Overview
- Niagara County prosecutors charged Richard J. Fox with second-degree murder in the January 2023 death of Crystal Curthoys after dental records confirmed her identity.
- Police say her near-skeletal remains were found in March wrapped in plastic and a tarp and boarded beneath basement stairs in a house where Fox had lived.
- Fox, 62, was sentenced on Nov. 20 to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to murdering Cassandra Watson and Marquita Mull in separate cases nearly two decades apart.
- Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone has called Fox a suspected serial killer, and investigators are reviewing whether two or three additional unsolved homicides are connected.
- Fox is being held in Niagara County Jail without bail and is due back in court on Jan. 5, 2026.