LOCKPORT — Richard J. Fox reportedly told law enforcement officers he would only make two appearances in Niagara County Court after his December indictment for murder.
Fox said he’d come to court to “plead guilty” and “to be sentenced.”
On Thursday, the previously convicted killer pleaded guilty to a single count of second-degree murder before Niagara County Court Judge John Ottaviano. He’ll be back in court on April 15 to be sentenced.
He faces a term of 25 years to life on top of a current prison sentence of 40 years to life for the murder of two Buffalo women.
Fox, 62, who investigators have described as “a possible serial killer,” admitted to killing Crystal Curthoys, 32, formerly of Lockport, at an apartment building where they lived in the Falls, in January 2023. Curthoys’ skeletal remains were discovered under a stairwell in the Orleans Avenue building in March.
Falls police made the grisly find after receiving a tip that Curthoys’ body was there.
The only words that Fox spoke during the Thursday hearing came in response to a question from Ottaviano. Asked how he pleaded to murdering Curthoys, Fox responded, “Guilty.”
Niagara County prosecutors are expected to ask Ottaviano to sentence Fox to the maximum possible term.
“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 after Fox’s plea. “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 would have made of the life before her will now never be known. We hope that holding this defendant accountable for her killing brings some small amount of consolation to Crystal’s family.”
On March 28, detectives from the Falls Police Criminal Investigation Division (CID), along with Buffalo Police Homicide Squad and Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office investigators, executed a search warrant at an apartment building at 2419 Orleans Ave. A search of the apartment building led to the discovery of what was described as the “badly decomposed” remains of a woman under a stairwell and enclosed in drywall.
Law enforcement sources later confirmed that Fox had lived in an apartment in the Orleans Avenue building and had worked as a handyman for a former owner of the property.
Just over a week after the discovery of Curthoys’ remains, on April 8, Falls and Buffalo police detectives and New York State Police investigators executed additional search warrants at locations on Pierce, Pine, and LaSalle avenues. In the 1100 block of Pierce Avenue, investigators also seized and towed away a white Chevy Express Utility van parked behind a residence.
Sources said the van was linked to Fox. Law enforcement sources with knowledge of the investigation said Falls Police Crime Scene Unit detectives were able to recover DNA evidence from Curthoys’ remains and identify her through dental records.
Other sources said that Fox and Curthoys “were known to each other” and that they had been “living together in the Falls.” In May, Falls police conducted a “forensic dig” in the backyard of the Orleans Avenue building, but did not turn up any additional evidence.
As Fox pleaded guilty on Thursday, friends and family members of his earlier victims were present in the courtroom. Members of Falls, Chautauqua County and Buffalo law enforcement were also present.
At the time of his arrest in connection with those murders, law enforcement sources indicated that Fox was a “suspect in other unsolved crimes,” including possible homicides.
Fox pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in connection with the cold case slayings of Cassandra Watson and Marquita Mull. Watson is believed to have been killed in Buffalo sometime between 2003 and 2004, while Mull was likely murdered there in June 2021.
On Sept. 26, 2021, a hiker, walking along the Chautauqua Rails to Trails near Woleben Road in the Town of Portland, discovered the remains of a human skull. A forensic analysis determined that the skeletal remains had been buried at the site for more than a decade.
The following day, Sept. 27, 2021, investigators discovered Mull’s body, in a shallow grave, as they excavated the site where Watson’s remains had been discovered.
Both women were reported to have been involved in relationships with Fox, who is also a registered sex offender.
Fox was arrested on Jan. 7, 2025, as he walked in the 1000 block of Portage Road in the Falls. He was taken into custody by a Falls Police Narcotics & Intelligence Division (NID) detective and a Falls detective assigned to the U.S. Marshals Violent Fugitive Task Force.