Fair Lawn, New Jersey
\n AP
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n One of the New York City area\u2019s most notorious serial killers has confessed to another killing.\n <\/p>\n
\n Police in New Jersey announced Tuesday that Richard Cottingham, known as the \u201cTorso Killer,\u201d admitted killing Alys Eberhardt in 1965.\n <\/p>\n
\n The 18-year-old was found dead in her family\u2019s home in Fair Lawn, a suburb about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northwest of Manhattan.\n <\/p>\n
\n Investigators reopened the cold case in 2021, and \u201cthrough countless interviews\u201d over several years, extracted a full confession from Cottingham, \u201cincluding details that were never publicly known,\u201d the department said in a statement<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n Fair Lawn Police Chief Joseph Dawicki said Cottingham will not face additional charges as the department closes the case.\n <\/p>\n \n The 79-year-old has been imprisoned since his arrest in 1980. He is serving three life sentences at the South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, New Jersey.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cAlys was a vibrant young nursing student who was taken from our community far too soon,\u201d Dawicki said in a statement. \u201cWhile 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.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Lawyers in New York and New Jersey who have represented Cottingham over the years didn\u2019t immediately respond to messages seeking comment Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n \n Cottingham 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.\n <\/p>\n