The Fair Lawn Police Department revealed on Tuesday the resolution of the 1965 murder case of Alys Eberhardt, who was 18 at the time of her death.
“Alys was only 18 when she was tragically murdered in her family home in 1965. For nearly 60 years, her loved ones were left without answers. Although nothing can reverse this loss, we hope today brings some peace to those who have borne this pain for so long,” the department shared on Facebook.
Eberhardt’s lifeless body was discovered in her family’s Fair Lawn, N.J. home, a suburb near Manhattan, when she was just 18 years old.
Richard Cottingham, infamously known as the “Torso Killer,” admitted to the crime, providing police with details that had never been disclosed to the public, according to the department.
The notorious serial killer Richard Cottingham, also referred to as the “Times Square Killer,” was seen via video link during proceedings in the Supreme Court of Nassau County, New York, on Monday, December 5, 2022. (Rebecca White/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Upon reopening the case in 2021, Fair Lawn detectives diligently re-examined the investigation,” the police reported. “Over several years, through numerous interviews and relentless dedication, Richard Cottingham ultimately provided a full confession, including details that were never publicly known.”
Fair Lawn Police Chief Joseph Dawicki memorialized Eberhardt in a statement, saying she was a “vibrant young nursing student who was taken from our community far too soon.”
“While we can never bring her back, I am hopeful that her family can find some peace knowing the person responsible has confessed and can no longer harm anyone else,” Dawicki added.
Michael Smith, who was identified by several news outlets as Eberhardt’s nephew, responded to the Fair Lawn Police Department’s post with a statement from the family. In the statement, Smith wrote about the important closure that the development has brought his family and thanked the Fair Lawn Police Department for its work on the case.
“Our family has waited since 1965 for the truth. To receive this news during the holidays — and to be able to tell my mother, Alys’s sister, that we finally have answers — was a moment I never thought would come,” Smith wrote. “As Alys’s nephew, I am deeply moved that our family can finally honor her memory with the truth.”
“Richard Cottingham is the personification of evil, yet I am grateful that even he has finally chosen to answer the questions that have haunted our family for decades. We will never know why, but at least we finally know who,” Smith added.
Richard Cottingham makes a remote appearance in a courtroom in Mineola, N.Y., Dec. 5, 2022. (Seth Wenig, File/AP Photo)
Cottingham, 79, has been imprisoned since his 1980 arrest. He is serving three life sentences at the South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, New Jersey. He has claimed responsibility for up to 100 homicides going back to the 1960s, though authorities in New York and New Jersey have officially linked him to about a dozen of the crimes, The Associated Press reported.
Cottingham, who is widely known as the “Torso Killer” because he brutally dismembered some of his victims, has confessed to various killings over the years.
In April 2021, Cottingham admitted to committing the slayings of 17-year-old Mary Ann Pryor and 16-year-old Lorraine Marie Kelly in 1974, the AP reported. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping the girls and raping them for days before drowning them in a motel room bathtub, according to the AP. The outlet noted that the two girls were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen, N.J. The girls reportedly told family that they were heading to the mall via bus to get bathing suits for an upcoming trip to the Jersey Shore.
Richard Cottingham getting cuffed after the verdict. (Peter Karas – The Record/USA TODAY Network)
In 2022, he admitted to killing five women in the New York City area in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the AP reported. Cottingham was sentenced to 25 years to life for the 1968 killing of 23-year-old Diane Cusick but received immunity from prosecution on the other four killings as part of a plea deal. He was previously convicted of killing three women in New York and two in northern New Jersey.
