Nearly four decades after 16-year-old Theresa Fusco disappeared following her last shift at Hot Skates ice rink, Richard Bilodeau, 63 has been charged with raping and murdering the late Lynbrook native.
Nassau County prosecutors credit advanced DNA testing conducted by the FBI.
Fusco’s naked body was found on December 5th, 1984, in a wooded area mere blocks away from the ice rink that had terminated her employment on November 10th.
Bilodeau—who once worked the graveyard shift at a Suffolk County Walmart—was reportedly operating a mobile coffee truck and living with his grandparents about a mile from the rink that fall.
In court, Nassau County Assistant District Attorney Jared Rosenblatt told the judge that, when questioned, Bilodeau denied knowing Fusco and recognizing pictures of her, but notably uttered, “yeah, people got away with murder back then.”
Investigators began surveilling Bilodeau earlier this year. The major break in the case came when he discarded a straw after buying a drink at Tropical Smoothie—similar to how authorities nabbed alleged Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann, thanks to DNA lifted from trashed pizza crust in the summer of 2023.
“The DNA from that straw, Richard Bilodeau’s DNA,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly, “was a match to the sample that was taken from Theresa’s body.”
The arrest comes two decades after John Restivo, Dennis Halstead, and John Kogut were released from prison. The trio were jailed for 18 years after being wrongfully convicted in 1986 of killing Fusco. After DNA evidence cleared them, they received $43 million in damages.
Bilodeau denies the charges. He remains held without bail and is due back in court on November 21st.
“Science and DNA evidence doesn’t lie, period,” Donnelly iterates. “It’s 2025, and when you have a DNA match, 100% match, we got the guy.”