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Speaker 1: Hey, there're folks. It is Saturday, October the eighteenth, and

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Speaker 1: police this week made an arrest in the brutal rape

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Speaker 1: and murder of a teenage girl. It only took them

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Speaker 1: forty years and a smoothie straw to make the arrest.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, this is a crime that three

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Speaker 1: other men have already been convicted for and they were

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Speaker 1: exonerated of. And welcome everybody to this episode of Amy

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Speaker 1: and TJ Robes. Cold cases are one thing takes so

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Speaker 1: long for families to get justice. The idea that there

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Speaker 1: were three other men that went to prison for decades

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Speaker 1: for this same crime that they did not commit.

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Speaker 2: This is a story that is hard to believe.

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Speaker 3: It's heartbreaking for so many people.

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Speaker 2: The family of the victim, sixteen year old girl, of

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Speaker 2: the three men who were convicted for her murder, that

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Speaker 2: spent more than a decade behind bars, seventeen years in

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Speaker 2: prison for a crime they did not commit, and this

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Speaker 2: all came to light. It wasn't lost on us that

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Speaker 2: this all came to light on a week where we

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Speaker 2: have executed five people for murders and it was supposed

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Speaker 2: to be six because one has been stayed. But this

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Speaker 2: is all just to me a highlight a highlighted moment

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Speaker 2: in time where we can say, hey, our justice system

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Speaker 2: is flawed.

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Speaker 1: Hey, look we know it is. No system is perfect.

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Speaker 1: That's fine. But when you talk about people losing decades

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Speaker 1: of their life and a mistake like this, may I mean, look,

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Speaker 1: this was a brutal enough crime that it's not beyond

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Speaker 1: the imagine that this is a crime in some places

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Speaker 1: that someone could have gotten the death penalty.

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Speaker 2: This happened in New York, so it would have been

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Speaker 2: more unlikely that that would have happened.

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Speaker 1: So that we understand and we get but if a

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Speaker 1: mistake like this can be made that it takes us

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Speaker 1: twenty years to realize our mistake, then man, it scares

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Speaker 1: the hell out of you.

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Speaker 2: This is a fascinating story. It's a cautionary story, and

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Speaker 2: it's a story that I think everyone needs to hear.

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Speaker 2: This is the story of a sixteen year old girl.

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Speaker 2: Her name was Teresa Fusco. She was found raped and

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Speaker 2: strangled to death in a wooded area on Long Island.

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Speaker 2: This happened in nineteen eighty four. Her body was found

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Speaker 2: on December fifth. She was just leaving work. In fact,

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Speaker 2: she left work in tears. She was working at a

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Speaker 2: roller skating rink and she had just been fired and

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Speaker 2: she left in tears. She thought that was the worst

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Speaker 2: thing that could have happened her. At sixteen and just

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Speaker 2: moments later, yes before ten pm, she was abducted by

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Speaker 2: someone and at one point police thought it was three men.

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Speaker 2: But this week police have arrested sixty three year old

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Speaker 2: Richard Billdeaux and charged him with two counts of second

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Speaker 2: degree murder and one count of murder during the course

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Speaker 2: of a rape. And this was forty one years in

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Speaker 2: the making this arrest.

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Speaker 1: Look, and we just mentioned this is right, they're arresting someone.

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Speaker 1: I guess they didn't know to be looking for anybody

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Speaker 1: else for the past couple of decades because there were

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Speaker 1: three men convicted of this after this young lady was

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Speaker 1: found murdered and they went to prison. And it wasn't

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Speaker 1: until and because of yes, advances in DNA testing that

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Speaker 1: we are here that proved that those three men. Now,

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Speaker 1: at the time that DNA testing was done, they didn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily have another suspect that this left them too, But

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Speaker 1: they knew these three men were not involved based on

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Speaker 1: DNA found on that young lady's body. So a couple

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Speaker 1: of them got I can't remember the amount, but million

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Speaker 1: dollar settlements.

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Speaker 2: Eighteen million dollars apiece. So they were convicted. And look

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Speaker 2: how often we put so much stock into coerce confessions,

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Speaker 2: unreliable testimony by jail house informants. But that is how

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Speaker 2: they were convicted. And yes, as you mentioned, advanced DNA

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Speaker 2: testing cleared these men, Dennis Halstead, John Cogut, and John Restivo.

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Speaker 3: They sued two of them.

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Speaker 2: Restivo and Halsteed were awarded eighteen million dollars apiece for

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Speaker 2: the seventeen years more than seventeen years they served in

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Speaker 2: prison for a crime they did not commit. And thank

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Speaker 2: God for DNA testing because that is the reason why

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Speaker 2: these men were exonerated, and it is the reason why

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Speaker 2: now Richard billdeou behind bars.

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Speaker 1: How many more, I mean, I know there are people

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Speaker 1: who are there organizations dedicated to this type of work

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Speaker 1: to exonerate folks, but how many more?

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Speaker 3: Really?

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Speaker 1: It eighty four? I mean that was that was a

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Speaker 1: while back, sure, forty years, but man, we've learned so

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Speaker 1: much more and it was so I don't want to

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Speaker 1: say easy what the journey was like to get them exonerated.

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Speaker 1: But like a test, here is this, here's the test,

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Speaker 1: test this, and we'll have our answer about guilt or innocence.

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Speaker 1: It just like this should be accessible to everybody. This

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Speaker 1: just should not happen. I hate it for those men.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, this is the kind of story where

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Speaker 2: you want to go and give your time to the

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Speaker 2: Innocence Project, which devotes that organization devotes its resources into

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Speaker 2: DNA testing specifically because that is irrefutable. When you have

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Speaker 2: someone that is clearly exonerated by or clearly responsible for

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Speaker 2: based on DNA evidence, I mean that is that is

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Speaker 2: the type of evidence that can absolutely change the outcome

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Speaker 2: and should change the outcome.

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Speaker 3: Of a trial.

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Speaker 1: So we move forward. Here we are now, so how

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Speaker 1: do they get this guy? Well, as far as police go,

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Speaker 1: they say they got a tip, and they've actually been

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Speaker 1: they've had their eye on this suspect at least since

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Speaker 1: early last year, and so they have been following him around,

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Speaker 1: keeping an eye on him. But again, the key to

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Speaker 1: this case, Robes, which has exonerated three men, is DNA.

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Speaker 1: So DNA was key in following this guy around and

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Speaker 1: trying to figure out ropes. And we've seen some of

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Speaker 1: this We watched a lot of true grime stories, and

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Speaker 1: we've seen this one play out before.

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Speaker 2: You know that this is going to be a movie

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Speaker 2: or a made for TV movie or a docu series,

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Speaker 2: because this has all of the hallmarks of it. So

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Speaker 2: Richard Bilodeou, he's sixty three years old now, but starting

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Speaker 2: last year or even beforehand, they started surveilling him. As

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Speaker 2: TJ just said, they actually in February watched Billodeou get

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Speaker 2: as smoothie from a cafe in Suffolk County. When he finished,

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Speaker 2: he threw the cup and the straw in the trash.

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Speaker 2: Investigators went into the trash can, pulled out the cup

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Speaker 2: and the straw and used it to test it for

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Speaker 2: DNA and guess what. That DNA sample tested positive as

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Speaker 2: a match to the DNA found on Fusco's body.

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Speaker 3: We mentioned she was raped, so they.

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Speaker 2: Had DNA from the killer who raped her, and it

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Speaker 2: matched Billadel sixty sixty three.

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Speaker 3: He was twenty three at the time of the murder.

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Speaker 2: And they went back and looked at the time of Wow,

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Speaker 2: I just it's so sad.

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Speaker 3: Sixteen years old, sixteen.

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Speaker 2: Year old Teresa Fusco at the time of her murder,

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Speaker 2: Billigo was living with his grandparents less than a mile

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Speaker 2: away from where she lived and from the roller rink

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Speaker 2: where she was last seen alive. So he was at

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Speaker 2: the time at the place. And now they have the

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Speaker 2: DNA linking him.

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Speaker 1: I mean, this is a this is an incredible story.

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Speaker 1: I don't know which way to go with, right, the

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Speaker 1: family has peace after all of these years. You have

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Speaker 1: all these characters, now the family involved. You have the family,

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Speaker 1: the victim, those three men being exonerated, and then the

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Speaker 1: family friends, people who have been around this guy for

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Speaker 1: the past forty years.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so here's what we know about him.

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Speaker 2: He has been living on Long Island for the last

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Speaker 2: forty years, and for the past twelve years he's been

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Speaker 2: stocking shelves at a local walmart. So here's this guy

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Speaker 2: who's now being accused of this horrific, heinous crime, and

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Speaker 2: he watched three other men pay for his crime. Clearly

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Speaker 2: he saw that all go down. But here's something really interesting.

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Speaker 2: When detectives finally confronted him about this DNA match from

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Speaker 2: him to the victim, Reportedly, according to detectives, he replied,

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Speaker 2: they said they asked him, why why does your DNA

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Speaker 2: match a sample found with Teresa's body from the nineteen eighties.

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Speaker 2: Here was his response, people got away with murder. Back then,

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Speaker 2: DNA testing was not around, and it was almost as

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Speaker 2: if he was kind of.

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Speaker 3: Bragging about it at that point.

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Speaker 2: Now he has now pleaded not guilty this week and

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Speaker 2: he is proclaiming his innocence. But according to investigators, that

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Speaker 2: is what he said when he was confronted with the evidence.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm what that means. Maybe we'll see that

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Speaker 1: on one of the true crime documentaries from the interrogation

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Speaker 1: room and see how that all went down. But that's

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Speaker 1: he had to be to a point that he thought

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Speaker 1: that call would never come and that knock would ever

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Speaker 1: come on the door. Now, I wonder if he had

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Speaker 1: been keeping up with his story of the past several

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Speaker 1: years and knew that these men had been exonerated, and

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Speaker 1: maybe he had been sweating for a little while. But

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Speaker 1: forty one years. Again, we've seen a few true crime

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Speaker 1: stories of this nature, but forty one years.

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Speaker 3: He had to have thought he had gotten away with it.

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Speaker 3: Think about it.

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Speaker 2: Those three men, their convictions were overturned in two thousand

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Speaker 2: and three. That's twenty two years ago. So for twenty

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Speaker 2: two years, the men first served seventeen years, then twenty

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Speaker 2: two years has gone by.

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Speaker 1: So maybe he was sweating it for the first few

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Speaker 1: years and now for the past decade. Really he might

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Speaker 1: have forgotten about it. Again. I say forget it, what

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Speaker 1: I mean, not to forget something like that. But rome's

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Speaker 1: to think he's been living forty years and working around people.

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Speaker 1: This was a horrific thing done to a sixteen year

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Speaker 1: old girl. This was awful. This is monstrous stuff. And

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Speaker 1: he went about life, he was interacting with people. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure he worked with people. Somebody hired him, and what

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Speaker 1: are those people thinking.

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Speaker 2: His neighbors have been talking saying he was always scary.

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Speaker 2: They told their kids to stay away from him. People

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Speaker 2: talked about his weird, strange, bad energy. So it's always

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Speaker 2: after the fact, of course, people are like, I always

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Speaker 2: knew something was up with that guy. But people have

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Speaker 2: definitely been speaking out and speaking up about how he

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Speaker 2: was a creepy guy and they always felt a little

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Speaker 2: uneasy and didn't want their kids around him. It's kind

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Speaker 2: of interesting when people give off a certain energy. So,

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Speaker 2: of course, easy to say after the fact, easy to

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Speaker 2: say after his arrest, but they're certainly speaking up and

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Speaker 2: he has maintained his innocence despite I mean, can you

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Speaker 2: imagine the last thing he was thinking as he ordered

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Speaker 2: that smoothie, finished it and threw it in the trash.

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Speaker 2: Can can you imagine he would never in a million

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Speaker 2: years have thought that was going to be his undoing.

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Speaker 1: Look, it says you always have. It is the presumption

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Speaker 1: of innocence until you are proven guilty. His lawyer, I

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Speaker 1: thought was kind of if anything could be kind of

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Speaker 1: funny and how he said it. He said, look, three

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Speaker 1: people have been exonerated in this case. If this is

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Speaker 1: ever a case of not rushing to judgment, this would

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Speaker 1: be it makes a good point, like, okay, whatever it

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Speaker 1: looks like, but we will defend our client. But this

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Speaker 1: case is a very well it's obviously close to us

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Speaker 1: here in New York because Long Island's right across the way.

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Speaker 1: But this case and the timing of it coming smack

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Speaker 1: dab in the middle of a stretch of time in

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Speaker 1: this country where we had six executions in eight days.

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Speaker 1: Oh wait, there actually were only five because would you believe, folks, yes,

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Speaker 1: one of them was stopped. Why because there's a question

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Speaker 1: about the guilt or innocence of the man who's on

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Speaker 1: death row. Stay with us.

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Speaker 2: We continue talking about this unbelievable and truly unbelievable and

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Speaker 2: fascinating case about the death and the murder of sixteen

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Speaker 2: year old Teresa Fusco. What happened forty one years ago

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Speaker 2: in nineteen eighty four on Long Island and New York.

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Speaker 2: Three men had been initially convicted, spent seventeen years behind

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Speaker 2: bars before being exonerated by DNA evidence.

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Speaker 3: And now they say.

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Speaker 2: Police believe they finally have the man in custody who

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Speaker 2: they believe killed Teresa all those years ago, because DNA

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Speaker 2: evidence connects him to the crime. And look, we talk

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Speaker 2: about how it's fascinating, We talk about the larger conversation

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Speaker 2: about getting things right and how flawed our justice system is,

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Speaker 2: and certainly the higher level of executions we're seeing in

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Speaker 2: this country. But I also just want to point out

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Speaker 2: the human element of this. And my god, her father,

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Speaker 2: Teresa Fusco's father, was at the bail hearing this week

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Speaker 2: of this man who's now finally been arrested for his

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Speaker 2: daughter's death. And I was wiping away tears reading about

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Speaker 2: this father and seeing the picture. There's Thomas Fusco said

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Speaker 2: that this arrest and of course the trial and ultimately

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Speaker 2: he hopes the conviction will bring closure finally for him

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Speaker 2: and his family. But he said this, I never gave

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Speaker 2: up hope. I've always had faith in this system. But

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Speaker 2: before I leave this earth, I'm very happy that since

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Speaker 2: my ex wife's not here, she passed away back in

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Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, and that I'm here with my family and

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Speaker 2: the district attorney. And he pulled out a picture, a

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Speaker 2: laminated photo of his daughter that he says he carries

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Speaker 2: in his jacket pocket with him, and he said, with

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Speaker 2: his lip shaking, she still lives in my heart, as

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Speaker 2: you can see all these years later. The emotion that

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Speaker 2: washed over him, it was just it was so moving

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Speaker 2: to think about just the unbelievable toll this had to

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Speaker 2: have taken on him and his entire family and everyone

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Speaker 2: who loved her.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they haven't been at peace. It's been tumultuous. I

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Speaker 1: don't know. I didn't wasn't familiar enough with the story

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Speaker 1: that I don't know if there were all always questions

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Speaker 1: about the guilt of these three men. I don't know

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Speaker 1: if the family thought that was their closure and it

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Speaker 1: was done or not. But then to think when those

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Speaker 1: men are exonerated, that was twenty years ago and they've

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Speaker 1: been now, it's almost like she's murdered all over again.

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Speaker 1: There's a killer has been on the loose this whole time,

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Speaker 1: and so I can't imagine the ups and downs that

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Speaker 1: look waiting five years for closure is one thing. This

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Speaker 1: is you got closure twenty years ago just to be

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Speaker 1: told no, that wasn't it, and now you're getting it again.

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Speaker 1: I mean, your heartbreaks for those folks.

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Speaker 2: Heartbreak, and then also to think that three men paid

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Speaker 2: a price that they didn't deserve to pay.

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Speaker 3: You'd also feel terrible about that.

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Speaker 1: Maybe how you felt about those men at one point.

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Speaker 1: I wonder if there were every any apologies relationships or

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Speaker 1: not that they need to apologize to those men, but

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Speaker 1: it's just if they ever reached out in some way.

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Speaker 1: That's this. They were in jail for nearly two decades

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Speaker 1: for a crime they did not commit that should never

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Speaker 1: ever happen, ever ever.

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Speaker 2: Happened, But thank goodness, it was able to be righted.

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Speaker 2: Not that you could ever get back those years, but

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Speaker 2: at least they were just imprisoned. And I hate to

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Speaker 2: say that I'm not minimizing at all their experience. But

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Speaker 2: I say this with the perspective of capital punishment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, because we are as we sit here on a

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Speaker 1: Saturday now. Two days ago, a guy in Texas was

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Speaker 1: supposed to be dead and he's still alive right now

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Speaker 1: because of a stay of execution. We've covered this plenty.

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Speaker 1: Robert Robertson was supposed to be the first person executed

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Speaker 1: after a shaken baby syndrome conviction, if you will, And

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Speaker 1: there are questions now because there are new science. This

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Speaker 1: wasn't DNA, but science evolved to where what he was

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Speaker 1: convicted on and the science they use is considered junk science.

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Speaker 1: So that mistake, yes, could have cost a guy his

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Speaker 1: life two days ago. In this country, we should always

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Speaker 1: pump the brakes and be sure. I know everybody on

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Speaker 1: Cell Block D says they didn't do it. I know

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Speaker 1: that's the joke, but sometimes guys on blog B and

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Speaker 1: C and A and elsewhere have a very good point.

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Speaker 1: We have to take these seriously and on all capital punishment.

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Speaker 1: If there's f oh, we just take a beat. If

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Speaker 1: we need two more weeks to figure this out, we

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Speaker 1: should always do that, you know.

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Speaker 3: And it reminds me.

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Speaker 2: Look, I'm not saying that Lance Shockley of Missouri, who

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Speaker 2: was also executed this week, was innocent in any way,

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Speaker 2: shape or form, but he till the moment he was

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Speaker 2: pronounced dead at six thirteen pm this week and Missouri

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Speaker 2: claimed that he was innocent.

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Speaker 1: Again, plenty do I'm not saying just take their word

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Speaker 1: for it, but there are questions about that illegal questions well,

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Speaker 1: the Supreme about the case.

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Speaker 3: Three justices felt like he should have gotten a new tribal.

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Speaker 1: If Soda Mayor says there's a question that he didn't

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Speaker 1: get all his his the rights do, then I'll listen

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Speaker 1: to that. I'll listen to the Yes, that's fine. When

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Speaker 1: somebody's life is on the line, I'll listen to that, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: for sure. But it's just funny that this case comes

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Speaker 1: up this week on the same week that we have

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Speaker 1: seen I guess a life spared because we decided to

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Speaker 1: take a beat and look at new evidence, and now

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Speaker 1: we're seeing that hearing this case that three men, their lives,

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Speaker 1: you could argue, were spared that well, that DNA had

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Speaker 1: never been tested. Who was out there yelling and screaming

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Speaker 1: in their corner and rooting for them? I don't know

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Speaker 1: if they had good enough lawyers, maybe there was an

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Speaker 1: Innocence Project, but ma'am, more of this work needs to

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Speaker 1: be done, and I be done. And I applaud any

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Speaker 1: of you all out there from the Innocence Project on

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Speaker 1: who do this work, because it is critically important.

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Speaker 2: Work and we all, we all can't even imagine what

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Speaker 2: it would be like to be the family members left

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Speaker 2: behind when someone who we loved was brutally murdered. Of course,

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Speaker 2: everyone wants justice, but we want to make sure we

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Speaker 2: get it right, and so this story just was such

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Speaker 2: a glaring example of that very very thing. So Richard Bilodeaux,

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Speaker 2: we will follow the story. He is supposed to be

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Speaker 2: back in court on November twenty first, and we will

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Speaker 2: bring you the very latest on that if he is convicted,

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Speaker 2: he will face twenty five years to life in prison,

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Speaker 2: and certainly we hope that the family of Teresa Fusco

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Speaker 2: finally finally gets the justice and peace that they have

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Speaker 2: been waiting for for far too long, for these past

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Speaker 2: four decades. Thank you so much for listening to us. Everyone.

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Speaker 3: I'm Amy Robot alongside TJ. Holmes. We will talk to

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Speaker 3: you soon