Theresa Fusco 1984 killing: Prosecution asks judge to order defendant Richard Bilodeau to give DNA cheek sample

Nassau County prosecutors want another DNA sample from Richard Bilodeau, the Center Moriches man accused of raping and murdering 16-year-old Theresa Fusco in 1984.

On Friday, prosecutors filed a request to Acting Supreme Court Justice Helene Gugerty seeking an order for Bilodeau, 63, a Home Depot night stockman, to provide a genetic DNA sample from his cheek.

Fusco went missing on Nov. 10, 1984, after getting fired from her job in the food concession stand at the popular Hot Skates roller rink in Lynbrook. The teenager’s naked body was discovered half-buried under leaves along the Long Island Rail Road tracks in Lynbrook on Dec. 5 of that year.

The medical examiner ruled that she had been strangled with a rope.

Fusco was one of three teenage girls who went missing in the Lynbrook area around that time.

Months before Fusco’s murder, her friend Kelly Morrissey, 15, also disappeared. Her parents told Newsday last month that she has never been found. Early in the following year, another local teen, Jacqueline Martarella, 19, was found dead by the Woodmere Country Club golf course.

Three men — John Kogut, Dennis Halstead and John Restivo — were tried and convicted of the Fusco rape and murder. The convictions were tossed on appeal in 2005 after a DNA sample from a vaginal swab taken from Fusco’s body did not match any of the three men. They were released after serving more than 17 years in prison.

No one has been charged in the deaths of Martarella and Morrissey.

The Fusco case remained unsolved until early last year when Nassau County police and the FBI developed a tip leading them to Bilodeau.

In February 2024, while tailing their new suspect, investigators watched Bilodeau leave a Tropical Cafe near his home with a smoothie, prosecutors said. When they saw him toss the drink in the garbage outside his house, they intercepted the trash bag after it was placed on the street and tested the straw for genetic material, according to the brief.

Investigators then compared the DNA profile from the smoothie straw with the DNA profile taken from Fusco and came up with a match.

Now, they are seeking an additional sample, referred to as a buccal swab, taken in a more controlled environment from inside the suspect’s cheek.

Prosecutor Tracy Keeton argued in her brief that "a genetic profile developed from a buccal swab specimen from defendant Richard Bilodeau will provide material evidence identifying [him] as the individual responsible for the crime that took place on Nov. 10, 1984.”

Bilodeau did not appear in court at a brief hearing Friday.

The judge gave defense lawyers Daniel Russo and William Kephart until the beginning of January to respond to the motion.

"We're gonna review it and put it in our papers by Jan. 8, and then look at the grand jury testimony and see where we go,” Kephart said.

The lawyers said they are going through evidence that’s been shared by prosecutors and will continue to prepare their client for trial.

"We’ve met with him a couple of times,” Kephart said. "Under the circumstances, he’s doing fairly well.”