Richard J. Fox pleaded guilty to three murders in western New York. In Erie County Court in September 2025 he admitted killing two Buffalo women, Cassandra Watson, who was last seen by her relatives in 2003 or 2004, and Marquita Mull, who disappeared in June 2021. In Niagara County Court in January 2026 he admitted killing Crystal Curthoys, 32, of Lockport, in Niagara Falls in January 2023. He was sentenced to 40 years to life for the first two killings and to a consecutive term of 25 years to life for the third.
The case began in September 2021, when two women were found dead in the Town of Portland, in rural Chautauqua County, and took more than three years to reach Fox. One was identified within weeks as Mull. The other was identified through forensic genetic genealogy, and her name, Cassandra Watson, was made public in February 2025. Investigators learned that she had been living with Fox when she was last seen. His arrest led Niagara Falls police to a third woman, and Chautauqua County investigators looking into his past found an unsolved 1976 death that Town of Brant police say he admitted.
Fox spent his childhood in the Town of Portland, a rural town in northern Chautauqua County, between Buffalo and Erie, Pennsylvania, near the Lake Erie shore. When he was arrested in 2025, longtime Portland-area residents told WKBW that they remembered him from grade school. "You just don't believe somebody that you could've known once upon a time, would be capable of doing something like that," one of them said. Another recalled seeing him in elementary school but did not think he had been in any of her classes. "You don't expect someone in your small town to grow up to be a murderer," she said.
His adult record was summed up years later by the judge who sentenced him in Niagara County. "Your criminal history began in 1981," Judge John Ottaviano told him. "You were convicted, and you have reoffended. Again and again and again, burglary, rape, sexual abuse. You served your time, and you were released into the community."
Two of those convictions were set out by the Erie County District Attorney's Office and state records when he was arrested. In 1993 he was convicted in Chautauqua County of a sex offense, with other charges, and sentenced to 18 months to three years in prison. In 2005 he was convicted in Buffalo of attempted rape in the first degree and aggravated sexual abuse in the first degree against a woman, and sentenced to 15 years. WBFO reported that records indicated the woman in the 2005 case was not a stranger to him. New York classified him as a Level 3 sex offender, the highest of its three risk levels, a category the state describes as a "high risk of repeat offense and a threat to public safety."
Cassandra Watson was born in 1963. She lived in Buffalo, and she was about 40 when her relatives last saw her, in 2003 or 2004. At that time, prosecutors said, she was in a relationship with Fox and living with him.
She was never reported missing to police. When her identity was announced in February 2025, Erie County District Attorney Michael Keane made a point of saying that this was not a criticism of her family. "I don't want anybody to think that, you know, we, we are in any way critical of family members," he said. "She was an adult." Her siblings had died by then; she was survived by nieces, nephews and cousins in Buffalo, WBFO reported.
Prosecutors charged that Fox caused her death at a location in Buffalo sometime between 2003 and 2004. Investigators alleged that she was strangled.
Marquita Mull was 50 years old and lived in Buffalo's Broadway neighborhood. She was a mother of three. Her family told WKBW in 2021 that she was joyful and was always trying to help other people who were struggling, even while she dealt with her own difficulties, and that she volunteered in the community, among other things helping to feed people at homeless shelters. Her family also said she had lived with health problems since being struck by a car years earlier. Her sister called her "a light." "Even though she had her issues, she was a great person," she told the Post-Journal. "I loved her with all my heart."
Mull was last seen on June 25, 2021, in the Broadway-Fillmore area of Buffalo. Her family reported her missing on July 18, 2021. Prosecutors later charged that Fox killed her in late June 2021 at a location in Buffalo, and investigators alleged that she, too, was strangled. WBFO reported that investigators did not believe the two had known each other before.
Marquita Mull and a second woman were found dead in the Town of Portland, Chautauqua County, in September 2021. On October 7, 2021, Sheriff James Quattrone announced at a news conference in Mayville that one of them had been identified as Marquita Mull of Buffalo. Investigators said she had no known connection to Chautauqua County and believed she had been taken there. Quattrone said they suspected foul play, but he would not say whether the two deaths were connected. "We're going to stick with the facts rather than speculate," he said.
For Mull's family the months after her disappearance brought few answers. "You took a part of our heart, our soul, when you took that girl," her sister said that October. She said the family did not know why her sister had been in Chautauqua County or what had happened to her, and she believed Marquita had been killed in Buffalo and left in the county afterward. "What could she have done so bad for somebody to kill her and dump her like that?" she asked. In September 2024, three years on, she returned to Portland with members of a western New York volunteer group for missing and unidentified people who had helped search for her sister.
The second woman found in Portland was not identified for more than three years. Investigators ruled out two long-missing Chautauqua County women in the fall of 2021. In November 2022 the sheriff's office released what it knew: she was estimated to have been between 15 and 35 years old and between 4 feet 11 inches and 5 feet 7 inches tall, she had died in 2011 or earlier, and she might have come from the Erie County area. The office asked anyone who knew of a missing woman who might match the description to call Investigator Jacob Stahley.
She was identified through forensic genetic genealogy. Prosecutors said her identity was confirmed in December 2024, and in February 2025 it was made public: she was Cassandra Watson. Investigators had gone back to her life at the time she disappeared and found that she had been living with Fox. "Once they made that connection between Richard Fox, obviously, this case came to a head very quickly," Keane said.
Chautauqua County and Buffalo investigators asked Niagara Falls police to help find Fox, who was from Buffalo but was then living in Niagara Falls. On January 7, 2025, a detective from the Niagara Falls police Narcotics and Intelligence Division and a Niagara Falls detective assigned to the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force arrested him in the city.
The next morning he was arraigned before Buffalo City Court Judge Peter J. Savage III on one count of murder in the second degree in Mull's death. He was also charged with four felonies under the state Correction Law for failing to report a change of address, failing to verify his address every 90 days, failing to provide a photograph and failing to return a verification form, all duties of a registered sex offender. He was held without bail.
The arrest was announced at a news conference at Buffalo police headquarters with Keane, Quattrone, Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia and the department's chief of detectives. Keane said investigators had identified the second woman but would not yet name her. "The family of Marquita Mull has waited more than four years for answers," he said, and he praised "the many dedicated members of law enforcement who never let this case go cold." The case, he said, remained active. Quattrone said Mull's family had worked closely with investigators. Buffalo police homicide, special victims and narcotics detectives, the sheriff's office, the New York State Police, the Lakewood-Busti and Niagara Falls police, the Chautauqua County District Attorney's Office and the Erie County Crime Analysis Center all took part in the investigation.
In Portland, residents who had known Fox as a boy struggled with the news. "When I first read it I didn't link the name right away because it said Buffalo," one longtime resident said. "It's scary because you don't know who you're walking around with," another said.
On February 13, 2025, Keane announced that the first woman found in Portland was Cassandra Watson and that a grand jury had indicted Fox on two counts of murder in the second degree, one for each woman. Fox, by then 62, pleaded not guilty before Erie County Court Judge Suzanne Maxwell Barnes and was held without bail. He faced up to 50 years to life if convicted on both counts. "The families of Cassandra Watson and Marquita Mull have waited a long time for answers," Keane said.
For Marquita Mull's sister, the news brought a new connection. "It's like gaining a new family," she told WBFO. "I just feel so bad that this happened to her." She hoped the two families could "come together, get closure." She also kept her promise to attend every court date. "Oh, I'm coming every day Richard Fox is in court," she told WKBW at a routine hearing on April 30, 2025. "It's an emotional day every time you see him." She said she came "just to see him behind bars and know that justice is coming."
After the arrest, Niagara Falls police opened their own inquiry. A woman was found dead in Niagara Falls in March 2025. In April detectives and State Police seized a van that sources linked to Fox.
On May 6, 2025, officials said publicly that Fox was a "person of interest" in the woman's death, though police did not call him a suspect. Police asked anyone with information about Fox or his associates to come forward. The Erie County District Attorney's Office said that, for the moment, Fox remained charged with two counts of murder in the second degree.
On September 19, 2025, Fox pleaded guilty before Judge Barnes to both counts of murder in the second degree. He was not offered a reduced plea and admitted every count in the indictment. "This defendant, who was not offered a reduced plea, will spend the rest of his life in prison for these crimes," Keane said. Barnes set sentencing for November 20.
At the sentencing, Marquita Mull's sister spoke to the court. Of the two women, she said, "they're not in pain anymore," and she told Fox that he would be in jail for the rest of his life. She also asked him to come clean about any other killings he might have been involved in.
Barnes then addressed Fox. "I can honestly say that you should never see the light of day," she told him. "Evil. That is the one word that sums up this case. Evil." She sentenced him to 20 years to life for each murder, the terms to run consecutively, for a total of 40 years to life.
"The families of Cassandra Watson and Marquita Mull have waited a long time for justice," Keane said afterward. "I hope that they can continue their journey towards healing with the knowledge that this defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison for these crimes." He credited the lead investigators, Chautauqua County Lieutenant Alex Nutt, Sergeant Luke Jonson and Investigator Jacob Stahley among them, Buffalo detectives Mark Costantino and Joseph Ruggiero, the FBI and the Erie County forensic laboratory. The case was prosecuted by Ashley M. Morgan, chief of the office's Major Crimes Bureau, with other prosecutors from the office. After the sentencing Sheriff Quattrone said other investigations connected to Fox were under way.
On December 22, 2025, the Niagara County District Attorney's Office announced that the woman found dead in Niagara Falls in March 2025 had been identified as Crystal Curthoys, 32, of Lockport. A Niagara County grand jury had indicted Fox on one count of murder in the second degree, and prosecutors said they believed she was killed in January 2023 in Niagara Falls. Fox pleaded not guilty before Niagara County Court Judge John Ottaviano, was represented by a public defender and was held without bail. Sources told the Niagara Gazette that Fox and Curthoys knew each other and had been living together in the city, and the newspaper later reported that both of them lived in the Falls at the time of her death.
Fox had told law enforcement officers, the Niagara Gazette reported, that after his indictment he would make only two court appearances: one to "plead guilty" and one "to be sentenced." On January 29, 2026, he kept the first of them. Asked how he pleaded to the charge of murder in the second degree, he said one word: "Guilty." Friends and relatives of his earlier victims attended, along with officers from Niagara Falls, Chautauqua County and Buffalo.
"Although this defendant is already serving a life sentence, it was important to us to hold him accountable for this murder," Niagara County District Attorney Brian Seaman said. "Crystal was not just a number to be added to this defendant's tally sheet. She was a person with a family and a life." What she might have made of her future, he said, would now never be known, and he hoped the conviction would bring "some small amount of consolation to Crystal's family."
Fox was sentenced on April 15, 2026. Before imposing the sentence Ottaviano said he felt "morally compelled to speak plainly about who you are and what you have done," because "the victim in this case and in every case behind you deserves to have their suffering acknowledged in open court." He told Fox, "You have a history that demonstrates profound evil."
The judge gave the cause of Curthoys's death as sharp force trauma inflicted during a physical assault. He said Fox had treated her "as though she were not a person," "as though she were not someone's daughter, someone's friend." When investigators came for him, Ottaviano said, Fox told them in his own words that he had been waiting to be arrested and that he had lost his temper during an argument. "You felt no particular urgency to call for help, no remorse, no horror at what you had done," the judge said.
He sentenced Fox to 25 years to life, to be served after the 40 years to life imposed in Erie County. It was Fox's third murder conviction.
While Chautauqua County investigators were looking into Fox's past, they came across an older case. "There was this story where a suspicious death happened that involved his grandmother when he was fairly young," Captain Jake Stahley of the sheriff's office told WKBW.
In July 1976 his grandmother, Beatrice Meabon, was stabbed in the Town of Brant, in southern Erie County, and died at a hospital. The death was treated as suspicious, and no one was arrested. Working with Town of Brant police, sheriff's investigators tracked down people connected to the old case, among them an emergency medical technician who had answered the call. "One of them in particular did recall Mrs. Meabon saying that her grandson had stabbed her," Lieutenant Alex Nutt said. The investigators also obtained her death certificate.
Town of Brant police said in January 2026 that Fox had admitted to investigators, in January 2025, that he killed his grandmother in 1976, when he was 13. Stahley said Fox had described being "built up with this rage and hatred." Because Fox was a juvenile at the time, and under the laws then in effect, police said he cannot be prosecuted for her death; WBEN reported that police also cited the statute of limitations. Brant police said the case, unsolved for almost 49 years, was closed.
"We can never undo what's happened," Nutt said. "We feel that people have a right to know what happened." A longtime resident of the town said, "I just can't imagine...anything happening like that."
In January 2026, WKBW reported, Fox was held at Elmira Correctional Facility while the Niagara County case was pending. Since April 2026 he has been serving consecutive terms of 40 years to life and 25 years to life. The disposition of the four sex-offender registration counts filed in Buffalo City Court in January 2025 was not reported.
Officials have said more than once that the count may not be complete. After his arrest, law enforcement sources told the Niagara Gazette that Fox was a suspect in other unsolved crimes, including possible homicides. After the Erie County sentencing Sheriff Quattrone called him a "serial killer" and said he believed Fox was responsible for "two or three" more murders. No further charges had been announced as of April 2026. "It always leaves us as investigators, anyone in law enforcement to think, are we missing something?" Stahley said.
The killing of Beatrice Meabon was never charged and was never tested in court. It rests on his admission to investigators, as Brant police described it, and on the recollection of a witness from 1976.
Reports differ on some details. Most accounts, including the Erie County District Attorney's Office, give the dates on which the two women were found in Portland as September 26 and 27, 2021; one WKBW report put the first on September 27. Prosecutors' dates for Watson's death were given as between 2003 and 2004 in the plea and sentencing announcements, and as between 2002 and 2004 in the February 2025 indictment announcement and by Othram. One WKBW report in April 2025 described the January charge as first-degree murder; the charging documents announced by the district attorney were for murder in the second degree. At the Niagara County sentencing the judge was quoted as saying Fox had received 20 years to life for the two Erie County murders; the Erie County sentence was 20 years to life on each count, 40 years to life in all. WBEN reported that Curthoys was not found until the year after her death; other reports place it in March 2025.
1976, July: Beatrice Meabon, Fox's grandmother, is stabbed in the Town of Brant and dies at a hospital; police later say he admitted killing her, at 13.
1981: His criminal history begins, according to Judge John Ottaviano.
1993: Convicted in Chautauqua County of a sex offense, with other charges; sentenced to 18 months to three years.
2003 to 2004: Cassandra Watson, about 40, is last seen by relatives; prosecutors later charge that Fox killed her in Buffalo in that period.
2005: Convicted in Buffalo of attempted rape in the first degree and aggravated sexual abuse in the first degree; sentenced to 15 years.
2021, June 25: Marquita Mull, 50, is last seen in Buffalo's Broadway-Fillmore area.
2021, July 18: Mull is reported missing.
2021, September 26 and 27: Two women are found dead in the Town of Portland, Chautauqua County.
2021, October 7: The sheriff announces that one woman has been identified as Mull.
2022, November: The sheriff's office releases an estimated age range for the other woman and asks for the public's help.
2023, January: Crystal Curthoys, 32, of Lockport, is killed in Niagara Falls, prosecutors later say.
2024, December: The second Portland woman's identity is confirmed, prosecutors later say.
2025, January 7: Fox is arrested in Niagara Falls.
2025, January 8: He is arraigned in Buffalo City Court on a charge of murder in the second degree (Mull) and four registration counts.
2025, January: Fox admits to investigators that he killed his grandmother in 1976, Town of Brant police later say.
2025, February 13: Watson is publicly identified; Fox is arraigned on a two-count murder indictment in Erie County Court.
2025, March: A woman is found dead in Niagara Falls.
2025, May 6: Niagara Falls officials call Fox a person of interest in that death.
2025, September 19: He pleads guilty to murdering Watson and Mull.
2025, November 20: Judge Suzanne Maxwell Barnes sentences him to 40 years to life.
2025, December 22: The woman found dead in Niagara Falls is identified as Curthoys; Fox pleads not guilty to her murder.
2026, January 8 and 9: Town of Brant police announce his admission in the 1976 death and close the case.
2026, January 29: He pleads guilty to murdering Curthoys.
2026, April 15: Judge John Ottaviano sentences him to a consecutive 25 years to life.