DNA on a straw leads to a teen’s suspected killer 40 years after she went missing

…

She left her home after dinner and never came back.

5 months later, it was her friend Terresa Fusco.

On November 10th, 1984, the 16-year-old left her job at Hot Skates, a popular roller rink, never to be heard from again.

41 years ago, trying to find them was a different job.

Police had to look for real footprints, not digital ones.

And it was easy to vanish without a trace.

Kelly Moresy and Theresa Fusco were growing up in the suburbs of Long Island.

Vicky Papagno lived around the corner from Kelly in Masipiqua.

She actually was the first person I ever smoked a cigarette with was Kelly.

I was from a divorced family.

She was from a divorced family.

We connected that way.

She was like my sister I never had.

>> When they were in junior high, Kelly’s family moved about 10 miles away to Lindbrook.

By then, Kelly had made some new friends.

One of the first people that she met when she moved to Lindbrook was Teresa Fusco.

Kelly’s mother, Iris, and her then fiance, Paul Olmstead, watched the friendship develop.

>> She was very good friends with Teresa.

And uh so she she made friends very easily.

>> She met her friends at malls and in person.

Kids roamed around freely.

No one could keep tabs on each other 247.

It was a different time.

And Kelly Moresy and Teresa Fusco were typical teens for 1984.

Well, let’s take them on a little stroll down memory lane.

>> That was the year Ronald Reagan was president.

Ghostbusters and Foot Loose were the breakout hits.

Madonna was climbing the charts and fashion followed.

It was the year Steve Jobs introduced something revolutionary.

[applause] >> Hello, I am Magintosh.

We didn’t have cell phones, social media, so we were pen pals.

We would get our stationery and we would just write back and forth and that’s how we communicated.

>> When Vicki was visiting Kelly, she would sometimes hang out with Teresa, who also became her pen pal.

>> Postmark 1982 from Lindbrook, New York from Terresa Fusco.

And it says, “Dear Vicki, hi.

What’s up? Nothing much here.

When are you going to visit Kelly again? When you do, call me.

Okay.

How’s all the boys there? They cute in Lindbrook.

By far the best place to meet boys was at Hot Skates as advertised here in 1984.

>> What are you doing tonight? >> Oh, we would go to Hot Skates Roller Rink.

We would go there, roller skate around.

>> How important was hot skates in your life? >> Oh, hot skates was a big deal to everybody that lived in the area, even outside of the area.

We would just go there and hang out with our friends and listen to music.

>> Lisa Kaplan, now Johnson, was Theresa Fusco’s closest friend.

>> We always would try to dress very similar.

We would buy the same clothing.

We would wear our makeup the same.

Did you guys confide in each other >> about everything? >> Literally everything.

>> Literally everything.

>> No one gave safety a second thought.

You could walk absolutely anywhere and not be afraid of anything in the dark during the day alone with friends.

And that explains why it was business as usual at the Moresy house a couple miles away.

When 15-year-old Kelly walked out the front door alone after dinner, she said she’d be back by 9:30.

It was June 12th, 1984.

Iris didn’t give it a second thought.

She and Paul were raising eight children together.

Somebody came in.

I heard somebody in the kitchen and yelled down, “I’m home.

” And okay.

You could hear doors opening and closing, kids coming in and out.

And I took it.

It was Kelly.

It wasn’t until the next morning when she didn’t come down to go to school that I went down there and realized that her bed wasn’t made and the clothes were still there and she hadn’t come in.

>> I mean, were you panicking at that point, Iris? >> Oh, yeah.

And then we called the police, but they told us that she wasn’t missing 24 hours at that point and they really wouldn’t take a a report.

On those days, they waited.

Nassau County Detective Freddy Goldman would review both Teresa and Kelly’s cases some 25 years later.

He’s retired now, but he agreed to walk us through the timeline and the evidence from back then.

At the time of Kelly’s disappearance, he says police found no reason to think there was a crime.

It seemed like she was a runaway.

There’s tons of missing person’s cases on a daily basis.

>> Is that how Kelly Moresy’s case was initially handled? >> Of course.

Yeah.

>> At 15 years old, she wouldn’t know how to do life unless somebody was there to help her.

I don’t foresee her ever just running away and not talking to anyone, not reaching out to anyone.

So, I knew it was serious from day one.

>> Months went by with no sign of Kelly.

That had to be so tough.

>> Oh, it was.

I mean, everywhere I went, every child from the back looked like Kelly had stopped to look to see if it was Kelly.

Um, it was horrible.

If Kelly had been written off as a runaway and not a priority, 5 months later, her case got a second look.

It was November 10th.

Teresa Fusco never showed up at Lisa’s house for their sleepover.

>> I thought maybe she went to somebody else’s house and so I called a few friends and said, you know, did Teresa come over? At at that point, I still wasn’t overly concerned.

>> Teresa’s parents were divorced.

The next morning, her father, Thomas, had a scheduled visit and arrived at his ex’s house to pick up his daughter.

How soon did you realize that this was a problem? >> I know my wife and I looked at each other and says something’s not right here.

We realized this is out of norm.

What do we do now? >> When did you become really concerned? >> I became really concerned when she wasn’t ready for school on Monday morning.

We walk to school every morning.

Why wasn’t she there? >> Monday came and went.

It would be almost a month before anyone knew what had happened to Teresa.

This is my daughter Teresa.

She was my precious little girl.

for Theresa Fusco’s father Thomas and her brother John.

>> We were happy.

>> It seemed as though the entire town of Lindbrook was out looking for her.

How big was the search? >> Everyone and then some.

>> Everybody.

>> Everywhere.

>> Nearly a month later, not far from Hot Skates and near the Long Island Railroad tracks, Theresa’s body was discovered.

beaten, raped, and strangled.

Buried under a pile of leaves and wooden shipping pallets.

Thomas and John are still haunted by where she was found.

>> I walked over it twice.

>> Yeah, >> I didn’t know she was under the pallet.

We just walked over the pallet >> and I’m glad I didn’t find her.

>> That would have killed me.

>> I never heard the word homicide.

So when two homicide detectives arrived at Lisa’s house, she didn’t yet understand what that meant.

And they said, “Well, we think we found her.

” My heart started to race.

I I started to get excited thinking, “My god, thank God they found her.

” And then they told me that they found a body.

At 16, it was life shattering.

When her body was found, it was a shock not just to the limber community, but I think to all of Nassau County.

>> And Donnelly would grow up to be the Nassau County District Attorney.

But before that, she had a childhood a lot like Teresa Fusco’s.

>> I used to hang out at hot skates when I was a kid.

I was in college when it happened.

It changed the way we saw the world back in the 80s.

It changed all that and not for the better.

>> These are news articles I collected throughout the years on this case.

>> 41 years later, Vicky Pepagno keeps a sad scrapbook.

It tells a story of losing her two friends, Teresa and Kelly.

>> This one, which includes both of them, Limbrook girl missing second from the village.

Kelly had been missing for nearly 6 months when Teresa was found.

>> It’s just too coincidental to me.

I feel like whoever committed Teresa could have something to do with Kelly.

>> You have two girls who went missing and then one who was murdered.

>> Yeah.

I was afraid to be home alone at night time.

It was frightening because we had no answers.

Investigators on Teresa’s case had very little to go on.

No footprints, no fingerprints, no murder weapon.

Hair samples were taken from Teresa.

Also, a sexual assault swab.

But DNA testing had not advanced enough to find out who it belonged to.

While looking for links between the two girls, they zeroed in on John Kogat, a 21-year-old landscaper who told detectives he had dated Kelly for about a week.

>> I’ve heard the name John Kogurt before.

It was early, right when she first started liking him or dating him.

>> Kurt was asked about Kelly’s disappearance.

He also was asked about Teresa’s killing and denied any knowledge of it.

Kogat agreed to come in and take a polygraph test.

4 days later, he did and police told him he failed it.

Kate was interrogated through the night and into the next morning.

After nearly 12 hours of questioning, his denials changed.

Nassau County Detective Joseph Fulpy wrote down what he said Kogat told him.

that on the night Teresa went missing, Kogat was with John Restivo and Dennis Holstead in John’s van when they saw Teresa walking away from hot skates.

Dennis Holstead was known to investigators back then, says Freddy Goldman.

He had had some minor brushes with police.

>> Dennis Holstead had an apartment adjacent to the Shell gas station where Kelly was last seen at that pay phone.

We were told that Kelly hung out in that apartment frequently.

She had the key to his apartment.

>> It sounds like Dennis Hul said was viewed kind of as a bad influence on the younger kids in the area.

>> It would seem.

Yeah.

>> John Restivo was more of a clean slate.

>> He was a working fellow.

Although he was friends with them, he didn’t have a a background like them.

He didn’t hang out in Dennis’s apartment or that we knew of.

Police took Kogan to the district attorney’s office where he was videotaped.

>> I want to talk to you about the uh death of Terresa Fusco.

>> He was interviewed by Assistant District Attorney George Peek.

He agreed to go on video.

>> Camera rolling.

Kat detailed what happened to Teresa once she got into the van that night.

Koga told investigators that Teresa was raped twice by Dennis Holstead and John Restivo when she said she was going to tell somebody they couldn’t let that happen.

>> We decided that they had to kill her and Dennis told that she had to die.

And what did John agree to this? >> John didn’t say nothing.

And then John Kogat describes how he killed Teresa.

>> And then what happened after you got the rope? >> I um I wrapped it around the neck twice and then I tightened it like this and then her body went limp.

>> John Kogat would later recant everything he told police.

But on that day, Goldman says investigators were confident they had Terresa Fusco’s killer in custody and had the evidence they needed to prove it.

But later on that very same day, another teenage girl went missing.

March 26, 1985.

When 19-year-old Jackie Marterella didn’t show up to start her shift at Burger King, her older brother Martin knew something was off.

>> She’s very prompt.

She was very dependable.

And for her to not show up, we knew there was something wrong.

>> Most nights, Jackie walked to work from the family home in Oceanside, a town a few miles away from Lindbrook.

How would she get there if you She’s walking.

What was the route she would take to go to Burger King? >> Pretty much straight down Long Beach Road.

Uh, >> did you ever worry about her walking to >> Not really.

No.

No.

>> Jackie had recently graduated from high school.

She was working part-time and taking accounting classes, saving money to buy a car.

>> How would you describe your sister? >> Describe her? She was um very girly.

complete with posters of teen pop stars on her bedroom wall.

>> I remember Leaf Garrett, whoever he was.

>> I remember Leaf Garrett.

>> There was posters of that.

She was into dance.

She liked doing that.

She liked her clothes.

Very finicky with her clothes.

>> And now she was missing.

So what did you and your father do? >> I think we called the police and then they took notes.

And then they started looking and and then those other two came up and they were, you know, saying, “Look what’s happening here.

” So it became everybody became interested.

>> Nearly a month went by with no sign of Jackie.

>> You know, all the worst thoughts go through your mind when something like that happens.

And of course, what happened happened.

It’s the worst of the worst.

They found her body 26 days later in what a golf course.

>> April 22nd, 1985.

A man looking for golf balls in the high grass off the 17th hole.

Found a naked body.

It was Jackie.

>> She was murdered obviously and discarded.

According to former Nassau County Detective Freddy Goldman, Jackie was left the same way Terresa Fusco had been.

Raped and strangled.

>> Initially, did investigators think, “Oh my god, these cases all have to be connected.

” >> Yes and no.

But with Kogurt sitting there, it kind of, you know, it threw a monkey wrench and everything.

>> John Kogurt, the man who had confessed to killing Teresa Fusco, was in police custody.

How could he be the killer if we had him in custody the same day that she went missing? So obviously it wasn’t him.

Yeah.

Could it be a Holstead Restivo? But no.

>> Jackie’s homicide was not going to be easy to solve.

Her body was so badly decomposed, no DNA swab could be taken.

>> I’m sure it heightened the the alertness and awareness of the community because now you know that there’s somebody out there that’s, you know, going after young girls.

Kelly Morrisy was still missing.

Police knew she had hung out at Dennis H.

Hallstead’s apartment, but there was nothing more to tie Holstead or Kogat to her disappearance.

Was there any evidence that indicated that they were involved in in Kelly’s disappearance? >> No.

No.

>> Theresa Fasco’s killing was the only case police could pin down.

By June 1985, John Kogat, John Restivo, and Dennis Holstead had all been charged with her rape and murder, and all three pleaded not guilty.

Kogat went on trial first.

Later, Holstead and Resto were tried together.

I remember sitting in the witness box testifying and and the district attorney saying, “Please speak louder.

” Lisa Johnson was just 18 and a star witness.

And here I am, you know, sitting there very meek and and timid and in a room full of strangers testifying about my friend who was killed.

It was difficult.

It still is difficult.

John Kogat offered an alibi and according to a New Yorker magazine investigation.

The van police said was used in Teresa’s abduction was actually out of commission and up on cinder blocks the day Teresa went missing.

But two hairs belonging to Teresa that police say they recovered from the floor of Resto’s van were too powerful to ignore.

and Kogat’s detailed confession trumped everything.

>> I wrapped it around the neck.

>> By February of 1987, Kat Holstead and Restivo had been convicted of the rape and murder of Terresa Fusco and sentenced to more than 30 years to life.

It had by then been two long years for Teresa’s dad.

He and the rest of her family tried to move on.

>> We thought, believe me, that there was time for closure.

We had gone to parents that murdered children.

We had support and they were looking for support and we were looking for support and closure, >> but there was no closure.

What prosecutors had insisted was an airtight case against the three men was going to blow up spectacularly.

In 2003, nearly 19 years after Teresa was killed, more sophisticated DNA testing became available.

It told a different story.

John Kogat, John Rebo, and Dennis Holstead’s convictions were all overturned.

Just 6 hours ago, after 17 years in prison, the murder rape convictions of three Long Island men were overturned following stunning new DNA evidence.

And new testing not only ruled out Kogat, Hollstead, and Resto, it pointed to someone else entirely, another unknown male.

Everything Teresa Fusco’s family and friends thought they knew about her killing and her killer was changing.

>> Wait a second.

There was investigations.

We trusted the detectives.

We trusted the police to do the right thing.

What? How could they do this to us? After almost 18 years, John Kogat, John Restivo, and Dennis Holstead were out of prison and in the arms of their families.

>> I waited for this for 18 years, and I’m just I’m sorry.

I’m just really I just can’t believe it’s happening.

But their legal problems were not over.

Nassau County District Attorney Dennis Dylan had decided to retry all three for the murder of Theresa Fusco, starting with John Kogat, who again pleaded not guilty.

There was still his videotape confession and that became the centerpiece of the case against Kogat at his second trial in September 2005.

We decided that I had to kill him.

>> The confession, the prosecution argued, was more important than all other evidence, even the new DNA.

>> When I saw the video, I go, “Whoa, it looks like it’s legit.

” >> But Kat’s defense attorney, Paul Castillier, says the video is misleading.

As damaging as Kogat’s statements sound, he says it’s what you don’t see on camera that matters.

>> Part of it is, you know, it’s staged.

>> There is a detective >> sitting off camera watching it and monitoring it and making sure it goes right.

It’s it’s like a play.

>> Here, Kogat struggles with names.

>> Terresa Fusco.

>> Teresa Fusco.

>> Even his alleged accompllic’s name.

Steo Dennis Shapi >> and then asked for help.

>> What’s his last name? >> Well, are you talking to Detective Bi who’s also in the room? >> That kind of shows it was coerced.

>> Kat was an easy target.

Castelierro says he had a 10th grade education and a substance abuse problem that Castillierro says police took advantage of.

tells him about his drinking, his drugs, all all the stuff that they can use against him.

>> And then Castileo says they lied to him.

The police told John Kogat that he failed a polygraph.

>> No, John Kogat passed this polygraph test with flying colors.

And even though Kogat had already told police over and over that he had nothing to do with Theresa Fusco’s killing, Castillier says they convinced him he did.

>> They told him he blacked out.

He didn’t remember.

You know, this is what you did.

This is where you took her.

>> I didn’t [snorts] even remember the next morning.

>> Didn’t remember what >> what had happened.

>> Well, you remember it now, don’t you? >> Yeah.

By the time this video was recorded, Kogat had been in custody for 18 hours, interrogated for nearly 12 of them, and awake for almost 30.

>> At some point in time, you know, you want out, you give in.

>> But the confession wasn’t the only thing prosecutors would have to defend.

They had to contend with the new DNA evidence pointing to an unknown male.

So prosecutors suggested that Teresa must have been with someone else right before she was abducted by Kogat Holstead and Restivo.

>> Then all of a sudden she had a consensual sexual encounter.

That’s what they said.

>> But investigators were never able to identify anyone who had been sexually involved with Teresa.

and Theresa’s best friend Lisa had to take the stand again at this trial to talk about it.

>> And I mean, this is a tough question to ask and I I want to ask it properly, but as far as you know, was Teresa even sexually active? >> Absolutely not.

And we spoke about that and that’s not something that she was going to do before she was married.

Lisa, once their star witness, was this time around undercutting their case.

>> They went against their own witnesses and in fact argued that she went from being a virgin to being someone who had a quickie in a skating rink where she worked.

It was it was preposterous.

It was demeaning.

>> Did that make you mad? >> It did because it’s not something she would have done ever.

and I will go to my grave saying that Teresa was not having sex with anybody.

>> Prosecutors did still have the physical evidence from the first trial, the two hairs belonging to Theresa that police said they found on the floor of John Restivo’s van.

But that too, Castleiero argued was tainted.

There was a science to analyzing whether the hairs came from someone dead or alive.

>> They displayed a a certain decomposition that is only present when the hairs are attached to the head of a person who is deceased.

>> That meant the hairs could not have been left in the van while Teresa was still alive.

According to Castilliero, >> we believe that they went in and took them from the medical examiner’s office and said they could found them in the van.

In other words, they were planted.

>> But in closing, prosecutors denied the hairs were planted.

After Castellier was able to raise serious questions about the prosecution’s case, Kogat’s fate was in the hands of one person, a single judge, not a jury.

Kogat had decided to take his chance with a bench trial and after nearly three months of testimony, the judge reached a verdict.

>> This is Judge Ort’s decision.

The court will not accept the confession and accordingly finds the defendant not guilty of murder in the second degree under count one.

>> And what does that mean when the judge won’t accept the confession? >> It means that the confession is false.

It is not credible.

And that’s what the judge found.

He did not believe the confession.

>> Eight days later, the prosecution formally dismissed the charges against Restivo and Holstead.

>> When John Koga was acquitted, I was devastated only because I’ve seen that confession of his over and over again.

And I believe then that he was telling the truth.

>> It makes you feel like you got hit in the face with a freaking shovel.

and you don’t know how to bounce back from that.

>> It was December of 2005.

Terresa Fusco had been dead for more than 20 years and now nothing about her case could be laid to rest.

>> It’s for me as the father heartache.

Heartache to go through it over again.

>> I felt as if the life had been sucked out of me.

Everything that we fought for, everything that we testified for, everything that was investigated, and all of the proof and all of the evidence meant nothing.

If they didn’t do it, then who did it? >> Good morning.

I’d like to thank my investigators and my prosecutors handling this case for standing here with me today.

On October 15, 2025, Anne Donnelly, now the Nassau County District Attorney, had a startling announcement.

>> And after two decades of this case running cold, we have indicted Teresa’s killer.

>> The FBI, using the new science of genetic genealogy, had found a match to the unknown DNA.

Today we arraigned 63-year-old Richard Bodo of Center Maritches for the murder of Terresa Fusco.

Nearly 41 years later and thanks to genetic genealogy, Nassau County DA an Donnelly was sure they had finally finally found Theresa Fusco’s killer.

>> Teresa’s life was violently stolen from her more than 40 years ago.

But the past is never forgotten.

Once the unidentified DNA sample was matched to 63-year-old Richard Biladu, surveillance began.

A few months later, prosecutors say a straw in a discarded smoothie cup confirmed he was their man.

Bill has denied the charges.

At the time of his arrest, he was working at Walmart stocking shelves.

At the time of Teresa’s killing, he was 23 and living close by.

>> He was living with his grandparents.

It’s about one mile away from Hot Skates.

It’s about one mile away from the Fusco residence.

>> He was a man who had seemingly always lived below the radar.

>> Prosecutor Jared Rosenblat.

>> Had he ever been married? >> No.

Does he have family or close friends? >> He has a brother >> that he’s close to.

I >> I can’t speak about how close they are.

>> And does he have hobbies? Does this guy do anything other than go to work? I >> think he gambles on sports a lot.

>> In interviews we conducted with Teresa’s friends and family.

No one recognized this defendant as someone who was ever associated with Teresa.

in 1984.

>> Authorities wouldn’t speculate about how Richard Biladoo may have come in contact with Terresa Fusco, but DA Anne Donnelly says she knows he did.

>> When you have a DNA match, 100% match, we got the guy.

>> William Keart and Daniel Russo, Bill’s defense attorneys, see it differently.

What evidence are you aware of that connects Richard Biladoo to the murder of Theresa Fusco? >> The DNA.

>> That’s it.

>> That’s it.

>> And they don’t find it convincing.

>> It’s being overstated and overvalued.

>> And what’s more, >> this district attorney’s office, this police department in 1985 stood before a court and said, “These three men did this.

” And they had an ample amount of evidence to prove it.

Is that a concern that they’re going to point to the fact that three men went on trial were convicted for this crime? >> Yes, I would assume that’s what they’re going to say.

But the difference now is we have science behind us, which they didn’t have 40 years ago.

And to me, you don’t beat the scientific evidence.

But at John Kogat’s retrial in 2005, the Nassau County DA’s office had argued the opposite, that the unidentified DNA taken from Teresa was meaningless.

>> The same DA’s office stood up and said, “We still believe based on all of this evidence that these men are responsible for Miss Fosco’s death.

” >> >> So, I don’t know how now in 2025 because you were able to put a name to that DNA, suddenly none of that matters anymore.

>> All of their lies against John Kogat, John Restivo, and Dennis Holstead are going to come back and haunt them during this retrial.

Paul Castelierro, John Kogat’s former defense attorney, fears that Bill’s lawyers will put the blame on the three men who were cleared of the murder two decades ago.

>> They’re going to have a trial in which I’m sure the defense is going to be arguing they’re guilty.

>> And Castillier says that’s just more salt in the wound for John Kogat, Dennis Holstead, and John Restivo.

It’s never ending.

What Nassau County did to them is just has no ending to it.

>> All three men sued Nassau County.

Two of them were awarded damages, >> $18 million each to Resto and codefendant Dennis Holstead.

Both exonerated a decade ago for the 1984 murder and rape of Lindbrook teenager Terresa Fusco.

But in Kogat’s case, a jury found no wrongdoing by Nassau County police and gave him nothing.

>> Let me ask you though, if in fact Richard Bido is convicted, will either one of you apologize to the three guys who were convicted? >> No, because I don’t owe them an apology.

I wasn’t even in the office at the time.

I wasn’t >> represent the office.

Yeah.

But for the Nassau County DA’s office, >> Mr.

Dylan did what he thought was right when he dismissed against two of them and I think, you know, they got their apology at that point.

>> The idea that the district attorney of Nassau County can apologize to these three guys for what they did to them is outrageous.

While the Nassau County authorities say once again they have the killer of Terresa Fusco, Richard Biladoo is not facing charges in either Kelly Moresy’s or Jackie Martella’s cases.

Both remain unsolved, leaving two families in limbo.

>> I mean, you’re anticipating something and then it never shows up.

She didn’t have a bad bone in her body.

She missed out on just living a simple life, you know.

>> You know, I look at women in their 50s now and think [snorts] that could be Kelly.

I mean, that’s how old she would be.

When Richard Biladoo goes on trial for the murder of Terresa Fusco, her father Thomas and her once best friend Lisa will be back in the courtroom for what they hope will be the last time.

>> Closures to me is that if this is the individual, then justice will be done.

It’s just completely over.

41 years is over.

Beginning and end.

>> Do you hope? Do you think that it might finally be resolved this time around or do you still have questions? >> I trust in the DNA this time.

I am so hopeful that there will be a conviction and we can finally put this to rest.

>> 41 years afterwards.

>> It’s a long time.

It’s it’s a lifetime.

Welcome to Postmortem.

I’m your host, 48 hours correspondent Ann Marie Green.

And today we are discussing the cases of Teresa Fusco and Kelly Morrisy.

Two teenagers, teenage girls who went missing in 1984 in Lindbrook, New York.

That’s a suburb in Long Island.

Now, after a suspect confessed to Teresa’s murder and then implicated two other men, seemed like the case was closed.

But about 19 years later, advances in DNA technology overturned their convictions and pointed to another unknown suspect.

Joining me today is 48 hours correspondent Aaron Morardi.

Aaron, you worked on this case, but over your years of working uh for 48 hours, you’ve actually covered a number of wrongful conviction cases.

>> So have you, Amory, and it is a passion of mine.

Um, this case is yet another reminder of the cost of a prosecutor getting it wrong.

>> When you convict the wrong suspects, not only does that allow the real killer to go free, but often puts the family and friends through years of hearings and trials.

And that’s the centerpiece of this story because it’s what the family and friends of Teresa Kelly and another victim, Jackie, have gone through in the decades since their disappearances.

And I should point out since 1984, so over 40 years.

Absolutely.

I mean, this is a nightmare for any family, but this process, it’s like sort of ripping the scab off over and over again.

And really, you know, they’re still waiting for a resolution, which we will get to.

But I want to remind everyone, uh, listen, if you haven’t watched or listened to this episode, the killing of Teresa Fusco, go check it out and then come on back so we can talk about it.

So Erin, on June 12th, 1984, 15-year-old Kelly Moresy left her home after dinner.

She’s going to meet a friend, and she’s last seen at a pay phone near a Shell gas station in Lindbrook before she disappears.

After about 5 months, 16-year-old Teresa Fusco goes missing after she leaves her job at a local roller rink.

How unusual was it to have two teenagers go missing with just within a few months? Amory, this was very unusual.

What made it even more unusual, these two girls knew each other.

And back in the 80s, kids went out regularly and they played late at night.

It was a completely different world when people still thought that bad things didn’t happen.

>> These cases um that happened so close to each other really did shatter the sense of safety in this area.

>> I should point out that Lindbrook wasn’t a small town.

It had a population of about 20,000 back in the 80s and it was very close to New York City, but it still was a suburb.

One of our colleagues who worked on this story actually grew up very close to Lindbrook and she told us that Lindbrook felt like a small town because everybody went to the same movie theaters, ate pizza at the same pizza spots and it did seem like everybody went to this roller rink called Hot Skates and that’s where Teresa worked.

I mean, it kind of reminded me a little bit of where I grew up, you know, in the suburbs of Toronto and we had the roller rink that everyone went to and every once in a while they would have DJ night and it would all be, you know, 15, 16, 14 year olds and everyone felt safe because it was just a bunch of kids.

But, you know, to talk about the case, uh, when Kelly’s mother, Iris, realizes that Kelly has not returned home, Iris and her husband, they call the police and then the police tell them that because Kelly hasn’t been missing for at least 24 hours, they’re not going to take a report.

Investigators believe she was just a runaway, they did not take the case out seriously, and they at that time found no reason to think that Kelly was a victim of a crime.

Kelly was last seen on a pay phone.

And so our thought is, oh, well, why didn’t the police find out who she was talking to? Well, data for the payoneses back then were not easily tracked.

Um, back in 1984, of course, there was no social media digital footprints, right? >> No ring cameras, no text messages, no cell phone tower pings that cops could trace.

all of those things that we now kind of take for granted that helped solve cases.

>> Back then, it was boots on the ground.

It was knocking on doors.

It was word of mouth physically retracing the last steps of a missing person.

So, in in fact, it wasn’t until Teresa Fusco disappears that Kelly’s case actually gets a second look.

This is nearly 6 months after Kelly went missing.

Teresa’s body is discovered near the Long Island Railroad tracks.

Uh, she’s been beaten, she’s been strangled, she’s been raped, and police start to look at the possible links between the two cases.

That is when they zero in on John Kogat.

Uh, he’s a 21-year-old landscaper.

Detectives say that he dated Kelly for about a week or so.

And in the course of your reporting, I’m curious about whether you learned anything else about him.

>> So they questioned him twice.

The first time he denied any involvement or knowledge of of either Kelly’s disappearance or Teresa’s murder.

And then according to Kogat’s former legal team, and I should point out these are not the lawyers who represented him back then, but represented him when he had a retrial.

This is what they told us that police picked up Kogat for a second round of questioning.

Uh they had asked whether he would be willing to take a polygraph and he said yes.

When they picked him up, he told them he had been drinking and smoking marijuana.

The officers notified their higherups, but they were told to still bring him in for questioning.

Now again, what we’ve been told is that Kogurt told police that at the time of Theresa’s disappearance, he he said he had an alibi.

He had been hanging out with his girlfriend drinking beer and his girlfriend did corroborate that alibi.

She even testified to that, but obviously like the police must not have believed him because they continue to press him.

And then after nearly 12 hours of questioning and 18 hours in police custody, and keep in mind he had been awake almost 30 hours, that’s when he made a videotape confession.

He said that on the night that Teresa went missing, he had been with two friends, Dennis Holstead and John Restivo, driving in Restivo’s van when they saw Teresa walking home from Hot Skates.

she had gotten fired that night and left early.

>> Kate then also said that after she got into the van, he he claimed that Resto and Holstead raped her, but that he was the one who killed her.

He gave stunningly specific details about how he wrapped a rope around her neck.

Well, that is what struck me about this confession, the remarkable level of detail.

And so you can’t help but to think who would make this up.

>> I’m going to be honest, it’s a pretty convincing interview.

Um, and I talked to Paul Castillier about that.

Now, he is the attorney who represented Kogat, not the first trial, but when Kogat was tried a second time.

He says that videotape confession was staged.

According to Castillo, Kogat was exhausted and just wanted the interrogation to stop.

Castillo says that Kogat also disavowed that confession within a day once he talked to a lawyer.

>> But as anyone who sees that videotape confession, that confession seemed to be the nail in his coffin at trial.

John Kogat, Dennis Hollstead, and then John Rivo.

They’re all charged with Teresa’s murder.

All three of them plead not guilty.

But then at trial, police also testified that they recovered two hairs belonging to Teresa in Rivo’s van.

And then, of course, they testify about Kogat’s detailed confession.

All three men, uh, Kat, Halstead, and Rivo, they were all convicted, and they were sentenced to more than 30 years to life.

But then nearly 19 years after Teresa was killed, there was a stunning twist in the case because of advances in DNA technology.

We saw it in the hour.

What more can you tell us about how that unfolded? Well, you know what was interesting and very impressive is that the investigators early on did take a swab um after they found Teresa’s body.

There was no DNA at trials back then, but they took a swab.

They couldn’t identify it initially.

Around 2003, there were more sophisticated testing and it told a very different story.

In this case, all three men were excluded by those tests and a complete profile of a fourth unidentified man was present.

So, as you can imagine, John Kogat, John Restivo, and Dennis Hallstead’s convictions were all overturned at that point.

This reminded me when I watched it of a case that I worked on for 48 hours a while back.

It was one of the first ones I ever did.

Um, it was about the murder of Angie Dodge.

This is in Idaho Falls in 1996.

She was an 18-year-old.

She had just moved into her apartment, her brand new first apartment, and she was killed in the apartment.

Investigators found DNA at the scene, and then they start to zero in on a guy named Christopher Tap.

After hours and hours of interrogation, he falsely confesses to being at the scene of the murder and he spent many many years in prison.

Eventually he was released and later he was fully exonerated.

Um and in the end the advances in DNA technology, genetic genealogy eventually identified the killer was a man named Brian Dr.ips who eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

Um, but it really sort of got me thinking about the way interrogations are conducted and whether anything has changed.

Amarie, there’s no question that uh we’re seeing more and more cases like this.

I mean, it breaks my heart because these officers think they have the right person.

They pressure him, they confess, and then later on after these guys have all gone to prison, um, genetic genealogy or DNA >> shows that they got the wrong guy.

What I am finding, I think you are too, that many more of these interrogations are being videotaped or at least audio taped.

and best practices um include not interrogating someone for hours and hours.

Um so I think it is better but I don’t think it’s fixed yet.

Welcome back.

Well, in 2003, the Nassau County District Attorney Dennis Dylan decided to retry John Kogat, Dennis Hollstead, and John Rivo for the murder of Teresa Busco.

Starting with Kogat, who pleaded not guilty again.

And this time, Kat decided to take his chances with a bench trial, which means there’s no jury.

It’s a single judge that is going to decide his fate.

But now, as we’ve been talking, there is new evidence that shows that the DNA did not match him or any of the other men, which means that the prosecution needs a different strategy.

What’s their strategy in the retrial? So, the prosecution had to explain away that unknown DNA by saying, “Well, then Teresa must have had consensual sex with someone before she was attacked and killed.

” Remember, she was 16 years of age.

And family and friends all told us that they were horrified when prosecutors rewrote this narrative about Teresa.

Um, according to her best friend, Teresa had always wanted to wait until marriage to have sex, and she wasn’t sexually active.

But prosecutors said, well, uh, investigators had tested so many men in the area without finding a match.

So, the DNA just simply can’t be relevant.

We would find that person if it was um and they said it doesn’t matter what the DNA says.

We have John Kogat confessing according to the prosecutors that was the most important evidence even more important than the DNA.

So then what’s the approach for Koga’s defense attorney? you know, he has to try to convince a judge to completely ignore this very detailed confession, >> and that is very hard to do as we know.

Uh, but Paul Castillier, who represented Kogat during the retrial, he was able to kind of pull apart the prosecution’s argument bit by bit.

Uh, for one thing, he says that that tape confession was like a play.

It was theater.

Uh, one detective was off camera monitoring him.

And when Kate, you actually see this, when Kate can’t even remember the last name of one of the, you know, codefendants, the officer gives it to him.

>> Um, Castillo says that police lied to him about the polygraph and brought in an expert who said in fact that he did pass the polygraph.

And then there was the issue, if you remember, those two hairs that the cops said that they had found on the floor of John Restivo’s van.

That sounded terrible.

I mean, how would her hair end up in the van? Right.

>> Well, Castelliero argued that there was testing that revealed that those hairs display certain decomposition that is only present when the hairs are attached to a person who’s dead.

And so he argued that he believed that the police took the hairs, this is awful to hear, from the medical examiner’s office from the autopsy and then put them in the car.

>> Prosecutors of course denied that the hairs were planted, but when you read the judge’s decision, he was persuaded by the defense.

>> What’s more, the judge found the confession not credible.

So, in the end, Kat’s gamble paid off by having just a judge and not a jury because the judge found him not guilty of murder.

>> And 8 days later, the DA dismissed the charges against Restivo and Holstead, and they were never retrieded a second time.

>> All three men initially sued Nassau County and police officials.

They lost.

And then John Rivo and Dennis Hall said they pursue another a civil trial against Nassau County and police officials without John Kogan.

And they are awarded $18 million each.

Uh essentially a million dollars for each year that they spend behind bars.

But Kate receives nothing.

Why did he receive nothing at all? Well, yeah, Marie, we can’t absolutely say, but defense attorney Paul Castellierro believes that it was that confession that stopped him from getting money, but there’s nothing in the record.

I should point out that Kogat didn’t go completely empty-handed.

He did receive some money from a state fund, but it was uh much smaller than what his codefendants got.

uh Holstead and Restbo.

>> I mean, I sort of understand because kind of on one side, perhaps none of this would have happened to all three of them if he did not confess, right? But then kind of on the flip side is he is the one that had to endure all of these hours of this interrogation, not to mention spending all those years, nearly two decades behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.

I’m glad he got a little something.

Do we know how all three men are doing today? >> We wanted to interview all three.

All three did decline.

Restivo, according to Castillier, when he was convicted and went to prison initially had stayed in touch with the girl he went to high school with and she stayed a friend and when he got out of prison, she was in Florida and he went there and from what I heard, he stayed there.

But according to Barry Sheek, who co-founded the Innocence Project in New York, um told me that to this day, Restivo still fears that the police could come back and arrest them.

Think about that.

>> 40 years afterwards, you never really get your life back.

On October 15, 2025, this is nearly 41 years after Terresa Fusco was killed, Nassau County uh DA and Donnelly announces that they have indicted her killer thanks to the advances in genetic genealogy.

And that unidentified DNA sample that was found was matched to a 63year-old.

His name is Richard Biladoo, I think.

Is it Biladoo or Bilado? because it’s it’s written bill if you’re a French speaker.

>> Anyone who watches the hour will know that I changed my pronunciation because everyone gave us different pronunciations, right? >> The prosecutors told me it was Bill.

>> Uh but when I interviewed the defense attorneys, they said it is Bill.

And the defense attorneys say that’s how he pronounces it.

Okay.

>> And so, um, I’m going with Bill, but you do hear me in the hour pronouncing it.

Bilado, Bill.

>> Well, I mean, do we know anything about this person? How he could have, you know, crossed paths with Teresa? Just anything? >> Uh, we don’t know a lot.

Remember, Amory, this is pre-trial.

Nobody’s sharing a lot.

Uh the prosecutors wouldn’t reveal or couldn’t reveal um whether there was any evidence that Bill and Theresa Fusco knew each other.

None of her friends had ever heard the name.

Even his own defense attorneys don’t know much about him.

They said he does like online gambling.

What we do know from prosecutors is that the FBI matched the unknown DNA sample, the one that had always existed to Biladoo in 2024.

They were able to confirm his DNA was a match after they obtained a discarded straw from a slurpee cup that was connected to Bill.

At the time of Bill’s arrest, he had been working at a Walmart and he was stocking shelves.

But at the time of Teresa’s killing, he was 23, older than what she was, and living close by to her in Lindbrook.

>> Um, Bill has pleaded not guilty.

And if he doesn’t take a plea deal and he does go to trial, then we’re going to learn a lot more because the prosecution has, get this, 150 boxes of electronic discovery to go through.

And then what about Kelly Morrisy? I mean, is there any kind of update or advance for her case and her disappearance? Anything? >> No.

Um, we had mentioned at the beginning of this podcast that Kelly Moresy’s initially had been viewed as a runaway.

Um, and now according to retired detective Freddy Goldman, it is now viewed as a homicide.

and he said that officials do believe the cases might be connected, but we know that Bill has not been charged in Kelly’s case.

And in the hour, we also learn about another victim.

She’s a 19-year-old.

Uh her name is Jackie Martella.

She goes missing in March of 1985 in Nassau County.

Her body is found.

She has been raped.

She’s been strangled just like Teresa Fusco.

Are investigators looking at Bill in connection with Jackie’s case? >> Bill has not been charged in the case of Jackie Martella, but according to what we heard from Freddy Goldman back then and even to this day, they had another suspect in mind.

Uh they brought him in for questioning and he moved to the south of France and that seemed to end the investigation.

You know, one of the things you mentioned at sort of the top of this is that this really underscores the kind of prolonged and protracted pain that families feel.

Teresa’s family thought they had some sort of resolution and then nearly two decades later that all blows up for them.

What really struck me was talking to Teresa’s friend Lisa.

Um, she told me just how involved she had to be in this case.

Keep in mind, so she testifies at Kat’s original trial.

She has to testify at Restivo and Holstead’s original trial.

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