November 10, 1984. Lynbrook, New York, After getting fired from her job at a roller rink, 16-year old Theresa Fusco starts heading home, but she never arrives. Her nude body is eventually found in a wooded area and she has been raped and strangled to death with a ligature. Over four months later, a 21-year old suspect named John Kogut confesses to the crime and implicates two accomplices – 26-year old John Restivo and 31-year old Dennis Halstead – and they are all charged and convicted of Theresa’s murder. In 2003, all three men have their convictions overturned after DNA testing on the evidence excludes them. Kogut winds up being acquitted at his retrial while the charges against Restivo and Halstead are dropped, but there are still questions about who was actually responsible for killing Theresa.

For the first time ever, the “Trail Went Cold” is covering a cold case in which an arrest was made while we were in the midst of putting together our episode about it, so we’re going to cover the full story and all the recent developments. Special thanks to listener Reemi Hautamaki for narrating the opening of this episode.

If you happen to have any information about the cases mentioned in this episode, please contact the Nassau County Police Department at (516) 573-8800.

Additional Reading:

https://innocenceproject.org/cases/john-kogut/

https://centurion.org/cases/kogut-john/

https://exonerationregistry.org/cases/10591

https://exonerationregistry.org/cases/10504

https://exonerationregistry.org/cases/10795

https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=125077&page=1

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/mom-of-1984-long-island-murder-victim-decries-award-verdict/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/721897625/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/728546280/

https://www.newspapers.com/image/710299952/

https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/15/us/theresa-fusco-suspect-indicted-cold-case

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/theresa-fusco-murder-indictment/

https://charleyproject.org/case/kelly-eileen-morrissey

https://archive.longislandpress.com/2010/11/18/kelly-morrissey-the-search-for-kelly-morrissey-continues-26-years-later/

“The Trail Went Cold” is on Patreon. Visit www.patreon.com/thetrailwentcold to become a patron and gain access to our exclusive bonus content.

The Trail Went Cold is produced and edited by Magill Foote.

All music is composed by Vince Nitro.