34: LISK & The Gilgo Beach Murders: Is Rex Heuermann the Long Island Serial Killer?
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Today's episode of Serialistly is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Now, most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yes, I know you are. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you are not in some kind of moving vehicle, there is something else you can be doing right now, getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you could save money by doing it right from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what.

Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations. Hey, True Crime Besties. Welcome back to an all-new episode of Serialistly.

Hey everybody, welcome back to Serialistly. It's me, Annie, your true crime bestie, here to break down another wild ass true

true crime case for you. Today's a bonus episode. It's not in the normal release schedule, but I heard about this case. A lot of you guys have been requesting it, and so I knew I had to jump on here and break it down for you. Throughout history, serial killers have targeted society's most vulnerable individuals, with unhoused people and sex workers often becoming an easy target.

One of the most infamous examples is Jack the Ripper, who terrorized London in 1888 by brutally murdering at least five sex workers. To this day, the true identity of the killer remains a complete mystery. However, advancements in forensic technology offer hope that scientists may finally be able to shed light on this case, even with DNA that is over 130 years old.

Similarly, in the United States, we have experienced our own rippers, so to speak, such as the notorious Long Island serial killer. In 2010, an investigation into a woman's disappearance led to the shocking discovery of 11 bodies in Long Island, who all were primarily linked to the sex trade.

This horrific mystery cast a somber shadow over the once tranquil Gilgo Beach community, rocking its residents' sense of safety and security. While the case seemed to grow colder with each passing year, a dedicated task force composed of various law enforcement agencies had been working quietly behind the scenes to track down the killer.

Just this past Thursday, on July 13th, 2023, a significant breakthrough was made when police arrested a suspect who they believed to be the infamous Long Island serial killer. So in today's video, I'm going to go over how this unsettling case got started because, surprisingly, 50% of you voted in a poll that you have never even heard of this case. And we're also going to talk about how we ended up here today with a suspect in custody nearly 13 years later.

This case is a chilling reminder that some killers can blend seamlessly into society, and you never know who just might be living a double life next to you. Surprisingly, the Long Island serial killer case begins with a woman who may have never crossed paths with them at all. 23-year-old Shannon Marie Gilbert was born on October 25, 1986, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

From a very young age, Shannon, as well as her three younger sisters, Sherry, Sarah, and Stevie, didn't have the easiest of lives. Their mother, Mary, moved her daughters with her to New York after she decided to leave her husband, who she claimed to have been using heroin. After this, Shannon and her sisters never saw their father again.

Shannon had always also been somewhat of a rambunctious child, which is to be expected. But according to her mother, Mary, she had some behaviors that she was not equipped to deal with. Shannon was said to have very serious mood swings and even developed binging and purging compulsions.

These were all things that should have been addressed by a doctor or a therapist, but Shannon's mom decided to just put her in foster care because she couldn't deal with her. Mary decided to put Shannon in foster care, which as you can imagine, absolutely devastated and confused her as a little girl. And to make matters even worse, she even attended the same school as her sisters, who were all still at home with her mother.

She would try to run home on several occasions, but she was always returned to whichever foster home that she was in at the time. And Mary never really explained to her why.

Later, Mary would say that it was Shannon who wanted to be independent from her family, and it was her own decision not to live with them. But that doesn't really make any sense, and I don't care if my youngest child wants to be independent, that doesn't mean that I'm just going to go drop them off at foster care one day. Shannon's behavior was clearly hard to deal with, and all of that made even more sense when she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 12.

So her behaviors were a result of her mental illness. She needed love and support, not to be ostracized by her family. However, it may have ended up being a good thing that Shannon didn't live at home, because her sisters didn't have the best life either. One of the mother's boyfriends ended up physically and inappropriately harming all of the girls, and after he was no longer in the picture, everyone had experienced a level of trauma in one way or another.

This had long-lasting effects on Shannon's sisters, and her sister Sarah got pregnant only at 14 years old and then made the decision to terminate the pregnancy. Even though she was still a child herself, Sarah moved in with her 23-year-old boyfriend, who was a drug dealer and who caused harm to Sarah as well, leading her to end up in several different domestic shelters.

During high school, Shannon began dabbling in different drugs and drinking alcohol. Instead of taking her prescribed medication for her bipolar disorder, she chose to drink and party. Even with her mental health challenges and substance abuse issues, Shannon was extremely smart, though, and she graduated early at just 16 years old. After graduation, she got several jobs to help put herself through nursing school, and her grandmother let her live with her during this time.

She quit nursing school after only one year, saying that it was boring for her and because she wanted to pursue her real dream, which was becoming a singer. She had dreams of having a lot of money and one day becoming famous. And while she was living in New Jersey, she decided to sign herself up to work for an escort agency to make more money quickly. Today's episode of Serialistly is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

Now, most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yes, I know you are. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you are not in some kind of moving vehicle, there is something else you can be doing right now, getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance. It's easy, and you could save money by doing it right from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average.

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Here, she was introduced to a man named Alex Diaz, who would become Shannon's driver and boyfriend. Most of the escorts within an established escort company had a driver, a driver to make sure that the girls got to their jobs safely and who would wait for them to be finished to then drive them home. This was considered much safer than getting into a car with a stranger and ultimately having no one know where you are or who you're with.

During this time, Shannon developed a dependency on cocaine, ecstasy, and alcohol, and she also had several unwanted pregnancies that she ended up terminating so that she could continue working. Now, at some point, Shannon and Alex's relationships turned completely volatile due to both of them always being on substances, and it became even more violent during their arguments. During one of these instances, Alex hit Shannon in the face, fracturing her jaw.

She had to go to the hospital and it was so bad that she needed surgery to insert a titanium plate into her jaw to fix it. Even after this horrible incident, Shannon decided to stay with Alex, but instead of working for the escort company, she decided to start placing her own ads on Craigslist to basically eliminate the middleman. She was able to save up enough money to get her own apartment, and she even enrolled herself into some online courses so that she could eventually have more of a typical career.

She would also go to singing classes and auditions in Manhattan, New York. And even though working as an escort wasn't ideal, it was paying the bills better than any other job that she could get. Shannon always stayed in contact with her family even after everything that she had been through as a child. And she always used any extra money that she had to buy presents for her nieces and nephews.

Her mother, Mary, has said that she tried to convince Shannon to stop escorting and to come back and live with her, but Shannon told her that she didn't actually have to work that often. Mary worried a lot about Shannon, though, because according to her, she was really book smart, but not exactly street smart. She lied about making much more money than she actually did because she didn't want Mary to worry or to know how much she was actually doing and how much she actually did have to work.

She would typically charge $200 an hour on her Craigslist ads, but she didn't really like to tell Alex that she was still working as often because she didn't want him to get mad or try to control her and her money. Now, it was during this time that she met a man named Michael Pack, who would become her new driver. Michael would get a third of Shannon's earnings for driving her and keeping her safe, but a lot of the money that she earned ended up fueling her substance habit.

On a good night, Shannon would end up with about $600, even if she had seen up to five men. On May 1, 2010, Shannon got a response to her ad from a man named Joseph Brewer, who lived in a quiet, beachfront, gated community called Oak Beach. Oak Beach is a community located in the township of Babylon in Suffolk County, New York, and it's a very secluded part of the Barrier Islands.

Joseph Brewer was a 46-year-old financial advisor who had recently lost his job and was separating from his wife, so he was looking for some company during this relatively low point in his life.

So Michael drove Shannon in his black SUV to Joseph's home on Fairway Drive in Oak Beach, which was a pretty far drive. The drive from New Jersey to Oak Beach was a little over two hours, and Shannon arrived at Joseph's house around 2 a.m. After she went inside, Michael waited for Shannon and played poker on his phone to pass the time. About three hours later, though, Michael was startled by a tapping on his driver's side window, and when he looked, it was Joseph Brewer.

He rolled down the window and said that he needed help getting Shannon out of his house because she was acting strange. When Michael went inside, he saw Shannon crouching behind a couch, clutching her cell phone with a terrified look on her face. Michael had said that it's likely that Shannon was on drugs, and she seemed delirious. On the phone, Shannon had dialed 911, and the dispatcher could hear men in the background of the call trying to calm her down.

The 911 operator asked Shannon where she was located, but Shannon was unable to tell her and just kept saying things like, they're trying to kill me. She could be heard saying things to the men like, leave me alone, what are you going to do to me, are you going to kill me? And the 911 operator was trying to calm Shannon down so that she could figure out what was going on.

Michael was obviously confused, and it's not clear whether Shannon could have been having a bipolar or drug-induced psychotic episode, or if someone was actually trying to hurt her. However, Michael later said Anne could be heard trying to get her to leave with him, and trying to calmly explain where she was and that she knew him, and that he would take her home. Michael was frustrated after it was clear that Shannon was being completely irrational, and he decided to go back outside and wait and see if she would come out.

However, about two minutes later, he could see Shannon bolting out of the house, stumbling down the front steps, and taking off running down the road. Shannon was running and screaming for help while still on the phone with 911, and Michael decided to follow her in the SUV because he was afraid that she was going to hurt herself. Seeing Michael's SUV behind her only made Shannon run faster and more frantic, and she ran up to a house and started banging on the door.

The resident was a 75-year-old man named Gustav Koletti, and he opened the door asking Shannon if she was okay. Inside, Shannon could barely get any words out, and he asked her if someone was after her and tried to get her to calm down. A moment later, Shannon saw Michael's SUV coming and bolted out of Gustav's house, who was left completely confused. He decided to call 911 to report what had happened.

According to Gustav, Michael stopped to ask him where she went and told him that it was a bad idea for him to call 911 because he could have gotten Shannon in trouble. After Shannon left Gustav's house, she ran down the road screaming, and then her phone disconnected from 911. Michael headed back out on the road looking for Shannon, who tried to bang on another door for help.

However, the resident of the next home was an older woman named Barbara Brennan, and she didn't answer the door. The woman called the police as well after Shannon ran away from her home, and Michael spent nearly an hour looking, but there was no sign of her. He eventually decided to leave Oak Beach and then headed back to the city, right before the police arrived to respond to the other residents' 911 calls.

The police took down the witnesses' information about Shannon running, screaming and saying that someone was going to kill her. But the only evidence that they could find was a pair of footprints in the sand leading to an overgrown, marshy area overlooking an area called Gilgo Beach. For some reason, Michael would later say that he assumed Shannon would make it home alone, even though I don't know what about that situation would cause him to think that.

But the next day, Shannon's boyfriend Alex woke up to realize that she had not come home. He called her family to see if they knew where she was, and they got in contact with Michael, who told them about what had happened the night before. When they realized that Shannon was in trouble, Alex was the one to go and file the missing persons report. And in the days after she went missing, Michael and Joseph were both questioned by police.

Both of their cars were searched, Joseph's home was searched, and they actually both took and passed polygraph tests, trying to prove that they had absolutely nothing to do with Shannon's disappearance. The police also looked into Gustav, whose home Shannon had run to during her panic, but they weren't able to find any evidence that he was involved either.

When Shannon's disappearance was eventually picked up by the Suffolk County Missing Persons Bureau, they used her 911 call to determine the general area that she might have been in and might have been calling from. They did this by tracing the path that she ran after she left Joseph's home. Two days after Shannon was reported as missing, her mother Mary got a very unexpected phone call. A man called her and said that his name was Dr. Peter Hackett and that he ran a home for wayward girls.

He said that he found her the night that she went running from Joseph Brewer's house, and he gave her some medication to calm her down, but that she had left and that he was worried about her. Mary felt like the call was very suspicious because Dr. Hackett told her that Shannon gave him her number, which she knew her daughter would never do, and she knew that Shannon would never stay in any sort of facility like a home for wayward girls.

A few days later, her family decided to take matters into their own hands, and they headed to Oak Beach to talk to Dr. Hackett themselves, and also to look for Shannon.

When they arrived at his house, he was hosting a large party. They walked up to Dr. Hackett on his deck and introduced themselves as Shannon's family, but he denied knowing what they were talking about or ever even making that call about helping Shannon. So her family informed the police, and they too questioned Dr. Hackett, who continued to deny ever calling Mary.

Dr. Hackett was a very well-known doctor in the Oak Beach community, and in fact, was the only doctor in the area. He did house calls for the residents and provided medical services out of his house, which was less than half a mile away from Joseph Brewer's house. So the police thought that maybe Shannon had run toward his house the night that she went missing, but after investigating him, they felt certain that he wasn't involved.

With no new leads or signs of Shannon, her family was feeling helpless and desperate. So they started passing out flyers and doing all that they could to really look for her themselves. Her family felt like the investigators weren't taking her disappearance as seriously as they might have for other missing women. But one Suffolk County detective named John Malia was asked to help search for Shannon using his highly skilled German shepherd named Blue.

The two searched through the thick, overgrown terrain of Oak Beach and had also gotten poison ivy while searching the marshy area. After coming up with nothing, Detective Malia and Blue took a break, but seven months later, they headed back out to try again. On December 11, 2010, during a training exercise with Blue, he picked up a scent on the parkway where Shannon had gone missing.

Detective Malia felt hopeful that they were going to find Shannon, who he assumed was dead, and that they would be able to return her to her family. So they made their way through the thick brush and made the grime discovery of the skeletal remains of a woman wrapped in almost a completely disintegrated burlap bag. The investigators thought for sure that the woman was Shannon, but in fact, the detectives had no idea what they'd actually be dealing with after this first discovery.

Today's episode of Serialistly is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Now, most of you listening right now are probably multitasking. Yes, I know you are. While you're listening to me talk, you're probably also driving, cleaning, exercising, or maybe even grocery shopping. But if you are not in some kind of moving vehicle, there is something else you can be doing right now, getting an auto quote from Progressive Insurance.

It's easy and you could save money by doing it right from your phone. Drivers who save by switching to Progressive save nearly $750 on average. And auto customers qualify for an average of seven discounts. Discounts for having multiple vehicles on your policy, being a homeowner, and more. So just like your favorite podcast, Progressive will be with you 24-7, 365 days a year, so you're protected no matter what.

Multitask right now. Quote your car insurance at Progressive.com to join the over 28 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. National average 12-month savings of $744 by new customers surveyed who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. Potential savings will vary. Discounts not available in all states and situations.

An official message from Medicare. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. You may be able to save too. With Medicare's Extra Help program, my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov slash extra help.

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After the woman was brought into the medical examiner, it was obvious just by looking at the remains that this was not Shannon Gilbert.

The skull had no titanium plate in her jaw, which is something that Shannon definitely would have had due to that surgery that she had gotten just a few years earlier. So two days later, Detective Molly and his dog Blue went back to the area to help the investigators find more evidence. And shockingly, about 500 feet away from the first body, a second body was found in yet another burlap sack. Only a few hours after that, two more bodies were found.

All of the bodies were left within 500 feet of each other. All of the bodies were under 5 feet tall, with no clothing, no jewelry, and all of them were wrapped in burlap. The medical examiner determined that all of the women appeared to have been strangled, and just days later on December 14, 2010, the Suffolk Police Department announced to the public that they believed that they were looking for a serial killer.

The first victim was a 25-year-old woman named Maureen Brainard Barnes. Maureen was born on July 14, 1982, and she became a mother at just 17 years old. By the time she was 25, she had two children and was living in Connecticut. Maureen worked as a car dealer at a casino and later became a telemarketer. However, none of these jobs were able to support her and her children.

Maureen went missing in 2007, and like Shannon, she too had been working as an escort to make ends meet, and she had been posting ads on websites like Craigslist and Backpage. On July 9, 2007, Maureen told one of her friends that she was going to meet a client outside of a hotel where they were staying in Manhattan, New York.

When she didn't return, her friend became worried, but waited until July 14th to report her as missing. The NYPD assisted in the missing person investigation, and they discovered that between July 6th and July 9th, Maureen had 16 interactions with a phone number that was determined to have come from a burner phone.

On July 9th, Maureen's phone pinged off a tower near Midtown Manhattan, and there was no other activity on it until July 12th, when two outbound phone calls were made near the Long Island Expressway to check her voicemail.

The second victim was 24-year-old Melissa Bartholomew. She was born on April 14, 1990, had grown up in Buffalo, New York, and had earned a license in cosmetology after high school. Like Shannon, Melissa was fiercely independent, and when money was tight, she too turned to sex work.

Melissa posted ads on websites like Craigslist and Adult Friend Finder, and on July 3, 2009, she received a call from a prospective client. The same number called her again on July 6, 9, and 10. The police worked to figure out who the calls were made from, but it was determined that the calls came from a burner phone. On July 10, Melissa was last seen outside her apartment in the Bronx after she told some friends that she was going to meet with a client in Manhattan.

She took a cab and was thought to have been picked up by the client and taken to Long Island. When her family didn't hear from her the next day, they attempted to report her as missing, but were first brushed off due to her being an adult and being missing for less than 24 hours. A few days later, her family convinced the NYPD to take her disappearance seriously, and a missing persons file was opened on Melissa.

About a week later, Melissa's 15-year-old sister Amanda was very excited when she saw a phone call coming in from Melissa's number. However, when she answered, it was a man who began taunting her and saying disgusting things. Investigators began to think that the man could have been involved in law enforcement because he had always made sure to hang up before there was any time to trace most of the calls.

However, a few calls from a burner phone were able to be traced to crowded areas like Times Square and also an area north of Gilgo Beach called Massapequa. But the number was registered to a phony name. Amanda said that the caller knew her name, what she looked like, and asked if she was a whore like her sister. He then continued to say things like he R.A.P.E'd her, killed her, and was watching her body rot.

The next victim was 22-year-old Megan Waterman, who was born on January 18, 1988, in Scarlesboro, Maine. Her mother was an alcoholic and was accused by Megan's grandmother of being extremely harmful toward her children. Her grandmother did file for custody of the children, but Megan and her little brother were eventually placed into foster care.

Megan was diagnosed with ADHD at a young age and was known to get into trouble at school for getting into fights. At age 17, she became pregnant by a man who was in his 30s, and she decided to drop out of school after she had her baby in 2006. After this, Megan met a gang member named Akeem, who she started dating and abusing substances with.

Akeem ended up forcing Megan to begin working as an escort, and she began posting ads on Craigslist and Backpage. She had actually been arrested on one occasion for soliciting during a sting operation and was known to frequently work out of various hotels. On June 5, 2010, Megan's phone was contacted by a burner phone that had just been activated that day.

Now, Akeem would normally go with her on jobs to make sure that she was safe, but this time, she told him that she needed to go alone after the client had offered her $1,500 to stay the whole night. She was last seen at a Holiday Inn Express in New York and had been communicating with the burner phone. At 1.30 a.m., Megan was seen leaving the Holiday Inn, and after she left, there was no further activity from her phone other than a ping in the area called Massapequa.

On June 7th, Akeem started to get worried and started calling around to Megan's friends and family to see if anybody had heard from her. But he didn't immediately report her as missing because of his own criminal activity that he was involved in. By June 8th, when Megan had still not made any attempts to even contact her daughter, her family decided to report her as missing.

The fourth victim was 27-year-old Amber Costello. She was born in October of 1983 to a middle upper class family in Charlotte, North Carolina. Now, unlike the other victims, Amber and her sister Kim had a relatively average childhood with a very close-knit family. But all of that changed when she was severely attacked in a sexual way by a neighbor at only five years old.

Amber's parents were extremely devastated by what had happened to their daughter, and her father even ended up putting a gun up to the neighbor's head and threatening to kill him. It's not known if the neighbor ended up going to jail or not, but Amber's mother began suffering from severe panic attacks and ended up in a mental treatment hospital due to the guilt of what happened to her daughter.

After this, their family just tragically fell apart. Her father began drinking heavily and was arrested on several DUI charges over the years, and Amber's older sister Kim ended up having to take care of the both of them, and she ended up becoming involved in an escorting ring. When Amber became a teenager, she followed in her sister's footsteps and joined this escorting ring as well.

During this time, Kim and Amber became dependent on various substances, but Kim was able to straighten out her life when she met a nice man and got married. Kim wanted to help Amber get sober and get out of escorting as well, and even helped her get into a rehab.

After she got sober, Amber met and married a man who she adopted a son with because she was unable to conceive children of her own due to what happened to her as a child. However, their marriage didn't last long, and Amber eventually relapsed and met a man named Bear while in another rehab. She and Bear moved back in with her sister Kim, who was then living in New York.

After struggling again financially, Kim and Amber both decided to start posting ads on Craigslist and Backpage again, just until they earned enough money to get by. But they were thrown right back into the lifestyle surrounded by substances. On September 1, 2010, Amber's phone was contacted by a burner number, which was located in West Amityville and Massapequa Park.

The number traveled to where Amber was living in Babylon and contacted her phone several times before showing up to her apartment. Amber and a friend who was at her house at the time decided to conduct a ruse against this client.

When the client came in, he put his money on the table, but then the friend came out and pretended to be Amber's outraged boyfriend and told the client to leave. The client left and texted Amber that the money was already there, so then the client ran out in a hurry because of the altercation, and upon leaving, the client texted Amber saying, referring to the money that he had left and nothing happening.

Later, this client was described as looking like an ogre, like an ogre-like Shrek, who was between 6'4 and 6'6, had dark bushy hair and big oval glasses. It was also said by Amber's friend that the client had been driving a Chevy Avalanche truck.

The next day, Amber told her friend that she was going to meet this client and that he didn't want her to bring her cell phone. That was the last time that anyone saw Amber alive, and no one in the house reported her as missing because they didn't want to get in trouble for drugs or any other illegal activity that was going on there. Amber's sister later said that she had just figured that she left on her own accord.

So these four victims have been referred to as the Gilgo Beach Four, and they all have very similar characteristics. They were all under five feet tall, sex workers, young, and it was clear that their deaths were definitely the work of a serial killer.

On March 29, 2011, the Suffolk County Police returned to Gilgo Beach to continue searching for Shannon. About one mile from where the four victims were found, police discovered a skull, a forearm, and a set of hands. These would later be identified as Jessica Taylor, whose torso was found back in 2003.

On April 4, 2011, searchers found three more sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway, which is between Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach. One of the bodies belonged to an unidentified Asian male who was dressed in women's clothing and who police believe may have been transgender. This victim's cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma.

A skull, another pair of hands, and a foot were identified as belonging to a woman named Valerie Mack, whose torso was also found in the year 2000. An unidentified female toddler was also found, wrapped in a blanket, and had clear signs of trauma. She has been referred to as Baby Doe.

On April 11, 2011, a plastic bag containing upper and lower extremities were found near Jones Beach. This victim has been referred to as Jane Doe 3, and it was determined through DNA testing that she was the mother of Baby Doe. That same day, a skull was also discovered along Ocean Parkway, and this one was referred to as Jane Doe 7.

It's believed that this victim's legs were found in 1996 on a nearby island. The gruesome discoveries made everyone in the Oak Beach, Long Island, and New York areas afraid of the possibility of a serial killer living among them and going undetected. Shannon Gilbert's disappearance had led to the discovery of so many victims. But where was she?

On December 6, 2011, Shannon's purse, ID, phones, jeans, and shoes were found during a search of the thick marsh on Oak Beach. And just two days later, her body was found a quarter of a mile away from her belongings. But it was said that Shannon's death was unrelated to the other bodies.

The police commissioner at the time said that they believed that Shannon had gotten disoriented in that tall grass of the marsh and may have fallen and drowned. However, Shannon's family didn't believe that her death was actually an accident, especially since she was found face up and also only in a couple inches of water.

Her family requested an independent autopsy of Shannon, and her cause of death was said to be undetermined. But it was noted that due to a broken bone in her throat, it is very likely that she too could have died of strangulation. So over the years, there have been several different suspects. And in December of 2015, the Suffolk County Police Commissioner announced that the FBI would be officially joining the investigation.

This came one day after the previous police chief, James Burke, had been indicted for civil rights violations and conspiracy to cover up his behavior during an internal affairs investigation. He had reportedly blocked the FBI from becoming involved in the Long Island serial killer case because he didn't want anyone looking into things that he had been doing behind the scenes himself.

There were even people who thought that Chief Burke could have been involved in the killings somehow, but he was later determined to not be involved. Another suspect was named in September of 2017. His name was John Bitrolf. He was a carpenter that worked in the area where the bodies were found. He had been convicted of two other sex workers' murders from the 90s, but was determined to not be the Long Island serial killer.

In 2020, a new police commissioner decided to release images of a belt that was found at the crime scenes with the letters H-M or W-H, depending the position and angle of how you look at it. The belt was believed to have been handled by the serial killer, and police wanted anyone with tips on the origin of the belt to call in.

In 2022, the Suffolk County Police launched a new Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, which included investigators from federal, New York State, and local law enforcement agencies, all to revitalize the case and hopefully find the killer. There have been significant advancements in DNA technology and phone tracking capabilities, and it was thought that a new set of eyes would benefit the case.

The new investigators took the tip from the witness at Amber Costello's house of the Chevy Avalanche, and they took this to be a significant piece of information. They used cell phone data triangulation to match up burner phone numbers with the victim's last phone pings. They connected different email addresses to burner cell phones, apps like Tinder and websites like Craigslist, and were able to determine that a 59-year-old man named Rex Heuermann was a possible suspect.

So the investigators began looking into Rex, who was born and raised in New York, and in fact still lives in the childhood home in Massapequa where he grew up. Rex was born to Dolores and Theodore Heuermann, and he has one older brother named Craig. In school, he was said to be kind of weird and a quiet kid, and he later went on to get a bachelor's degree in architectural technology from the New York Institute of Technology.

Rex is married to a woman from Iceland named Asa Ellerup and lives with Asa's adult son named Christopher Sheridan from a previous marriage and their daughter named Victoria Heuermann. Rex started his own company called RH Consultants and Associates, which is located in Midtown Manhattan, and his daughter Victoria worked with him as well.

Even though their house kind of stuck out like a sore thumb among the upscale, well-kept homes and yards of the area, most neighbors said that Rex and his family were nice people, but maybe a little bit strange.

During their investigation, police found that some of the email accounts used by Rex were linked to some seriously disturbing Google searches, including topics related to sex workers, sadistic torture related graphic material, and child material.

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literally some of the foulest searches that I have ever read and I have covered a lot of disgusting stuff on here because even if that's not indicative of somebody being a serial killer it certainly is indicative of them having predator-like tendencies and being you know um and being interested in child material and not just child material as if that's not by bad enough grotesque

gruesome, horrific child material. And investigators also found that Rex had been researching the investigation into the Long Island serial killer case. He even had been looking up photos of the victims, their family, and trying to find out where their family members lived. There were hundreds of searches, such as—and put these up on screen again like searches—

Why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the Long Island serial killer? Why hasn't the Long Island serial killer been caught? Long Island killer, unsolved serial killer cases, America's five most notorious old cases, 11 currently active serial killers, eight terrifying active serial killers that we can't find, John Bittreff.

Long Island Serial Killer Phone Call, Long Island Serial Killer Update, Long Island Serial Killer Update 2022, FBI Active Serial Killers, Serial Killers by State 2023, Map of All Known Serial Killers, Megan Waterman, Melissa Bartholomew, Maureen Brainard Barnes, COPS Launch Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force,

mapping the Long Island murderer victims, inside the Long Island serial killer in Gilgo Beach, the Gilgo Beach killer, criminal minds. In Long Island serial killer investigation, new phone technology may be key to breaking the case. Very specific searches. Now,

I'm not saying you guys should look at my Google history because obviously given the content I produce, it's not exactly top-notch clean. But even my Google history has never been like that deep into a case like that specific. Usually you do your initial search, you branch off to different sites, different articles, different news sources. Maybe there's a certain thing you're looking for. So you create a new search, but never that specific with certain words, certain dates. It's a big coincidence in my opinion, but we're going to get there.

So Rex was also seen on surveillance purchasing burner phones. Police determined that during the disappearance of at least three of the women found in Gilgo Beach, Rex's wife Asa was out of town, so he would have had time alone to commit the murders. So after the police started following Rex, they recovered bottles and a pizza box that was full of leftover pizza crust. They found this box from the trash can outside his home.

Now, a hair was reportedly found from that buckle of the belt that was found binding the body of Maureen Brainard Barnes. Two female hairs were recovered on the body of Megan Waterman, who was found bound by tape. Now, one hair was found from outside the head area and another from the tape of the head area. Another female hair was discovered on a piece of tape inside burlap wrapping found on the body of Amber Costello.

These hairs have been linked to the DNA of Rex and his wife Asa. Now if you're a woman or you have a woman in your life, you know our hair can be found all over the house. So it's not difficult to think that some of Asa's hair could have been on Rex's clothing or that maybe he even brought some of his victims to their house while she was out of town. So it certainly could be transfer DNA, transfer hair. But we've seen crazier things so you really truly never do know.

In addition to the DNA and cell phone evidence, Rex owned the same type of vehicle that those witnesses had seen the day that Amber went missing. And the police were able to get a secret grand jury to indict Rex on three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Amber Costello, Melissa Bartholomew, and Megan Waterman.

It is thought that Rex may be the killer of the other victims as well, but the police said that at this time, they are focusing on the victims with the most evidence that could lead to a conviction. Surveillance footage caught police arresting Rex in the street on Thursday, July 13th, and his first court appearance was Friday the 14th, where he pled not guilty to all charges. His wife Asa was there alone and appears to be supporting her husband and is also asking to be left alone.

After his arrest, there have been photos taken of investigators conducting more searches at Rex's home and his office. Now, creepily, a large doll in a glass case was removed from inside the home, and I

I don't even want to think what kind of evidence that has on it. It could just be a collector's item since he's in his childhood home. Maybe it was something of his mother's. But anybody who ever has creepy old ass dolls, especially encased with like dust on it. I don't care if you're a collector. It's creepy to me. Come for me in the comments, but it's weird. Now, another thing I noticed is just how large Rex is. Like,

I'm talking large and in charge. He looks huge next to these investigators as they're walking him outside of court. I know many serial killers want to feel power over their victims, but the majority of these women who were found were under five feet tall. So I can't imagine how imposing and scary that he must have been to them if he was in fact the killer, given how freaking tall he is. And for someone to call and then taunt their families, as this killer supposedly did, is

and then searched the things that he did, he obviously is a very deranged individual. Now, Rex's lawyer is maintaining his innocence and said that while expressing his innocence, his client Rex had started crying and just saying, I didn't do this. Now, we all know that all suspects are innocent until proven guilty, but the amount of evidence against Rex seems pretty insurmountable, and the police seem really sure that they have their guy for at least most, if not all, of the victims.

I know they have to try the cases that they have the most evidence for, but I do hope that this trial can serve as a way for all of the victims to get justice. Now there are many people speculating that because the wife's hair was also found, that maybe she was complicit. Perhaps she was involved. As I mentioned, it's my belief that it's more likely transfer DNA, or if he ever brought the victims to the home while she was out of town, it could have been transferred there as well.

But it does make you wonder, and it has a lot of people asking the question, if the belt was shown years ago with those specific initials and a very specific looking belt, did she not see the news story? Did she not recognize it? It's a pretty notorious case, so I would imagine that she would have known about it, but maybe she just didn't see it.

Or did she? I don't know. What do you guys think? This case is continuing to break and unfold every single day with new information being released, new details coming to light. So it's one that I am going to be following very, very closely. And I will be keeping track of all of the updates because like the investigator said, this is just the beginning.

I'm also going to do more deep dives on the victims themselves, what happened in those cases, and everything we know about the Long Island serial killer in addition to everything we learn about Rex Hureman. Do you think they got their guy? Do you think he's responsible for some of the murders? All of the murders? Do you think there's still somebody out there? Do you think he had a partner? Do you think his wife knew anything about what was going on?

Let me know in the comments below and let's get the discussion going. And as always, as a reminder, it's way easier and faster for me to jump over on my Instagram stories and give you updates there. So if you're not following along there yet, make sure you do so. It's at underscore Annie Elise. And one more final announcement for you as if I didn't announce enough already.

already. I have a Twitter account, which I never thought I would ever say the day came that I have Twitter, which I know people are like coming for Twitter. People love threads. People hate Twitter or you love Twitter. You hate threads. But

but we're not trying to get crazy i have a twitter account and because twitter is more uncensored and allows more on their platform that's where i've been able to post more of these uncensored documents non-redacted things like that where it has a little bit more of the details involved so if you have a twitter my twitter handle is underscore 10 to life so follow along over there too

Thanks for tuning in to another bonus episode of Serialistly, guys. I will be back with you very soon with another true crime case. And until the next one, I'm signing off. It's your true crime bestie. Have a great rest of your week and stay safe. Bye, guys.

An official message from Medicare. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. You may be able to save too. With Medicare's Extra Help program, my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov slash extra help.

Paid for by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Would you believe us if we told you our podcast is haunted? We didn't intend for this to happen. No, we did not. But apparently spirits like listening to ghost stories too. We bring you the creepiest, most unusual, and sometimes heartwarming encounters with the paranormal. Stories so chilling and so shocking that even the spirits can't help but hop on our mics and give us an occasional EVP. But we aren't the only haunted ones. Listeners of this podcast report increased levels of paranormal activity.

Our podcast brings all the ghosts to the yard and hopefully it brings you too. Tune in to Two Girls, One Ghost wherever you listen to podcasts. It's the most haunted podcast in America. Very spooky.