In a stunning breakthrough, one of America's most prolific serial killers has confessed to a murder that had remained unsolved for nearly six decades. Richard Cottingham, infamously known as the 'Torso Killer', has admitted to the 1965 slaying of 18-year-old nursing student Alys Jean Eberhardt.
A Confession Decades in the Making
The Fair Lawn Police Department in New Jersey made the bombshell announcement on Tuesday, revealing that the confession was secured on December 22, 2025. Investigative historian Peter Vronsky played a pivotal role, working alongside Sergeant Eric Eleshewich and Detective Brian Rypkema to extract the admission from the now 79-year-old Cottingham.
The confession was a race against time, as Vronsky explained to the Daily Mail. Cottingham suffered a critical medical emergency in October and nearly died, threatening to take his secrets to the grave. This confession marks the earliest confirmed murder in Cottingham's horrific timeline, committed when he was just 19 years old, only a year older than his victim.
The Brutal 1965 Attack
The details of the murder are harrowing. On September 24, 1965, Alys Eberhardt left her dormitory at Hackensack Hospital School of Nursing early to attend her aunt's funeral. She drove to her family home on Saddle River Road in Fair Lawn, planning to later travel with her father to upstate New York.
Cottingham, who had spotted the tall, auburn-haired young woman in a parking lot, followed her. When she arrived home alone, he knocked on the door, presented a fake police badge, and asked for her parents. As Eberhardt turned to fetch paper for him to leave a note, he forced his way inside.
The attack was vicious and prolonged. Cottingham struck Eberhardt on the head with an object taken from the family garage, killing her with blunt force trauma. He then used a rare souvenir dagger to make 62 shallow cuts on her upper chest and neck—intending to make 52 to represent a deck of cards but losing count—before finally thrusting a kitchen knife into her throat.
Her father, Ross, discovered her partially nude and bludgeoned body on the living room floor around 6 pm. Cottingham had already fled through a back door, taking some of the weapons with him to discard elsewhere.
A Killer's Chilling Lack of Remorse
During his confession last month, the elderly killer, now with long white hair and a beard, showed little emotion. "He doesn't understand why people still care," Sergeant Eleshewich told the Daily Mail. Cottingham described the Eberhardt murder as "sloppy" and uncharacteristic of his later, more calculated methods, admitting he was frustrated by the fierce fight the young woman put up.
Cottingham is already serving multiple life sentences, linked to at least 20 murders across New York and New Jersey, with suspicions he may have killed up to 100 victims. The youngest was just 13. Historian Peter Vronsky, who has authored books on serial homicide, asserts that Cottingham was operating as a "ghostly" serial killer long before Ted Bundy's crimes came to light, using similar ruses to abduct and murder.
Vronsky and his late investigative partner, Jennifer Weiss—whose mother was one of Cottingham's victims—were instrumental in pushing for the case's reopening in Spring 2021 and securing the confession. Weiss's forgiveness of Cottingham before her death from a brain tumour in 2023 reportedly had a profound effect on the killer.
Long-Awaited Closure for a Grieving Family
The confession has finally provided answers to the Eberhardt family, who had waited since 1965 for the truth. After being notified, the family released a statement through Alys's nephew, Michael Smith.
"Our family has waited since 1965 for the truth," Smith said. "To receive this news during the holidays... was a moment I never thought would come." He expressed profound gratitude to the Fair Lawn Police for their persistence, stating that their efforts "brought a long-overdue sense of peace to our family."
Sergeant Eleshewich also personally notified one of the original detectives from the 1965 investigation, who is now over 100 years old. The case, once ice-cold due to a lack of DNA evidence and formal links to Cottingham, is now conclusively closed, proving that victims are never forgotten, no matter how much time passes.
