“Today is one of the most emotional days we’ve ever had in the Nassau County district attorney’s office,” DA Donnelly said. “In the case of Diane Cusick, her family has waited nearly 55 years for someone to be held accountable for her death.”
Donnelly said Cottingham is one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history. And “has caused irreparable harm to so many people and so many families, there’s almost nothing I can say to give comfort to anyone.”
He earned the grim name of the “Torso Killer” because he allegedly cut off the heads and hands of some of his victims.
DNA links killer to victim
In 1968, when Cusick was murdered DNA testing had not been developed. But the evidence was still collected and preserved from the scene.
The medical examiner detailed that the woman had been savagely beaten in her face and on her head. And was then suffocated to death.
In 2016 with advances in DNA testing samples were taken from Cottingham and entered into a national database. And in 2021, the Nassau County police lab began running DNA tests again on the cold case. And they found a match to Cottingham.
