'Torso Killer' Linked to 1968 Cold Case Murder On Long Island

NEW HYDE PARK, NY — More than 50 years after a New Hyde Park mother was found dead outside a shopping mall, a notorious serial killer has been charged with her murder.

Richard Cottingham — nicknamed "The Torso Killer" for the way he dismembered his victims — was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder in the killing of 23-year-old Diane Cusick, Nassau County prosecutors said.

Cottingham, 75, is already serving a life sentence for multiple murders. He has been linked to nearly a dozen slayings in New York and New Jersey — the latest being Cusick's.

Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly said the breakthrough in Cusick's case came from a DNA match.

Cottingham, a father of three who used to live in Lodi, New Jersey, has pleaded not guilty to the crime. He faces another life sentence if convicted.

On Feb. 15, 1968, Cusick told her parents she was going to Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream to buy new shoes. But when she did not return home, her parents went looking for her at the shopping center.

That is when they found her body in the back seat of her car. Authorities say her hands were bound and her mouth was covered with duct tape.

A medical examiner later determined that she was strangled to death.

The case eventually went cold. But in 2021, evidence was retested by the Nassau County Office of the Medical Examiner. Officials say a DNA profile was generated from that evidence earlier this year, which linked Cottingham to the crime.

"It was only through advances in DNA technology that the NCDA and our partners at the Nassau County Police Department, could solve this 54-year-old cold case and identify a suspect in Ms. Cusick's tragic death," Donnelly said. "We make a promise to her surviving daughter today: we will bring her mother's killer to justice."

Darlene Altman was only 4 years old when her mother was murdered.

At Cottingham's arraignment on Wednesday, Altman, now 58, said she felt the serial killer was staring right at her, PIX11 News reported.

"I am very overwhelmed," she said. "He was creepy."

Cottingham is due back in court on Aug. 18.