DNA Links 1984 Long Island Roller Rink Murder to New Suspect

A discarded smoothie straw has helped authorities identify a new suspect in the 1984 killing of 16-year-old Theresa Fusco, a case that left three men wrongly imprisoned before DNA evidence cleared them in 2003.

Richard Bilodeau, 63, of Center Moriches, was indicted in October 2025 on two counts of murder in Fusco’s death, including murder during the commission or attempted commission of first-degree rape. Prosecutors said investigators had been watching Bilodeau since early 2024, then recovered a cup and straw he used and threw away at a smoothie café in Suffolk County that February. DNA from the straw matched DNA taken from Fusco’s body in 1984. Bilodeau pleaded not guilty and, if convicted, faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

Fusco disappeared in November 1984 after leaving her part-time job at the snack bar of a roller rink in Lynbrook. Prosecutors said her nude body was found weeks later, buried under leaves in a wooded area near the rink. At the time, Bilodeau was living with his grandparents in Lynbrook, about a mile from the roller rink where Fusco was last seen.

The case became a searing example of how a flawed investigation can compound a murder with years of additional harm. Three men were convicted in Fusco’s death, served several years in prison and were later exonerated in 2003 on the basis of DNA evidence. Two of those men later received $18 million each in wrongful-imprisonment settlements, a measure of compensation that could not restore the years lost to a mistaken prosecution.

Theresa Fusco’s father, Thomas Fusco, said he never gave up hope and called the indictment closure. Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said the case had sent shockwaves through Lynbrook and that the past had not been forgotten. Bilodeau’s lawyer, Jason Russo, declined to comment after the arraignment.

The arrest also underscored how modern forensic science can revive a cold case long after the original evidence seemed exhausted. In this case, a common object that would normally be discarded without a second thought became the key that linked a 2024 surveillance effort to a murder from 40 years earlier. For Fusco’s family, the new evidence brings accountability that the justice system missed the first time, even as the damage from the wrongful convictions remains part of the case’s legacy.