Richard Fox, 62, is already serving a 40-year-sentence after admitting to killing two women in Buffalo, 20 years apart, prosecutors said
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A suspected serial killer who was sentenced to 40 years in prison in November for murdering two upstate New York women has now been indicted for allegedly killing a third victim, authorities say.
On Nov. 20, Richard J. Fox, 62, of Buffalo, was sentenced to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to murdering Cassandra Watson, 40, and Marquita Mull, 50, both of Buffalo, nearly 20 years apart, Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane announced in a statement in November.
Afterward, Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone alleged Fox is a “serial killer,” adding that he believes Fox is responsible for “two or three” more slayings, The Buffalo News reports.
On Monday, Dec. 22, Fox appeared in Niagara County Court after he was charged with second-degree murder in connection with a third victim, Crystal Curthoys, 32, of Lockport, in January 2023, the Niagara County District Attorney’s Office announced in a statement on Facebook.
Police in Niagara Falls began investigating Fox in January after he was arrested in connection with the murders of Watson, who was killed between 2003 and 2004, and Mull, who was killed in June 2021, Seaman said.
In March, investigators searched a house in Niagara Falls where Fox had lived and found human remains, Seaman said in the statement.
Wrapped in plastic and a tarp, the near-skeletal remains of a woman were found boarded up under the basement stairs of the house, police said, WKBW reports.
Those remains have been identified through dental records as belonging to Curthoys, the district attorney’s office said.
When the remains were found, Niagara Falls police called Fox a “person of interest” in the alleged murder, WKBW reports.
Fox had been in a relationship with Watson and is believed to have strangled her to death, police said, WIVB reports. Her remains were not identified until 2024.
Mull vanished from the Broadway district of Buffalo in June 2021, police said, WKBW reports.
Fox confessed to killing both women and leaving their bodies near a remote spot on the Chautauqua Rails to Trails in Portland, N.Y., WKBW reports.
Fox remains held in Niagara County Jail without bail pending his next court date, which is scheduled for January 5, 2026.
His attorney could not be reached for comment.