He did, however, leave behind their clothing, including a pair of Bonjour jeans, white leotards and a black fur coat, neatly folded in the bath tub. After the hearing, the cameras off, Mr. Anzilotti approached Mr. Cottingham. Dont think youre going to mess with me and Im going to help you, Mr. Anzilotti recalled Mr. Cottingham saying. I didnt know what to expect. Cottingham had just raped, tortured and beheaded two sex workers in a room at the motel before setting it on fire. 0000004577 00000 n
This time, at the Seville Hotel, where he strangled Jean Reyner, a 25-year-old mother working in the sex trade to finance a child custody battle. The photographs are ordered from left to right and top to bottom. Crime: Cottingham, a Lodi resident, killed six women in New Jersey and New York between 1967 and 1980. The New York Times, p. 26. For a year, he refused to speak to Mr. Anzilotti. %%EOF
However, his family moved to River Vale, New Jersey, when he was 12 years old. The potential payoff in return felt almost too important to describe. 0000002847 00000 n
Then hed clear the room until only he and Mr. Cottingham faced each another, and begin with his questions. Community Rules apply to all content you upload or otherwise submit to this site. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. She, like members of the other families, agreed to forgo a guilty plea in open court. But her light shines brightly against the backdrop of evil.. Ms. Falasca was a 15-year-old who left her familys house in July 1969 and never returned. The case also had parallels to a previously unsolved murder of nurse Maryann Carr, who was found dead in the same motel three years earlier. Thats not the natural order its supposed to go in.. However, please be aware that not allowing certain cookies may impact your experience of the site. Cusicks daughter, Darlene Altman, told Nassau County Judge Caryn Fink her late grandparents raised her after her mothers shocking slaying. Pages in category "People from Lodi, New Jersey" The following 21 pages are in this category, out of 21 total. She was found strangled to death the next day in Saddle Brook. But he eventually realized the years-long association, which involved countless state prison visits, was coming to an end. Cottingham, who is also nicknamed "The Torso Killer," moved into this rented three-bedroom house in February of 1975. Richard Cottingham pleaded guilty to murder in the death of one Long Island woman and admitted under oath to killing four others. His proclivity toward violence and the lack of solid profiling tactics for serial killers made Vronsky believe that Cottinghams claim of 100 victims was possible. Cottingham was convicted of five murders and numerous counts of kidnapping and sexual assault and sentenced to 173 to 197 years, which he is serving in Trentons New Jersey State Prison. Detective Anzilotti was startled to discover the same man killed all three. It was a game to me. 0000000991 00000 n
Theyre pushing him on multiple other cases. Hes been interviewing Cottingham in state prison for years. Long-Buried Secrets: The Serial Killer and the Detective, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/13/nyregion/new-jersey-serial-killer-cottingham-anzilotti.html. O'Dell's muffled cries of pain became so loud that the motel staff, already uneased by the previous two murders of Carr and Street, called police and then rushed to the room demanding that Cottingham open the door. Moye, 55, stared down serial murderer and rapist Richard Cottingham in a Nassau County courtroom Monday as the 76-year-old notorious "Torso Killer" admitted to five more sadistic slayings. Blase was 18 when she was found strangled in Saddle River in 1969. But there was an even bigger problem. Cottingham was apprehended in the hallway by arriving police officers. More Local News to Love Start today for 50% off Expires 3/6/23, Rodrigo Torrejon | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, discovery of a Ridgefield Park woman dead, nude and bound. 0000000016 00000 n
Knowing better, Harp, just 13 years old, refused. iP^ -KvWZvxhc'm$93tSz =oBTmD]+)bTJ T|u>/. [22][23] He pleaded guilty in a December court appearance, and also officially admitted killing four other women in Long Island: Mary Beth Heinz,[24] Laverne Moye,[16] Sheila Heiman,[25] and Maria Emerita Rosado Nieves.[26]. 0000002831 00000 n
After dismembering Goodarzi, Cottingham lit her torso on fire, along with a second unidentified woman, who was found next to Goodarzi on the same bed. He called his detectives and gave the word: Bring in Cottingham. One would remind him of a TV actress. Cottingham admitted during the plea hearing that he brought Mary Ann and Lorraine to a hotel, where he raped both and bound the girls to keep them from getting away. 21 0 obj
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I can go all the way back to the first detective on the case. But eventually, their old give-and-take resumed. His murders were not the outcome of stalking or planning but of fleeting encounters. trailer
One day, Cottingham told his co-worker that he had stolen a sex worker's money and clothes while she was sleeping. Hackensack, Then, with just days remaining before the chief retired, the inmate relented. For decades, a string of killings of teenage girls haunted suburban New Jersey. The teenagers were last seen on Aug. 9, 1974, in North Bergen. So we just stayed in the car and we kept talking to each other, getting to know each other and so forth., If the rain wasnt there, they would have just went to the mall and that would have been it, he said, And I would have went to work.. After six years of visits, there was a break. I never broke my promise to him, all these years later, the chief said. But then, four years ago, Mr. Cottingham stunned the chief. He married in 1970 and had three children. Peter Karas/The Record, via USA Today Network. I never thought I would get caught, he added. 0000008501 00000 n
The newspapers called the murderer The Torso Killer. Then on May 22, 1980, a worker at a Quality Inn in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., heard a woman screaming. The latitude and longitude coordinates for the house are: To view directions on how to get there, you can use the Google Maps shortcut below: 29 Vreeland StreetLodiNew JerseyNJ 07644United States. When Mr. Cottingham entered prison in 1981, Robert Anzilotti was not yet a teenager. The bodies of the women had no heads and no hands. He described in detail how, instead, he took the girls to a motel, held them captive and eventually drowned them in the bathtub. He said, Youre welcome.. Responding officers found an 18-year-old victim whod been bitten, stabbed and bound with handcuffs. On April 7, 1969, Cottingham saw Blase, 18, shopping in Hackensack, Vronsky said. It was Aug. 14, 1974, in Montvale, N.J., a suburb just over the New York state line. A friend of one victim came forward and the slain woman was later positively identified through a cesarean-section scar and chest X-ray as 22-year-old prostitute Deedeh Goodarzi. On Dec. 2, 1979, the murders that earned Cottingham the nickname the "Torso Killer took place in New York City. Ms. Then came Tuesdays pleas. He was imprisoned. He'd been a married father of three, but the Lodi resident - who would brutalize his victim's bodies, cutting off limbs, heads and breasts - would later become known as the "Torso Killer" for. It represented closure, Moye said of this weeks hearing. In a candid interview, the Bergen County chief who spent 20 years trying to wrangle new confessions out of serial killer Richard Cottingham revealed the 74-year-old prisoner has "regrets". Mr. Cottingham was summoned before a judge on April 27, remotely, via Zoom, sitting in a wheelchair in a conference room at the prosecutors office. When a worker came to check on her, ODell cracked open the door and gave a hand signal asking for help. The victim's hands were tightly handcuffed behind her back and police would later lift a fingerprint matching Cottingham, the only fingerprint successfully found from any of his known murders. Mr. Anzilotti and another investigator drove to the town of Reading, Vt., to deliver the news to Jackies older sister, Suzan Mulder, then 69. He soon realized the woman had no head, the Daily News reported. Cottingham was not charged with this murder until June 2022, when he was implicated by DNA.[10]. The 22-year-old's death appeared brutal: she had been beheaded and set on fire and her skull has yet to be found. <<8BD7E4F5B15F3F4A8993EB3A0150F7AC>]>>
Authorities tied him to the killings after police were called to a Hasbrouck Heights motel, where a maid had heard a woman screaming. Its his fault this is out.. The Google Street View image above was taken in May of 2022. Her glasses, a ring, a necklace, Ms. Mulder said. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. 0000003451 00000 n
He was locked away to serve several life sentences, aging into a portly man with a thick white beard. Following his arrest, police linked him to the murder of Valerie Streets. She knew that Mr. Anzilotti had solved Denises killing, too. And thats what bothers me, because I probably didnt have to do anything to them., Mr. Anzilotti left the confession both exhausted and relieved. Zestimate Home Value: $598,600. [4], On October 3, 1969, Cottingham was charged and convicted of drunk driving in New York City and was fined $50 (equivalent to $400 in 2021). Those old enough to remember can recall the fear that many felt after the bodies of two girls from North Bergen whod gone missing after a shopping trip to Paramus were found raped, beaten and drowned in Bergen County. He continued to live here until the police eventually arrested him on May 22nd, 1980. On Tuesday, Richard Cottingham, 74, sat in a wheelchair in beige prison scrubs as he pleaded guilty to kidnapping the teenage girls and raping them for days before he drowned them in a motel room bathtub. He would approach them in bars, drug them with the date rape drug Tuinal, take them to a remote locationtypically a motelwhere he would bind, gag, torture, and stab them before killing them by strangling them with a ligature. Blase was found strangled to death in 4 feet of water in Saddle River the next day. His upcoming sentencing will add more time to a prison term that already extends beyond his remaining years. 0000000756 00000 n
[7] On October 28, 1967, he strangled Nancy Schiava Vogel, a 29-year-old married mother of two, in Little Ferry, New Jersey. His crimes were discovered in May 1980, when a maid at a Hasbrouck Heights motel heard. startxref
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