#293: Serial Killer Watched Podcasts About His Murders - CAUGHT After 13 Years

26:49And that's where John was living with his wife at the time. But he was ruled out by investigators, at least for the Gilgo Four killings. I believe he's still suspected of other killings, but not the Gilgo Four.

27:05And then probably the most sinister link, the most sinister suspect. James Burke, the former police chief of Suffolk County, the jurisdiction of where all these killings took place. Once again, it starts with James. I know, yeah. Okay. Now, James Burke was thrown in prison, and he's quite, well, before this, he was a very well-respected police chief and influential figure in town. Everyone knew him. Most citizens liked him, or at least he was respected to a degree. But everything fell apart when a dildo was stolen from his patrol car. December 2012, so a few years after the bodies had been found, a duffel bag was stolen from Police Chief Burke's patrol car.

27:48So this is his work vehicle. This duffel bag was filled to the brim of explicit pornography and sex toys. Is that his? It's his. Yeah, we know it's his. Oh, he just have a full duffel bag full of it? Yeah. It's not like confiscated by a criminal. And he's like, oh, I got to bring this to evidence. To evidence? No, it's not. It's not a situation where he's like, I just arrested. Yes. In his patrol car. Not normal. Yeah. Why would a police chief have a bag of these items in his patrol car? Like his work vehicle. Yeah. Chief Burke knew that that's what everyone's going to be asking him. So in an attempt to shut this situation down, he catches the thief that broke into his patrol car and stole that duffel bag.

28:31I don't know if the thief thought it would be drugs in there or money in there, but it was not what he was expecting. He throws the thief into the police station where he was chained to the ground. And Burke is thinking, OK, maybe the thief doesn't know what's in the bag because he seems like he's on drugs. So maybe that's clouding his memory. But no, the thief knew and he called Chief Burke a pervert straight to his face, which kind of valid. Chief Burke blew up, screaming, slapping, punching, kicking the thief till the other officers, his subordinates, had to step in and stop him. Chief Burke was sentenced to a few years in prison for the assault, and a lot of the community still supported him at the time.

29:07But the question is, what the hell does this have to do with the Long Island serial killings? There was an allegation that Chief Burke was a client of sex work. This is an allegation, but one sex worker approached the families of the victims and allegedly stated that Chief Burke forced her to perform sexual acts on him after being busted for, I guess, legal term prostitution, but for sex work, you get it. The incident allegedly took place near where Shannon went missing. But again, none of this has been stated in court. Side note, he did beat the thief. Okay, that part has been legally proven, but I'm talking the sex work stuff.

29:41She claimed that Chief Burke would go to these drug-fueled parties with escorts in Long Beach and ended up having really rough sexual encounters with a lot of these escorts who felt too afraid to report him because technically they're engaging in illegal activity. He's the police chief. But more than that, the attorney that was representing Shannon's family said that allegedly Chief Burke was in charge of the Gilgo Beach investigations and a photo had been put out by the police department of a ton of cadaver dogs being utilized to search the Gilgo Beach area. But allegedly only one of them was a cadaver dog.

30:17The attorney stated that the rest of the dogs were props. What does that make netizens feel like? that makes netizens feel like this man wants to shut down the investigation. He doesn't want to do a thorough investigation, but why? Why? What a weird way of covering a case then. Like, what a bizarre story. Yeah, there's also rumors that the Suffolk Police Department wasn't that cooperative with receiving help from the FBI in the early stages of this case. Which again, people were like, I don't understand. In a lot of cases, there are power struggles of jurisdictions. and you know you watch those tv dramas and the fbi and the police are like no this is my jurisdiction but typically when it comes to serial killings the fbi is involved and they're welcomed you know a lot of netizens just felt like he's stalling the investigation and making sure nothing ties him to the crimes so that was a very very strong theory by the way james burke is going to keep popping up if you're doing your own independent googling on this case but um he's not the one that was arrested as the suspected Long Island serial killer.

31:20It's crazy because as I just went down this list, with the exception of James Bissett, who owned the nursery and aquarium, all of the other men, I'm like, okay, yeah. I mean, I can see why people think they're shady. Yeah, I can see that. I can see that. And a lot of netizens believed if the killer was ever caught, it would likely be someone on this list or someone that people had heard of being connected to this case before. But July 13th, 2023, a man was arrested for his connections to the serial killings, and it was not anyone on the list. It was a dad, a husband, an architect in midtown Manhattan.

32:01He founded and owned his own firm, RH Consultants and Associates, not anything to do with RH, the furniture shop. He had an office on Fifth Avenue, an architect that worked with massive companies like American Airlines, New York City sewage treatments, and even Catholic charities. He founded this? Yeah. So he's very, very successful. Yeah. Wow. Well, there's debate about it because technically he works with a lot of high profile clients. I don't know if his success ebbed and flowed. I don't know if he was in and out of financial despair, but I believe that at one point his family was on welfare okay so that's a huge debate too i believe he worked on the project for the new target store in soho as well as the burlington coat factory store in brooklyn yeah and his double life came crashing down because of a pizza and i think a general tidbit in true crime is don't commit crimes and eat pizza and if you do eat pizza eat the whole crust Barry was in his early 70s.

33:02This is not the killer, okay? Barry. And if you wanted to know what was going on in this little neighborhood in Long Island, you would go to Barry. Barry was like the eyes. Maybe not the ears because he said he's a bit hard of hearing now. But he was the all-knowing figure in town. Like he would see which kids acted up, which neighbors stared a little too long at each other's wives and husbands. He would also see the yellow tape go up. He was there when many of the neighbors were interviewed or talking about what it was like to live so close to a suspected zero killer. And a lot of these testimonies are conflicting.

33:34So whether it's hindsight, truth, attention, or just a little bit of everything, many of the neighbors said, I always knew that something was shady about that guy. My whole family stayed away from him. He was always, you know, eerie, cold, creepy. And whenever I talked to him, I just could not put my finger on it. But it was, he gave me a sense of uneasiness. Some neighbors even wore their suspicions about him, almost like a badge of honor. the Schmitts always had a gut feeling about this guy. Mike Schmidt, the dad, he banned his kids from trick-or-treating at this man's house. They had to skip that house every single year, every single Halloween.

34:09There was one time that Mike caved and was like, okay, fine kids, you can go ask for candy. When they got home, his wife flipped out and threw away all the candy. She did not trust him. Mike said one time a couple of the neighborhood dads were having beers out back and they were in the backyard that faced this man's house. And he remembered as they're sipping on beer during a lull in the conversation, he just couldn't help himself. He looked over and he said, he probably has bodies in there. And all the dads agreed. And now with the crime scene tape, the police lights, the uniformed officers in and out of the house, everyone wondered, were there bodies in the house?

34:48Barry, on the other hand, he questioned himself. He's like, how did I let a serial killer slip into the neighborhood? This guy was just an average businessman. Nothing about him was particularly outstanding nor extraordinary. I mean, in fact, the guy grew up here. So this serial killer, suspected serial killer, grew up in the neighborhood. Barry watched him grow up in his family home only to come back not too long ago to raise his own family here. He's a family man. He had a wife. He had two kids, a lovely daughter, and a big fancy job in the city. I mean, how could he be a serial killer? So news spreads to old high school friends.

35:24A woman named Maureen Boyle Holpitt had sit down and heard all the news of her old high school buddy being a suspected serial killer. And she just remembered he used to leave all these cute little love notes for her during class. Sometimes in her locker, sometimes in her textbook. And like, don't get me wrong, she said the letters were nice. They were sweet. They were cute. She never really liked him back, but she never thought, oh, this guy's creepy. I'm scared of rejecting him. In fact, she kind of thought the letters were kind and complimentary and she would always have a smile on her face when she read them.

35:56She said he was like a gentle giant. This part is intriguing. So he's a big guy. Okay, tall, big in stature. All of the victims, well, most of them were under five feet. Very petite woman. And that is a very scary picture, I guess, to have. Anyway, the love notes would read something like, I like you. Could you like me back? Sweet nothings, XO, Rex Heuerman. Rex Heuerman of Long Island, New York. Rex Heuerman of RH Consultants and Associates. And Rex Heuerman, the main suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders. Rex Heuerman, the suspected Long Island serial killer. So Maureen from high school, she's really distraught when she's reading these headlines of Rex Heuerman this, Rex Heuerman that, even more so when she realized that one of his victims over 20 years after high school was also named Maureen.

36:54So did anyone really know who Rex Heuerman was? Some people say, no, I knew it from the get-go. He was creepy. Some people said, I never saw it coming. He had a wife named Aza Ellarup, a stepson named Christopher, and a daughter that he shared with Aza, Victoria Heuerman. And I'm not sure what the family dynamic was. There's not too much information on that but it does it does seem like the family is incredibly shocked at finding out that rex was suspected of being a killer maybe they saw him the way that steve saw him so steve is a property manager in brooklyn that worked with rex for the past 30 years that's a long time okay and he said he was just a big old goofy guy like he kind of had a nerdy side but all i saw was a hard worker that was very detail-oriented in his work and he said you know he was a gem to work with.

37:41He was highly knowledgeable. There's actually a video of Rex online where he's talking about his line of work and how it is dealing with clients. And he seems like a New York business owner that you might come across. Like nothing about the video feels that alarming unless you want to say like, oh my God, his eyes felt empty. But as being honest as possible, like taking hindsight away, I kept rewatching this video and I'm like, he seems pretty normal. He kind of has that gritty New York sense of humor where he says a little bit of edgy things, but it doesn't sound too aggressive. It just sounds like he says it like it is type of guy.

38:14He also seems like one of those friendly dads that make these kind of off-color jokes. And you're like, oh, I don't know if you should be joking like that. But there's nothing that I think if I had hired him as an architect for whatever, I don't know if I would have been like, oh my God, his eyes are empty. He just seems, at least in a professional setting, very normal. and it's very possible that that's the Rex that the family knew or maybe they saw flashes of a darker side here and there but maybe they could never imagine in a million years just how dark it would be someone who worked with Rex a former co-worker of his stated that he scared her she said his face would turn bright red whenever he was like even a little bit riled up or would see just like a random woman's face like just randomly his face would turn bright red like a little teenage boy and he seemed to get off on making his co-workers squeamish.

39:06He just liked getting this reaction so he would talk in depth and graphic detail about hunting and killing animals to get a reaction out of his female co-workers. She also stated that an ex-co-worker had quit to start a new competing business nearby and she said that Rex was so mad she was scared that he was going to go out and shoot the ex-employee. Authorities searched Rex Heuerman's house and found over 270 guns in his vaulted basement. Wow. He only had 90 permits and licenses for his entire collection, meaning the majority of his guns were not registered. 270? Yeah. Side note, there were rumors that there was a soundproof torture room in his house, but that was confirmed to be false by authorities.

39:51It's likely that people misunderstood vaulted basement as soundproof room, and then it became like torture chamber. Other notable items found included a painting of a woman with two black eyes, like raccoon eyes, as well as a glass case with a doll inside. Interesting. These items have been seen by eyewitnesses being taken out of the house, but they haven't been confirmed by police. Here is what has been confirmed. The authorities dug up Rex's backyard and found no bodies buried. They did confiscate eight terabytes of hard drives, and it hasn't been publicly revealed if the hard drives are filled to the brim, if they have anything of significance on them.

40:27But a few of Heuermann's searches were released to the public. And it's really bad. I'm going to be censoring most of them for this episode. I don't even think I could say it without, I don't know, being on a watch list somewhere. It's linked in the show notes, the bail application, and that's where you can find it. He was into some incredibly, incredibly dark stuff. He wanted to see minors anywhere between the age of 10 and 13 years old. He was looking for explicit content with girls with beaten or bruised faces or being tied up and tortured. The word crying appeared numerous times in his searches.

40:59He wanted to see women and girls crying and in pain, and he specifically wanted to see them cry while actively basically being tortured. A very scary search that has been a topic of online discourse was specifically for a torture video of a redhead. Many netizens have pointed out that his daughter has red hair, and that just adds a very dark, sinister layer to things. His searches are terrifying. I mean, some of them just read girl with beat up face, blonde hair, girl, young, depressed. It's just so unsettling. A lot of torture, a lot of violence, a lot of girls and women with the exception of like one or two searches.

41:37But that's not all. Apparently, he was also actively searching about the Long Island serial killer case. He searched things like, 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 serial killer update 2022. Long Island serial killer phone call FBI active serial killers The LISC investigation new phone technology may be key to break the case and at first I wondered okay maybe these searches could have been made in an anxious state and it very well could have been but then these searches I'm about to tell you about make me feel like this guy is getting off on not being caught like getting off on outsmarting the cops Map of all known serial killers unsolved serial killer cases America's five most notorious old cases 11 currently active serial killers 8 terrifying active serial killers we can't find The Gilgo Beach Killer criminal minds episode Yeah, he definitely is reliving it It's not something that he's trying to hide away, get over He wants to be in that state He also allegedly searched up the victims by name and even some of their relatives' names And allegedly the same account was used to search a number of podcasts and documentaries regarding this investigation so if you guys put out a podcast or a documentary he could have very well been watching it as well as reviewing hundreds of images depicting the murdered victims and members of their immediate families so he's trying to look at pictures of the victims families or pictures of the crime scene the murdered victims or before they were murdered some people have interpreted this as rex just getting off on not being caught which side note a woman by the name of nicole brass went on a date with Rex like eight years ago before he was arrested and stated that the date was incredibly chilling.

43:22She was working as an escort at the time and he just wanted to talk non-stop about the Long Island serial killings. He would even mention details that she had never heard before and it sounded like he was so invested in this case. She said when he spoke about the murders, it was almost like he was visualizing it in his head and getting off to what he was saying. It seemed like somebody who really wanted to brag about something, but they couldn't. While a task force was investigating the Long Island serial killer, he was investigating the task force, trying to keep up with the news on if they were going to break the case or not.

43:54Now, beyond that, there are other connections to Rex in the case. We can kind of break it down to a few parts. So let's start with the DNA evidence. There was hairs found in the burlap sacks of how the bodies were wrapped on Gilgo Beach. Three of them were female Caucasian hairs. one of them was a male Caucasian hare but they ran it through their systems it wasn't a match to anyone so this is basically another needle in a haystack how are you even going to find who to test this DNA against if they're not already in the database so they just have these four hares three of them belong to Aza Ellerup Rex Heuerman's wife and okay she's not guilty she's not even suspected of being involved she's actually out of town when all the murders happened she was like visiting family in Ireland going to Maryland and New Jersey at each time of the murders.

44:44But it's like when you're at home, how much of your hair do you think has fallen on the floor or is stuck to the couch, on your bed, in your garage? And then that can get picked up by clothes or shoes. It's not that you would necessarily be guilty of a crime or even understand that a crime had happened. It's just you shed DNA as you exist. Now, his DNA, one of it was linked to the case. Now, this is going to be important later, but there's other evidence. And I think this will be like the new age of serial killers. So American Express, Amex Records, it's a credit card if you're not from the US, they showed a reoccurring payment made to Tinder, the dating app.

45:20On his Amex. Yes, which revealed that Rex had a Tinder profile set up that linked to a burner phone number. His name on Tinder allegedly was Andrew Roberts. So basically, they believe that they're able to track his Tinder account to a burner phone and this burner phone to Rex and this Tinder account is linked to his Amex. So it's like a digital trail. Side note, this selfie was also sent by a burner phone. So like, I don't know how they're going to argue that one in court, right? He sent a selfie to a sex worker from a burner phone. Rex was also caught on CCTV cameras at a cell phone store in Midtown Manhattan, purchasing minutes for one of these burner phones, which for those interested, Rex had a ton of different emails, fake emails that authorities believe he used to conceal his identity on these websites while hunting for victims.

46:05and one of the emails was hunter1903a3 at gmail.com and I'm sure it could very well just be Hunter the name but with all the talks of him being someone that likes to taunt, chase and hunt his victims I just thought it was an odd detail but this is where I thought things were so interesting so you know the whole Black Mirror episode the terms and conditions episode, the recent release well terms and conditions might have caught Rex too so authorities traced Rex's home IP address they monitored his monitored his ip address and in creating one of these fake emails he had to accept terms and conditions that was accepted from his supposed ip address so they're basically saying we can confirm at least we're going to argue that this can be confirmed to be his fake email address that was used to create a tinder account that is also used to link to a burner phone because he accepted terms and conditions from the ip address of his home then that same ip address was used to look up news about the investigation.

47:03So they're saying, we can try to argue that he is looking up news about his supposed own investigation. And then that same IP address was used to book flights at JetBlue for Rex Heuermann and his wife. So it's like, we can all connect these things to Rex because of his IP address. Right, because IP address is the same for Rex and for all these fake identities. Yes, but also he's like using the same IP address to book a flight for Rex Heuermann. meanwhile creating fake identities with the same IP address. Exactly. IP address is the common link for all these fake. Yeah. Which I feel like this could very well be like the new age of serial killers being caught.

47:41Now, these are all the things that authorities are gathering and building a case against Rex Heuerman. I'm sure that there's a lot more information and a lot more evidence that hasn't been released to the public yet. And the way that they caught him is also very interesting. So back in January of 2022, there was a designated task force that was going to pour over the files and just try to find all these little pieces of evidence and see what they have. In March 2022, they keep coming across their very first lead, which had been there for decades, over a decade. And it's this car. One of the first victims that was discovered vanished on the beach.

48:15There was an eyewitness who saw her and was like, before she vanished, there was this Chevy avalanche. Avalanche? That was like there. This old Chevy. They're like, I believe they gave the license plate names. And that car was believed to be driven by the killer. And in 2022, they traced it to Rex Heuerman. Now, that's when they started investigating him. And they uncover the alleged burner cell phones that Rex allegedly purchased to arrange meetings with three. I'm so sorry. That's it? Just a car? Yeah. And a lot of people are like, how did you not investigate that earlier? But I guess they didn't think that it was a big lead.

48:49Yeah. Tell me about it. Okay. A lot of people are mad. Okay. Yeah. So then they start investigating Rex. They're like, this guy is buying a lot of burner phones. A lot of these burner phones can be connected to be in contact with a lot of the victim's phones at one point or another. All of his locations can be traced to when those phone calls to the victims came out. He was in that area. His own personal cell phone pinged him in that area, which was also very close to his Midtown office in Manhattan. So it would make sense that he got out of work and then made those taunting phone calls if it indeed is him.

49:19On top of that, they pull his Amex records and there were numerous instances where Rex was buying something in the same general area as he was calling. So like right after a phone call was pinged in Midtown Manhattan to one of the victim's family members, he would be purchasing like a hot dog in Midtown Manhattan. So just another link. And if you guys are into the whole nitty gritty breakdown in this, the show notes, I'm going to have the bail application. You can read over that, the court doc, but there's just a lot more in depth of like where each cell phone towers pinged him and at what times and like all of that.

49:50They also have the hairs from the Gilgo Beach 4 and they needed to test Rex Heuerman's DNA. He ends up throwing away a pizza box in a garbage can in Fifth Avenue, like on the side of the street, one of those public trash cans while leaving work. They get it. He's not a crust eater. So his DNA is left all over that pizza crust. That pizza box was brought in and the DNA was a match. Now it is again important to note that even though Aza Ellerup, the wife's DNA, was a match to the hairs found on the bodies, authorities do not believe that any of Rex's family members have been involved or to even have knowledge of his crimes.

50:26In fact, authorities found multiple travel records that Aza, his wife, was out of town when the murders took place, like I mentioned. If this is all true, then it's likely that he timed so that he could kill when he was alone. It's a tricky situation because, you know, obviously there are so many victims with ties to this case and all of their families who have been searching for justice and answers. And I can't imagine that the type of pain that they had been experiencing for the past 13 years, but I hope I can gently point out that typically serial killers have a lot of, um, a lot of victims and it's not just the victims they killed and not just the victim's families, but with a lot of serial killers, they were family members, you know, and a lot of these family members, they were floored to find out that the person in their life had a double life.

51:16so I would just wonder if it's such a niche feeling that most of us will never hopefully be able to relate to it's loss grief anger betrayal and just a strong sense of like how I would I would imagine it's just a whole questioning of your life and identity yeah Rex's family members are really going through it so they're going through this process but his wife Aza is also battling cancer her health insurance runs out soon because she was covered under Rex's work plan and their son Christopher has a disability and I'm not saying this to be like oh my god guys they're the only victims in this case trust me I'm not but I will say that the police have been a bit rough with the way that they approached the Heuermann family I mean forget Rex I'm talking about his family they were essentially kicked out of their homes the family have reported that the home has been completely trashed so essentially the police during the search warrant I will say they they were thorough they even cut up a bathtub in the family home to make sure that there was no evidence or bodies hidden inside the bathtub.

52:15And additionally, authorities did not give the family time to ensure the safety of their two family cats. So thankfully, Christopher's service dog is fine, but it just, it adds another layer of pain and messiness to this case. Now, there is a quote from Anthony St. Martine that just kept popping up in my mind while we were researching this case, which is, if we never experienced the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer's day. And I think that applies strongly to the victims in this case. These were good people that had fallen into hard, dark winters, but most of them, their family states, they never stopped providing warmth to everyone around them.

53:01Even if they themselves were out shivering in the cold, they still were bringing happiness and smiles and joy to everyone around them. and I think that's what we should focus on. Megan Waterman was the first of the Gilgo Beach bodies to be identified. She was 22 years old. Her family said, if you had just met Megan, you would fall in love with her. She was hilarious, super witty. She had a very pure heart and maybe that was hard for her to be in a world that is pretty cruel and maybe it's hard for her to understand that not everyone has the level of love and compassion that she wanted to have and one of the biggest things during her childhood was she felt abandoned by her parents.

53:41Her mom lost custody of her. She was raised by her grandma. And eventually that frustration and anger and confusion about this world, it led her to feel rage. Just a lot of rage. She fell into drinking as a teenager and she had this turning point in her life where she found out that she was going to be a young mom. This is in her late teens. And she's like, okay, now I really have to straighten out my life. I want to be the best mom I can. I want to be the best example for my future daughter. She stops drinking. She starts working, saving up. and her goal was just to give her daughter everything.

54:12Her whole life changed after being a mom. Her priorities were changed and we're all just like too familiar with how much money rules this world. And Megan, she's just trying to make money for her kid. And sometimes that was doing things that she didn't necessarily want to do. Megan had been back in touch with her mom and her mom actually found out about Megan's job through a friend. They were like, hey, you need to check out Craigslist. So she started scrolling on Craigslist and there was Megan and she was shocked. She was like, I need to know what's going on. And it turns out that Megan had met a man named Akeem.

54:43At first, Akeem seemed like a really nice guy, aspirational almost. He was living a life that most people could only hope for. Like he had time freedom. He had the financial capabilities to indulge in whatever luxuries he wanted. And Megan was like, I want that for my daughter. He told her escorting is the best way. And she was convinced. She starts posting on Craigslist and the back page, which is another website. and Akeem supposedly slid right into the role of being her pimp. He would drive her to her clients' meetings and on this particular night, he took her to Long Island, dropped her off at a Holiday Inn Express and then she vanished.

55:20CCTV cameras showed her leaving the hotel at around 1.30am. She was seen alone leaving. Maybe she was meeting up with someone else. Maybe it was, yeah. And that was the last time she was ever seen alive. The second body belonged to Maureen Brainard Barnes. she she grew up very pensive she seemed like she could see connections that others couldn't see so even as like a middle schooler she wondered things like is heaven a physical place or just a state of mind growing up her head was just always in a book her nose was shoved in a book and when she got really into it she was so lost it would take like a semi-truck honking its horn full blast for her to be like oh my god what's going on in reality and that's not to say that she was out of touch or living in her own version of reality.

56:03She just really loved getting lost in ideas and connections and stories. Her favorite book for a while was The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. And her thing, you know, Maureen's one thing was life is full of mysteries. And you know, a lot of people, they'd be like, what's the point in trying to figure it out? But Maureen was a firm believer that the answers were just right there for anyone who dug deep enough. And her eyes would light up when she would tell her siblings about what she had just read. And this is how she grew up. And sure, she went through like a rebellious phase, but she was skipping school to read books.

56:38So it's not like the most thrilling way to break the rules, if you ask me. But I think what made her very special was the very thing that made it very hard for her to be happy in this world. She was a very big dreamer and she hated the idea that not everyone was that. So one time, she was living with her sister, Missy, and she brought home these two stray kittens. They were infested with fleas, like the fleas were spreading everywhere. And her sister was like, you got to get them out of here. You got to get them out of the house. We can barely afford to take care of ourselves. We cannot take this on.

57:12And Marine told her, you can't live life being so heartless. She went and bought flea shampoo with whatever little money she had. She came home, spent hours taking off every single flea and tick and her whole body was covered in scratches from the kittens. But she did not feel any of that pain. And by the time she was 21, she had a four-year-old daughter with no steady income. She tried everything. She tried working at a call center, delivering pizzas. Nothing really stuck. And then she was like, you know what? I'm going to be a musician. She really loved writing. So she's like, okay, this is what I'm going to do.

57:48But in order to fund myself, I'm going to try to be a model. So she goes on modelmayem.com. She submits these profile shots, like model headshots. And then emails start flowing in from a ton of, quote, modeling agencies. They were basically escorting agencies. And obviously, they know what they're doing. They're targeting young women who need to make money. And of course, it starts slow. They say, it's like webcam stripping, but in person, no intercourse. It's like being a dancer. That's it. It's a great stepping stone into being a model. All the top models had this phase in their career. and slowly she gets more and more intrigued and she goes up to meet with a talent scout in New York City and he kept saying as long as she came to New York City he could help her get set up and she would be modeling in no time.

58:33Maureen was really excited, really excited so right off the bat, the first date, it felt like the possibilities were endless. She was told about how much money she could make, about how this was the start of a successful life for her and her daughter and soon enough, she was on Craigslist and she usually went by Marie or Juliana and it just seemed like she never told any of her family members about her job. Not even her sister, Missy, Melissa, that she was super close with. In fact, Missy would ask like, what are you doing in Manhattan all the time? And Marie would kind of get a little bit touchy about it.

59:05It made Missy very nervous. Like what would my sister be so touchy about? Why is she so sensitive when I ask what her job is? So most of the time, Marie would meet with clients in hotel rooms and she tried to stay away from doing out calls, which means that she goes to meet with the man whether it's at their place of choosing typically their home but July 9th 2007 at around midnight she called her friend and said that she was doing an out call that was the last time she was seen alive when Missy and Maureen's brother found out that she was missing they actually went to New York City and they had a picture of Maureen and they were just asking any passerby like have you seen this woman please have you seen this woman and I think the visual of that is just so heartbreaking because if you've ever visited New York City, it's an amazing city, but people are on the go.

59:53People are probably not stopping to listen. And even the ones that did, they hadn't seen her. And it seemed like the police didn't care because she was an escort, and they said she probably ran away. Her body was found on Gilgo Beach three and a half years later. After her disappearance, her best friend Sarah would actually receive phone calls from the killer. Wow. Yeah. and the killer would try to get Sarah to verify Maureen's tattoo to be like, I know Maureen. Do you know Maureen? Where was her tattoos? Sarah would state the location of their tattoos and he said, you know, I saw her. She was alive, living at a whorehouse in Queens, New York, which obviously turned out to be a false lead, but it does seem that it was the Long Island serial killer calling.

1:00:37Side note, according to the book Lost Girls by Robert Kolker, Maureen actually had posted on MySpace during her escorting days about having nightmares about encountering a serial killer during her job. Because I guess she was scared of the dangers of her job, which I'm saying she really avoided doing out calls.

1:00:59Now, Melissa Bartholomew was a New Yorker through and through. She would be the third body found on Gilgo Beach. She was born in New York. She very much had that no-nonsense New York attitude. I think she got it from her mom. So when Melissa's mom, Lynn, was giving birth to her, she was admitted into this Catholic hospital nearby. And she's screaming from the pain of the contractions. Like she's giving birth. It's painful. And this nun runs in and it's like, you're waking up the other patients. And Lynn screams at her, shut up, you've never even had sex before. So it's just, it runs in their family, you know?

1:01:33And honestly valid. Melissa grew up to be four feet, 10 inches tall on a good day, they said. But she literally did not care. Her family said she had such a fiery personality She was not scared to go up against men that were double, triple her size Her stepdad Jeff said Yeah, that girl would not hesitate to punch a man in the face if he started something with her She was fearless We actually had a rule for her Which was, you never hit first Melissa told her family that she was going to move from Buffalo, New York Into the city to start her own hair salon And she left her family, including her sister Amanda And the two of them were like two peas in a pod So this was really rough for them to be separated Melissa's plan was to start working at a salon, make money, market herself, save up as much as possible, and then start her own salon.

1:02:18And when she gets to New York, it's just, it's rough. She's not even making enough to pay the bills to support herself. So she quits and she tries her hand at a topless bar. Her parents were not thrilled. They scolded her, but she reassured them, listen, no one's touching me and I'm just getting enough to pay the bills and maybe start something new of my own. Amanda knew that she was lying but Amanda, her sister, would never break sister code by telling the parents the truth Amanda knew that Melissa was working as an escort and not at a topless bar At first, Melissa told Amanda Don't worry because I'm just going on a bunch of dates with lonely guys, okay?

1:02:55There's no sexual activity But as time passed, Melissa finally told Amanda Okay, yeah, there are some activities involved And Amanda was just so worried But every time Melissa would come home, she seemed happy She loved to spoil her family with gifts But near the end of 2008 Her family noticed a shift The next time she came home for a visit She kept talking about how she wanted to move back home soon It just seemed like she was exhausted of this line of work And then July 12, 2009 She left her apartment to meet up with a client And she was never seen alive again The whole family went to find Melissa Mode, okay?

1:03:31They're like, we gotta find her Just like Maureen's family They tried everything to locate her They knew that Melissa would never disappear without telling them, would never go on the run. They called the police every single day demanding that they help look for her. And every single day the police would just hang up on them. A heartbreaking detail about this case, Amanda had to break the news to her parents about Melissa's line of work. Amanda felt guilt. She felt like maybe if I had said something or done something sooner, she wouldn't be missing. Melissa's family felt guilt of why didn't she tell us?

1:04:02Did she not trust us? Did she not think we would understand? And it was just a lot of layers of grief. And additionally, you know, Amanda was even seen as slightly suspicious by authorities because it seemed like she was hiding something and she would slowly have to reveal all the truth. For example, Melissa would bring around a boyfriend named John and her parents thought that he was a nice man that was in love with their daughter. But Amanda knew he was basically just a pimp. He would, he's the one that exposed Melissa to sex work. He dated her like a boyfriend and then lured her into escorting being like, oh yeah all my friends girlfriends do this i mean it's just you don't have to do anything with a client if you don't want to it's all about having your own freedom and power you don't have to do anything you don't want and in the end you're the one holding the strings and you're the one making the money and he slowly made her feel more and more comfortable to do it but the minute that she did he just used her for her body and her for money he started becoming physically violent with her as well i mean melissa had been admitted to the hospital on three different occasions for head trauma and another time for a collapse long.

1:05:05He was beating her and putting her in a position where she could no longer be in control of anything. And now she was missing. 27-year-old Amber Lynn Costello was also found in Gilgo Beach. She was from North Carolina and she had all the traits of like a Southern girl. Very kind, sweet, trusting. She was very petite as well. She had this older sister named Kim and Kim was kind of like her mom, sister, and best friend. And Amber just seemed like a really happy kid until she was five. A 26-year-old neighbor offered to take Amber and her older sister Kim and another girl from the neighborhood to play tennis at the park.

1:05:42We're not too clear what happened, but it seemed that the neighbor would grab Amber, drag her to the bushes, and essay her. The family was wrecked after that. Amber's father went up to the man and pulled a gun to his head. We don't know if he was arrested, but it was a very hard situation to overcome. Amber was emotionally traumatized. I think that she kind of blamed her parents as a kid. Her parents blamed themselves as a kid. It was a lot. And then everything just kind of deteriorated from there. As Kim grew up, both of the parents fell sick at the same time. And Kim was like, okay, I got to quit school and I'm going to become a dancer.

1:06:18So she became like a, like a bachelor party dancer. Sometimes it would be her alone or with other girls. And she worked for this big, big agency. And she was told over and over again, like you don't have to do any sexual activities. In fact, this agency strictly forbids you from doing sexual activities. Wink, wink. So the agency is basically saying we pay you to go dance. Now, if you do something else, we don't want to hear about it. We don't want to know about it. You take that money in cash. Yeah. Cause I guess it would be illegal if they were running like, um, yeah, an escorting business. And some of these girls, they all lived in the same house.

1:06:52There was almost like this sorority type atmosphere to it and Kim really liked it. She was making more than like$800 a night or more and other girls her age they were making like$10 an hour working at fast food chains if even$10 an hour and Kim treated this job like a job. She was here to make money, set boundaries with clients and in the end it's all about making the money providing for her family. Amber eventually joined to help make some money for the family and people said that if you saw both the sisters they were just very different. Amber seemed like she was more here for making connections, finding friends.

1:07:27Like I said, it's like a sorority type atmosphere. She really just wanted to feel like she fit in with the other dancers. She seemed too innocent for this line of work. For example, one of the dancers' boyfriends got arrested for purchasing illegal drugs, and that dancer couldn't afford a lawyer, whether she had blown through the money that she had made or she wasn't making as much as the other girls or had just started, Amber offered to dance and potentially do more with an attorney as payment for representing her dance colleague's boyfriend. Yeah. And while working for this agency, it seemed like the girls were, you know, kind of getting led to do drugs.

1:08:05Kim got addicted to crack at one point. And for Amber, it was heroin. She was so addicted, she started stealing from her clients and that resulted from her being let go from the agency. I believe Amber was briefly married but it just she was going through a dark dark dark time i mean her addiction grew more intense and she just how people describe her is amber was someone that really wanted to be happy but had a hard time sustaining that feeling just keeping it for more than a second and it just felt like her life she was just chasing happiness on all the wrong roads i mean she was just someone who was dealt very very bad cards and just wanted to smile a bit and i mean that's the thing most of these victims they were all trying they're all trying to do good for their families or their children or for their futures and it's just hard so i mean you can really see that with amber she would be very very in a dark space and then she would consistently try and go to church to pull herself out of it and then it wouldn't work and then she would go back to drugs and go back to escorting it was a lot she went off to do her own thing after she was let go from the agency kim was also working and she was very very busy so they kind of drifted apart they didn't have a falling out but kim was also kind of telling her sister you gotta stop doing these dangerous out calls but as amber grew more addicted to drugs she was just more desperate for funds she was actually one of the more recent victims she had disappeared for a few months and then kim would get a call that her body was found on gilgo beach yeah and the saddest part is kim actually became hyper fixated on trying to find justice for her sister.

1:09:41She became a true crime fanatic. She read books on true crime. She read books on serial killers and profilers. She even thought to herself she could catch the killer alone if the police can't do it. She could present herself as the perfect victim online and see if he would reach out to her. Yeah. Because, you know, the assumption is that there was a client targeting the escorts. I think the general consensus is that the Gilgo Beach 4, were victims of one zero killer. The initial four bodies that I just talked about, the way that they were killed, they seem to have strong links to one zero killer.

1:10:15And as of right now, Rex Heuerman has been charged with the deaths of three of the Gilgo four. And it's suspected by authorities that he was heavily involved and is the culprit for the other of the Gilgo four. So we're still gonna go over the others, but keep in mind that they have not been definitively linked to Rex Heuerman as of right now. Jessica Taylor was also found on Gilgo beach. her head and hands were at least. The rest of her body was actually discovered eight years ago and they had finally matched. Yeah. So about 40 miles away, her torso was found eight years ago. There was another body found nearby, 24-year-old Valerie Mack.

1:10:51Just like Jessica, only her head and hands were found at the beach. The rest of her body was found 40 miles away. So are you saying that he... Yeah, dismembered her. And then disposed them separately. Yes. So some people think that there was an evolution. If all of these bodies were belonging to one killer, there's an evolution as his personality evolves, as his killings evolve, maybe his confidence goes up. If this is true, because these bodies seem to have been from much further back. So people are speculating he might have dismembered them as an attempt to, because he's more anxious of being caught.

1:11:26But maybe as his confidence grows, he has been just dumping bodies whole. Because he's like, no one's going to find the bodies. I don't have to go around and do all of this. And then he stopped. Well, people think that he probably didn't. That there's another dump site somewhere, whether that be Rex or the Long Island serial killer, because again, legally he hasn't been convicted yet. So just covering my butt there. Yeah. So whether whoever it is, if they're still alive, the Long Island serial killer, they probably never stopped killing. Then there is whom the authorities refer to as, quote, peaches, which I feel is a little bit disrespectful, but that is how she's often referred in this case.

1:12:08She was a Jane Doe, and she had a tattoo of a heart-shaped peach on her left breast. So authorities called her Peaches. She was a young black woman wearing gold jewelry at the time of her death. Her torso had been found decades ago in a storage bin, but her limbs were found in Gilgo Beach. Her body was linked to the toddler found on Gilgo Beach. So remember, there's a toddler. Yeah. That is believed to be Peach's daughter, and the theory is that Peaches was an escort that had brought her child with her on the job because she couldn't afford care and her child was killed to get rid of any witnesses or trouble.

1:12:40There was also an unidentified Asian individual found on Gilgo Beach. And just to put a quick disclaimer, we have no idea how this person identified while they were alive. In all reports, they are referred to as he, him because forensics have identified the remains as, quote, male. And the investigators have come up with their own theory of how this person was killed. Their body was found in women's clothes. So authorities speculated that they were an escort. and they had advertised their services online. And the theory was the killer hired them and for whatever reason was very upset with how they might've presented themselves in the ad and then killed them.

1:13:15Profilers and officials lean towards this theory because their victim profile doesn't really match the others. And again, they speculated that they were killed by blunt force trauma. I believe we're dealing with skeletal remains. So there might be some evidence on the bones, but um i guess it's just different from the strangulation and asphyxiation of the other victims and then just you know again this is just going off the theory that all of the victims are related to the long island serial killer case some people argue that there are two killers that dump their bodies in the same place nothing is a hundred percent or certain as of now there was another body though she was known as the fire island jane doe but has recently been identified as karen Vergata.

1:13:59Her legs were found wrapped in plastic decades ago and the rest of her body was found on Gilgo Beach. And now we have to talk about Shannon Gilbert. She's actually not considered by authorities as a victim of the Long Island serial killer or the Gilgo Beach killer. But it seems like her disappearance almost triggered this investigation. It's almost impossible to hear about the Long Island serial killer without having Shannon's story so closely intertwined. So whether or not Shannon was a victim of the Long Island serial killer, it's yet to be seen. But Shannon was still a victim of someone. December of 2011, a year after the initial Gilgo Beach 4 were found, Shannon's remains were found in Oak Beach, not too far away.

1:14:41Her family was absolutely devastated. I mean, they said Shannon's life had been cut short before she could accomplish her dreams. Shannon was always known to be this very independent, strong-willed person, but her friends remember her to be a bit unstable. She didn't have that solid foundation to fall back off on when she was growing up. She did have a rough childhood. She was in and out of foster care. She was early on diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She was prescribed medications for it but eventually she stopped taking them because she said it made her just feel so disconnected and shaky. One of her biggest dreams was just to support her siblings and provide for them.

1:15:19she wasn't picky about the jobs that she had she was a hostess at applebee's she was a receptionist at hotels eventually she moved in with her boyfriend alex and started escorting for an agency she eventually branched off so that she would have to stop splitting the profits with the agency and she hired a personal driver michael pack he was known to just drive personal escorts to and from clients and almost kind of serve as protection but not really as of right now rex has not been charged with shannon's death there have been no known links as of right now between the two but shannon's family and friends are absolutely certain that shannon was killed whether it was by rex or by somebody else she was killed but what's infuriating is that authorities would state this may just be a young lady who ran into the brush in a hysterical state fell down and expired for some reason what so they're hinting at her mental illness past history mental health past history of being diagnosed with different mental diagnosis and also maybe she was on drugs.

1:16:22It's a very harsh way of stating it. A lot of netizens feel like, even if that are true, the way that they're stating it and going about Shannon's death feel like they're just trying to sweep it under the rug because they already have enough on their plates. A lot of people wondered if the police commissioner at the time would have still said that had Shannon not been an escort. Authorities theorized, though, that Shannon was having a mental break and mixed with drugs, was a recipe for disaster. She got lost in the thick reeds that are 12 feet tall and then died. But according to Dr. Michael Baden, a forensic pathologist who conducted an independent autopsy of Shannon's remains, he said he observed damage to Shannon's hyoid bone, which is a bone in your neck area.

1:17:04He believes that indicates strangulation. and since there were reports that she was drowned in the marsh, like she drowned in maybe a few inches of water in the marsh, which is common, you can drown in a few inches of water, he stated, but her face was found face up, which is atypical of drowning victims, even if the water was a bit higher. The Gilberts, Shannon's family, were really upset because Shannon's cause of death was listed as asphyxiation, which lined up with the other deaths caused by the Long Island serial killer. They stated, this isn't about us trying to pinpoint a serial killer or trying to make her disappearance fit a narrative.

1:17:37It's about finding truth and justice for Shannon. They also stated that they want to remember Shannon, that while alive, she had a complicated journey, but in death, she was a true hero. She was the potential reason that the other victims had been found and ultimately led to the alleged serial killer being caught. So as of right now, Rex Hurman has been charged in the deaths of Megan Waterman, Melissa Bartholomew, and Amberlynn Costello. he has not been charged in the death of maureen brainard barnes but not because he's not suspected of being involved but because his dna was not found directly on her body authorities are confident that rex is the gilgo four killer but as for the rest of the victims i guess we'll just have to wait and see how that plays out in court and i'm not saying that to insinuate that there's not good evidence against rex i'm just saying he hasn't been convicted in the court of law so i'm maintaining some caution.

1:18:29That's all. There is, however, an unfortunate update. Shannon's sister, Sarah, was charged with murdering their mother, who was very vocal about this case and has been an advocate in this case. In a schizophrenic episode in 2016, Sarah stabbed her mother hundreds of times with a knife and bludgeoned her with a fire extinguisher. She's been sentenced to 25 years to life and it just adds another layer of tragedy to this case and i mean of course a lot of people think that there are no excuses to something like that but there are a big group of people online that wonder would this still have happened had shannon not gone missing you know how much trauma did the family endure for her to have a schizophrenic episode of this caliber yeah so it's just been truly we don't know the impact of this case and back to the disgraced police chief burke remember that guy with the dildo in his car oh yeah according to the daily mail which is considered by many a quite questionable publication so do with that what you will um they've been publishing a few pieces about a supposed connection between rex huerman and former chief burke they claim that sources claim that the two would meet at notorious pickle parks.

1:19:46Listen, I had to look up pickle parks. Pickle parks are people who cruise around looking to either pay for sex or either offer sex for pay. But apparently after Burke got out, he was arrested recently for soliciting an undercover park ranger and for indecent exposure and public lewdness. He was offering sex for pay. And apparently Burke and Rex had crossed paths, according to many anonymous sources. I guess it's just something to look out for a link between the too, you know, it would be very interesting as the trial pushes forward. In slightly more positive news, K9 Officer Blue was eventually honored at their Police Department Awards ceremony for their contributions to the Gilgo Beach homicide investigation.

1:20:30Rex Heuerman has pled not guilty. He's due back in court at the end of this month, end of September, so I imagine there's going to be a very lengthy process to justice, but the families they've waited long enough. Jessica Taylor's cousin said, I hope that she's remembered as a beautiful young woman, not just by her occupation at the time, but by everything else. She's loved and missed every day. Megan Waterman's sister said, I felt anger and relief. It's starting all over again. You know, she was vulnerable, naive, a drug addict girl who was very influenced by this monster of a man. And Lynn, the mother of Melissa said, I'd like him to suffer at the hands of other inmates.

1:21:09Death is too good for him. and I guess one beautiful thing that has come out of such a tragic heinous series of events is the victims families have formed a very strong bond they're leaning on each other for support and uplifting each other and hopefully that will help them in their fight to justice Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison stated Rex was a demon that walked among us a predator that ruined families someone that shattered lives and not just one but several and maybe more and I wish I could give you an answer. I can't tell you at this time, is Rex Heuerman going to be held accountable for the other bodies on Ocean Parkway?

1:21:49Only time will tell. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens next. But what are your thoughts? Please leave it in the comments and please stay safe. I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-sode. Bye.