Four decades after 16-year-old Theresa Fusco vanished from a Long Island roller rink, a DNA match from a discarded smoothie straw has led to the arrest of 63-year-old Richard Bilodeau, ending one of New York’s longest-running cold cases.

A Forgotten Teen, A Town Haunted

When Theresa Fusco finished her shift at Hot Skates in Lynbrook, New York, on a chilly November night in 1984, no one imagined it would be the last time she was seen alive. The 16-year-old disappeared on her way home; a month later, her body was discovered in nearby woods. She had been raped and strangled, her promising life brutally cut short. For forty years, the case became a symbol of justice delayed, three innocent men were wrongly convicted, later exonerated by DNA testing, and the real killer vanished into obscurity. That is, until investigators turned their attention to a quiet Walmart worker named Richard Bilodeau.

A Smoothie Straw and a Chilling Remark

In February 2025, Nassau County detectives secretly collected a straw Bilodeau had discarded at a smoothie shop in Suffolk County. Forensic analysts extracted DNA from it and matched it to genetic material preserved from the Fusco crime scene in 1984 - a match authorities call “indisputable.” When confronted by investigators, Bilodeau allegedly uttered the eerie words: “People got away with murder back then.” Bilodeau, who once lived less than a mile from both Theresa’s home and the roller rink, was charged with second-degree murder and rape. He pleaded not guilty at his October 15, 2025 arraignment and remains held pending trial.

DNA Technology and the Rise of Cold-Case Justice

The arrest underscores how modern DNA forensics, touch DNA analysis, and discarded-item testing are revolutionizing unsolved cases. Under U.S. law, genetic material left in public like a cup or straw, is considered abandoned property, meaning police can test it without a warrant. That legal gray area, once controversial, has become a powerful weapon for prosecutors. Similar tactics cracked the Golden State Killer, the Gilgo Beach murders, and now, the Theresa Fusco case, nearly forty years later.

The Human Cost of Wrongful Convictions

The Fusco case is more than a triumph of modern forensic science, it’s also a haunting reminder of how fragile the justice system can be when built on flawed evidence and outdated methods. In 1986, three Long Island men - John Kogut, John Restivo, and Dennis Halstead, were arrested, charged, and ultimately convicted of Theresa Fusco’s murder. Their convictions rested on confessions extracted under extreme pressure and on physical evidence later proven unreliable. For nearly twenty years, they lived behind bars branded as killers, their families ostracized and their futures destroyed. When DNA testing finally became advanced enough to re-examine the evidence in the early 2000s, it revealed what they had claimed all along, they were innocent. In 2003, their convictions were overturned. The exonerations sparked widespread outrage and led to multimillion-dollar settlements against Nassau County and the City of Glen Cove.

Justice, Memory, and the Psychology of a Long-Buried Crime

Forensic psychologists note that long-buried crimes often resurface just as perpetrators begin to believe they’ve escaped justice. Many live seemingly ordinary lives, holding steady jobs, raising families, blending into their communities while quietly carrying the weight of guilt for decades. In Richard Bilodeau’s case, prosecutors point to his alleged remark, “People got away with murder back then,” as more than coincidence. Experts suggest such statements may reveal a subconscious confession - a slip from someone who has spent a lifetime rational