Imprisoned serial killer confesses to Fair Lawn murder from 1965
Alys Eberhardt was 18 years old when she was stabbed and bludgeoned to death at her family’s home on Sept. 24, 1965.
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Since 1965, police and neighbors in Fair Lawn have wanted to know who was responsible for the death of 18-year-old Alys Eberhardt.
Fair Lawn police have just solved that case, after getting a confession from imprisoned serial killer Richard Cottingham.
Alys Eberhardt was found deceased inside her family's home on Saddle River Road in September 1965, after being violently attacked.
Fair Lawn detectives reopened the cold case in 2021 and eventually investigated Cottingham.
After five meetings with the convicted killer from prison, Cottingham confessed to the Eberhardt's murder. He told detectives he first saw the nursing student at Hackensack Hospital before following her home.
“He said there was something about her that he kind of liked, she carried herself well, all of the girls were talking to her. So he ended up following her,” said Detective Brian Rypkema.
Rypkema added that Cottingham had information that police never revealed publicly, including “an article of clothing in the house Alys was wearing that wasn’t public knowledge back then. Different things about the house.”
Cottingham told detectives he wanted to give the family some resolution to questions about Eberhardt’s death.
"He told us on numerous occasions that he never meant to kill anybody. It just happened, or he did it because he knew that the person would be able to ID him,” said Detective Eric Eleshewich.
Eberhardt’s nephew, Michael Smith, put out a statement saying, “Richard Cottingham is the personification of evil, yet I am grateful that even he has finally chosen to answer the questions that have haunted our family for decades. We will never know why, but at least we finally know who.”
Cottingham, who was also known as the "torso killer," for a gruesome crime in Times Square, told the Fair Lawn detectives that he's responsible for 80 murders.
He has been in prison since 1981 after being found guilty of five murders in Bergen County and New York.
