Khaberni - Authorities in Nassau County, New York, have announced the closing of one of the oldest murder cases open since the 1980s, after charging 63-year-old Richard Beloud with second-degree murder in connection with the killing of teenager Theresa Fusco, whose body was found in 1984.
Fusco, who was 16 at the time, disappeared in November 1984 after finishing her shift at a snack stand inside a skating rink in Lynbrook.
A few days later, the police discovered her body buried under leaves and wooden boards, and it was determined that she had been assaulted and subsequently strangled to death.
According to ABC network, three men were convicted in the case in 1985, but they were acquitted in 2003 after DNA evidence showed that the semen found at the crime scene did not belong to any of them.
These results prompted the reopening of the case by the county authorities, who continued the investigation using modern DNA analysis techniques.
Authorities began monitoring Richard Beloud since early 2024, a man living alone in Center Moriches, east New York.
The investigative teams managed to collect a biological sample from him indirectly after he discarded a juice cup in a trash can near his home.
The test results showed that the DNA from the cup matched the evidence taken from the crime scene more than four decades earlier.
Theresa Fusco's father stated that the new charges represent a painful yet comforting moment of closure for him and his family, affirming that he never lost hope in discovering the truth. The prosecution explained that the crime had instilled fear in the hearts of the local community during the 1980s, following the disappearance of two other teenage girls under similar circumstances.
Beloud was arrested this week and charged with murder committed during or attempting to commit a rape of the first degree, and he denied knowing the victim, while the prosecution confirmed that "the scientific evidence resolved the case and restored justice" more than forty years after the crime.
