Lessons Not Learned - The Innocence Project

APPenDIx A
suggested she had been raped.
The Investigation
The local police department believed the victim’s death to be connected
to similar crimes involving the disappearances of other young
women.
By March 1985, investigators had focused their investigation in part
on Dennis Halstead, who was believed to have been associated with
another young woman who had disappeared. Early that month, John
Restivo had been interviewed as part of the investigation and allegedly
implicated Halstead. Restivo also mentioned that he was acquainted
with John Kogut, a sometime employee of Restivo’s and his
brother’s moving business.
In late March 1985, Kogut was brought to police headquarters for a
polygraph examination. After three polygraphs, a detective analyzed
Kogut’s “polygraph charts” and determined that Kogut was lying
when he denied involvement in the victim’s murder. Multiple officers
proceeded to interrogate Kogut for more than 18 hours, repeatedly
telling him that he had failed the lie detector tests. Kogut was bombarded
with allegations that he, John Restivo, and Dennis Halstead
had abducted, raped, and murdered the victim. Eventually Kogut
signed a confession that had been handwritten by a detective; this
confession was the sixth version of facts allegedly given by Kogut.
According to the final version of the confession, Restivo, Kogut, and
Halstead were driving in Restivo’s van. They encountered the victim,
who got in the van voluntarily. Halstead and Kogut stripped the victim
and Halstead raped her. They arrived at a cemetery, where Restivo
stopped the van and also raped the victim. During the attack, the
victim drifted in and out of consciousness. When she began to regain
consciousness after the rape, she grew frantic and Kogut strangled
her with a hard nylon rope.
Kogut’s confession did not include any details about the crime not
previously known by law enforcement. Kogut was taken to the site
where the victim’s body had been discovered, but again was unable to
offer any new details about the crime.
Based on Kogut’s confession, Restivo’s van was searched. Two hairs
that were microscopically similar to those of the victim were found
61