The Killing of Theresa Fusco | Post Mortem | Forensic Files

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 Morrissey, two teenagers, teenage girls who went
missing in 1984 in Lynbrook, 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 Erin Moriarty. Erin, 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, Ann Marie, 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 Morrissey left her home after dinner. She's going
to meet a friend, and she's last seen at a payphone near a Shell gas station in Lynbrook 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?
Ann Marie, 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 Lynbrook 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 Lynbrook,
and she told us that Lynbrook 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 cuz it was just a
bunch of kids. But, you know, to talk about the case, 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 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 that 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 payphone. And so our thought is, oh well, why didn't the police find
out who she was talking to? Well, data for the payphones 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 help solve cases. Mhm. 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 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 Kogut. 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 question 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 Kogut'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 Kogut 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 higher-ups, but they were told to still bring him in
for questioning. Now, again, what we've been told is that Kogut told police that
at the time of Teresa'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 continued 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 Halstead 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.
Kogut then also said that after she got into the van, he he claimed that Restivo
and Halstead 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 to 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 Castellano about that. Now, he is the
attorney who represented Kogut, not the first trial, but when Kogut was tried a second
time. He says that videotape confession was staged. According to Castellano, Kogut was exhausted and just wanted the
interrogation to stop. Castellano says that Kogut also disavowed that confession within a day once he talked
to a lawyer. Mhm. But as anyone who sees that videotape confession, that confession
seemed to be the nail in his coffin at trial. John Kogut, uh Dennis Halstead, and then John Restivo, 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 Restivo's van. And then, of course, they testify about Kogut's detailed
confession. All three men, uh Kogut, Halstead, and Restivo, 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 Kogut, John Restivo, and Dennis Halstead'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. It was about the murder of Angie Dodge.
This is in Idaho Falls in 1996. She was an 18-year-old. She 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 started to zero in on a guy named Christopher Tapp. 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. And in the end, the advances in DNA
technology, genetic genealogy, eventually identified the killer. It was a man named Brian Tapp, who eventually
pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. But it really sort of got me thinking
about the way interrogations are conducted. And whether anything has changed. Ann
Marie, there's no question that we're seeing more and more cases like this. I mean, it breaks my heart because
>> Yeah. these officers think they have the right person, they pressure them, they
confess, and then later on, after these guys have all gone to prison, genetic genealogy or DNA Mhm. 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 audiotaped. And best practices um include not interrogating someone for
hours and hours. Um so, I think it is better, [music] but I don't think it's fixed yet.
Welcome back. Well, in 2003, the Nassau County District Attorney, Denis Dillon, decided to retry
John Kogut, Dennis Halstead, and John Restivo for the murder of Teresa Fusco. And starting with Kogut, who pleaded not
guilty again. And this time, Kogut 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 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 Kogut confessing."
According to prosecutors, that was the most important evidence, even more important than the DNA. So then, what's
the approach for Kogut'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
Casselliero, who represented Kogut 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 Kogut, you actually see this, when Kogut
can't even remember the last name of one of the, you know, co-defendants, the officer gives it to him. Um
Casselliero 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, Casselliero argued that there was testing that revealed that those hairs
displayed this 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, and this is awful to hear, Mhm.
>> 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. Huh. What's more, the
judge found the confession not credible. So, in the end, Kogut'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 Halstead, and they were never retried a second time. All three men initially sued Nassau County
and police officials. They lost. And then John Restivo and Dennis Halstead, they pursue another a civil trial
against Nassau County and police officials without John Kogut. And they are awarded $18 million
each. Essentially, a million dollars for each year that they spend behind bars, but
Kogut receives nothing. Why did he receive nothing at all? Well, Ann Marie, we can't absolutely
say, but defense attorney Paul Casselliero believes that it was that confession that stopped him from getting money. But
there's nothing in the record. I should point out that Kogut didn't go completely empty-handed. He did receive
some money from a state fund, but it was a much smaller than what his co-defendants got,
Halstead and Restivo. 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
Casselliero, when he was convicted and went to prison initially, had stayed in touch with a 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 Scheck, 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 him.
Think about that. >> Wow. Yeah. >> 40 years afterwards, you never really get your life back. On October 15th,
2025, this is nearly 41 years after Teresa Fusco was killed, Nassau County DA, Anne 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 63-year-old. His name is Richard Billa Dew, I think. Is it Billa Dew or Billa Doe? Because
>> It's It's written Billa Doe 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 Billa Doe. Okay. >> Uh but when I interviewed the defense
attorneys, they said it is Billa Dew, and the defense attorneys say that's how he pronounces it. Okay.
>> And so, I'm going with Billa Dew. But you do hear me in the hour pronounce it
Billa Doe, Billa Dew. 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, Ann Marie, this is
pretrial. Nobody's sharing a lot. The prosecutors wouldn't reveal or couldn't reveal um whether there was any evidence
that Billa Dew and Teresa 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 Belladieu 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 Belladieu. At the time of Belladieu'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 Lynbrook. Um Belladieu 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 Morrissey? 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 Morrissey'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 Belladieu 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 Martarella.
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 Belladieu in connection with Jackie's case?
Belladieu has not been charged in the case of Jackie Martarella, 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 Coget's original trial. She has to
testify at Recivo and Halstead's original trial. There were other hearings that she said she also had to
uh testify. Then Coget is retried and she's probably going to have to testify again if Belladieu goes to trial. It's
never-ending. That's what Teresa's father told us. That's what Teresa's brother told us.
The idea that her murder has never been resolved. It just It just makes everything so much tougher for this
family. Yeah. I mean, I don't think you ever really move on, but but you do sort
of figure out ways to cope, but how can you cope without a resolution? I know that Kelly Morrissey's family talked us
because they're hoping if somebody knows something and they see this story, maybe
maybe they'll come forward. It's 40 years. It's time. Erin, thank you so much. Talk to you soon, Amory. Of course. Um
if you like this episode, please rate and review on Apple Podcast or Spotify.

"48 Hours" correspondents Anne-Marie Green and Erin Moriarty discuss the cases of Theresa Fusco, Kelly Morrissey, and Jackie Martarella, who went missing more than 40 years ago in Long Island, New York.

True crime. Social justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

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Brief Summary

This episode covers the unresolved murders of Teresa Fusco and Kelly Morrissey, wrongful convictions, and recent DNA breakthroughs in their cases.

Key points

The Disappearance of Kelly Morrissey. 15-year-old Kelly Morrissey goes missing after leaving home in 1984. Her case remains unsolved.
DNA Technology Uncovers New Evidence. Advances in DNA technology lead to the exoneration of three men convicted of Teresa's murder.
Indictment of Teresa's Killer. 41 years after Teresa Fusco's murder, DNA leads to the indictment of Richard Billa Dew.
The Unresolved Murder. The ongoing impact of an unresolved murder on a family after 40 years.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This case is yet another reminder of the cost of a prosecutor getting it wrong.

Discussion on wrongful convictions and their impact on families.

0:57WatchMay 2, 2026

Tension

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