Denise Didn't Come Home | 3. The Torso Killer

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Binge Cases – "Denise Didn't Come Home | Episode 3: The Torso Killer"

In the third episode of The Binge Cases titled "The Torso Killer," host Anthony Scalia delves deep into one of Bergen County’s most haunting unsolved murder sprees. This episode intricately weaves together a narrative of persistent investigation, emerging suspects, and the elusive quest for justice surrounding the tragic disappearance and murder of Denise Velasquez in 1969.

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Introduction: Unraveling Bergen County’s Dark Past

The episode opens with Anthony Scalia setting the scene of Bergen County in the late 1960s, a period plagued by a series of violent crimes against young women. He recounts chilling statistics and specific cases that hint at the presence of a serial killer in the region:

"On July 14, 1969, Karen Falasca last saw her 15-year-old sister Denise when they parted ways near their Bergen County home. The following day, Denise’s body was discovered strangled beside a cemetery." [00:32]

Scalia emphasizes the pattern of violence that plagued the community, mentioning other victims such as Marianne de la Salle, Nancy Vogel, Jacqueline Harp, and Irene Blase, all victims of strangulation with unsettling similarities in their cases.

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Alan Greco: The Detective on the Case

A pivotal figure in this narrative is Alan Greco, a retired detective from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. Greco provides firsthand insights into the challenges faced by law enforcement during this era:

"These unsolved female cases haunted the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and the homicide for many years." [01:52]

Greco explains how the similarities in time, location, and modus operandi (MO) among the cases led investigators to suspect a single perpetrator. Despite these connections, many of the murders remained cold cases, eluding resolution for decades.

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The Emergence of Richard Cottingham: The Torso Killer

The investigation takes a dramatic turn with the introduction of Richard Cottingham, a man whose actions would soon cement his infamy as the Torso Killer. Greco details the discovery of Mary Ann Carr's body in 1977 and the subsequent investigation that brings Cottingham into the spotlight:

"We knew we had a guy that was responsible for a whole bunch of things. A predator, a sexual predator, a serial killer that was out there almost on a daily basis." [02:57]

Cottingham's eventual arrest at the Quality Inn Motel became a significant breakthrough. Greco describes the arrest vividly:

"He was holding an attache case in one hand and a gun in the other... I took out the shotgun from the police car... I yelled, 'Police, hold it right there.'" [17:00]

This confrontation revealed unsettling evidence—handcuffs, a ball gag, and various items stolen from his victims—that linked Cottingham to multiple murders.

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Connecting the Dots: Cottingham’s Murders Across States

As the investigation deepens, Greco uncovers Cottingham’s extensive reach beyond Bergen County. He becomes clear that Cottingham’s actions were not confined to one state, leading to his nickname, the Torso Killer. The detective recounts:

"On the surface, he was a husband and a father of three, a family man. But Greco found that Cottingham's wife had filed for divorce a year earlier, saying he had abandoned her..." [23:21]

Further exploration reveals Cottingham's history with violent crimes against women, including previous assaults that were dismissed due to victims not appearing in court. This paints a picture of a man deeply entrenched in predatory behavior.

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The Struggle for Closure: Greco’s Determined Pursuit

Despite Cottingham's conviction for several murders, Greco remained convinced of his involvement in other unsolved cases, including Denise Velasquez's murder. His attempts to secure further cooperation from Cottingham were met with bureaucratic hurdles:

"We had to provide him with certain foods that he wanted to have brought in from the outside... He acknowledged he was going to string us along as long as he possibly could." [33:07]

Greco's frustration peaked when his request to formalize a deal with Cottingham was denied by the New Jersey Attorney General, effectively halting any progress on the cold cases.

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Legacy of the Investigation: Unsolved Mysteries Persist

The episode concludes with a reflection on the enduring mystery surrounding Denise Velasquez and other victims. Despite Cottingham's conviction and the hints he provided about his earlier crimes, many questions remain unanswered:

"He could be responsible for hundreds of victims." [32:56]

Alan Greco's relentless pursuit highlights the complexities and limitations faced by law enforcement in solving serial crimes, especially decades later. The unresolved cases leave a lingering sense of injustice and a community still seeking answers.

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Notable Quotes

• Anthony Scalia [00:32]:

  "Karen Falasca last saw her 15-year-old sister Denise when they parted ways near their Bergen County home. The following day, Denise’s body was discovered strangled beside a cemetery."

• Alan Greco [02:57]:

  "We knew we had a guy that was responsible for a whole bunch of things. A predator, a sexual predator, a serial killer that was out there almost on a daily basis."

• Stan Mellock [17:14]:

  "I caught one hell of a guy. He had like a ball gag, a couple slave collars, you know, studded chrome collars. There were a set of keys attached to a set of handcuffs."

• Alan Greco [24:09]:

  "We found a locked door which led to a small storage area. We found some items related to women and possibly our case."

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Conclusion: A Quest for Truth Amidst Darkness

"The Torso Killer" episode of The Binge Cases meticulously chronicles the intricate web of investigations surrounding Richard Cottingham and the multiple unsolved murders in Bergen County. Through compelling storytelling and detailed interviews, the podcast underscores the relentless effort of Detective Alan Greco in seeking justice for victims who disappeared decades ago. The episode not only highlights the grim reality of serial crimes but also the enduring hope for closure that persists within affected families and communities.

For those intrigued by true crime stories that delve into the depths of criminal investigations and the pursuit of elusive truths, The Binge Cases offers a gripping exploration of cases that continue to baffle and haunt investigators to this day.

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Note: This summary has been crafted to provide a comprehensive overview of the episode's content, capturing key moments and quotes to engage listeners and inform those who have yet to experience the gripping narrative of "The Torso Killer."

Transcript

[Anthony Scalia]

You're listening to Denise Didn't Come Home on the Binge. Before you dive in, if you want to listen to the whole story uninterrupted, you can unlock the entire season ad free right now with a subscription to the Binge. That's all episodes all at once. Unlock your listening now by clicking subscribe at the Top of the Binge Cases show page on Apple podcasts or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts.

[Indra Varma]

The Bench.

[Anthony Scalia]

Hey everyone, Just a quick heads up before we get started. This episode contains descriptions of violence and sexual assault, so please take extra care when listening. I'll never forget that moment sitting in the basement of the Hackensack Library, going through the microfilm and stumbling across all these murders of young women. January 24, 1967. Marianne de la Salle disappears in Hackensack, New Jersey. They find her body in the Passaic River. October 28, 1967. Ridgefield Park, New Jersey. Nancy Vogel, 29 years old, strangled. July 17, 1968. Jacqueline Harp, 13 years old, strangled. And then the craziest one. April 8, 1969. Just a few months before Denise Velasquez was killed. Irene Blase, 18, was found strangled in Saddlebrook, about a mile away from where Denise's body was found. The newspapers were drawing connections between these murders. I wondered if the police at the time had too. And if they had, why did so many of these murders stay unsolved?

[Alan Greco]

These unsolved female cases haunted the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and the homicide for many years.

[Anthony Scalia]

This is Alan Greco.

[Alan Greco]

I'm a retired detective from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office. I was a senior investigator assigned to the homicide squad.

[Anthony Scalia]

Greco joined the Squad back in 1977, and by that time, these murder cases of young women in Bergen county had already turned cold.

[Alan Greco]

Although they remained unsolved, they were never not thought of. There was a time connection, there was a location connection, there was the MO Connection. Why can't we come up with somebody responsible for these cases? What happened here?

[Anthony Scalia]

Greco was there at the very beginning, when everything started to change. When a routine homicide would lead him to half a dozen others and ultimately to a suspect who would make him look at those cold cases with fresh eyes.

[Alan Greco]

We knew we had a guy that was responsible for a whole bunch of things. A predator, a sexual predator, a serial killer that was out there almost on a daily basis.

[Anthony Scalia]

My name is Anthony Scalia from Truth Media and Sony Music Entertainment. This is Denise didn't come Home.

[Alan Greco]

The body of a teenage girl found Strangled in Saddle Brook, New Jersey yesterday was identified as that of 15 year old Denise Velasco.

[Indra Varma]

There's some real people to look at right under our nose. I think I know who killed her. We saw Max making threats up to the window. I heard him say, I will kill you, bitch. I saw this really deep dash of a wound on his hand. It was an open gaping wound on his palm of his hand. It's not that. I have this wild imagination, I swear to you. I really don't.

[Anthony Scalia]

This could be the work of one man. There could be a serial killer roaming the streets of Bergen county that no one has found. Chapter three the Torso Killer.

[Alan Greco]

You have to understand, what I'm gonna tell you is something that took place approximately 40 years ago. So forgive me if my memory is not up to snuff, but it has been many years.

[Anthony Scalia]

Detective Alan Greco told me that on the morning of December 16, 1977, he got a call.

[Alan Greco]

I was contacted by my supervisor who advised me of a female body that was found behind the Quality Inn Motel in Hazbrick Heights, New Jersey. Uniformed officers were already on the scene and I was directed to an area in the parking lot near a chain link fence where I observed the body of a young white female. She was clothed in a white top and white bottom and she was laying on the ground partially on her side. A closer examination of her at the scene appeared to show ligature marks on her ankles and some type of residue around her mouth, suggesting that there might have been tape on her mouth. The marks on her ankles were caused by a set of handcuffs. We identified her as being Mary Ann Carr, a young X ray technician from Little Ferry, New Jersey. An autopsy revealed she died from asphyxiation caused by strangulation. She did have a very thin ligature mark, or most likely caused by a chain that was around her neck.

[Anthony Scalia]

Greco and his partner interviewed everyone who knew Carr, but no one he spoke to could understand how she ended up dead in a motel parking lot.

[Alan Greco]

It does become frustrating when you cannot begin to come up with a possible motive for the crime, nor a possible suspect.

[Anthony Scalia]

Growing up in New Jersey, I'd heard a lot of stories from my parents about what New York was like in the 70s. Times Square was the city's sleaziest block, ground zero for every vice you can think of. 42nd street, known as the Deuce, was lined with porno theaters, strip clubs and peep shows. Drugs were bought and sold out in the open and sex workers walked 8th Avenue in Fish nets, shivering in the winter cold and Turning tricks in fleabag hotel rooms rented by the hour. It's December 2, 1979, almost two years after the Mary Ann Carr murder. At the Travel Inn Motor Hotel just west of Times Square. Firefighters are responding to a report of smoke pouring from room 417. The firemen break break down the door to discover a room set ablaze. And that's when they see them. Two naked female bodies lying on the bed in pools of blood. They've been beaten and cut all over. Tortured. Their heads and hands are cut off.

[Narrator]

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[Stan Mellock]

He had a ski mask in his.

[Alan Greco]

Possession and a knife.

[Anthony Scalia]

She was familiar enough with them and.

[Ellie Seikwick]

Trusted them enough that she turned her back on him. And that was her mistake.

[Narrator]

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[Indra Varma]

I'm Indra Varma. And in the latest season of the Spy who We open the file on Daphne park, the spy who killed a prime minister. As the Belgian Congo gains its independence, Officer park sets out to build a spy network. Together, they're about to go to new extremes to keep Congo free, free of communists. Follow the spy who now wherever you listen to podcasts. Hello?

[Anthony Scalia]

Hello, is this Ellie?

[Indra Varma]

Yes, it is.

[Anthony Scalia]

Hi, my name is Anthony. Yes. Yes.

[Indra Varma]

Okay.

[Anthony Scalia]

This is Ellie Seikwick. So I don't know if you've ever heard of a podcast, if it has.

[Indra Varma]

To do with computers. No.

[Anthony Scalia]

Oh, kind of. Back in 1980, Ellie was working as a housekeeper at the Quality Inn in Hazbrick Heights, New Jersey. The same Quality Inn where Mary Ann Carr's body was found in the parking lot.

[Indra Varma]

When they portray maids on tv, they put them in these dresses and they're old chubby ladies, you know. But no, I was 29 years old and I had blonde hair and a lot of us were young that worked there. We wore jeans and a jacket to work.

[Anthony Scalia]

Ellie told me that one night she was out in the parking lot waiting to get A ride home from work.

[Indra Varma]

And this car pulls up and the guy starts smirking and smiling at me, asking me questions if I work in there and telling me to come here near the car and if I live in the apartments that were there. And I kept telling him, none of your business. And then I tried to get behind his car so I could run back into the motel and he starts backing the car into me. I was like, oh my God. And I ran in and told Delia there's some crazy guy out there trying to get me. And we ran back to the door and the car was gone. But that stupid smirky smile. Ugh. So then about a week later, I come into work in the morning and I go upstairs into the office, start having my coffee. And next thing you know, Delia comes running up, white as a ghost, shaking. Oh my God. Oh my God. I go white, white. She goes, I saw her in arm, I saw an arm. I go, what do you mean you saw an arm? She goes, under the bed. And 1:32. I was vacuuming and I saw an arm.

[Anthony Scalia]

Ellie says she ran down to room 132. The motel maintenance man was standing outside the door.

[Indra Varma]

I go, let me go in and see. He goes, no. He said, the police are on their way. I go, why? He goes, it's not just an arm. I lifted up the bed and it's a whole body, a naked body.

[Anthony Scalia]

As Detective Alan Greco pulled his cruiser into the parking lot, he recognized the Quality in immediately. He'd been here before investigating the murder of Marianne Carr. He opened the door to room 132 to find the body of a young woman shoved under the bed.

[Alan Greco]

She appeared to be assaulted and sexually abused. Wrists were bound with a set of handcuffs. Her name was Valerie Street, a prostitute who had been working the area of New York City. The circumstances was very different from that of the Marianne Carr case. But naturally the location and the use of handcuffs was of primary interest to us.

[Anthony Scalia]

While Greco processed the crime scene, another detective was talking to Ellie Seikwick.

[Indra Varma]

And they go, we think this guy might be coming back. Ellie, you gotta listen for everything. You working there all day, so you listen for everything. I said, okay, listen for everything. We'll get him. We were determined to get this guy. You come back to the Quality Inn, we're going to get you.

[Anthony Scalia]

Two women had now been murdered at the Quality Inn. The housekeeper started to work in pairs so that they would never be alone. But just two weeks after Valerie Street's body was found, the motel was short staffed.

[Indra Varma]

There wasn't enough girls to work. Two girls together. So I was working by myself. I start heading down the hallway to do my room check, and I was by around room 120, and I hear this commotion coming from 117. So I put my ear to the door and I start listening into the room. Then I hear this girl. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. And then a commotion and something about a gun. I go, oh, my God. So I go running up the hall and I get Pam. And I said, Pam, Pam, 117. The girl's gonna be murdered.

[Anthony Scalia]

Ellie and Pam ran to get the manager and brought him back to room 117. He asked if everything was okay.

[Indra Varma]

She did go to the door and opened it a little bit, and she stuck her little hand out and moving her eyes like, you know, it's not okay. And then he calls the police.

[Anthony Scalia]

Back in the office, Ellie and Pam try to think of what to do next.

[Indra Varma]

Pam's telling me to come back to the room with her to make sure he doesn't get away. And she has a spray bottle of Windex. I go. He comes out with a gun. You're not going to get him with Windex, that's for sure. So we head out of the office, go downstairs, and about to step in the hallway when this guy comes running past us with an attached case and a gun. And the guy turns around and points the gun at us. So he's running up the hall.

[Stan Mellock]

I was the first one on the scene. And when I pulled up in front of the Quality Motel, the manager of the hotel came over and he said, there's a man with a gun.

[Anthony Scalia]

Stan Mellock was a patrolman with the Hasbro Kites Police Department.

[Stan Mellock]

So I took out the shotgun from the police car. I walked into this little lobby so I could hear somebody running towards me, and I heard some jingling and sound of rattling. So what I did, I just backed up so he couldn't see me where he was going to round the bend. So I stood there. As he rounded the corner, I yelled, police, hold it right there. I had the shotgun pointed at his chest at that time, and he just stopped dead in his tracks.

[Anthony Scalia]

The man in front of Mellowick was white, about 5, 10, maybe 35 years old. He was dressed like a businessman in a jacket and tie, holding an attache case in one hand and a gun in the other.

[Stan Mellock]

I told him, turn around. And he turned around, and I yanked the gun out of his hand, threw it on the floor away from him. He went up against the wall, and I will always distinctly remember. He said, I didn't do anything. I was with a hooker and got scared. Took out my service revolver and went over to him and I patted him down. He had a sports jacket on, on one side. He had a roll of first aid masking tape. And then I reached down into his pants pockets and I remember he had a knife, which I pulled out about 4 or 5 inches long. So I took that and I threw that over by the pistol.

[Anthony Scalia]

Then Mellowick opened up the attache case and dumped it on the ground and I was floored.

[Stan Mellock]

Holy smoke. I caught one hell of a guy. He had like a ball gag, a couple slave collars, you know, studded chrome collars. There were a set of keys attached to a set of handcuffs. And then he had two more pair of silver handcuffs there. And that's what was giving us all the jingling sound. There were a couple bottles of pills, weren't even labeled, but they just fell on the ground. I remember hearing stories there had been another murder earlier on at the Quality also. Somebody had been and gagged and he had killed that person. Holy smoke. This is the guy that's been causing all these problems, these murders in the past.

[Anthony Scalia]

Mellowick looked the guy over. He just seemed average.

[Stan Mellock]

He was cool as a cucumber, very calm. There was no conversation or anything. He just stood there. You know, while he was standing there in a corner, I asked him for his name. He mentioned his name was Richard Cottingham.

[Alan Greco]

I'm Afwa Hirsch.

[Anthony Scalia]

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[Alan Greco]

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[Anthony Scalia]

This season we are looking at the life of the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

[Alan Greco]

It's fair to say he's a complex and controversial character.

[Anthony Scalia]

Almost 150 years since his birth. How does his legacy hold up today?

[Alan Greco]

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[Anthony Scalia]

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[Ellie Seikwick]

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[Alan Greco]

My partner and I responded to the Hasbro Kites police department to find out who the person was that they had under arrest and to possibly speak with them.

[Anthony Scalia]

Detective Alan Greco got the call early in the morning. Someone had been arrested for trying to murder murder a woman at the Quality Inn Motel.

[Alan Greco]

We were told that the person gave the name of Richard Cottingham and that he was an employee of Blue Cross Blue Shield of New York as a computer operator. We entered the holding cell where Cottingham was. He seemed extremely upset, emotionally upset, kept his, you know, his head down, was not very verbal. His eyes were watery. Just appeared like he was under a great deal of emotional stress, but yet in control. A question was posed to him. Richard, do you have a problem with women? He put his head down and there was a period of silence where he didn't look at us and he kept his head down and he did well up, tears coming down his cheeks. Myself and my partner looked at one another as if, you know, wow, maybe this is a point where this guy is going to open up to us and we're going to find out just what he's been up to. He picked his head up, said, I have a problem with women, but I'd be crazy to speak to you guys about it. That was the last time that we had any face to face contact with him for a very long period of time.

[Anthony Scalia]

Not long after that, Greco executed a search warrant of Cottingham's house in New Jersey where he lived with his wife and three children.

[Alan Greco]

We found a locked door which led to a small storage area. We found some items related to women and possibly our case.

[Anthony Scalia]

There were pieces of jewelry and little trinkets Cottingham had stolen from his victims. A miniature toy koala that belonged to Valerie street, the woman found under the bed at the Quality Inn. And there was a set of keys to the apartment building where Marianne Carr lived. She was found dead in the Quality Inn parking lot.

[Alan Greco]

And that's when we really began to find out who Richard Cottingham really was.

[Anthony Scalia]

Greco and his partner started looking into Cottingham's life. On the surface, he was a husband and a father of three, a family man. But Greco found that Cottingham's wife had filed for divorce a year earlier, saying he had abandoned her, staying out all night until the early morning without explanation. Hints of what Cottingham was doing on those nights showed up on his arrest record. In 1973 and 74, he was booked for beating, robbing and unlawfully imprisoning prostitutes. But his victims failed to appear in court and the charges were dropped.

[Alan Greco]

He was a person that was very much into picking up prostitutes on a nightly basis. They described Cunningham's interests in different types of sexual related entertainment. Sadomasochism shows pornography. Through those interviews, we began to get a really different picture of the person we originally were told was a family man from New Jersey. But we later learned that he was an extremely active sexual predator.

[Anthony Scalia]

But Greco was about to find out just how extensive Cottingham's murder spree had been.

[Indra Varma]

It was back last December that two carefully decapitated female bodies were found at a West side motel. The room was then set on fire. New York police believe it was the work of one man. Today they announced they want a New Jersey man to appear in a lineup here in connection with those murders.

[Anthony Scalia]

Witnesses who had seen a man fleeing the scene of the grisly murders at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel near Times Square identified Cottingham in a lineup. Suddenly, this was a multistate investigation and Cottingham became known as the Torso Killer.

[Alan Greco]

The expansion of the case against Cottingham began to grow and grow. A number of victims identified Cottingham through photographs. Victims that he had met in New York City, had taken them to Bergen county and had sex with them, assaulted them, drugged them, and then left them for dead alongside the highway or in a motel room.

[Anthony Scalia]

On top of the murders, Cottingham would be charged and ultimately convicted of three non lethal assaults of women in New Jersey. Investigators believed there were many, many more. In 1981, Cottingham stood trial in Bergen county and was convicted for the murder of Valerie Street. He was sentenced to a minimum of 173 years in prison. Later, he went on trial for the murder of Marianne Carr.

[Alan Greco]

I saw conning him all during the trial. I would say he was somber, quiet, was not very verbal, did not act out in the courtroom. During one particular session we broke for lunch and then after lunch we would go back Upstairs and resume the court proceedings. As I opened the door to the courtroom, I heard a commotion coming from near the judge's chambers. And it turned out to be one of the court matrons running across the back of the courtroom in a state of panic. The first thing I thought of, oh, my God. Cottingham escaped. I stopped what I was doing and immediately turned around and ran out the courtroom door. I could see Cottingham running across the street near the courthouse. I proceeded to run after him, chasing him. There was a sheriff's officer that was also now in pursuit. Almost simultaneously, we caught up with Cottingham and tackled him to the ground and began to put handcuffs on him. I recall, as we did, he said, just shoot me or something to that effect.

[Anthony Scalia]

Cottingham wasn't going to get off that easy. He was brought back to the courthouse and found guilty of the murder of Marianne Carr. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in New York. He was convicted of the murders at the Travel Inn Motor Hotel near Times Square and another murder at the Seville Hotel. But the investigation wasn't over.

[Alan Greco]

We began to explore what he could have been responsible for before he was ever arrested. We had a number of homicides of young females that were never solved.

[Anthony Scalia]

Greco looked back at the Bergen county cold cases from the 1960s. A string of murders of young girls like Jacqueline Harp, Irene Blaze and Denise Velasquez.

[Alan Greco]

I felt strongly that he had connections to several of those other victims because of the locations of where they were found and the way in which they were killed. By strangulation, primarily. There was not a great deal of physical evidence in any of these cases. Fingerprints, blood, semen, saliva, hairs, things of that nature. Nothing that connected Cunningham to these open cases in Bergen County. We simply had our beliefs or gut feelings that it could be him.

[Anthony Scalia]

Greco and his partner started visiting Cottingham in prison, hoping he would tell them about his other murders. Cottingham toyed with them for a while, but ultimately he didn't give him anything.

[Alan Greco]

And that was a degree of frustration that we couldn't push this case forward without his cooperation, and he just wouldn't give it to us.

[Anthony Scalia]

Then, in 1996, when Cottingham had been in prison for 16 years, Greco received a letter from him. Cottingham was in trouble. He'd been running a massive gambling operation in the prison, and he'd been caught.

[Alan Greco]

Prison authorities told us that he was the biggest bookmaker in Trenton State Prison. Now he was willing to give us specific information if we would help him. It was exciting when we first went into the cell, we said to him, hey, Rich, how you doing? You've been down here for quite a while now. I don't know if you remember us. He responds by saying, oh, yeah, I certainly remember you guys. He said, I have to say, you guys did a really good job on my case. But you missed one thing. I was involved in things long before you were aware of. He didn't go back far enough. Didn't go back far enough. He's telling us that he was active long before the date of the first crime that we became aware of, which was Mary ann Carr in 1977. And he says in 1967 he took his first victim.

[Anthony Scalia]

1967. Cottingham was killing women two years before the murder of Denise Velasquez.

[Alan Greco]

1967. Oh, my God. This guy goes back 13 years before we actually arrested him. 13 years. He's out on the street. Nobody even knows who he is. He could be responsible for hundreds of victims.

[Anthony Scalia]

Now. Cottingham had Greco right where he wanted him. Cottingham wanted to make a deal. He would give Greco information on his unsolved murders, but he wanted something in return.

[Alan Greco]

We had to provide him with certain foods that he wanted to have brought in from the outside. And he gave us a list of these things. The little bits of information he continued to give us, we'd come back for more and more and more and he could ask for more and more and more. He acknowledged he was going to string us along as long as he possibly could.

[Anthony Scalia]

Greco left empty handed that day. But he was hopeful that finally he might be able to get closure for the families of Cottingham's victims. He submitted a request with the New Jersey attorney general to formalize his deal with Cottingham.

[Alan Greco]

My hopes was that this was a. This was a home run. This was a done deal. Much to my surprise, they would not approve. They did not want to get involved in a situation where they were giving special treatment to a prisoner. We were advised to terminate our contact with Cunningham.

[Anthony Scalia]

Not long after that, Greco retired. And with the end of his career, the unsolved cases of the murdered women of Bergen county would go cold. Once again, Cottingham would sit in prison for almost a decade before another detective would visit him.

[Stan Mellock]

So what was the thrill?

[Ellie Seikwick]

Control.

[Stan Mellock]

It was the game.

[Alan Greco]

The stalking.

[Stan Mellock]

I'd done this to 30 other girls.

[Anthony Scalia]

I was out there every night like an animal. Unlock all episodes of Denise didn't come Home ad free right now by subscribing to the binge podcast channel. Not only will you immediately unlock all episodes of this show, but you'll get binge access to an entire network of thrilling true crime and investigative podcasts, all ad free. Plus, on the first of every month, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series that's all episodes all at once. Unlock your listening now by clicking subscribe at the top of the Binge Cases show page on Apple podcasts or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you listen. Denise Didn't Come Home is a production of Truth Media in partnership with Sony Music Entertainment. I'm your host Anthony Scalia. The show is produced by Ryan Swigert and me. Story editing by Mark Smerling. Kevin Shepard is our associate producer. Scott Curtis is our production manager from Sony. Our executive producers are Jonathan Hirsch and Catherine St. Louis. Fact checking by Dania Suleiman. George Drabing Hicks did the mix. Sound design by George Drabing Hicks and Ryan Swigert. Music by Kenny Cusack, Epidemic Sound and Marmoset. Our title track is Gimme Some by Weevil. If you're enjoying Denise Didn't Come Home, don't forget to leave us a review on Apple Podcast. It really helps other people find the show and thanks for listening.