October 18, 2025 • 19 mins
This week, 63 year old Richard Bilodeau was arrested for the 1986 rape and murder of 16 year old Theresa Fusco after DNA from his smoothie straw linked him to the brutal crime. And get this, it was DNA that exonerated 3 men who had already served 17 years for Fusco’s murder. Amy and T.J. talk about the latest developments in this case and emotional reaction from Theresa’s father as well as the cautionary tale this story provides about our justice system.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, there're folks. It is Saturday, October the eighteenth, and
police this week made an arrest in the brutal rape
and murder of a teenage girl. It only took them
forty years and a smoothie straw to make the arrest.
(00:22):
And by the way, this is a crime that three
other men have already been convicted for and they were
exonerated of. And welcome everybody to this episode of Amy
and TJ Robes. Cold cases are one thing takes so
long for families to get justice. The idea that there
were three other men that went to prison for decades
(00:47):
for this same crime that they did not commit.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
This is a story that is hard to believe.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
It's heartbreaking for so many people.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The family of the victim, sixteen year old girl, of
the three men who were convicted for her murder, that
spent more than a decade behind bars, seventeen years in
prison for a crime they did not commit, and this
all came to light. It wasn't lost on us that
this all came to light on a week where we
(01:20):
have executed five people for murders and it was supposed
to be six because one has been stayed. But this
is all just to me a highlight a highlighted moment
in time where we can say, hey, our justice system
is flawed.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Hey, look we know it is. No system is perfect.
That's fine. But when you talk about people losing decades
of their life and a mistake like this, may I mean, look,
this was a brutal enough crime that it's not beyond
the imagine that this is a crime in some places
(02:02):
that someone could have gotten the death penalty.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
This happened in New York, so it would have been
more unlikely that that would have happened.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So that we understand and we get but if a
mistake like this can be made that it takes us
twenty years to realize our mistake, then man, it scares
the hell out of you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
This is a fascinating story. It's a cautionary story, and
it's a story that I think everyone needs to hear.
This is the story of a sixteen year old girl.
Her name was Teresa Fusco. She was found raped and
strangled to death in a wooded area on Long Island.
(02:43):
This happened in nineteen eighty four. Her body was found
on December fifth. She was just leaving work. In fact,
she left work in tears. She was working at a
roller skating rink and she had just been fired and
she left in tears. She thought that was the worst
thing that could have happened her. At sixteen and just
moments later, yes before ten pm, she was abducted by
(03:07):
someone and at one point police thought it was three men.
But this week police have arrested sixty three year old
Richard Billdeaux and charged him with two counts of second
degree murder and one count of murder during the course
of a rape. And this was forty one years in
(03:27):
the making this arrest.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Look, and we just mentioned this is right, they're arresting someone.
I guess they didn't know to be looking for anybody
else for the past couple of decades because there were
three men convicted of this after this young lady was
found murdered and they went to prison. And it wasn't
until and because of yes, advances in DNA testing that
(03:52):
we are here that proved that those three men. Now,
at the time that DNA testing was done, they didn't
necessarily have another suspect that this left them too, But
they knew these three men were not involved based on
DNA found on that young lady's body. So a couple
of them got I can't remember the amount, but million
dollar settlements.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Eighteen million dollars apiece. So they were convicted. And look
how often we put so much stock into coerce confessions,
unreliable testimony by jail house informants. But that is how
they were convicted. And yes, as you mentioned, advanced DNA
(04:31):
testing cleared these men, Dennis Halstead, John Cogut, and John Restivo.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
They sued two of them.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Restivo and Halsteed were awarded eighteen million dollars apiece for
the seventeen years more than seventeen years they served in
prison for a crime they did not commit. And thank
God for DNA testing because that is the reason why
these men were exonerated, and it is the reason why
now Richard billdeou behind bars.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
How many more, I mean, I know there are people
who are there organizations dedicated to this type of work
to exonerate folks, but how many more?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Really?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It eighty four? I mean that was that was a
while back, sure, forty years, but man, we've learned so
much more and it was so I don't want to
say easy what the journey was like to get them exonerated.
But like a test, here is this, here's the test,
test this, and we'll have our answer about guilt or innocence.
(05:30):
It just like this should be accessible to everybody. This
just should not happen. I hate it for those men.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yes, I mean, this is the kind of story where
you want to go and give your time to the
Innocence Project, which devotes that organization devotes its resources into
DNA testing specifically because that is irrefutable. When you have
someone that is clearly exonerated by or clearly responsible for
based on DNA evidence, I mean that is that is
(05:58):
the type of evidence that can absolutely change the outcome
and should change the outcome.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Of a trial.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So we move forward. Here we are now, so how
do they get this guy? Well, as far as police go,
they say they got a tip, and they've actually been
they've had their eye on this suspect at least since
early last year, and so they have been following him around,
keeping an eye on him. But again, the key to
this case, Robes, which has exonerated three men, is DNA.
(06:26):
So DNA was key in following this guy around and
trying to figure out ropes. And we've seen some of
this We watched a lot of true grime stories, and
we've seen this one play out before.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know that this is going to be a movie
or a made for TV movie or a docu series,
because this has all of the hallmarks of it. So
Richard Bilodeou, he's sixty three years old now, but starting
last year or even beforehand, they started surveilling him. As
TJ just said, they actually in February watched Billodeou get
as smoothie from a cafe in Suffolk County. When he finished,
(07:00):
he threw the cup and the straw in the trash.
Investigators went into the trash can, pulled out the cup
and the straw and used it to test it for
DNA and guess what. That DNA sample tested positive as
a match to the DNA found on Fusco's body.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
We mentioned she was raped, so they.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Had DNA from the killer who raped her, and it
matched Billadel sixty sixty three.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
He was twenty three at the time of the murder.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And they went back and looked at the time of Wow,
I just it's so sad.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Sixteen years old, sixteen.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Year old Teresa Fusco at the time of her murder,
Billigo was living with his grandparents less than a mile
away from where she lived and from the roller rink
where she was last seen alive. So he was at
the time at the place. And now they have the
DNA linking him.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I mean, this is a this is an incredible story.
I don't know which way to go with, right, the
family has peace after all of these years. You have
all these characters, now the family involved. You have the family,
the victim, those three men being exonerated, and then the
(08:19):
family friends, people who have been around this guy for
the past forty years.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yeah, so here's what we know about him.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
He has been living on Long Island for the last
forty years, and for the past twelve years he's been
stocking shelves at a local walmart. So here's this guy
who's now being accused of this horrific, heinous crime, and
he watched three other men pay for his crime. Clearly
he saw that all go down. But here's something really interesting.
(08:49):
When detectives finally confronted him about this DNA match from
him to the victim, Reportedly, according to detectives, he replied,
they said they asked him, why why does your DNA
match a sample found with Teresa's body from the nineteen eighties.
Here was his response, people got away with murder. Back then,
(09:14):
DNA testing was not around, and it was almost as
if he was kind of.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Bragging about it at that point.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Now he has now pleaded not guilty this week and
he is proclaiming his innocence. But according to investigators, that
is what he said when he was confronted with the evidence.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I mean, I'm what that means. Maybe we'll see that
on one of the true crime documentaries from the interrogation
room and see how that all went down. But that's
he had to be to a point that he thought
that call would never come and that knock would ever
come on the door. Now, I wonder if he had
(09:54):
been keeping up with his story of the past several
years and knew that these men had been exonerated, and
maybe he had been sweating for a little while. But
forty one years. Again, we've seen a few true crime
stories of this nature, but forty one years.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
He had to have thought he had gotten away with it.
Think about it.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Those three men, their convictions were overturned in two thousand
and three. That's twenty two years ago. So for twenty
two years, the men first served seventeen years, then twenty
two years has gone by.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So maybe he was sweating it for the first few
years and now for the past decade. Really he might
have forgotten about it. Again. I say forget it, what
I mean, not to forget something like that. But rome's
to think he's been living forty years and working around people.
This was a horrific thing done to a sixteen year
old girl. This was awful. This is monstrous stuff. And
(10:46):
he went about life, he was interacting with people. I'm
sure he worked with people. Somebody hired him, and what
are those people thinking.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
His neighbors have been talking saying he was always scary.
They told their kids to stay away from him. People
talked about his weird, strange, bad energy. So it's always
after the fact, of course, people are like, I always
knew something was up with that guy. But people have
definitely been speaking out and speaking up about how he
was a creepy guy and they always felt a little
uneasy and didn't want their kids around him. It's kind
(11:13):
of interesting when people give off a certain energy. So,
of course, easy to say after the fact, easy to
say after his arrest, but they're certainly speaking up and
he has maintained his innocence despite I mean, can you
imagine the last thing he was thinking as he ordered
that smoothie, finished it and threw it in the trash.
(11:35):
Can can you imagine he would never in a million
years have thought that was going to be his undoing.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Look, it says you always have. It is the presumption
of innocence until you are proven guilty. His lawyer, I
thought was kind of if anything could be kind of
funny and how he said it. He said, look, three
people have been exonerated in this case. If this is
ever a case of not rushing to judgment, this would
be it makes a good point, like, okay, whatever it
(12:02):
looks like, but we will defend our client. But this
case is a very well it's obviously close to us
here in New York because Long Island's right across the way.
But this case and the timing of it coming smack
dab in the middle of a stretch of time in
this country where we had six executions in eight days.
(12:25):
Oh wait, there actually were only five because would you believe, folks, yes,
one of them was stopped. Why because there's a question
about the guilt or innocence of the man who's on
death row. Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
We continue talking about this unbelievable and truly unbelievable and
fascinating case about the death and the murder of sixteen
year old Teresa Fusco. What happened forty one years ago
in nineteen eighty four on Long Island and New York.
Three men had been initially convicted, spent seventeen years behind
(13:11):
bars before being exonerated by DNA evidence.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And now they say.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Police believe they finally have the man in custody who
they believe killed Teresa all those years ago, because DNA
evidence connects him to the crime. And look, we talk
about how it's fascinating, We talk about the larger conversation
about getting things right and how flawed our justice system is,
and certainly the higher level of executions we're seeing in
(13:37):
this country. But I also just want to point out
the human element of this. And my god, her father,
Teresa Fusco's father, was at the bail hearing this week
of this man who's now finally been arrested for his
daughter's death. And I was wiping away tears reading about
(13:58):
this father and seeing the picture. There's Thomas Fusco said
that this arrest and of course the trial and ultimately
he hopes the conviction will bring closure finally for him
and his family. But he said this, I never gave
up hope. I've always had faith in this system. But
before I leave this earth, I'm very happy that since
my ex wife's not here, she passed away back in
(14:18):
twenty nineteen, and that I'm here with my family and
the district attorney. And he pulled out a picture, a
laminated photo of his daughter that he says he carries
in his jacket pocket with him, and he said, with
his lip shaking, she still lives in my heart, as
you can see all these years later. The emotion that
washed over him, it was just it was so moving
(14:42):
to think about just the unbelievable toll this had to
have taken on him and his entire family and everyone
who loved her.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, they haven't been at peace. It's been tumultuous. I
don't know. I didn't wasn't familiar enough with the story
that I don't know if there were all always questions
about the guilt of these three men. I don't know
if the family thought that was their closure and it
was done or not. But then to think when those
men are exonerated, that was twenty years ago and they've
(15:14):
been now, it's almost like she's murdered all over again.
There's a killer has been on the loose this whole time,
and so I can't imagine the ups and downs that
look waiting five years for closure is one thing. This
is you got closure twenty years ago just to be
told no, that wasn't it, and now you're getting it again.
I mean, your heartbreaks for those folks.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Heartbreak, and then also to think that three men paid
a price that they didn't deserve to pay.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
You'd also feel terrible about that.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Maybe how you felt about those men at one point.
I wonder if there were every any apologies relationships or
not that they need to apologize to those men, but
it's just if they ever reached out in some way.
That's this. They were in jail for nearly two decades
for a crime they did not commit that should never
ever happen, ever ever.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Happened, But thank goodness, it was able to be righted.
Not that you could ever get back those years, but
at least they were just imprisoned. And I hate to
say that I'm not minimizing at all their experience. But
I say this with the perspective of capital punishment.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, because we are as we sit here on a
Saturday now. Two days ago, a guy in Texas was
supposed to be dead and he's still alive right now
because of a stay of execution. We've covered this plenty.
Robert Robertson was supposed to be the first person executed
after a shaken baby syndrome conviction, if you will, And
(16:40):
there are questions now because there are new science. This
wasn't DNA, but science evolved to where what he was
convicted on and the science they use is considered junk science.
So that mistake, yes, could have cost a guy his
life two days ago. In this country, we should always
(17:00):
pump the brakes and be sure. I know everybody on
Cell Block D says they didn't do it. I know
that's the joke, but sometimes guys on blog B and
C and A and elsewhere have a very good point.
We have to take these seriously and on all capital punishment.
If there's f oh, we just take a beat. If
we need two more weeks to figure this out, we
(17:21):
should always do that, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
And it reminds me.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Look, I'm not saying that Lance Shockley of Missouri, who
was also executed this week, was innocent in any way,
shape or form, but he till the moment he was
pronounced dead at six thirteen pm this week and Missouri
claimed that he was innocent.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Again, plenty do I'm not saying just take their word
for it, but there are questions about that illegal questions well,
the Supreme about the case.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Three justices felt like he should have gotten a new tribal.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
If Soda Mayor says there's a question that he didn't
get all his his the rights do, then I'll listen
to that. I'll listen to the Yes, that's fine. When
somebody's life is on the line, I'll listen to that, Yeah,
for sure. But it's just funny that this case comes
up this week on the same week that we have
seen I guess a life spared because we decided to
(18:15):
take a beat and look at new evidence, and now
we're seeing that hearing this case that three men, their lives,
you could argue, were spared that well, that DNA had
never been tested. Who was out there yelling and screaming
in their corner and rooting for them? I don't know
if they had good enough lawyers, maybe there was an
Innocence Project, but ma'am, more of this work needs to
(18:37):
be done, and I be done. And I applaud any
of you all out there from the Innocence Project on
who do this work, because it is critically important.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Work and we all, we all can't even imagine what
it would be like to be the family members left
behind when someone who we loved was brutally murdered. Of course,
everyone wants justice, but we want to make sure we
get it right, and so this story just was such
a glaring example of that very very thing. So Richard Bilodeaux,
(19:04):
we will follow the story. He is supposed to be
back in court on November twenty first, and we will
bring you the very latest on that if he is convicted,
he will face twenty five years to life in prison,
and certainly we hope that the family of Teresa Fusco
finally finally gets the justice and peace that they have
been waiting for for far too long, for these past
(19:27):
four decades. Thank you so much for listening to us. Everyone.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I'm Amy Robot alongside TJ. Holmes. We will talk to
you soon
Hey, there're folks. It is Saturday, October the eighteenth, and
police this week made an arrest in the brutal rape
and murder of a teenage girl. It only took them
forty years and a smoothie straw to make the arrest.
(00:22):
And by the way, this is a crime that three
other men have already been convicted for and they were
exonerated of. And welcome everybody to this episode of Amy
and TJ Robes. Cold cases are one thing takes so
long for families to get justice. The idea that there
were three other men that went to prison for decades
(00:47):
for this same crime that they did not commit.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
This is a story that is hard to believe.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
It's heartbreaking for so many people.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
The family of the victim, sixteen year old girl, of
the three men who were convicted for her murder, that
spent more than a decade behind bars, seventeen years in
prison for a crime they did not commit, and this
all came to light. It wasn't lost on us that
this all came to light on a week where we
(01:20):
have executed five people for murders and it was supposed
to be six because one has been stayed. But this
is all just to me a highlight a highlighted moment
in time where we can say, hey, our justice system
is flawed.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Hey, look we know it is. No system is perfect.
That's fine. But when you talk about people losing decades
of their life and a mistake like this, may I mean, look,
this was a brutal enough crime that it's not beyond
the imagine that this is a crime in some places
(02:02):
that someone could have gotten the death penalty.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
This happened in New York, so it would have been
more unlikely that that would have happened.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
So that we understand and we get but if a
mistake like this can be made that it takes us
twenty years to realize our mistake, then man, it scares
the hell out of you.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
This is a fascinating story. It's a cautionary story, and
it's a story that I think everyone needs to hear.
This is the story of a sixteen year old girl.
Her name was Teresa Fusco. She was found raped and
strangled to death in a wooded area on Long Island.
(02:43):
This happened in nineteen eighty four. Her body was found
on December fifth. She was just leaving work. In fact,
she left work in tears. She was working at a
roller skating rink and she had just been fired and
she left in tears. She thought that was the worst
thing that could have happened her. At sixteen and just
moments later, yes before ten pm, she was abducted by
(03:07):
someone and at one point police thought it was three men.
But this week police have arrested sixty three year old
Richard Billdeaux and charged him with two counts of second
degree murder and one count of murder during the course
of a rape. And this was forty one years in
(03:27):
the making this arrest.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Look, and we just mentioned this is right, they're arresting someone.
I guess they didn't know to be looking for anybody
else for the past couple of decades because there were
three men convicted of this after this young lady was
found murdered and they went to prison. And it wasn't
until and because of yes, advances in DNA testing that
(03:52):
we are here that proved that those three men. Now,
at the time that DNA testing was done, they didn't
necessarily have another suspect that this left them too, But
they knew these three men were not involved based on
DNA found on that young lady's body. So a couple
of them got I can't remember the amount, but million
dollar settlements.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Eighteen million dollars apiece. So they were convicted. And look
how often we put so much stock into coerce confessions,
unreliable testimony by jail house informants. But that is how
they were convicted. And yes, as you mentioned, advanced DNA
(04:31):
testing cleared these men, Dennis Halstead, John Cogut, and John Restivo.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
They sued two of them.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Restivo and Halsteed were awarded eighteen million dollars apiece for
the seventeen years more than seventeen years they served in
prison for a crime they did not commit. And thank
God for DNA testing because that is the reason why
these men were exonerated, and it is the reason why
now Richard billdeou behind bars.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
How many more, I mean, I know there are people
who are there organizations dedicated to this type of work
to exonerate folks, but how many more?
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Really?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
It eighty four? I mean that was that was a
while back, sure, forty years, but man, we've learned so
much more and it was so I don't want to
say easy what the journey was like to get them exonerated.
But like a test, here is this, here's the test,
test this, and we'll have our answer about guilt or innocence.
(05:30):
It just like this should be accessible to everybody. This
just should not happen. I hate it for those men.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yes, I mean, this is the kind of story where
you want to go and give your time to the
Innocence Project, which devotes that organization devotes its resources into
DNA testing specifically because that is irrefutable. When you have
someone that is clearly exonerated by or clearly responsible for
based on DNA evidence, I mean that is that is
(05:58):
the type of evidence that can absolutely change the outcome
and should change the outcome.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Of a trial.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
So we move forward. Here we are now, so how
do they get this guy? Well, as far as police go,
they say they got a tip, and they've actually been
they've had their eye on this suspect at least since
early last year, and so they have been following him around,
keeping an eye on him. But again, the key to
this case, Robes, which has exonerated three men, is DNA.
(06:26):
So DNA was key in following this guy around and
trying to figure out ropes. And we've seen some of
this We watched a lot of true grime stories, and
we've seen this one play out before.
Speaker 2 (06:35):
You know that this is going to be a movie
or a made for TV movie or a docu series,
because this has all of the hallmarks of it. So
Richard Bilodeou, he's sixty three years old now, but starting
last year or even beforehand, they started surveilling him. As
TJ just said, they actually in February watched Billodeou get
as smoothie from a cafe in Suffolk County. When he finished,
(07:00):
he threw the cup and the straw in the trash.
Investigators went into the trash can, pulled out the cup
and the straw and used it to test it for
DNA and guess what. That DNA sample tested positive as
a match to the DNA found on Fusco's body.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
We mentioned she was raped, so they.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Had DNA from the killer who raped her, and it
matched Billadel sixty sixty three.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
He was twenty three at the time of the murder.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
And they went back and looked at the time of Wow,
I just it's so sad.
Speaker 3 (07:38):
Sixteen years old, sixteen.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Year old Teresa Fusco at the time of her murder,
Billigo was living with his grandparents less than a mile
away from where she lived and from the roller rink
where she was last seen alive. So he was at
the time at the place. And now they have the
DNA linking him.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
I mean, this is a this is an incredible story.
I don't know which way to go with, right, the
family has peace after all of these years. You have
all these characters, now the family involved. You have the family,
the victim, those three men being exonerated, and then the
(08:19):
family friends, people who have been around this guy for
the past forty years.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yeah, so here's what we know about him.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
He has been living on Long Island for the last
forty years, and for the past twelve years he's been
stocking shelves at a local walmart. So here's this guy
who's now being accused of this horrific, heinous crime, and
he watched three other men pay for his crime. Clearly
he saw that all go down. But here's something really interesting.
(08:49):
When detectives finally confronted him about this DNA match from
him to the victim, Reportedly, according to detectives, he replied,
they said they asked him, why why does your DNA
match a sample found with Teresa's body from the nineteen eighties.
Here was his response, people got away with murder. Back then,
(09:14):
DNA testing was not around, and it was almost as
if he was kind of.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
Bragging about it at that point.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Now he has now pleaded not guilty this week and
he is proclaiming his innocence. But according to investigators, that
is what he said when he was confronted with the evidence.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
I mean, I'm what that means. Maybe we'll see that
on one of the true crime documentaries from the interrogation
room and see how that all went down. But that's
he had to be to a point that he thought
that call would never come and that knock would ever
come on the door. Now, I wonder if he had
(09:54):
been keeping up with his story of the past several
years and knew that these men had been exonerated, and
maybe he had been sweating for a little while. But
forty one years. Again, we've seen a few true crime
stories of this nature, but forty one years.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
He had to have thought he had gotten away with it.
Think about it.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Those three men, their convictions were overturned in two thousand
and three. That's twenty two years ago. So for twenty
two years, the men first served seventeen years, then twenty
two years has gone by.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
So maybe he was sweating it for the first few
years and now for the past decade. Really he might
have forgotten about it. Again. I say forget it, what
I mean, not to forget something like that. But rome's
to think he's been living forty years and working around people.
This was a horrific thing done to a sixteen year
old girl. This was awful. This is monstrous stuff. And
(10:46):
he went about life, he was interacting with people. I'm
sure he worked with people. Somebody hired him, and what
are those people thinking.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
His neighbors have been talking saying he was always scary.
They told their kids to stay away from him. People
talked about his weird, strange, bad energy. So it's always
after the fact, of course, people are like, I always
knew something was up with that guy. But people have
definitely been speaking out and speaking up about how he
was a creepy guy and they always felt a little
uneasy and didn't want their kids around him. It's kind
(11:13):
of interesting when people give off a certain energy. So,
of course, easy to say after the fact, easy to
say after his arrest, but they're certainly speaking up and
he has maintained his innocence despite I mean, can you
imagine the last thing he was thinking as he ordered
that smoothie, finished it and threw it in the trash.
(11:35):
Can can you imagine he would never in a million
years have thought that was going to be his undoing.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Look, it says you always have. It is the presumption
of innocence until you are proven guilty. His lawyer, I
thought was kind of if anything could be kind of
funny and how he said it. He said, look, three
people have been exonerated in this case. If this is
ever a case of not rushing to judgment, this would
be it makes a good point, like, okay, whatever it
(12:02):
looks like, but we will defend our client. But this
case is a very well it's obviously close to us
here in New York because Long Island's right across the way.
But this case and the timing of it coming smack
dab in the middle of a stretch of time in
this country where we had six executions in eight days.
(12:25):
Oh wait, there actually were only five because would you believe, folks, yes,
one of them was stopped. Why because there's a question
about the guilt or innocence of the man who's on
death row. Stay with us.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
We continue talking about this unbelievable and truly unbelievable and
fascinating case about the death and the murder of sixteen
year old Teresa Fusco. What happened forty one years ago
in nineteen eighty four on Long Island and New York.
Three men had been initially convicted, spent seventeen years behind
(13:11):
bars before being exonerated by DNA evidence.
Speaker 3 (13:14):
And now they say.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Police believe they finally have the man in custody who
they believe killed Teresa all those years ago, because DNA
evidence connects him to the crime. And look, we talk
about how it's fascinating, We talk about the larger conversation
about getting things right and how flawed our justice system is,
and certainly the higher level of executions we're seeing in
(13:37):
this country. But I also just want to point out
the human element of this. And my god, her father,
Teresa Fusco's father, was at the bail hearing this week
of this man who's now finally been arrested for his
daughter's death. And I was wiping away tears reading about
(13:58):
this father and seeing the picture. There's Thomas Fusco said
that this arrest and of course the trial and ultimately
he hopes the conviction will bring closure finally for him
and his family. But he said this, I never gave
up hope. I've always had faith in this system. But
before I leave this earth, I'm very happy that since
my ex wife's not here, she passed away back in
(14:18):
twenty nineteen, and that I'm here with my family and
the district attorney. And he pulled out a picture, a
laminated photo of his daughter that he says he carries
in his jacket pocket with him, and he said, with
his lip shaking, she still lives in my heart, as
you can see all these years later. The emotion that
washed over him, it was just it was so moving
(14:42):
to think about just the unbelievable toll this had to
have taken on him and his entire family and everyone
who loved her.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Yeah, they haven't been at peace. It's been tumultuous. I
don't know. I didn't wasn't familiar enough with the story
that I don't know if there were all always questions
about the guilt of these three men. I don't know
if the family thought that was their closure and it
was done or not. But then to think when those
men are exonerated, that was twenty years ago and they've
(15:14):
been now, it's almost like she's murdered all over again.
There's a killer has been on the loose this whole time,
and so I can't imagine the ups and downs that
look waiting five years for closure is one thing. This
is you got closure twenty years ago just to be
told no, that wasn't it, and now you're getting it again.
I mean, your heartbreaks for those folks.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Heartbreak, and then also to think that three men paid
a price that they didn't deserve to pay.
Speaker 3 (15:38):
You'd also feel terrible about that.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Maybe how you felt about those men at one point.
I wonder if there were every any apologies relationships or
not that they need to apologize to those men, but
it's just if they ever reached out in some way.
That's this. They were in jail for nearly two decades
for a crime they did not commit that should never
ever happen, ever ever.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Happened, But thank goodness, it was able to be righted.
Not that you could ever get back those years, but
at least they were just imprisoned. And I hate to
say that I'm not minimizing at all their experience. But
I say this with the perspective of capital punishment.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Yeah, because we are as we sit here on a
Saturday now. Two days ago, a guy in Texas was
supposed to be dead and he's still alive right now
because of a stay of execution. We've covered this plenty.
Robert Robertson was supposed to be the first person executed
after a shaken baby syndrome conviction, if you will, And
(16:40):
there are questions now because there are new science. This
wasn't DNA, but science evolved to where what he was
convicted on and the science they use is considered junk science.
So that mistake, yes, could have cost a guy his
life two days ago. In this country, we should always
(17:00):
pump the brakes and be sure. I know everybody on
Cell Block D says they didn't do it. I know
that's the joke, but sometimes guys on blog B and
C and A and elsewhere have a very good point.
We have to take these seriously and on all capital punishment.
If there's f oh, we just take a beat. If
we need two more weeks to figure this out, we
(17:21):
should always do that, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:22):
And it reminds me.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
Look, I'm not saying that Lance Shockley of Missouri, who
was also executed this week, was innocent in any way,
shape or form, but he till the moment he was
pronounced dead at six thirteen pm this week and Missouri
claimed that he was innocent.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Again, plenty do I'm not saying just take their word
for it, but there are questions about that illegal questions well,
the Supreme about the case.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Three justices felt like he should have gotten a new tribal.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
If Soda Mayor says there's a question that he didn't
get all his his the rights do, then I'll listen
to that. I'll listen to the Yes, that's fine. When
somebody's life is on the line, I'll listen to that, Yeah,
for sure. But it's just funny that this case comes
up this week on the same week that we have
seen I guess a life spared because we decided to
(18:15):
take a beat and look at new evidence, and now
we're seeing that hearing this case that three men, their lives,
you could argue, were spared that well, that DNA had
never been tested. Who was out there yelling and screaming
in their corner and rooting for them? I don't know
if they had good enough lawyers, maybe there was an
Innocence Project, but ma'am, more of this work needs to
(18:37):
be done, and I be done. And I applaud any
of you all out there from the Innocence Project on
who do this work, because it is critically important.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Work and we all, we all can't even imagine what
it would be like to be the family members left
behind when someone who we loved was brutally murdered. Of course,
everyone wants justice, but we want to make sure we
get it right, and so this story just was such
a glaring example of that very very thing. So Richard Bilodeaux,
(19:04):
we will follow the story. He is supposed to be
back in court on November twenty first, and we will
bring you the very latest on that if he is convicted,
he will face twenty five years to life in prison,
and certainly we hope that the family of Teresa Fusco
finally finally gets the justice and peace that they have
been waiting for for far too long, for these past
(19:27):
four decades. Thank you so much for listening to us. Everyone.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I'm Amy Robot alongside TJ. Holmes. We will talk to
you soon
Hosts And Creators
Amy Robach
T.J. Holmes
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