‘Handyman’ Serial Killer After Third Murder Charge — Police Fear ‘More Victims Out There’

Authorities in New York believe a convicted killer and registered sex offender may be responsible for one of the state’s most disturbing murder sprees in decades.

Richard Fox, 62, a Buffalo-area handyman with a long history of sexual violence, has now been charged with a third murder — and police suspect his trail of victims may stretch back years.

Fox was already serving a 40-year sentence for the brutal killings of two women — 40-year-old Cassandra Watson in 2003 and 50-year-old Marquita Mull in 2021. Their deaths haunted Western New York investigators for years before DNA evidence finally linked the handyman to both crimes.

This week, prosecutors in Niagara County filed a new charge, accusing Fox of murdering 32-year-old Crystal Curthoys in January 2023. Her body was found stuffed beneath a staircase in a boarded-up home she once shared with the accused killer.

“We’re talking about a man capable of unthinkable violence,” said Chautauqua County Sheriff James Quattrone, who now calls Fox a “serial killer.” He warned that investigators are looking into at least “two or three” more unsolved cases that could be connected.

“I do believe there are other victims,” Quattrone told Syracuse.com. “We’re hopeful he’ll try to ease his conscience and give us more information.”

Cassandra Watson disappeared in 2003. Her remains weren’t discovered until 2021 — found by a hiker in a remote wooded area near Portland, New York. Fox was arrested just months later, after DNA tied him to her case and to the slaying of Mull, whose body was found that same year near a popular hiking trail outside Buffalo.

At his sentencing, Erie County Judge Suzanne Maxwell Barnes didn’t hold back.
“Evil. That is the one word that sums up this case,” she told Fox. “You should never see the light of day.”

Before the murders, Fox’s record already painted a chilling picture. In 1993, he was convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl and served up to three years in prison. A decade later, he was convicted of attempting to rape a 42-year-old woman and was sentenced to 15 years behind bars.

Despite his release, he remained a registered sex offender.

“He was the kind of guy people thought was just a quiet handyman,” said a former neighbor in Buffalo. “Now we’re realizing what he really was — a monster hiding in plain sight.”

Fox is currently being held at the Niagara County Jail. He’s expected back in court on January 5, facing another murder charge that could seal his fate as one of New York’s most prolific killers.

As police reopen cold cases across Western New York, one question lingers: How many lives did Richard Fox really take before he was finally caught?