Thomas Richard Mulcahy, a 57-year-old married father of four, was in New York for a business meeting in July 1992. On the evening of July 8th, after a successful presentation, he decided to celebrate in the city. He was last seen at The Townhouse Bar, a gay bar in Manhattan. When he didn't return home, his wife grew concerned. That concern turned to horror on July 10, 1992, when maintenance workers in Woodland Township, New Jersey, made a gruesome discovery. Along Route 72, they found five trash bags containing the dismembered remains of a human body. A wallet and briefcase found with the remains identified the victim as Thomas Richard Mulcahy. His death was ruled a homicide.
The investigation into Mulcahy's murder revealed a pattern of similar killings. Another man, Peter Stickney Anderson, had also been last seen in a Manhattan gay bar and his dismembered body was found in trash bags by the side of a road.
This led investigators to believe they were dealing with a serial killer. For years, the case went cold, leaving the families of the victims without answers. The break in the case came years later with advancements in forensic technology.
The investigation eventually focused on a surgical nurse named Richard Westall Rogers Jr., who became known as 'The Last Call Killer.' Rogers had a prior history with law enforcement, having been acquitted of a murder in Maine in 1973. A new forensic technique allowed investigators to lift Rogers' fingerprints from the trash bags that held Mulcahy's remains. This crucial piece of evidence linked him directly to the crime. In May 2001, police arrested Rogers at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan where he worked.
Richard Rogers was charged with the murders of Thomas Mulcahy and another man, Anthony Marrero, who was killed in 1993. During a four-week trial, prosecutors presented the damning fingerprint evidence. In November 2005, a jury found Rogers guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of hindering apprehension. He was subsequently sentenced to two consecutive life sentences and is currently incarcerated in New Jersey State Prison. Rogers has never spoken about the murders.
