Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Gilgo Beach Murders and Mysterious Case of Shannan Gilbert — Everything We Know

Episode Date: January 17, 2024

In May 2010, sex worker Shannan Gilbert called 911 in a panic from a home in Long Island and ran away. Police found her remains 17 months later in a marsh nearby. The search for Gilbert led to the grim discovery of the bodies of four women on Gilgo Beach and the search for a serial killer began. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy talks with John Ray, the attorney for Shannan Gilbert’s family, about her case and the Long Island serial killer in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show that delves into the biggest stories in crime.HOST:Angenette Levy: twitter.com/Angenette5CRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoAudio Editing - Brad MaybeGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@LawandCrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. State police? Yeah, there's somebody after me. I'm sorry? There's somebody after me. That was Shannon Gilbert calling 911 on Long Island in May 2010. She would be found 17 months later in a marshy area nearby.

Her family has fought for years for answers about what happened to her. Those calls only growing louder since the arrest of Rex Huerman, the man accused of murdering three women and dumping their bodies on Long Island's Gilgo Beach. The attorney for Gilbert's family is here with the latest on the search for answers in Shannon Gilbert's death. I'm Anjanette Levy and this is a special edition of Crime Fix where we're looking at the case of Shannon Gilbert, a sex worker who died on Long Island in 2010. The search for Shannon Gilbert led to the discovery, the gruesome discovery, of four women's bodies on Gilgo Beach in 2010. Those four women, Maureen Brainerd Barnes, Amber Costello, Megan Waterman, and Melissa Barthelomey, became known as the Gilgo Four. Their bodies wrapped in camouflage burlap and dumped on a stretch of Ocean Parkway. All of the women had been bound with tape

or belts. All four were escorts who'd gone missing in 2009 and 2010. After finding the bodies, police knew there was a serial killer on the loose. Shannon's case, though, was tough. It was a bit different. She was an escort like the other women, but she wasn't found in the same way. Suffolk County police described that evening in a video posted in May of 2022. Shannon Gilbert, a Craigslist sex worker and resident of Jersey City, New Jersey, traveled from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home at 8th and Fairway, Oak Beach, New York. Shannon was driven to Oak Beach from Manhattan by her driver,

Michael Peck. Neither one was familiar with the area. Neither one had been there before. Shannon Gilbert called 911 from Joseph Brewer's home after being there for a little while. There's somebody after me. Okay, where are you? There's somebody after me. Where are you, ma'am? I don't know. You're driving right now? No, I'm inside a house. I'm sorry? I'm inside a house. What house? I don't know. Can you trace where I am? I'm sorry? Can you trace where I am?

No, I can't. At one point, you can hear Joseph Brewer and Shannon Gilbert's driver, Michael Pack, trying to talk to her on the 911 call. Somebody's after me. Please. Are you in Suffolk County or Nassau County? I'm in Long Island. Where on Long Island are you? No.

No. No. No. No, stop, no. It's a little hard to understand some of what's being said, but what is clear is that the client, Joseph Brewer, wants Shannon Gilbert to leave his home, and her driver, Michael Pack, is trying to get her to do just that as the 911 call taker tries to figure out Shannon's location. What's the matter? Are you okay? What is it, Bill? What are you going to do to me?

Why? Huh? Well, I don't know, but it was time for me. Why? Are you going to kill me? Why? I think it's time to kill me. Why kill me?

Tell me. Why are you going to kill me? Shannon Gilbert ran from Joseph Brewer's house to another house owned by a man named Gus Coletti. Shannon arrived at Gus Coletti's house and he tried to Hello? Hello? Shannon then ran away, and Gus Colletti called 911. Yes, I live at Oak Beach in the association. There's a young girl about 14 years old running around here screaming. 911. Then a woman named Barbara Brennan called 911 after Shannon Gilbert after that remains a mystery. Suffolk County police believe she ran into a marshy area next to the Oak Beach Association neighborhood. Her remains were found there 17 months later, along with her personal belongings. Police said that they believe she drowned. A video posted by police shows us what that marshy area is like. This is drone footage and footage shot from the ground showing the marshland. It was taken at the same time of year and time of day as when Shannon went missing. These reeds can grow over 12 feet tall.

They can disorient someone inside them, causing them to lose a sense of direction. One cannot tell where the highway is or where the bay is. Suffolk County Police believe that Shannon ran along that trench created to control mosquitoes. Her personal belongings were found north of the trench and her remains found near Ocean Parkway. The head of detectives said the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit does not believe Shannon was murdered. BAU's opinion, based on their review of Shannon's case,

the scene, the 911 calls, and a psychiatrist's review, is that Shannon Gilbert's death is not consistent with Shannon being the victim of violence or of a violent offender. Significant differences between Shannon's death and the circumstances surrounding the other victim's deaths were also highlighted by BAU. The Suffolk County Police Department is open to evaluate any evidence to be able to help us and all involved determine a definite cause of death. Suffolk County police have said that they believe Shannon Gilbert's death was an unfortunate accident, but the detectives have said they're open to seeing evidence and information that helps determine exactly how she died. But the attorney representing the Gilbert family,

John Ray, isn't buying the accident explanation. Problem with the whole theory is very simple. It's absurd. It's not even close. And it's absurd for at least the reason that if you listen carefully to the detective, they have not a scintilla of evidence that she died of a tragic accident. Right now, Shannon Gilbert's death is listed as undetermined. A private autopsy performed by Dr. Michael Bodden, hired by the family of Shannon Gilbert, said that she died as the result of being strangled. We saw that the little hyoid bone, the bone in the neck, that if a woman is strangled, it's fractured.

It was fractured. It was fractured. And Biden declared that her killing was consistent, her death was consistent with homicide. At times, Shannon Gilbert sounds like she might be unaware of her surroundings. Had she possibly used drugs that night, causing her to become disoriented? They have no evidence of a drug use by her whatsoever. Brewer denies that there was any drugs. Pack denies that there were any drugs that she used that night. And when you listen to her, sometimes you hear that kind of dreamy like voice. That's how she spoke in life. And, you know, maybe she was using something, but nothing hallucinatory, nothing irrational. Her behavior was perfectly rational. There's another strange twist in all of this. A man who lived in that neighborhood where Shannon went missing, Dr. Peter Hackett, called Shannon Gilbert's mother shortly after she went missing and claimed he had treated her and that he ran a wayward home for girls. That created a strange twist for police to deal with. Hackett has actually been discredited as somebody who inserts himself into situations possibly looking for attention.

Shannon Gilbert's family felt that Suffolk County Police didn't take the search for her seriously enough at first, costing precious time. Suffolk County Police officials have not indicated that they believe that Rex Horman is a suspect in Shannon Gilbert's death. But Nikki Brass, a former sex worker who claimed she went on a date with Rex Horman, said that she and Horman discussed Shannon Gilbert on their one and only meeting. So they speculated and both of them agreed that shannon gilbert had been murdered and then he went on to say uh she was probably killed via a killing party was the phrase where people uh at the party left and then a group stayed and selected shannon and murdered her that was his opinion now if that opinion came from you or from me,

it's just an opinion. If it comes from him, it could be more than an opinion. It could also just be one. Earlier in the fall, John Ray appeared at a press conference with former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison. They revealed information that they had received about a possible connection between Shannon Gilbert and Rex Hureman from a banker who was moonlighting as a taxi driver in the fall of 2009. She's called to go to that place and that there's a girl awaiting her who's locked in a bathroom and will come out if she flashes her lights and beeps the horn. And she goes there and does that several times it doesn't work. But then suddenly a giant man who fits the description of Rex

Uriman comes out and he's covering his face with his arms so he can't be seen and he runs to a van or an SUV right nearby that's parked right there. She continues to flash her lights and beep her horn and out comes a girl crying, shaking, very upset and gets in her car. This girl turns out to be Shannon Gilbert. Joining me to discuss the very latest in the case is somebody who's been involved in it for many, many years. He's John Ray. He represents the family of Shannon Gilbert and other families who are believed to be victims of the Long Island serial killer. So, John, thanks for coming on. We appreciate it. What is the very latest that you can tell us? I know that we last kind of saw you when you were discussing how there

had potentially been this interaction between Shannon Gilbert and Rex Yorman many, many, many years ago. Well, yes, that's all true. There's been other developments by way of new evidence that's come to me since I last presented evidence with the commissioner of Suffolk County Police Department, Rodney Harrison. So I have new information. I can only imagine that the police do as well. So the grand jury still remains sitting on the case regarding Urim. It could, for all we know, the grand jury has the ability to explore anything and could be looking at other people and other things as well. In the case, we don't know. That's all secret.

So what I have is secret if I make it so or not. And everything I get, eventually I share it with the proper authorities, including the police, with the permission of the people who come forward to me and give me information. If they don't give me permission, I don't reveal it. If they don't want their names revealed, I won't. What do you have, John? Do you have anything that you can reveal? Well, yeah, in a very broad sense, I can. Several people, numerous people, I should say, have come forward to speak with me about what they know in the entire case since October 18th when I went public with two of the witnesses, along with Rodney Harrison.

Since then, I guess that show and that press conference triggered a lot more interest on the part of people who were hanging in the background, maybe didn't want to remember what was, you know, bad for them and so on. But a variety of people have contacted me since then from all different walks of life and geographic places who had an involvement with Rex Huriman or with some of the people associated with him. And some of them may even affect the case of Shannon Gilbert right now. John Ray says two of the witnesses have signed affidavits and the information they've provided has been turned over to the Suffolk County Police and the Gogo Beach Task Force. People continue to

reach out to him to provide information, which he turns over to law enforcement if the witnesses authorize him to do so. Whether there's any connection between Shannon Gilbert's death and Rex Horman, that remains to be seen. Ray is skeptical, though, of Horman's wife, Asa Ellerup. Police have said in court documents that Ellerup was out of town when the three women, Melissa Barthelome, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman, were killed. However, Ellerup's DNA, specifically her hair, was found on the victims. Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after Hureman's arrest, her attorney telling Me she did so to protect herself financially. Now she and her children

are working with Peacock exclusively on a documentary about the case, and they're reportedly receiving a million dollars to do so. That's triggered a lot of interest in and boomerang. And while she initially had all the sympathy of the, you know, open minded, so to speak, Americans who said, well, you know, the poor woman, she she's probably a victim, too. And I said that wasn't true i always said that and i still maintain that um now when she's managed to behave in the way she has uh after pretending to divorce her husband showing up at court and smiling back and forth at each other and then getting all this money uh using this as a money grab. The woman, as I said before,

is a ghoul feeding on the dead. That's changed the opinion roundly of her in America and what she's doing. Perhaps that change will affect the investigation. I hope it does because I think she has real problems. The grand jury investigation into the murders on Gilgo Beach is ongoing and it's secret. There's been no word on whether there have been any new developments in Shannon Gilbert's case or whether Suffolk County police have changed their minds in thinking that Shannon's death was an accident. John Ray represents several of the victim's families and he'd like to see some further investigation to see whether Huerman is connected to Shannon or anyone else.

We don't know when those girls were killed. We know when they disappeared. So were they kept somewhere for a while before they were killed? This is a man who's a stalker, a psycho stalker, and a devoted stalker. Is this the kind of guy that would necessarily kill his prey right away or hold them, tease them, torture them? As we know, they were tortured. So when were they killed? Was she still on vacation? When were they moved to where they ended up? How long did the bodies remain there? We don't know. Nobody knows. The DA can't know that unless somebody told him so. It's important to note that Suffolk County Police have never, ever called Asa Ellerup a suspect,

and Rex Shorman has denied involvement in the murders through his lawyer. Anyone with information about Shannon Gilbert's death can call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS. That's it for this special edition of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for joining us. We will see you back here tomorrow night. Until then, have a great night. You can download Crime Fix on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your favorite Until then, have a great night. of social media is Vanessa Bynes. Savannah Williamson is one of our producers. Diane Kay and Alyssa Fisher book our guests. And Brad Mabey is our audio editor.