A convicted serial killer imprisoned in connection with multiple murders has confessed to killing 18-year-old nursing student Alys Eberhardt in New Jersey more than 60 years later, police said. Richard Cottingham, infamously nicknamed the "Torso Killer," admitted in December to murdering Eberhardt in her home in Fair Lawn on September 25, 1965, according to Fair Lawn Police Chief Joseph Dawicki, NJ.com reported. Cottingham is accused of stabbing her 61 times. Eberhardt had lived at the Bergen County home with her family, according to police. "Alys was a vibrant young nursing student who was taken from our community far too soon," Dawicki said in a news release shared by the Fair Lawn Police Department on Tuesday, January 6. "While we can never bring her back, I am hopeful that her family can find some peace knowing the person responsible has confessed and can no longer harm anyone else," Dawicki added. Alleged Gilgo Beach Murderer Rex Heuermann, Wife Asa's Relationship Timeline The investigation into Eberhardt's death was reopened by detectives in 2021, according to police. Cottingham's confession is the result of "countless interviews and persistent effort," authorities said. While confessing, Cottingham was said to have shared new details related to Eberhardt's killing. Cottingham is serving three life sentences in prison over other murders, and is also detained on out of state murder charges, according to police. He is imprisoned at South Woods State Prison in Bridgeton, where he has been held since 1981, the Bergen Record reported. Authorities are not pursuing charges in Eberhardt's killing "in the interest of getting closure for the family," the police department said. In a statement, according to the Bergen Record, Eberhardt's nephew, Michael Smith, said "Our family has waited since 1965 for the truth." "To receive this news during the holidays - and to be able to tell my mother, Alys's sister, that we finally have answers - was a moment I never thought would come," Smith also said. "As Alys's nephew, I am deeply moved that our family can finally honor her memory with the truth." According to authorities, Cottingham has killed and assaulted girls and women in New Jersey and New York, NJ.com reported. He is accused of dismembering multiple victims, resulting in him being nicknamed the "torso killer." Female Serial Killer Rebecca Auborn Admits to Overdosing 4 Men in Ohio In June 2022, the Nassau County District Attorney's office on Long Island, New York, announced Cottingham was charged in the 1968 killing of a young mother, Diane Cusick. Cusick, 23, of New Hyde Park, went to the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream on Long Island the evening of February 15, 1968 and "never returned home," county district attorney Anne T. Donnelly said in a news release at the time. Cusick's parents ultimately went to the mall, where they found her body inside a car in the parking lot, according to the district attorney's office. She was bound and strangled, the office said. Cottingham pleaded guilty to killing Cusick and four other victims on Long Island in December 2022, according to NBC New York. Under the terms of a plea deal, he was granted immunity in their deaths, the outlet reported. In the statement on the closure of Eberhardt's case, Dawicki said that this "case is a testament to the dedication of our officers and to the fact that law enforcement never gives up in the pursuit of justice." Eberhardt's nephew described Cottingham as "the personification of evil" in his statement, according to the Bergen Record. "I am grateful that he has finally chosen to answer the questions that have haunted (our) family for decades," Smith said, the Bergen Record reported. "We will never know why, but at least we finally know who."