A New Jersey serial killer has been indicted in the 1968 killing of a Long Island woman.
23-year-old Diane Cusick of Valley Stream went to the Green Acres mall to buy some clothes. When she didn’t come home, her father went searching and found her body in the backseat of her Plymouth Valiant.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said advances in DNA technology now make it possible for smaller amounts of DNA to be matched with suspects.
“We believe this may be the oldest DNA hit that led to a prosecution in the United States,” Donnelly said.
Richard Cottingham pleaded not guilty in the second degree murder of Cusick. He is already serving a life sentence in New Jersey. He has admitted to at least 11 other murders there.
Nassau County homicide officials said they are awaiting results from five other DNA samples.
