresa had been strangled, beaten and raped.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: It truly was shattering at 16 to never have lost
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: anybody that you loved in such a horrific way. You
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: just can't get over that.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: But until there's a connection in the two cases, one's
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: still a missing girl, and now one's a homicide. John
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Kogut was brought in by the detectives as a suspect
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: in the murder of Teresa Fosco. And during that time,
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: he confessed to the murder of Teresa.
• 3:14
  Speaker 7: He decided that I had to kill her.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: And then during that confession, he implicated two of his buddies.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: And when I saw the three men who were arrested
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: in handcuffs.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: I thought to myself, who are these people? They're older.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: Who are they?
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: The theory was always it was three guys.
• 3:34
  Speaker 8: Yeah.
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: And the DNA didn't match any of them.
• 3:37
  Speaker 8: No, it didn't.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: If they didn't do it, then who did it?
• 3:45
  Speaker 9: Today we arraigned 63-year-old Richard Belodo for the murder of
• 3:51
  Speaker 9: Teresa Fusco.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: And I said, okay, here we go again.
• 4:07
  Speaker 10: Thank you.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: First, 15-year-old Kelly Morrissey vanished into the night. On June 12, 1984,
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: she left her home after dinner and never came back.
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: Five months later, it was her friend Teresa Fusco. On
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: November 10, 1984, the 16-year-old left her job at Hot Skates,
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: a popular roller rink, never to be heard from again.
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: 41 years ago, Trying to find them was a different job.
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: Police had to look for real footprints, not digital ones,
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: and it was easy to vanish without a trace. Kelly
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: Morrissey and Teresa Fusco were growing up in the suburbs
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: of Long Island. Vicki Papagno lived around the corner from
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: Kelly in Massapequa.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: She actually was the first person I ever smoked a
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: cigarette with, was Kelly. I was from a divorced family.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: She was from a divorced family. We connected that way.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: She was like my sister I never had.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: When they were in junior high, Kelly's family moved about
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: 10 miles away to Limbrook. By then, Kelly had made
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: some new friends.
• 5:59
  Speaker 11: One of the first people that she met when she
• 6:02
  Speaker 11: moved to Limbrook was Teresa Fusco.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: Kelly's mother, Iris, and her then-fiancé, Paul Umstead, watched the
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: friendship develop.
• 6:12
  Speaker 11: She was very good friends with Teresa, and so she
• 6:16
  Speaker 11: made friends very easily.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: She met her friends at malls and in person. Kids
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: roamed around freely. No one could keep tabs on each
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: other 24-7. It was a different time, and Kelly Morrissey
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: and Teresa Fusco... were typical teens for 1984. Well, let's.
• 6:42
  Speaker 12: Take them on a little stroll down memory lane.
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: That was the year Ronald Reagan was president.
• 6:49
  Speaker 4: Ghostbusters and Footloose were the breakout hits. Madonna was climbing
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: the charts, and fashion followed. It was the year Steve
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: Jobs introduced something revolutionary.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: Hello, I am Maggie and Josh.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: We didn't have cell phones, social media, so we were
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: pen pals. We would get our stationery, and we would
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: just write back and forth, and that's how we communicated.
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: When Vicki was visiting Kelly, she would sometimes hang out
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: with Teresa, who also became her pen pal.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: Postmark 1982, from Limbrook, New York, from Teresa Fusco. And
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: it says, Dear Vicki, Hi, what's up? Nothing much here.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: When are you going to visit Kelly again? When you do,
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: call me, okay? How's all the boys there?
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: They cute?
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: In Linbrook, by far the best place to meet boys
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: was at Hot Skates, as advertised here in 1984.
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: What are you doing tonight?
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Oh, we would go to Hot Skates Roller Rink. We
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: would go there, roller skate around.
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: How important was Hot Skates in your life?
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: Oh, Hot Skates was a big deal to everybody that
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: lived in the area, even outside of the area. We
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: would just go there and hang out with our friends
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: and listen to music.
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: Lisa Kaplan, now Johnson, was Teresa Fusco's closest friend.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: We always would try to dress very similar. We would
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: buy the same clothing. We would wear our makeup the same.
• 8:31
  Speaker 5: Did you guys confide in each other?
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: About everything.
• 8:35
  Speaker 5: Literally everything?
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: Literally everything.
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: No one gave safety a second thought.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: You could walk absolutely anywhere and not be afraid of anything,
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: in the dark, during the day, alone with friends.
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: And that explains why it was business as usual at
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: the Morrissey house a couple of miles away when 15-year-old
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: Kelly walked out the front door alone after dinner. She
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: said she'd be back by 9.30. It was June 12, 1984.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: Iris didn't give it a second thought. She and Paul
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: were raising eight children together.
• 9:16
  Speaker 11: Somebody came in, and I heard somebody in the kitchen
• 9:18
  Speaker 11: yell down, I'm home, and okay. And you could hear
• 9:22
  Speaker 11: doors opening and closing, kids coming in and out.
• 9:24
  Speaker 5: And I took it.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: It was Kelly.
• 9:26
  Speaker 11: It wasn't until the next morning when she didn't come
• 9:29
  Speaker 11: down to go to school that I went down there
• 9:30
  Speaker 11: and realized that her bed wasn't made and the clothes
• 9:32
  Speaker 11: were still there, and she hadn't come in.
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: And were you panicking at that point, Iris?
• 9:38
  Speaker 11: Oh, yeah, and then we called the police, but they
• 9:41
  Speaker 11: told us that she wasn't missing 24 hours. At that point,
• 9:45
  Speaker 11: they really wouldn't take a report.
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: On those days, they waited.
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: Nassau County Detective Freddie Goldman would review both Teresa and
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: Kelly's cases some 25 years later.
• 9:59
  Speaker 5: He's retired.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: Now, but he agreed to walk us through the timeline
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: and the evidence from back then. At the time of
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: Kelly's disappearance, he says police found no reason to think
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: there was a crime.
• 10:13
  Speaker 5: It seemed like she was a runaway.
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: There's tons of missing persons cases on a daily basis.
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: Is that how Kelly Morrissey's case was initially handled?
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: Of course, yeah.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: At 15 years old, she wouldn't know how to do
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: life unless somebody was there to help her. I don't
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: foresee her ever just running away and not talking to anyone,
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: not reaching out to anyone. So I knew it was
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: serious from day one.
• 10:42
  Speaker 5: Months went by with no sign of Kelly. That had
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: to be So tough.
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: Oh, it was.
• 10:49
  Speaker 11: I mean, everywhere I went, every child from the back
• 10:52
  Speaker 11: looked like Kelly had stopped to look to see if
• 10:55
  Speaker 11: it was Kelly. It was horrible.
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: If Kelly had been written off as a runaway and
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: not a priority, five months later, her case got a
• 11:07
  Speaker 4: second look.
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: It was November 10th.
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: Teresa Fusco never showed up at Lisa's house for their sleepover.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: I thought maybe she went to somebody else's house. And
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: so I called a few friends and said, you know,
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: did Teresa come over? At that point, I still wasn't
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: overly concerned.
• 11:28
  Speaker 5: Teresa's parents were divorced.
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: The next morning, her father, Thomas, had a scheduled visit
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: and arrived at his ex's house to pick up his daughter.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: How soon did you realize that this was a problem?
• 11:41
  Speaker 8: I know my wife and I looked at each other
• 11:44
  Speaker 8: and said, something's not right here. We realized this is
• 11:48
  Speaker 8: out of norm. What do we do now?
• 11:53
  Speaker 5: When did you become really concerned?
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: I became really concerned when she wasn't ready for school
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: on Monday morning. We walked to school every morning. Why
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: wasn't she there?
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: Monday came and went.
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: It would be almost a month before anyone knew what
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: had happened to Teresa.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: This is my daughter, Teresa. She was my precious little girl.
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: For Teresa Fusco's father, Thomas, and her brother, John... We
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: were happy.
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: It seemed as though the entire town of Limbrook was
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: out looking for her.
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: How big was the search?
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: Everyone and then something.
• 12:49
  Speaker 7: Everywhere.
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: Nearly a month later, not far from Hot Skates and
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: near the Long Island Railroad tracks, Teresa's body was discovered. Beaten, raped,
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: and strangled. Buried under a pile of leaves and wooden
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: shipping pallets. Thomas and John are still haunted by where
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: she was found.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: I had walked over it twice. Yeah. I didn't know
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: she was under the pallet. We just walked over the pallet.
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: And I'm glad I didn't find her. That would have
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: killed me. I never heard the word homicide.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: So when two homicide detectives arrived at Lisa's house, she
• 13:30
  Speaker 4: didn't yet understand what that meant.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: And they said, well, we think we found her. My
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: heart started to race. I started to get excited thinking,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: my God, thank God they found her. And then they
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: told me that they found the body. At 16, it
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: was life-shattering.
• 13:50
  Speaker 9: When her body was found, it was a shock not
• 13:54
  Speaker 9: just to the Limburg community, but I think to all
• 13:56
  Speaker 9: of Nassau County.
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: Ann Donnelly would grow up to be the Nassau County
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: District Attorney. But before that, she had a childhood a
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: lot like Teresa Fusco's.
• 14:08
  Speaker 9: I used to hang out at hot skates when I
• 14:11
  Speaker 9: was a kid. I was in college when it happened.
• 14:15
  Speaker 9: It changed the way we saw the world back in
• 14:18
  Speaker 9: the 80s. It changed all that. And not for the better.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: These are news articles I collected throughout the years on
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: this case.
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: 41 years later, Vicki Pappagno keeps a sad scrapbook. It
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: tells the story of losing her two friends, Teresa and Kelly.
• 14:39
  Speaker 5: This one.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: Which includes both of them, Limbrook girl missing second from
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: the village.
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: Kelly had been missing for nearly six months when Teresa
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: was found.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: It's just too coincidental to me. I feel like whoever
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: committed Teresa could have something to do with Kelly.
• 14:59
  Speaker 5: You have two girls who went missing and then one
• 15:01
  Speaker 5: who was murdered.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I was afraid to be home alone at nighttime.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: It was frightening because we had no answers.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: Investigators on Teresa's case had very little to go on.
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: No footprints, no fingerprints, no murder weapon.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: Hair samples were taken from Teresa, also a sexual assault swab.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: But DNA testing had not advanced enough to find out
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: who it belonged to. While looking for links between the
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: two girls, they zeroed in on John Kogut, a 21-year-old
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: landscaper who told detectives he had dated Kelly for about
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: a week.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: I've heard the name John Kogert before. It was early,
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: right when she first started liking him or dating him.
• 15:54
  Speaker 4: Kogert was asked about Kelly's disappearance. He also was asked
• 15:58
  Speaker 4: about Teresa's killing and denied any knowledge of it. Kogert
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: agreed to come in and take a polygraph test.
• 16:06
  Speaker 5: Four days later, he did.
• 16:09
  Speaker 4: And police told him he failed it. Kogut was interrogated
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: through the night and into the next morning. After nearly
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: 12 hours of questioning, his denials changed. Nassau County Detective
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: Joseph Volpe wrote down what he said Kogut told him.
• 16:28
  Speaker 4: That on the night Teresa went missing, Kogut was with
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: John Restivo and Dennis Halstead in John's van. when they
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: saw Teresa walking away from Hot Skates. Dennis Halstead was
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: known to investigators back then, says Freddie Goldman.
• 16:46
  Speaker 5: He had had some minor brushes with police.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Dennis Halstead had an apartment adjacent to the Shell gas
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: station where Kelly was last seen at that payphone. We
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: were told that Kelly hung out in that apartment frequently.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: She had the key to his apartment.
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: It sounds like Dennis Halstead was viewed kind of as
• 17:05
  Speaker 4: a bad influence on the younger kids in the area.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: It would seem, yeah.
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: John Restivo was more of a clean slate.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: He was a working fellow. Although he was friends with them,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: he didn't have a background like them. He didn't hang
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: out in Dennis' apartment or that we knew of.
• 17:24
  Speaker 4: Police took Kogut to the district attorney's office, where he
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: was videotaped.
• 17:30
  Speaker 7: I want to talk to you about the death of
• 17:34
  Speaker 7: Teresa Fusco.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: He was interviewed by Assistant District Attorney George Peck. He
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: agreed to go on video.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: Camera rolling, Kogut detailed what happened to Teresa once she
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: got into the van that night. Kogut told investigators that
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: Teresa was raped twice by Dennis Halstead and John Restivo.
• 17:57
  Speaker 4: When she said she was going to tell somebody, they
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: couldn't let that happen.
• 18:02
  Speaker 8: He decided that I had to kill her.
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: And Dennis told her that she had to die.
• 18:09
  Speaker 11: And what did John agree to this too?
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: John didn't say nothing.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: And then John Kogut describes how he killed Teresa.
• 18:20
  Speaker 9: And then what happened after you got the rope?
• 18:25
  Speaker 10: I wrapped it around her neck.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: Twice, and then I tightened it like this, and then
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: her body went limp. John Kogut would later recant everything
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: he told police. But on that day, Goldman says, investigators
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: were confident they had Teresa Fusco's killer in custody and
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: had the evidence they needed to prove it. But later,
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: on that very same day... Another teenage girl went missing.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: March 26, 1985. When 19-year-old Jackie Martarella didn't show up
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: to start her shift at Burger King, her older brother
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: Martin knew something was off.
• 19:23
  Speaker 7: She's very prompt. She was very dependable. If I did
• 19:27
  Speaker 7: not show up, then we knew there was something wrong.
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: Most nights, Jackie walked to work from the family home
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: in Oceanside, a town a few miles away from Lenbrook.
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: How would she get there?
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: If she's walking, what was the route she would take
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: to go to Burger King?
• 19:42
  Speaker 7: Pretty much straight down Long Beach Road.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: Did you ever worry about her walking Not really, no.
• 19:49
  Speaker 5: No.
• 19:49
  Speaker 4: Jackie had recently graduated from high school. She was working
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: part-time and taking accounting classes, saving money to buy a car.
• 19:59
  Speaker 5: How would you describe your sister?
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Describe her? She was very girly.
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: Complete with posters of teen pop stars on her bedroom wall.
• 20:10
  Speaker 7: I remember Leif Garrett, whoever he was.
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: I remember Leif Garrett.
• 20:14
  Speaker 7: There was posters of that. She was into dance. She
• 20:17
  Speaker 7: liked doing that. She liked the clothes, very finicky with
• 20:21
  Speaker 7: the clothes.
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: And now she was missing. So what did you and
• 20:27
  Speaker 5: your father do?
• 20:29
  Speaker 7: I think we called the police. And then they took notes.
• 20:35
  Speaker 7: And then they started looking. And then those other two
• 20:38
  Speaker 7: came up. And they were, you know, saying, look what's
• 20:41
  Speaker 7: happening here. So it became, everybody became interested.
• 20:45
  Speaker 5: Nearly a month went by with no sign of Jackie.
• 20:50
  Speaker 7: You know, all the worst thoughts go through your mind
• 20:52
  Speaker 7: when something like that happens. And of course, what happened happened.
• 20:59
  Speaker 10: The worst of the worst.
• 21:02
  Speaker 7: They found her body 26 days later in Woodmead Golf Course.
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: April 22, 1985, a man looking for golf balls in
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: the high grass off the 17th hole found a naked body.
• 21:19
  Speaker 5: It was Jackie.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: She was murdered, obviously, and discarded.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: According to former Nassau County Detective Freddie Goldman, Jackie was
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: left the same way Teresa Fusco had been, raped and strangled. Initially,
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: did investigators think, oh, my God, these cases all have
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: to be connected?
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Yes and no. But with Kogert sitting there, it kind of,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: you know, it threw a monkey wrench and everything.
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: John Kogert, the man who had confessed to killing Teresa Fusco,
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: was in police custody.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: How could he be the killer if we had him
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: in custody the same day that she went missing? So
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: obviously it wasn't him. Yeah, could it be a Holstead, Restivo?
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: But no.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: Jackie's homicide was not going to be easy to solve.
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: Her body was so badly decomposed, no DNA swab could
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: be taken.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I'm sure it heightened the alertness and awareness of the
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: community because now you know that there's somebody out there that's,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: you know, going after young girls.
• 22:23
  Speaker 4: Kelly Morrissey was still missing. Police knew she had hung
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: out at Dennis Halstead's apartment. But there was nothing more
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: to Ty Halstead or Kogut to her disappearance. Was there
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: any evidence that indicated that they were involved in Kelly's disappearance?
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: No, no.
• 22:47
  Speaker 4: Teresa Fusco's killing was the only case police could pin down.
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: By June 1985, John Kogut, John Restivo, and Dennis Halstead
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: had all been charged with her rape and murder. and
• 23:01
  Speaker 4: all three pleaded not guilty. Kogut went on trial first. Later,
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: Halstead and Restivo were tried together.
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: I remember sitting in the witness box testifying and the
• 23:16
  Speaker 3: district attorney saying, please speak louder.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: Lisa Johnson was just 18 and a star witness.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: And here I am, you know, sitting there very meek
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: and timid and in a room full of strangers testifying
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: about my friend who was killed, it was difficult. It
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: still is difficult.
• 23:43
  Speaker 4: John Kogut offered an alibi, and according to a New
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: Yorker magazine investigation, the van police said was used in
• 23:51
  Speaker 4: Teresa's abduction was actually out of commission and up on
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: cinder blocks the day Teresa went missing. But two hairs
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: belonging to Teresa that police say they recovered from the
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: floor of Restivo's van were too powerful to ignore, and
• 24:10
  Speaker 4: Kogut's detailed confession trumped everything. I left it around the neck.
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: By February of.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: 1987, Kogut, Halstead, and Restivo had been convicted of the
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: rape and murder of Teresa Fusco and sentenced to more
• 24:28
  Speaker 4: than 30 years to life. It had by then been
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: two long years for Teresa's dad. He and the rest
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: of her family tried to move on.
• 24:44
  Speaker 8: We thought, believing me, that there was time for closure.
• 24:48
  Speaker 8: We had gone to parents that murdered children. We had support,
• 24:53
  Speaker 8: and they were looking for support, and we were looking
• 24:55
  Speaker 8: for support and closure.
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: But there was no closure.
• 24:59
  Speaker 4: What prosecutors had insisted was an airtight case against the
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: three men was going to blow up spectacularly. In 2003,
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: nearly 19 years after Teresa was killed, more sophisticated DNA
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: testing became available. It told a different story. John Kogut,
• 25:21
  Speaker 4: John Restivo, and Dennis Halstead's convictions were all overturned.
• 25:28
  Speaker 13: Just six hours ago, after 17 years in prison, the
• 25:33
  Speaker 13: murder-rape convictions of three Long Island men were overturned following
• 25:37
  Speaker 13: stunning new DNA evidence.
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: And new testing not only ruled out Kogut, Halstead, and Restivo,
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: it pointed to someone else entirely, another unknown male. Everything
• 25:53
  Speaker 4: Teresa Fusco's family and friends thought they knew about her
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: killing and her killer was changing.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: Wait a second. There was investigations. We trusted the detectives.
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: We trusted the police to do the right thing. How
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: could they do this to us?
• 26:11
  Speaker 8: After almost 18 years, John Kogut, John.
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: Restivo, and Dennis Halstead were out of prison and in
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: the arms of their families.
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: I waited for this for 18 years, and I'm just,
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry, I'm just really, I.
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Just can't believe it's happening.
• 26:44
  Speaker 5: But their legal problems were not over.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: Nassau County District Attorney Dennis Dillon had decided to retry
• 26:52
  Speaker 4: all three for the murder of Teresa Fusco, starting with
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: John Kogut. who again pleaded not guilty. There was still
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: his videotaped confession, and that became the centerpiece of the
• 27:06
  Speaker 4: case against Kogut at his second trial in September 2005.
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: He decided that.
• 27:11
  Speaker 6: I had to kill him.
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: The confession, the prosecution argued, was more important than all
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: other evidence, even the new DNA.
• 27:23
  Speaker 10: When I saw the video, I go, whoa, it looks
• 27:27
  Speaker 10: like it's legit.
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: But Kogut's defense attorney, Paul Castellero, says the video is misleading.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: As damaging as Kogut's statements sound, he says it's what
• 27:39
  Speaker 4: you don't see on camera that matters.
• 27:43
  Speaker 10: Part of it is, you know, it's staged.
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: There is a detective.
• 27:47
  Speaker 10: Sitting off camera, watching it and monitoring it and making
• 27:52
  Speaker 10: sure it goes right. It's like a play.
• 27:56
  Speaker 11: Here.
• 27:56
  Speaker 5: Kogut struggles with names.
• 27:59
  Speaker 9: Teresa Fusco.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Teresa Fusco.
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: Even his alleged accomplice's name.
• 28:04
  Speaker 14: John Estivo, Dennis Shapiro.
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: And then asks for help.
• 28:08
  Speaker 7: What's his last name?
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: Well, are you talking to Detective Volpe, who's also in
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: the room?
• 28:16
  Speaker 10: That kind of shows it was coerced.
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: Kogut was an easy target, Castellero says. He had a
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: 10th grade education and a substance abuse problem that Castellero
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: says police took advantage of.
• 28:31
  Speaker 10: Tells him about his drinking, his drugs, all the stuff
• 28:35
  Speaker 10: that they can use against him.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: And then, Castellero says, they lied to him. The police
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: told John Kogut that he failed a polygraph.
• 28:46
  Speaker 10: No, John Kogut passed this polygraph test with flying colors.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: And even though Kogut had already told police over and
• 28:54
  Speaker 4: over that he had nothing to do with Teresa Fusco's killing,
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: Castellero says they convinced him he did.
• 29:02
  Speaker 10: They told him he blacked out.
• 29:03
  Speaker 5: He didn't remember.
• 29:04
  Speaker 10: You know, this is what you did. This is where
• 29:06
  Speaker 10: you took her.
• 29:07
  Speaker 9: By the time.
• 29:10
  Speaker 4: This video was recorded, Kogut had been in custody for
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: 18 hours, interrogated for nearly 12 of them, and awake
• 29:27
  Speaker 4: for almost 30.
• 29:28
  Speaker 10: At some point in time, you know, you want out,
• 29:32
  Speaker 10: you give in.
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: But the confession wasn't the only thing prosecutors would have
• 29:37
  Speaker 4: to defend. They had to contend with... the new DNA
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: evidence pointing to an unknown male. So prosecutors suggested that
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: Teresa must have been with someone else right before she
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: was abducted by Kogut, Halstead and Restivo.
• 29:55
  Speaker 10: Then all of a sudden she had a consensual sexual encounter.
• 29:58
  Speaker 10: That's what they said.
• 29:59
  Speaker 4: But investigators were never able to identify anyone who had
• 30:04
  Speaker 4: been sexually involved with Teresa. And Teresa's best friend, Lisa,
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: had to take the stand again at this trial to
• 30:12
  Speaker 4: talk about it. And I mean, this is a tough
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: question to ask, and I want to ask it properly.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: But as far as you know, was Teresa even sexually active?
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: Absolutely not. And we spoke about that. And that's not
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: something that she was going to do before she was married.
• 30:30
  Speaker 4: Lisa, once their star witness, was this time around undercutting
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: their case.
• 30:37
  Speaker 10: They went against their own witnesses and, in fact, argued
• 30:40
  Speaker 10: that she went from being a virgin to being someone
• 30:44
  Speaker 10: who had a quickie in a skating rink where she worked.
• 30:48
  Speaker 10: It was preposterous.
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: It was demeaning.
• 30:50
  Speaker 5: Did that make you mad?
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: It did, because it's not something she would have done.
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: Ever.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: And I will go to my grave saying that Teresa
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: was not having sex with anybody.
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: Prosecutors did still have the physical evidence from the first trial.
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: The two hairs belonging to Teresa that police said they
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: found on the floor of John Restivo's van. But that too,
• 31:17
  Speaker 4: Castellero argued, was tainted. There was a science to analyzing
• 31:23
  Speaker 4: whether the hairs came from someone dead or alive.
• 31:27
  Speaker 10: They displayed a certain decomposition that is only present when
• 31:34
  Speaker 10: the hairs are attached to the head of a person
• 31:38
  Speaker 10: who is deceased.
• 31:40
  Speaker 4: That meant the hairs could not have been left in
• 31:42
  Speaker 4: the van while Teresa was still alive, according to Castellero.
• 31:48
  Speaker 10: We believe that they went in and took them from
• 31:50
  Speaker 10: the medical examiner's office and said they found them in
• 31:52
  Speaker 10: the van. In other words, they were planted.
• 31:56
  Speaker 4: But in closing, prosecutors denied the hairs were planted. After
• 32:01
  Speaker 4: Castellero was able to raise serious questions about the prosecution's case,
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: Kogut's fate was in the hands of one person, a
• 32:11
  Speaker 4: single judge, not a jury. Kogut had decided to take
• 32:16
  Speaker 4: his chance with a bench trial. And after nearly three
• 32:20
  Speaker 4: months of testimony, the judge reached a verdict.
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: This is Judge Ortt's decision.
• 32:27
  Speaker 10: The court will not accept the confession and accordingly finds
• 32:30
  Speaker 10: the defendant not guilty of murder in the second degree
• 32:33
  Speaker 10: under count one.
• 32:34
  Speaker 5: And what does that mean when the judge won't accept
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: the confession?
• 32:38
  Speaker 10: It means that the confession is false. It is not credible.
• 32:41
  Speaker 10: And that's what the judge found. He did not believe
• 32:44
  Speaker 10: the confession.
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: Eight days later, the prosecution formally dismissed the charges against
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: Restivo and Halstead.
• 32:55
  Speaker 6: When John Kogut was acquitted, I was devastated, only because
• 32:59
  Speaker 6: I've seen that confession of his over and over again,
• 33:03
  Speaker 6: and I believed then that he was telling the truth.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: It makes you feel like you got hit in the
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: face with a frigging shovel, and you don't know how
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: to bounce back from that.
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: It was December of 2005. Teresa Fusco had been dead
• 33:18
  Speaker 4: for more than 20 years, and now nothing.
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: About her case could be laid to rest.
• 33:25
  Speaker 8: It's, for me as the father, haunting, haunting to go
• 33:29
  Speaker 8: through it over again.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: I felt as if the life had been sucked out
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: of me. Everything that we fought for, everything that we
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: testified for, everything that was investigated, and all of the
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: proof and all of the evidence meant nothing. If they
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: didn't do it, then who did it?
• 33:51
  Speaker 9: Good morning. I'd like to thank my investigators and my
• 33:54
  Speaker 9: prosecutors handling this case for standing here with me today.
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: On October 15, 2025, Ann Donnelly, now the Nassau County
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: District Attorney, had a startling announcement.
• 34:09
  Speaker 9: And after two decades of this case running cold, we
• 34:13
  Speaker 9: have indicted Teresa's killer.
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: The FBI, using the new science of genetic genealogy, had
• 34:21
  Speaker 4: found a match to the unknown DNA.
• 34:25
  Speaker 9: Today we arraigned 63-year-old Richard Bilodo of Center Moriches for
• 34:32
  Speaker 9: the murder of Teresa Fusco.
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: Nearly 41 years later, and thanks to genetic genealogy, Nassau
• 34:52
  Speaker 4: County DA Ann Donnelly was sure they had finally, finally
• 34:57
  Speaker 4: found Teresa Fusco's killer.
• 35:00
  Speaker 9: Teresa's life was violently stolen from her more than 40
• 35:03
  Speaker 9: years ago. But the past is never forgotten.
• 35:08
  Speaker 4: Once the unidentified DNA sample was matched to 63-year-old Richard Bilodeau,
• 35:15
  Speaker 4: Surveillance began. A few months later, prosecutors say a straw
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: in a discarded smoothie cup confirmed he was their man.
• 35:25
  Speaker 4: Bilodeau has denied the charges. At the time of his arrest,
• 35:29
  Speaker 4: he was working at Walmart stocking shelves. At the time
• 35:34
  Speaker 4: of Teresa's killing, he was 23 and living close by.
• 35:39
  Speaker 9: He was living with his grandparents. It's about one mile
• 35:42
  Speaker 9: away from Hot Skates. It's about one mile away from
• 35:47
  Speaker 9: the Fusco residence.
• 35:50
  Speaker 4: He was a man who had seemingly always lived below
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: the radar.
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: Prosecutor Jared Rosenblatt. Had he ever been married? No. Does
• 36:01
  Speaker 5: he have family or close friends?
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: He has a brother.
• 36:04
  Speaker 5: That he's close to?
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: I can't speak about how close they are.
• 36:08
  Speaker 4: And does he have hobbies? Does this guy do anything
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: other than go to work?
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: I think he gambles on sports a lot.
• 36:16
  Speaker 9: In interviews we conducted with Teresa's friends and family, no
• 36:20
  Speaker 9: one recognized this defendant as someone who was ever associated
• 36:24
  Speaker 9: with Teresa in 1984.
• 36:27
  Speaker 4: Authorities wouldn't speculate about how Richard Bilodeau may have come
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: in contact with Teresa Fusco, but DA Ann Donnelly says
• 36:36
  Speaker 4: she knows he did.
• 36:38
  Speaker 9: When you have a DNA match, 100% match, we got
• 36:42
  Speaker 9: the guy.
• 36:44
  Speaker 4: William Kephart and Daniel Russo, Bilodeau's defense attorneys, see it differently.
• 36:51
  Speaker 4: What evidence are you aware of that connects Richard Bilodeau
• 36:55
  Speaker 4: to the murder of Teresa Fusco?
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: The DNN.
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: That's it?
• 36:59
  Speaker 3: That's it.
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: And they don't find it convincing.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: It's being overstated and overvalued.
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: And what's more.
• 37:06
  Speaker 12: This district attorney's office, this police department, in 1985... stood
• 37:12
  Speaker 12: before a court.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: And said, these three men did this.
• 37:15
  Speaker 12: And they had an ample amount of evidence to prove it.
• 37:19
  Speaker 4: Is that a concern, that they're going to point to
• 37:22
  Speaker 4: the fact that three men went on trial, were convicted
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: for this crime?
• 37:27
  Speaker 9: Yes, I would assume that's what they're going to say.
• 37:31
  Speaker 9: But the difference now is we have science behind us,
• 37:36
  Speaker 9: which they didn't have 40 years ago.
• 37:39
  Speaker 5: And to me.
• 37:42
  Speaker 9: You don't beat the scientific evidence.
• 37:44
  Speaker 4: But at John Kogut's retrial in 2005, the Nassau County
• 37:50
  Speaker 4: DA's office had argued the opposite, that the unidentified DNA
• 37:55
  Speaker 4: taken from Teresa was meaningless.
• 37:59
  Speaker 12: The same DA's office stood up and said, we still believe,
• 38:03
  Speaker 12: based on all of this evidence, that these men are
• 38:07
  Speaker 12: responsible for Ms. Fosco's death. So I don't know how now,
• 38:12
  Speaker 12: in 2025, because you were able to put a name
• 38:14
  Speaker 12: to that DNA, suddenly none of that matters anymore.
• 38:18
  Speaker 10: All of their lies against John Kogut, John Restivo, and
• 38:22
  Speaker 10: Dennis Halstead are going to come back and haunt them
• 38:24
  Speaker 10: during this retrial.
• 38:27
  Speaker 4: Paul Casaliero, John Kogut's former defense attorney, fears that Bilodeau's
• 38:33
  Speaker 4: lawyers will put the blame on the three men who
• 38:36
  Speaker 4: were cleared of the murder two decades ago.
• 38:39
  Speaker 10: They're going to have a trial in which I'm sure
• 38:42
  Speaker 10: the defense is going to be arguing they're guilty.
• 38:45
  Speaker 4: And Casaliero says that's just more salt in the wound
• 38:49
  Speaker 4: for John Kogut, Dennis Halstead, and John Restivo.
• 38:53
  Speaker 10: It's never-ending what Nassau County did to them just has
• 38:59
  Speaker 10: no ending to it.
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: All three men sued Nassau County. Two of them were
• 39:04
  Speaker 4: awarded damages.
• 39:06
  Speaker 14: $ 18 million each to Restivo and co-defendant Dennis Halstead, both
• 39:11
  Speaker 14: exonerated a decade ago for the 1984 murder and rape
• 39:15
  Speaker 14: of Lindbrook teenager Teresa Fusco.
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: But in Kogut's case, a jury found no wrongdoing by
• 39:22
  Speaker 4: Nassau County police and gave him nothing. Let me ask
• 39:27
  Speaker 4: you though, if in fact, Richard Bilodeau is convicted, will
• 39:31
  Speaker 4: either one of you apologize to the three guys who
• 39:34
  Speaker 4: were convicted?
• 39:35
  Speaker 9: No, because I don't owe them an apology. I wasn't
• 39:38
  Speaker 9: even in the office at the time.
• 39:39
  Speaker 4: I know, you represent the office, yeah, but for the
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: Nassau County DA's office.
• 39:45
  Speaker 10: Mr.
• 39:46
  Speaker 9: Dillon did what he thought was right when he dismissed
• 39:48
  Speaker 9: against two of them And I think, you know, they
• 39:52
  Speaker 9: got their apology at that point.
• 39:54
  Speaker 10: The idea that the district attorney of Nassau County can't
• 39:57
  Speaker 10: apologize to these three guys for what they did to
• 40:01
  Speaker 10: them is outrageous.
• 40:04
  Speaker 4: While the Nassau County authorities say once again they have
• 40:07
  Speaker 4: the killer of Teresa Fusco, Richard Bilodeau is not facing
• 40:12
  Speaker 4: charges in either Kelly Morrissey's or Jackie Martarella's cases. Both
• 40:18
  Speaker 4: remain unsolved. leaving two families in limbo.
• 40:23
  Speaker 7: I mean, you're anticipating something, and then it never shows up.
• 40:28
  Speaker 7: She didn't have a bad bone in her body. She
• 40:31
  Speaker 7: missed out on just living a simple life, you know.
• 40:36
  Speaker 11: You know, I look at women in their 50s now
• 40:40
  Speaker 11: and think, that could be Kelly.
• 40:44
  Speaker 5: I mean, that's how old.
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: She would be.
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: When Richard Bilodeau goes on trial for the murder of
• 40:51
  Speaker 4: Teresa Fusco, her father Thomas and her once best friend
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: Lisa will be back in the courtroom for what they
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: hope will be the last time.
• 41:03
  Speaker 8: Closures to me is that if this is the individual,
• 41:06
  Speaker 8: then justice will be done. It's just completely over. 41
• 41:09
  Speaker 8: years is over. Beginning and end.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: Do you hope, do you think, that it might finally end?
• 41:18
  Speaker 5: Be resolved this time around? Or do you still have questions?
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: I trust in the DNA this time. I am so
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: hopeful that there will be a conviction and we can
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: finally put this to rest.
• 41:34
  Speaker 5: 41 years afterwards.
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: It's a long time. It's a lifetime.
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: Thank you.