Crime Weekly - S3 Ep145: Rex Heuermann Admits He Is The Gilgo Beach Serial Killer

Episode Date: April 15, 2026

Rex Heuermann, a New York-based architect, pleaded guilty to seven murders spanning nearly two decades, admitting to strangling all eight victims and dumping their remains across Long Island. He faces multiple life sentences, with sentencing scheduled for June 17, 2026.  Try our coffee! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPodADS:1. https://www.WildGrain.com/CrimeWeekly30 - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY30 for $30 off your first box and FREE croissants for LIFE!

Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasse. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And as you can see from the title, Rex Heurman has pleaded guilty to killing seven women between 1993 and 2011. He also admitted to killing an eighth victim in a series of murders that came to be known as the Gilgo Beach serial killings. This is something that everyone has been covering for a long time now. And I think most people had already came to the conclusion that he was responsible for it. This was something that I did a special on ID with Nancy Grace and it was something she was fascinated by not because of the killings. The killings are obviously tragic, but it was the manner in which he was caught. And we're going to talk a lot about what this means going forward. Could there be more victims and all that? And Stephanie's going to weigh in on that. But I do think there's something here with Rex's case specifically that is a testament to not losing hope and not assuming that the original investigation was done right.

because as we've come to learn, it wasn't really some new breaking technology or science that helped solve this case. Yes, it was an assistance with DNA. That's ultimately what connected him once he was identified. But it was more so just one detective going through the initial statements, going through the initial police reports, and finding something that had been missed,

something that they've had all along. And it's good and bad, like it's a good story that they got them. But it does make me wonder if they had found this sooner, would we have all these victims? And that's the troubling part of all of this. Yeah. Wasn't it his pizza crusts, if I remember properly? Yeah. Well, that was after.

And we can go through all of it. But basically, what was happening is one of the victims was a former sex worker. And what she would do is she would get in contact with these Johns. And she would solicit them, get them to come over to a debt, you know, a location, most of the time it was her house. So the John would show up and then as soon as the John would give her the money, that's when her co-conspirators, usually men, would come out with guns or whatever and pretend to be her husband.

And then all of a sudden the John would, you know, pull up their pants, run out of the house, not get their money back. And most of the time they were never heard from again. So with Rex Heurman, same thing kind of happens, right? he goes into the house, he gives her the money, and the co-conspirator has come out, they chase him off, and then she goes missing like a day or two later.

And one of the witness statements that came out was that this guy who had showed up, who was a John, looked like an ogre, was huge. This big, massive guy who showed up looking, quote, like an ogre. Pretty accurate, knowing Rex, you are men. And you can see from the photo here, they're not wrong. He does. He looks like a human version of Shrek.

but the real X factor in all of this wasn't only his appearance because that's important. It was the description of his vehicle. He was driving a black Chevy Avalanche. And if you're not familiar with the Chevy Avalanche, they no longer make it. But essentially it's a pickup truck, but it had like these weird pillars, angular pillars on the back of the truck. I know exactly. It kind of like the ankle down from the bed to the cab, right? Correct.

From like the back window to the cab. And the reason for that is the avalanche had this really cool feature where you could remove that glass. You could store it away. You could fold down the back of the truck essentially and make the truck bed extend into the cab of the vehicle. I know most of this because I had a Chevy Avalanche. It was one of my favorite trucks. And so there's not a lot of these trucks out there. They're expensive.

They were expensive at the time. And they really do stand out. So the combination of these witnesses saying, yeah, this guy had this very distinctions. distinguishable truck, coupled with what he looked like, they were able to go back into the DMV registry, find all of the vehicles that fit this description, and then compare that to the owners of the vehicle and see if there was any descriptions that matched with this whole robbery that took place. Because essentially it was a crime, right? What they're doing, it's not necessarily a John's thing.

They were robbing these Johns, right? So, you know, two wrongs don't make a right. But through that, they were able to identify the truck, identify Rex Heurman, and then to your point, once they had him, they had DNA in some of these cases. So what they did was they got a piece of pizza crust outside of his office. He was an architect. And that's how they were able to compare his DNA to DNA found at the crime scenes. And that's where they made the link. And it's funny because I think a woman who worked for Rex for a long time, she said that he had a habit of doing this.

not eating the crust of his pizza. And she said for years she'd tell him, why aren't you eating the crust? It's the best part. And he was like, I don't like the crust. And so he would never eat the crust. And it was that crust that they had pulled from his garbage. That kind of was the smoking gun they needed.

And it made me think because I don't eat the crust of my pizza either. I don't find it to be the best part. Well, let me just say not all crust is created equal. That is so true. Thank you. Some crust is like garlic bread. Some crust is like buttery and soft. Do you like stuffed crust pizza?

I love stuffed crust. Okay, so you do eat crust. Yeah, if there was stuffed crust pizza, then I wouldn't be getting caught for anything. That's a garlic cheese bread right there. It's delicious. But yeah, but overall, science and technology now definitely helped the advancements they have. But all it really was was a team of detectives, state detectives, I believe, NYPD, I want to say, or it might have been New York State Police coming together and looking at this report that essentially existed right after the disappearance of this woman. And that's how they're able to say, hmm, maybe we should look into this guy.

He might have an axe to grind, right? But this is something they had all along. But it's like, was it even an axe to grind or was he just a serial killer? Oh, no. I think it was a combination where he was going to kill her regardless. But once she burned him like that, oh, he was coming back. Yeah. He was coming back.

This wasn't his first or last victim. No, there's so many stories. And we may find there's more. We may find down the road that there are many more victims that were unaware of. There were some murders out of Atlantic City that looked like they could be similar with the MO in this one. Maybe now that he's admitted to this, maybe he'll be cooperative, not because he wants to help the victims or their families, but due to his own ego, right? Wanting to build up that notoriety, if you will. Maybe that's why he'll tell us every other case he's potentially involved in.

Well, I saw some people were saying maybe he's copped to these eight murders because he wants people to stop looking into other murders he's committed. He doesn't want them to kind of keep unraveling and digging. So he's like, okay, let me, you know, give you what you want here and plead guilty to these and then even throw in an extra one that maybe, you know, wasn't even on my docket. And then you'll kind of think I'm being cooperative. And I'm like telling you a name that you didn't previously know about or, that you didn't previously have evidence against me for.

And so you'll think that's all there is, so you'll stop looking. And according to the news reports, Rex Hewerman is apparently going to be cooperating with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit to better understand criminal behavior. So that kind of sounds more like he's on a mind hunter kind of thing now, where it's like, hey, let's talk about how criminals, you know, how they work and how they move. And I'll give you those things, not necessarily like, I will leave. you to more of my victims. I think he wants people to stop looking. I think that Rex Heuerman's reputation was always very important to him, you know, this very successful businessman,

this doting father, good husband. There were people who knew him who were like, wow, like, we didn't know he was some sexual predator. If you'd asked me, I wouldn't even told you that he had a penis because he seemed that like not focused on these things. So I think his reputation is still very important to him where I don't think he wants to. us to know the extent of his crimes and how far they go. You might not be wrong. I want to talk about the victims and also the eighth victim that he wasn't originally charged with, but admitted to because she's been on the radar all along.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. This episode of Crime Weekly News is brought to you by Wildcrain. And this is one of those things that makes life easier and better at the same time. Yeah, it's sad because people who don't have a lot of time for that whole baking process or don't have the knowledge necessarily to make these baked goods, they miss out on that fresh-baked goodness. But wild grain gives that to all of us with minimal effort and maximum payoff. Exactly. Wild grain is the first baked from frozen subscription box for sourdough breads,

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wildgrain.com slash crime weekly 30 or you can use promo code crime weekly 30 at checkout. All right. So we're back. And before we continue, I just want to mention the victims here because ultimately that's what this is about. Melissa Barthelamy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello. That's the original murders that Rex was charged with. He was later charged with the murders of Marine Braithelma. Bernard Barnes, Sandra Castilla, and Jessica Taylor, along with Valerie Mack.

Now, those were the seven that he was originally charged with. Karen Vergata was also someone who has been linked to these women as well. She was found in the same area, kind of all, kind of the same MO. They weren't able to link it originally, but then now he's admitting to it. So they didn't have enough at that point to charge, although it was going to come down the pipeline anyways, but he basically beat him to the punch. He knew what was coming. And that was probably part of it where it's like, hey, we want you to admit to all eight.

Even though we've only charged you with the first seven for the sake of her family and people that cared about her, they need to know what happened. They need to know who is responsible. You need you to admit to that one as well. Yeah. And here's my question. They say his sentencing is scheduled for this coming June. With the news that apparently Rex Heurman is going to be working with the FBI behavioral analysis unit, does it sound like they are concerned? considering a potential death sentence?

He admitted to these eight. He's going to be cooperating with the FBI. Like you said, I would imagine there's got to be something in it for him and maybe the death penalties off the table. It looks like because this happened in New York, it really never realistically was even on the table, right? Because New York doesn't have an active death penalty. That's true.

That's true. Since 2004. I guess, like, the way I kind of look at it is this should maybe go to a federal. level where it's like you have a guy who has committed multiple murders and who is now confessed to multiple murders who is a serial killer you know it's not an isolated incident this is like a monster so i kind of feel like in personally for me for those kinds of situations there should be exemptions to any state not having a death penalty law because you shouldn't feel like as a serial killer psychopath monster well if i live in new york it's it's okay if i'm a serial killer because

I won't get the death penalty. So what? Now all the serial killers just avoid states with the death penalty. They don't, they don't like enact their serial killing crimes there. So while I understand why New York doesn't have a death penalty, and in some ways I agree with it on a case-by-case basis, for somebody like Rex Heerman, should there be an exception to the rule? Is that even possible? Can it be something that we actively lobby for at this point? Because it's going to be tough because I was just looking this up because I didn't have the answer to it. Since 1976, based on federal charges, the federal government has only executed 16 people. But I feel like the Long Island serial killers should be kind of maybe considered for that.

I think they'd try not to step on state jurisdictions, especially if it's what? They just want to keep him in prison so they can use him because the federal government clearly has no problem using his quote unquote expertise as if this guy's even going to be honest. You know, he could be giving them completely false information and leading the FBI's behavioral analysis of future crimes in a completely wrong direction. No, you're not wrong. I mean, I think at this point, I don't know. I don't know how the families would feel about it because regardless of whether they kill him or not, if they did execute him, it's not going to be nearly equivalent to what those victims experienced because he tortured him. I mean, without going into all the specifics here, you guys can go look up the murder book. He had a whole, like, he was very organized, very intelligent guy.

As I was saying earlier, he's an architect, but he had like an actual computer like database. Like he said he systematically and in detail planned each of these murders. Like this is a psychopath. Where to keep them, how to store them certain ways and all these different things. And sometimes you can come back and say, oh, at least they went quick or this was painless. That was not the case here. Yeah.

But I mean, so, yeah, executing him, is it going to be an equivalent of what these families lost, no, but having him sit in prison and, you know, sitting down with John Douglas every other week and having his own season of Mind Hunter maybe isn't also the most terrible of punishments, you know, because now he gets to sit there and talk about his crimes and like, revel. Well, I mean, he shouldn't be allowed to talk about them publicly. It should be all behind closed doors with no notoriety. It is, but still, you get to have company and you get to talk about the thing you want to talk

about and love talking about the most. That's a fair thing. I mean, that's what he wants to sit there and brag about. He hasn't been able to brag about what he did for so long. And so now it's like, okay, we're going to use him, which you don't even know if he's being honest. Well, let me just be devil's advocate, okay? I agree with everything you just said, actually. But on the other hand, there are other Rex Hurrimands out there.

And as we have seen over the years, although we try, the FBI, local state police, not the best, right? This guy went undetected for many years and killed multiple people because, he went on detective. Because of who his victims were, let's be honest. Well, that didn't help the case, right? Having victims who were not necessarily being looked for by their relatives and their friends because of maybe the line of work they were in. And who maybe law enforcement didn't necessarily care about solving their disappearances

because of what line of work they were in? Also very true. No pushback there. So if we as a law enforcement entity have someone who is clearly some of the worst that we've ever had, right? If we can learn from him and apply that to us. other cases or cases that come up in the future, I guess the question would be, is it worth it? I think that what this is doing, having this part of his deal being, hey, you've got to work with

the FBI. Okay. It's almost like acknowledging to him and speaking to the part of him that is most active, which is his ego. You are the best of the best. Okay. We want you to confess so that the FBI can learn from you because you were so good at a serial killer is what it sounds like to me. And you know he loves that. You know he loves that.

This is kind of the prestige where he's like, hey, all right, everyone found out I'm a serial killer, but at least I'm like one of the best, you know? And I think that that's giving him something that he shouldn't have. It's giving him validation that he shouldn't have. I mean, even when he's pleading guilty, everyone in the courtroom said there's not a scrap of, you know, sadness or like regret on this man's face. He does not care. So, I think that when it's a person like that who's really reveling in what they've done and you're telling them like, yeah, you're so detailed, you're so good at this. We need your help. The FBI needs your help, sir. The government needs you. The only thing that someone like Rex Humor will respond to

is fear. The only thing that's going to actually put him in a state where he's feeling a scrap of what he made his victims feel is fear and telling him, hey, you know, thanks for pleading guilty, blah, blah, there's an exemption to this New York state law and you're actually going to be up for the death penalty based on you know you being a monster psychopath sorry that would be I think a form of punishment to him whereas him just sitting in prison and getting to talk to FBI people and go over all his crimes and talk about things and having people coming to him almost like for his expertise like he's a consultant it's just going to boost his ego and I don't like it personally and I and like once we're Cool, we learned from him? Maybe, but is he even going to be honest? His practices, who he learned from, maybe over time you can get him to admit to other killings that he may have been involved in. You said he's smart. He could just make shit up.

I mean, he definitely could. There's no doubt they have to have their bullshit meter up. And just from what I'm gathering here and I'm reading this article right now, it looks like Heurman is expected to be sentenced to three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for killing Melissa Barthelomey. Megan Waterman and Amber Castello. Heurman is also expected to be sentenced to consecutive sentences of 100 years to life imprisonment for the killing of Maureen Bairns, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Castilla, and Valerie Mack. This is something where we haven't even added Karen Vergata in there as well. So he ain't getting out. He ain't getting out.

And I think that is a question where I'm wondering what the general consensus is from you guys as you start to hear all of this. where do we go? And there's no wrong way to do this. Is this something where you take him out right away? He's admitted to it. He has no place being on this planet. You kill him and you never have to talk about him again. Or do we want as much as it may cause your stomach to turn, give him a little bit of what he wants. And in return, he gives us what law enforcement may need to help prevent this from happening in the future or to maybe track someone down who's currently committing crimes like this. I don't know the answer. Or is there a third option where it's like, yeah, man, life imprisonment, you're good. Just tell us everything. And then once he does, you kill him anyway. I mean, I don't. Not the most ethical thing, but it's options.

So here's my stance. We have developed as a society and law enforcement so far with forensics and DNA and electronic tracking that there's really not going to be a huge instance of serial killers popping up anymore. God willing. Yeah, I hope not. I mean, it's just the age of the serial killer is over. Famous last words. Undoubtedly, right?

So, and now I will give you another little facet to think about. The FBI behavioral analysis, people have talked to multiple serial killers. Okay, they've done this with multiple serial killers. Has it prevented anything? We don't know. No. We don't know. We don't know that for sure.

We don't know what knowledge and experience they've gained from speaking to these people and how they operate and how that's applicable to future cases. We don't know. With serial killers, it's sort of about identifying the kind of person who would do it. And you can't just go out there and be like, well, Rex Heerman says that this kind of person could be a serial killer and this is like the MO. So let's just keep an eye on every single person who fits that profile. No, you still have to wait until somebody dies. And then you still have to wait until somebody else dies and then connect those two things to even figure out if that's what you're dealing with to begin with. And then by then you're going to have the forensics and the electronic paper trail and all that stuff that's going to, nobody can get around.

that now, right? Those definitely are bigger battles to entry, for sure. There's bigger things that I think we need to be worried about right now than keeping a serial killer alive so that we can learn from him when really that's not even our main concern, I think, in law enforcement at this point. So that's just where I stand. I say electric chair, but I, as I've said to you guys all the time, whether it's, whether it's here on a case recovering, like we're talking about tragedy. And in some of these cases, many of them, we don't have answers. They're unsolved. So there's two takeaways for me. Number one, this case perfectly exemplifies the fact that we have to separate hubris from intent. And when egos get involved with these cases and detectives feel like, hey, if I can't solve it,

nobody can. That's how they get buried into the back evidence closet and they go unsolved, just permanently. This case proves that allowing a second set of eyes and ears to look at the case from an objective perspective, even though you think everything has been done up to that point, there's a real opportunity to solve the case based on what you already have. That's number one. So when we have cases come forward where they've been stagnant for a while, law enforcement agencies, don't be afraid to allow independent parties, whether it's other police departments, federal authorities, or private investigators to come in and take a second look or a third look

at what you have. You may be surprised at what they find. This is not the first time. This has happened. It won't be the last. As far as how we go with Rex, well, from a judicial perspective, they're not going to kill him. So we have the option of letting him sit in prison and rot, which is a strong option, or trying to learn the methods and practices and processes that he used to avoid apprehension for so long.

We may have the majority of it, but maybe there are some minimal things that we didn't think about or that we haven't discovered yet where he utilized those. practices to avoid being detected by law enforcement. If we even get one kernel of information that can be utilized to catch the next guy, then I think it's worth it. Stephanie, you and I on a more surface level, because it's not the same level as an investigator, but we are kind of doing the same thing each and every week. We're covering these tragedies. There's not a ton that we can do. We can raise awareness for them. We can try to raise money through criminal coffee. But ultimately, what we're doing is using this as a learning tool. Learning about these tragedies.

seeing what happened not only from a civilian perspective, but just how law enforcement treated the case and trying to do better and applying it to future cases that we cover. The same thing could be said for these detectives where there's nothing they can do to change what happened. This guy is going to live in prison for the rest of his life, unfortunately. So maybe without giving him any exposure, there's at least one or two things we can take from what he did and add it to our toolbox for the next case. I know that's a hard pill to swallow, but I think there's something.

there. And I honestly think in hindsight, if you were investigating this as much as it would turn your stomach, if I told you it could help prevent the next one or identify the next one, I think you would do it. You'd have to prove that it could because there's no way to know. I mean, of course, I want to know what Rex Ehrman has to say. That's my weird interest in true crime. And I'm interested in that. But does it benefit anybody? I don't know. We won't know. We have tons and tons of serial killers we've talked about over the course of doing crime weekly, tons and tons of serial killers. We know have talked to police, Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer.

All of these people have talked to the police, Ed Gein, they've all done it. We've all gone through it. So it's like, are they really any all that different, you know, or is it coming from the same place, the same motivations? Why do we have to give Rex Heerman what he wants, which is the ability to just talk about, like his way of having his trophies still in jail? But even think about these profilers, Stephanie, right? these profilers that are sitting down with them, those are the people that when a serial killer case happens, right? Before we've apprehended the person,

we ask them to develop a profile on who we should be looking for. Well, where does that profile come from? It comes from education. It comes from experience. It comes from sitting down with these monsters and learning what makes them tick. That makes them better profilers. So I agree with you in every sense of the word.

Like, if I hear even a whisper that Rex Eurman is going to be giving like a jail cell, phone call to a podcast or a news network, you're just as big of a scumbag for giving him a platform. If that's even possible, I don't think it would be. But if it's behind closed doors with four white walls with just a profiler and a couple investigators who are using this as a tool in the toolbox, I'll allow it. Even though deep down we know, like you've said and you're right, he's getting some gratification out of the idea that he's being able to talk about what he did for the first time. I'm with you. And that he's considered somebody who's worth talking to about it. Yeah, you're not

wrong. I can't push back on it. You're not wrong. Let us know what you think, guys. This is a really fascinating conversation because there's no right answer. It's a trade-off. It's a double-edged sword. So what would you do? Separate yourself not only as a true crime consumer, but as a potential investigator. What would you do in this case? Do you lock him into a cell? Let him sit there and rot and look at the wall and talk to himself? Do you try to utilize what information he may have to help. Think about it as if one of his victims was somebody close to you. Well, that's another perspective. Think about it that way because I think we need to be thinking about it that way. If you're a victim's family member, do you want him talking to law enforcement? Wayne in the

comments, let us know. If you're on YouTube way down below, by the way, the hype thing that you guys did on the last episode, we were just talking about it before we started recording. It's actually a big factor for the smaller channels. And relatively speaking, we are a smaller channel compared to some of the channels out there. It actually allowed a lot more people to see our episode. So if you're on YouTube. We appreciate you doing that. If you're on audio and you haven't already, please leave a comment. Please leave a review. We would greatly appreciate it. We will be back later this week with Tomla Horstford Part 3. This is the third and final part, right? It is. It's been a fascinating series so far. Can't wait to get to the third part. Until then,

everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon. Bye.