Theresa Fusco murder case: Defense for newly accused man asks for dismissal, saying evidence is circumstantial

Defense attorneys for Richard Bilodeau, the Center Moriches man accused of raping and murdering 16-year-old Theresa Fusco in 1984, cast doubt on the charges against their client in a motion to dismiss, questioning prosecutors' grand jury presentation and the findings of forensic investigators.

Lawyers William J. Kephart and Daniel W. Russo filed a 40-page brief Friday, asking Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Helene Gugerty to drop the second-degree murder and rape indictment because they said the evidence does not support the charges.

“The prosecution's presentation in the grand jury is based entirely on circumstantial evidence,” Kephart and Russo wrote in their brief. “The People presented no eyewitnesses, no confession, no surveillance footage, no fingerprint impressions, no murder weapon, no phone evidence, no digital or other data evidence connecting Richard Bilodeau to this crime. There is no direct evidence placing Mr. Bilodeau at, or near, the crime scene, which is not even known.”

Nassau County prosecutors said that the DNA found on a vaginal swab taken from Fusco’s body in the mid-1980s matched the DNA taken from the straw of a smoothie that Bilodeau discarded in 2024.

The Fusco murder stunned Nassau County at the time. On the night of her disappearance, the Lynbrook teenager was fired from her job at the roller rink Hot Skates. She left the business in tears and was last seen walking to a friend’s house on Nov. 10, 1984.

Three and a half weeks later, a group of teenagers stumbled on her naked body, which was partially covered by leaves and shipping pallets next to the Long Island Rail Road tracks.

Three other men — John Restivo, John Kogut and Dennis Halstead — were convicted of the crime in 1986. The verdicts were set aside about 18 years later, in part because the DNA found on the vaginal swab did not match that of any of the three men.

Investigators received a tip implicating Bilodeau in the crime and began to investigate him in 2024, following him to get the discarded straw.

The defense attorneys question how prosecutors have drawn a line from the DNA match to Bilodeau’s role in Fusco’s rape and death.

Nassau County Medical examiner, Dr. Tamara Bloom testified in the grand jury presentment that she did not see the typical signs of rape from the autopsy.

“I did not see a description of any injuries in her pelvic and vaginal area," she testified, according to the defense brief.

The lawyers pointed out other apparent inconsistencies in the testimony.

Forensic examiner Dr. Pasquale Buffolino testified that his own “post-coital study” found that the tails of sperm cells tend to degrade and fall off more than 24 hours after intercourse, but several intact cells were found on Fusco’s vaginal swab. Prosecutors did not establish the time of Fusco’s death during the grand jury proceedings, the lawyers said, nor have they established how the sperm cells could have been preserved for weeks.

“In this case, you know, there is a lot of unknowns that, you know, I can't put into context," Robert Bauma, a retired medical examiner who retrieved the swab sample, said in his testimony, according to the defense papers.

Kephart and Russo have questioned whether the prosecution planted the idea of the sexual assault with the grand jury, without the evidence to back it up. They also cast doubt on whether the panel was properly instructed on how to view circumstantial evidence.

“The indictment is based upon the following: a general non-detailed timeline; DNA results; scientific expert opinion testimony, which, as indicated previously, is inaccurate, misleading, speculative, conflicting and unsupportive of the People's theory in this case, and which stretches outside their areas of expertise; and a conversation between a detective and Mr. Bilodeau which occurs 41 years after the incident,” the attorneys said in their motion.

Prosecutors, who declined to comment, have until March 24 to respond to the brief.