Police say Richard Cottingham admitted killing 18-year-old Alys Eberhardt in her family’s New Jersey home.
FAIR LAWN, N.J. — One of the New York area’s most notorious serial killers has confessed to another murder, police said Tuesday, closing the 1965 killing of Alys Eberhardt, an 18-year-old nursing student found stabbed and bludgeoned inside her Fair Lawn home on Sept. 24 of that year.
Authorities in Fair Lawn said the case, dormant for decades, regained momentum after it was reopened in 2021. Detectives conducted a series of prison interviews that led Richard Cottingham, 79, to admit he killed Eberhardt. Cottingham, long known as the “Torso Killer,” is serving multiple life sentences for crimes from the 1970s and has claimed responsibility for far more slayings. Officials said the confession brings long-sought answers to Eberhardt’s relatives, though prosecutors will not file new charges because of earlier agreements and the sentences Cottingham is already serving.
Detectives Brian Rypkema and Sgt. Eric Eleshewich said they met with Cottingham several times at South Woods State Prison before securing his admission on Dec. 22, 2025. During those interviews, they said, Cottingham volunteered details that had never been made public, including a correction to how the killer entered the house, convincing investigators they had the right person. “Just little ways he reacted to questions, we were like, this is definitely our guy,” Eleshewich said. The confession, police added, was recorded on video; there is no timetable for releasing the footage.
Fair Lawn Police Chief Joseph Dawicki said investigators believe Eberhardt’s death may be among Cottingham’s earliest crimes. The victim, a recent high school graduate preparing for a nursing career, was found inside her family’s home on Plaza Road North on Sept. 24, 1965. She had been stabbed and struck repeatedly, authorities said. The cold case remained unsolved for 55 years until a former classmate urged police to reexamine it, prompting detectives to retrieve old files, conduct fresh interviews and look at convicted offenders who lived nearby at the time. Cottingham, who grew up and worked in North Jersey, became a focus after more recent confessions tied him to additional killings from the late 1960s and 1970s.
Investigators said Cottingham’s name was not on their radar in 1965, years before the crimes that led to his capture in 1980. He was convicted in the early 1980s of murdering five women—three in New York City and two in Bergen County—and later admitted to other slayings. He has claimed responsibility for dozens more. Police in multiple jurisdictions have linked him to cases with similar patterns of violence, including assaults and dismemberment that earned him the “Torso Killer” moniker. In Eberhardt’s case, officials emphasized that certain specifics remain confidential to preserve the integrity of the record and to verify any future statements.
Prosecutors said no new charges will be brought for Eberhardt’s killing under an agreement worked out in recent years with Cottingham as part of plea arrangements in other cold cases. He is already serving three life terms and will die in prison, officials said. Police said their work continues on other unsolved cases that may involve Cottingham, including several from the late 1960s and early 1970s in North Jersey and on Long Island. Any further findings, they said, will be announced after corroboration and case reviews by county prosecutors.
Eberhardt’s nephew, Michael Smith, said the news allowed him to tell his mother—Alys’s sister—that their family finally had an answer after nearly six decades. “Our family has waited since 1965 for the truth,” he said in a statement shared by police. Outside Fair Lawn police headquarters on Tuesday, neighbors who grew up hearing about the unsolved killing described a lingering fear that faded over the years but never fully left the block. “People kept their doors locked and lights on,” said longtime resident Carol Friedman. “To know the police never stopped looking means everything to this town.”
Police said the investigation into Eberhardt’s death is now closed with Cottingham’s confession, which was obtained Dec. 22 and disclosed publicly on Jan. 6. Detectives plan to continue reviewing older files for potential ties to Cottingham and others. Officials said any updates would be shared after internal case reviews in the coming weeks.
Author note: Last updated January 8, 2026.