Copyright © 2024 Peter Vronsky All Rights Reserved
From December 2020 to August 2022, Jennifer Weiss and I assisted
Rockland County, New York District Attorney's Office in the
investigation Richard Cottingham, a serial killer
suspected in the cold case murders of
Lorraine McGraw in 1970 in South Nyack and Lisa Thomas
1974.
Jennifer and I had direct access to Cottingham who had been incarcerated since May 1980, and we facilitated and successfully negotiated for multiple agencies in New York and New Jersey nine confessions from Richard Cottingham in 2021-2022.
The lead investigator in the Lisa Thomas murder was Clarkstown Police Detective Chris Maloney and in the murder of Lorraine McGraw former S. Nyack PD Detective Conor Fitzgerald working for the Rockland County District Attorney's Office.
Richard Cottingham confessed to both murders. In February 2022, Cottingham confessed in writing to the murder of Lisa Thomas and in May 2022 verbally to the murder of Lorraine McGraw.
In June 2022 Rockland County announced the case closure of Lorraine McGraw based on Cottingham's confessions but bungled his confession to the Lisa Thomas murder and compounded the bungling with an egregious failure to follow up on Cottingham's confession.
I am declassifying my investigative files and communications with the suspect Cottingham and Detectives Chris Maloney and Conor Fitzgerald regarding the Lisa Thomas murder and the debacle that transpired and will be releasing the material publically on this page shortly.
Lisa Thomas Murder - Case Summary
Lisa Thomas, 15-years-old, departed her home on 8 N. Fairview
Ave Monday October 6, 1974, at 3:30 PM after school, for the Nanuet Mall
located a block away to purchase a blouse from Bamberger's. She did not
return home for supper and was reported missing to police at 10:00 PM by
her father.
Lisa's body was found on Tuesday, October 7, at 10:55 AM by her father who was aiding police in the search. She was found a block away from her home in high grass in a grove of woods frequently used by Lisa as a shortcut to the mall, approximately 75 yards from the Nanuet Mall's parking lot.
Lisa Thomas was found fully clothed but in a dishevelled state, except for her shoes which were found nearby. She had been battered to death.
She had been struck once above the bridge of her nose, once behind her left ear severely and critically fracturing the base of her skull, with the fracture reaching the wound on her face, and once on top of her head. Copious amounts of blood were found in her stomach and her lungs.
She had been sexually assaulted but the murderer did complete the assault to the point of penetrative rape, perhaps because Lisa resisted and fought back.
The murder weapon was not found but was described by the ME as a "hard irregular shaped object." (A white sock covered with luminous/neon orange spray paint filled with rocks was found in the locality but there was no conclusive evidence that it was the murder weapon and it was eventually eliminated as the murder weapon as no blood had been found on it.)
Lisa was found off her regular path through the location but there were no indications she had been dragged into the location. She had probably been forced to walk to the location where she was found. Her clean white shoes were found near her body while dirt had filtered through her red socks to her feet. There were furrows driven into the soft ground at her feet indicating she had struggled with her assailant.
Her white sweater was loosely knotted around her throat, perhaps as a restraint or "leash/lead" but she had not been strangled. Cause of death was blunt force trauma from a massive cranial fracture and internal cranial bleeding.
Her entire face and head was wrapped in a red print kerchief she carried knotted around her purse which was characterized as a "blindfold" in the media at the time of the murder, but may have actually been an attempt by the assailant to stem the bleeding from her head injury, the severity of which was unintended.
Her black purse was found ripped in half with its contents scattered some distance from the body with $15 missing. Her house keys were missing.
The case remained unsolved until February 27, 2022 when serial killer Richard Cottingham confessed in writing to her murder.
The First Suspect in the 1974 Investigation by Clarkstown PD and Rockland County D.A.
According to news reports (The Journal News, October 9, 1974, p.2A) in the immediate days following the murder, the Clarkstown Police and Rockland County D.A., immediately focused on a suspect within a day of the murder.
Police and the D.A. speculated that the same man who two months previously killed Loraine Marie Kelly, 16, and Mary Ann Pryor, 17, in August 1974 in the next county over, in New Jersey just across the state line in Montvale, in Bergen County. Their battered and tortured bodies were found four miles away from where Lisa had been found.
The two teenagers went missing on their way to a shopping mall just like Lisa did. They were both found with sash rope "leash-leads" loosely tied around their throat, similar to the way Lisa's Thomas's sweater had been tied around her neck. In both cases the victims were not strangled by the restraint around their necks.
The only problem is that nobody knew who that suspect was in the Kelly & Pryor murders until April 2021 when the killer confessed and pleaded guilty to their murders: serial killer Richard Cottingham.
TO BE CONTINUED SHORTLY...
Jennifer and I had direct access to Cottingham who had been incarcerated since May 1980, and we facilitated and successfully negotiated for multiple agencies in New York and New Jersey nine confessions from Richard Cottingham in 2021-2022.
The lead investigator in the Lisa Thomas murder was Clarkstown Police Detective Chris Maloney and in the murder of Lorraine McGraw former S. Nyack PD Detective Conor Fitzgerald working for the Rockland County District Attorney's Office.
Richard Cottingham confessed to both murders. In February 2022, Cottingham confessed in writing to the murder of Lisa Thomas and in May 2022 verbally to the murder of Lorraine McGraw.
In June 2022 Rockland County announced the case closure of Lorraine McGraw based on Cottingham's confessions but bungled his confession to the Lisa Thomas murder and compounded the bungling with an egregious failure to follow up on Cottingham's confession.
I am declassifying my investigative files and communications with the suspect Cottingham and Detectives Chris Maloney and Conor Fitzgerald regarding the Lisa Thomas murder and the debacle that transpired and will be releasing the material publically on this page shortly.
Lisa Thomas Murder - Case Summary
Lisa Thomas, 15-years-old, departed her home on 8 N. Fairview
Ave Monday October 6, 1974, at 3:30 PM after school, for the Nanuet Mall
located a block away to purchase a blouse from Bamberger's. She did not
return home for supper and was reported missing to police at 10:00 PM by
her father. Lisa's body was found on Tuesday, October 7, at 10:55 AM by her father who was aiding police in the search. She was found a block away from her home in high grass in a grove of woods frequently used by Lisa as a shortcut to the mall, approximately 75 yards from the Nanuet Mall's parking lot.
Lisa Thomas was found fully clothed but in a dishevelled state, except for her shoes which were found nearby. She had been battered to death.
She had been struck once above the bridge of her nose, once behind her left ear severely and critically fracturing the base of her skull, with the fracture reaching the wound on her face, and once on top of her head. Copious amounts of blood were found in her stomach and her lungs.
She had been sexually assaulted but the murderer did complete the assault to the point of penetrative rape, perhaps because Lisa resisted and fought back.
The murder weapon was not found but was described by the ME as a "hard irregular shaped object." (A white sock covered with luminous/neon orange spray paint filled with rocks was found in the locality but there was no conclusive evidence that it was the murder weapon and it was eventually eliminated as the murder weapon as no blood had been found on it.)
Lisa was found off her regular path through the location but there were no indications she had been dragged into the location. She had probably been forced to walk to the location where she was found. Her clean white shoes were found near her body while dirt had filtered through her red socks to her feet. There were furrows driven into the soft ground at her feet indicating she had struggled with her assailant.
Her white sweater was loosely knotted around her throat, perhaps as a restraint or "leash/lead" but she had not been strangled. Cause of death was blunt force trauma from a massive cranial fracture and internal cranial bleeding.
Her entire face and head was wrapped in a red print kerchief she carried knotted around her purse which was characterized as a "blindfold" in the media at the time of the murder, but may have actually been an attempt by the assailant to stem the bleeding from her head injury, the severity of which was unintended.
Her black purse was found ripped in half with its contents scattered some distance from the body with $15 missing. Her house keys were missing.
The case remained unsolved until February 27, 2022 when serial killer Richard Cottingham confessed in writing to her murder.
The First Suspect in the 1974 Investigation by Clarkstown PD and Rockland County D.A.
According to news reports (The Journal News, October 9, 1974, p.2A) in the immediate days following the murder, the Clarkstown Police and Rockland County D.A., immediately focused on a suspect within a day of the murder.
Police and the D.A. speculated that the same man who two months previously killed Loraine Marie Kelly, 16, and Mary Ann Pryor, 17, in August 1974 in the next county over, in New Jersey just across the state line in Montvale, in Bergen County. Their battered and tortured bodies were found four miles away from where Lisa had been found.
The two teenagers went missing on their way to a shopping mall just like Lisa did. They were both found with sash rope "leash-leads" loosely tied around their throat, similar to the way Lisa's Thomas's sweater had been tied around her neck. In both cases the victims were not strangled by the restraint around their necks.
The only problem is that nobody knew who that suspect was in the Kelly & Pryor murders until April 2021 when the killer confessed and pleaded guilty to their murders: serial killer Richard Cottingham.
TO BE CONTINUED SHORTLY...