Criminology - The Arrest of Rex Heuermann

Episode Date: July 23, 2023

On Friday, July 14th, 2023, 59-year-old Rex Andrew Heuermann was arrested for several unsolved murders. Heuermann has so far been charged with three murders. But, these murders are part of a cold case or a set of cold cases commonly referred to as the Gilgo Beach murders, the Long Island Serial Killer, or LISK for short. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss this breaking news on what has been a highly discussed topic in the true crime community for many years. The evidence against Rex Heuermann for the three murders appears on the surface to be very solid. But there are a lot of questions to answer, even after his guilt or innocence is decided. How many more murders could Rex Heuermann be responsible for, and is he alone the perpetrator of these cold cases? If he is only responsible for what he has been charged with, how many other serial killers were operating in that area during that timeframe? You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When a wealthy woman is found brutally murdered, there's only one suspect, her handsome young lover. An open and shut case, right? Not so fast. The Shaw Festival presents Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution, a courtroom drama full of plot twists only Agatha Christie could weave. Don't miss, witness for the prosecution. For best seats at best prices, go to Shawfest.com. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 266 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Mike Morford. How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing great. How are you doing? No, I'm doing very well.

I'm really excited to get into this case that we have for everyone today. It's a big one. Yeah, it's one we've been putting. off for a while because we're sort of waiting for the next shoe to drop and then that shoe definitely drop. So it's, it's something that we're going to have to tackle. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We only had one, but it was Judith. And we really appreciate that support. Yeah, thank you so much, Judith. And thank you to everyone else that supports criminology. You can support the show also by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right.

We're jam packed. So let's jump right into this episode because we are talking about. about such a big case. At the time that we're recording this, it has been a really big week. In the world of true crime, a lot of headlines, there was the strange disappearance of Carly Russell, whose case in Alabama generated a lot of media attention before she suddenly turned back up in the trial of Michael Turney, who many people believe murdered his stepdaughter Alyssa in 2001. We saw a shocking acquittal due to lack of evidence cited by the judge. and he had all of his charges dropped. And in the I-70 serial killer case,

police shared a new possible clue with the public on a people investigate special that the killer may have been driving a cantalac convertible with Florida tags and may have had a female accomplice. But all of that news seems to be overshadowed by the arrest of a suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders, which is sometimes referred to as the Long Island serial killer or LISC case. The developments and updates in this case are coming in and changing by the day. So by the time listeners hear this, there may be even more things that come out regarding this case, or the suspect, 59-year-old Rex Heerman, but in this episode we're going to try and bring listeners everything which we know up to the minute.

This was a cold case, a set of cold cases really, for many years. And suddenly last weekend, there was a suspect. The suspect's name, a face, an arrest, and a plea. People have been waiting for this day for over a decade, but at the same time, many were shocked at the news. And as we'll discuss, the suspect is someone who is not on police radar until recently. On Friday, July 14, 2003, 59-year-old Rex Andrew Heerman was arrested as he left his midtown Manhattan office and headed to his Massapequa Park home. the heavy six foot four six foot six man was quickly surrounded by men in black suits and i gave a couple of different heights there because the reporting has been all over the place but when you

look at this guy he is a very big guy i wouldn't doubt if he's six six and he is heavy he saw a few of these men coming toward him and trying to move out of their way probably assuming that they were just men who worked together. It's not rare to see men in suits in Midtown Manhattan. In fact, no one around him seemed to notice anything unusual about this swarm of men in suits. In the bustling city, it almost just looked like a group of people waiting to cross the street. But it was a task force of detectives apprehending a suspect that they believed to be one of the most infamous serial killers of recent times. Harriman wearing khaki pants, a button-up shirt, and carrying a back, was taken into custody outside of his architecture firm without incident. His head sticking up from the crowd of officers due to his size.

It was all recorded. The alleged killer believed to be responsible for taking the lives of the Gilgo Beach Four, Marine Brainer Barnes, Melissa Bartholomey, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello had been whisked off the streets. Heron is currently only charged with the murders of Melissa, Megan, and Amber, but investigators are working hard to link him, their main suspect, to Marines' case with irrefutable evidence. There's still a question of whether he is the Long Island serial killer, responsible for the murders of even more victims found in the same general area, or whether there's a second killer out there that's still waiting to be caught.

Though the bodies of murdered women, all thought to be sex workers, had been being dumped in the area for years, the sequence of events that led to identifying Rex Heronan really began on May 1, 2010, when 23-year-old Shannon Gilbert called 911 from a home in a gated community in Oak Beach after meeting with a client she had connected with on Craigslist. The segment we're going to play for you is almost six minutes long, and the sound quality is not the best, and it may be loud at times. But we think it'll give listeners an idea. of just how intense and chaotic the situation was, and just how frightened Shannon was when she made this call. Stay police, strip of sorry.

State police. Yeah, there's somebody asked me. I'm sorry? There's somebody after me. Where are you? There's somebody asking me. Okay, where are you? There's somebody asking me.

Where are you, ma'am? I don't know. You're driving right now? No, I'm inside the house. I'm sorry? I'm inside the house. What house? I don't know.

Can you trace where I am? I'm sorry? He's where I am. No, I can't. What's your callback number you're calling from? Huh? What phone number are you calling from? What is the outside of me?

Please. Are you in Suffolk County or Nassau County? Um, on Long Island. Where on Long Island are you? No. Where in Long Island? Do you in Suffolk County, NASA County? Huh?

Uh-huh. Why? You call me by my name? Why? County, you on the line? Stop. Stop, please. You can stop it, please.

Please stop. Please, you should have to go? No, time to go. Please. You're okay. Please. Please. Please.

Please. Please. Go that way, please. I don't get it. Come on, let's go. Come on, right. Let's go. Come on, right.

Go on side. All right. Come on. Come on. No, please. Please, come on. Please. Come on.

Why? Just not here. Why? County, are you on the line? Why? Why? I want to show you. Please come on.

Why? Why are you guys doing this to me? What? What county you in, ma'am? Doing this. Why are you calling me by my name? Please. Please. Give me here.

No, please. No. No, stop it, please. Stop it, please, please, stop it. Please, stop it, no. Please stop it, no. No, please. Please.

You're not. Please stop her. Please. You're sorry. Get around. I'm going to say. What I'm going to say? You know what I'm going to say?

You know what I'm going to do. Okay. You leave. Please. Call you. You're going to go to me? We are you going to tell me? I think it's tough to town

I'm in a man. I told me. You're telling me. No. Why are you need? Okay. Why is stop a car? Okay.

Come on. Are you freaking metal? Come on. In the middle of nowhere? Let's go back to Manhattan. All right? We're out near the water. We're out near the water.

Come. Please, stop. No, stop, but please. Oh, okay. Fine, fine, fine. Okay, fine. All right. Please, take my time to let's.

You're on the water. To dive? I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything. 631. 5-1-1. Why?

Why? Why? Why? Hi, Shannon. What are you doing? In that audio that you just heard, Shannon seemed terrified about something or someone scared enough to run from her client, Joseph Brewer's home, and run away from her driver who had brought her to the home, someone she trusted to take her to jobs at night. She seemed to think that both her client and driver were trying to kill her. She sounded, intoxicated, she was slurring her words, not making a lot of sense as she spoke to the dispatcher.

She didn't seem to know exactly where she was. Part of the call includes her talking to at least two males in the background. During other portions of this call, which lasted several minutes in total, Shannon is running down the street, reportedly banging on doors of various homes. Almost 20 minutes after initially calling 911, still on the line with them but not responding to dispatchers, Shannon knocks on resident Gus Colletti's door. He lives at the very end of the road she's running down.

He asked Shannon if someone was after her, but she was so out of breath she didn't say much. Besides, I need help. She had started the 911 call with somebody's after me, so it was odd not to hear her immediately agree with Gus who was saying the exact same thing. She stopped responding to Gus and ran away from his home into the night. He yelled to her to try and get her to stop,

but lost sight of her. Gus then called 911, reporting what he described as a 14-year-old female being chased. He mentioned a man following her. This turned out to be her driver, Michael Pack. As Shannon Flett, she ran past the entrance to the development,

which would have been the easiest way to get out of the area. But instead managed to run to a third home and knock on the door, the woman there Barbara Brennan, also called 911, and reported the woman in danger. Barbara didn't let her in, she was worried about her elderly mother, who was in the home with her.

Shannon left Barbara Brennan's home. And after a total of 23 minutes on the phone with 911, Shannon's call disconnected. After that, she ran off into the darkness and disappeared. Police headed out to the scene to figure out what happened and to try to find Shannon. An initial search of the area for Shannon didn't find her. But thanks to Shannon's mother, Marie's persistence, Several more thorough searches of the area were done. One of those searches on December 11, 2010, led to a shocking discovery.

A Suffolk County Police Department canine officer named Blue alerted the human remains about three miles from Oak Beach. Authorities found the skeleton of a young woman, and they determined that the remains were not those of Shannon Gilbert. At the time, no identity could be determined, and she was called Jane Doe. It was clear that her death was a homicide, although no official cause of death was listed. Her body, including her legs, ankles, and feet,

had been bound by belt. A female hair that was not hers was found on the buckle of one of the belts. The remains of this Jane Doe would later be identified as 25-year-old Marine Brainerd Barnes. Maureen was last seen on July 9, 2007, at the Super 8 Motel in Midtown Manhattan. She was heading home to Connecticut. She had been robbed earlier that day. and decided not to stay in the city to meet a client she was supposed to meet. She called her sister Missy from Penn Station, but never made it home.

A few days later, her friend Sarah Carnes received a call from an unknown male, claiming that Maureen was in Queens. The man would give no further information and said he would call back, but he never did. Somehow, she ended up dead, hidden in the brush on Gilgo Beach. The search for Shannon Gilbert continued. And as it did, on December 13th, just three days after Marine Brainer Barnes' body was found, more bodies turned up. Three more bodies, all wrapped in camouflage burlap, and bound with clear tape at the head,

chest, and legs, were found within 500 feet of one another. Near where Marines' remains had been found. Each victim was between 22 to 33 feet from the road. Initially, they were called Jane Doe 2, 3, and 4. they would publicly be identified as Melissa Bartholomey, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello on January 25th, 2011. Four bodies had been found in the search for Shannon Gilbert, but she remained missing.

So we start with a very confusing, a very long 911 call from Shannon Gilbert. The police are out looking for her. They don't find her, but what they do find are the bodies of four women who have been murdered. And I think it had to be clear to police that these bodies are sort of clustered together. So it seems like it's a dumping ground for a serial killer. That's what comes to my mind. And I'm sure that's what police thought.

You look at people like Ted Bundy, other serial killers that dump bodies, they usually have a specific area, a specific spot. They feel comfortable dumping these bodies and to see these all clustered together like that. You know, probably alerted police that they've got to. serial killer operating here. So let's talk more about the victims that were found. 24-year-old Melissa Barthelome was last seen on July 12th, 2009, outside of her Underhill Avenue apartment. She was captured by security cameras, depositing $1,000 into her bank account and withdrawing 100 before leaving. Her boyfriend, John Terry, claimed she had a job

lined up for the 13th and Long Island that would have paid $1,000. It's unknown if she ever made it there because people who pay for sex work aren't exactly lining up to participate with investigations. After her disappearance, Melissa's sister Amanda received multiple calls from an unknown man using Melissa's cell phone. The calls came just days after Melissa went missing. One call came in on July 16th. one on the 19th, one on the 23rd, with the final call on August 26th.

In this last call, the man told Amanda he killed Melissa. Authorities were able to ping the phone when it accessed Melissa's voicemail, but were only able to trace it to the Massapequa Park area. 22-year-old Megan Waterman was last seen on June 6, 2010, leaving the Holiday Inn Express in Hot Pog, around 1.31 a.m. She was just going to convenience store nearby, but she never returned. She also never called her three-year-old daughter who was waiting for her at home and Scarba Remain. There was a female hair that was not hers found on her head, and a second hair on the tape that was secured on the area around her head.

27-year-old Amber Costello was last seen around 10.30 p.m. on September 2nd, 2010, leaving her apartment in North Babylon, on her way to meet a client who was parked down the street. She vanished. She didn't have her phone with her because she shared it with another female roommate to contact clients. And she already had her clients lined up for the night. A female hair was found inside the burlap that she was wrapped in. So I think we have to take a minute here more if we talked about four victims. And at least two of the victims families were contacted by an unknown male. And I always find that odd.

You know, is this the killer trying to mess with the family? Or, you know, get some kind of sick, perverse thrill out of calling them and and telling them what he had done or, you know, something along those lines. Or was this someone who was not involved in their death at all and just, messing with the family because it happens both ways. I don't quite understand either one, and I'm not sure what it is in this case. I think either way, you've got to be a pretty twisted person to call somebody's family and either being the real killer saying you killed their family member or just someone that's playing a cruel hoax and making up a story like that

just to torment a family. Either way, it's pretty demanded. More remains would be found in the area. On March 30th, 2011, as the search for Shannon Gilbert pressed on, searchers found hands, a forearm, and a skull just under a mile away from the other four bodies that were found in burlap. These remains were determined not to be Shannon Gilbert's. Medical examiners determined that they were additional remains of Jessica Taylor, whose torso was found on a plastic sheet in Manorville on July 25, 2003.

On July 15, 2003, Jessica was held. heading from Washington, D.C. to Poughkeepsie, New York, where she lived before she ran away as a teen. On the way home to Poughkeepsie, Jessica's car broke down, and she managed to hitchhike to Brooklyn. She was then seen at the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan. Some of her body was found about a month after that, but she wasn't identified for another seven months due to it only being her torso that was recovered, and also because her killer had mutilated the tattoo on her hip that would have sped up identification. ultimately it was a detective who realized that the hands, forearm, and skull found in the search for Shannon Gilbert might be additional missing remains of Jessica Taylor.

And he was right. On April 4th, 2011, three more bodies were found. But again, none of them belonged to Shannon Gilbert. The bodies were of a female toddler, an Asian male wearing women's clothing, and the hands foot in skull of a female dubbed Manorville Jane Doe. whose partial remains had been found eight years earlier in 2003. Manorville Jane Doe's initial remains were discovered along Ocean Parkway between Gilgo Beach and Oak Beach. Manorville Jane Doe's body had been dismembered

and discarded in multiple plastic bags in Manorville on November 19, 2003. The Asian male was determined to be between 17 and 23 years old, may have been a transgender woman. woman, but only a sketch with short hair, and a male presentation was released to the media. He is still unidentified today. The toddler, between 16 and 32 months old, was found wrapped in a blanket with no signs of trauma. By this point, police knew that they had one or more serial killers at work, discarding bodies in the area's beaches. They pressed on, however, in the search for Shannon Gilbert. On April 11, 2011, bones from a female body.

and female jewelry were found inside a plastic bag near the water tower at Jones Beach. This victim was dubbed Jane Doe 3. The toddler, Baby Doe, found a week earlier, was discovered through a DNA match to be the daughter of Jane Doe No. 3. DNA from Jane Doe 3 matched the partial remains of yet another unidentified murder victim found in the area. A black woman known as Peaches due to a tattoo she had on her breast, which was a juicy... In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up. for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder which emergency.

We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do but had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Blood and Water. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Peach with a bite taken out of it. Peaches was dismembered by her killer.

Her torso had been found on June 28, 1997, in a green plastic tub left near the side of the road in Hempstead Lake State Park. Also on April 11, 2011, a skull was found east of Tobay Beach. This was determined to be the skull belonged to a woman who had been dubbed Fire Island Jane Doe. Her legs were found wrapped in a plastic bag west of Davis Park Beach on April 20, 1996. On April 12, 2011, with her daughter still missing, Marie Gilbert spoke to the media about a call she received from Oak Beach resident Dr. Peter Hackett. She claimed that he called her and told her that he had treated Shannon, possibly giving her medication at a home he ran for wayward girls. Hackett denied this conversation for three months, eventually admitting the call to CBS News, but claiming he was trying to be. be supportive. On December 6th, 2011, the search for Shannon Gilbert moved back to Oak Beach,

where she was last seen and from where she had called 911. Investigator searching the marshland there found items belonging to Shannon. And on December 13th, Shannon's body was found about a quarter of a mile away from her things. Police commissioner dormer before an autopsy was even completed. publicly stated, Shannon's death was accidental and not a murder. Soon after, on January 1, 2012, Edward Weber took Dormer's place as Suffolk County Interim Commissioner. On May 1st, 2012, Shannon's autopsy results were announced. No cause of death was determined. On November 15th, Marie Gilbert filed a lawsuit against the Suffolk County Police Department.

She wanted more information, and she wanted to hear the 911 call, which hadn't been really. to the public yet. In September 2014, renowned forensic pathologist Michael Bodden conducted a second independent autopsy of Shannon Gilbert. He found that her hyoid bone had been damaged, which could indicate strangulation, and that the position she was found in face-up was not normal for drowning victims. Despite Bodden's thoughts that Shannon may have been the victim of homicide, the manner and cause of death were not changed. And I think more if a lot of true crime fans will know who Michael Bodden is, you know, that show that he used to have on HBO. I don't know if you watch that one. Autopsy. I was enthralled by it. Yeah, it was really in depth. And they talk about these fascinating

cases and he'd discuss those deaths and what he found. I remember that show well. On December 9th, 2014, former Suffolk police commissioner James Burke was indicted on charges of police brutality. After someone stole a duffel bag full of sex toys, and pornographic material from his car. A year later, an escort would come forward about his involvement with sex work on Oak Beach. Burke was said to be responsible for keeping the FBI out of the search for Shannon in the subsequent investigation of the many murders uncovered. This is possibly to hide his own shady dealings,

but many were suspicious of police involvement and a cover-up in Shannon's death. Some others even felt that James Burke himself or a higher up in the police department may have been involved in the murders of the young women whose bodies had turned up. After Shannon Gilbert's remains were found, no more bodies turned up in the area. The case cooled off amidst concerns and accusations of cover-up or mishandling in the case. This case became a favorite for online sleuths discussed in great detail on sites like web sleuth. The moniker given to the killer, or killers, if there was more than one, was the Long Island serial killer, or Lisk for short, with the original victims found on Gilgo Beach dubbed the Gilgo Four. While the police had faced suspicion and accusations for their handling of the case, behind the scenes, they continued to work the case doggedly. On January 16, 2020, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart released an image of a belt that was found with the remains of,

Maureen Brainerd Barnes. It was an older looking white leather belt with the initials W.H or HM on the end. A new website dedicated to the case, go-go-news.com, was also announced at the same time. On May 6th of that year, a judge finally ruled that the 911 call Shannon made should be released to the public. Before this, all that was known was that she frantically called 911 and then vanished. Later that month on May 28, Manorville Jane Doe, also known as Jane Doe No. 6, was publicly identified as 24-year-old Valerie Mack. She was last seen in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but was never reported missing. This identification was made using genetic genealogy. In January 2022, a task force was formed to investigate the Lisk Gilgo, beach case with fresh eyes. By March of that year, Rex Hiramon, who was arrested last week,

was in their sights, thanks to one or more tips. He hadn't been on their list of suspects before that. It was March 14, 2022, to be specific, that investigators discovered a Chevy Avalanche registered to his address in Massapequa Park. The Chevy Avalanche has an interesting feature. You can access the bed of the truck without ever getting out. There's a removable partition between the cab in the bed. Investigators were so excited about Rex Heron as a suspect in part because of this truck. A possible witness in Amber Costello's case, one of her roommates at the time, known publicly only as date, described the client that Amber was going to meet. He said that the man looked like an ogre with bushy hair and was between six foot four and six foot six. This was the second

time. She was supposed to see the same client. The man had come to the home around midnight on September 2nd to to pay Amber for sex work, but she and her roommates, Dave and Bear, scammed him. This was something that they would do often. After

Amber had obtained the payment, but before any sexual acts took place, one of the men and sometimes both would barge in angrily, acting like they had caught their girlfriend with another man. Most of the time, the men would leave in fear or embarrassment and not really care about the money they just lost.

Instead, they would just be happy to get out of that situation. This time, though, the size of the client changed things. He wasn't scared of them. He didn't want trouble, though, so he calmly told them that he was just her friend and left. When the man left, he got into a Chevy avalanche. After driving off in the avalanche, the client texted it. Amber writing, that was not nice to do, and he requested a credit for their next meeting. And there was a next meeting. Amber agreed to see him again. The client wanted to see Amber and

offered her 1,500 hours, which was well over her normal rate. If she took this job, she could take a few days off, so it was hard for her to turn it down. But this time, the client insisted that she'd do an out-call, where she would meet him elsewhere. He didn't want to come back to the house because of the previous incident. She agreed to go meet him and walked down the street, away from the apartment. A short while later, a dark avalanche, like the one the client drove the night before, drove past from that direction. She disappeared that night. It wasn't until the task force re-interviewed Dave that they realized the truck they were looking for was a first-generation Chevy avalanche. During this interview, a better description of the client they scanned was also

given. This helped them find Rex Hurerman, and they slowly began to investigate him, obtaining warrants to track much of his electronics activity and cell phone usage. Keeping all of it quiet and out of the media is not to tip him off. So I think more if you know what amazes me about this information that came out about Rex Heerman was that, you know, police were looking into him as far back as March 22. We obviously already said they arrested him last week. So it was well over a year that they were investigating him. And like you said, they were able to keep all of it quiet, which is pretty amazing that someone didn't slip up and tell someone and get out to the media in this day and age.

Yeah, because we all know from the pressers often leaks and the press have inside sources that say, you know, they'll say they're looking at a suspect. And the last thing they want to do is have this guy tipped off to start getting rid of evidence, trying to cover his tracks, that kind of thing. So it seems like they were very patient and thorough in investigating him. Investigators searching records of those who visited GilgoNews.com, which the Suffolk County Police Department put together and maintains, found that Hiramund's home IP address had accessed the site on May 23rd and July 3rd, 2020. He was looking into the case, but that's not all. Looking at cell phone records were revealing.

Melissa Barthelamy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello were all contacted by the same phone number, a phone number that was connected to a burner phone with no registered name. Billing records for Heerman's personal cell phone showed the same general location of the burner phone at various times. when calls were made from the burner that contacted three of the victims. Records for the phone used to contact Maureen no longer existed by the time authorities looked for them. One of the burner phones linked to Herman was pinged at West Babylon, your Amber Costello's apartment around 11, 17 p.m. on the night she vanished. Police believe that Hurerman had also contacted victim Maureen-Barns 16 times over the three days before she disappeared.

and Melissa Bartholome over an entire week leading up to her disappearance. The task force now had a suspect who they believed could be connected to multiple victims. Herrmann's personal cell phone was also in the same location as Melissa's and Marines' phones when they were used to access to voicemail and make calls to their family and friends. In fact, every single time one of the victim's phones was used after they vanished. Herrmann's phone was in the same area as their phones. And when I say in the same area, Melissa's phone was. phone connected to a tower just 872 feet from Harriman's office at the time.

The mystery burner phone connected to the same tower multiple times, and Harriman's personal phone had activity on the same tower at that time. But it wasn't just the activity on Harriman's phone that lined up. It was also the lack of activity in the phones that also lined up. When Harriman left for a trip to Iceland on August 10, 2009, all activity on Melissa Bartholomey's phones stopped. He returned on August 18th. and a call from Melissa's phone was made the very next day. As you can hear, the investigation in Rex Hurerman was quite extensive in high-tech. It involved more than 300 legal processes, like subpoenas and search warrants.

Working backwards from his billing records, investigators were able to find that his American Express card was used by Google Pay each month to pay for Tinder. The email used for the Tinder account was also used to open an AOL account on the burner phone. Heerman's own phone was used to access that email account on December 11, 2022, for around three hours. Now they had not only his phone and the burner phone in the same area in a crowded city. They had both phones logging into the same email address. Investigators covertly telling him also watched Huraman purchase minutes for his burner phone at a cell phone store in May 19, 2012. This was also captured by the store's security cameras.

Finally, searching the AOL account on that phone. Investigators found selfies of Hiramon in the scent folder. A Gmail account was created on the phone and used to search for pornography and sex workers. Some of the searches are mostly innocuous, like mature escorts Manhattan, while others are disturbing. Out of thousands of queries, Hiramon is alleged to have made, only 30 have been shared with the public. Some of the searches were for things like sexually graphic images of children. children with ages as young as 10. A few of the pornography searches specify tied up, which may give us a clue into why four bodies found at Gilgo Beach were found bound the way they were.

Some of the searches aren't even inherently sexual, just creepy. And they make people wonder just exactly what he was trying to find. For example, blonde hair girl young depressed is listed. Was this in an image search, a specific pornography website. Please haven't specified. These searches, especially the ones about young girls, paint a very disturbing picture of Rex Heerman. Though all four victims at Gilgo Beach were all over 18, Melissa Bartholomey was just four feet 10 inches tall.

Maureen Brannard Barnes and Amber Costello just four feet 11 inches. They were petite women, and they looked young. The same Google account that searched for escorts and porn was also used to keep tabs on the investigation into the murders. Over 200 searches were conducted, including, Why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the Long Island serial killer? This last search is timely, because as Rex Sherman found out, the hard way, they can, and they did. He also read the Fox News article published on October 23, 2021, titled, In Long Island serial killer investigation, new phone technology may be key to breaking case.

The article detailed how Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Sini invested $300,000 in technology to use cell phone data in the case. You'd think Rex Hurerman would be getting nervous, but he was still actively using his burner phones to contact sex workers at the time he was arrested. On July 21, 2022, investigators took 11 empty bottles that had been left. outside the Hiramon home for trash collection and obtained DNA samples from them. Some of the DNA obtained from the bottles produced a female profile that matched the female hairs found on some of the bodies and on the belt used to tie one victim. That DNA profile matched Hirman's wife's DNA. The DNA from the hairs when the bodies were originally found was degraded.

Due to the length of time, the bodies had been out exposed to the elsewhere. elements, mitochondrial DNA was the only method to extract a profile, and it wasn't advanced enough when the hairs were first discovered, but as technology and advances in DNA science evolved, investigators were able to do more with the DNA because Harriman's wife had been out of the state or even out of the country with her children during many of the dates of the murders, it's believed that Rex Hirman either brought the victims to his home where they came into contact with Rex's wife's hair and picked it up or they were in his truck at some point and her hair transferred onto them. We're not going to mention the names of Herman's wife or his kids at all in this episode because they are victims of another kind in all of this and their lives undoubtedly have been turned upside down. And I know more if that, you know, Rex Harriman has only been charged at this point.

But I do want to talk about some of the work done to get to that point where they, they could charge him. Obviously, we talked in in detail about the cell phone data that was analyzed. But, you know, it's these hairs that turned out to ultimately be from his wife that are extremely fascinating. And this is an area where, you know, I just don't think a lot of people, killers, criminals, understand the transference of things from, you know, the home, the truck to victims. I don't know how many people think about that. And if he turns out to be guilty, it'll be one of the big evidence points used against him.

And I think there was some speculation, too, when some of these female hairs were found on these victims that maybe there was an accomplice. Maybe this killer had a female that was actively participating in the murders. But I think it's clear that this is just transfer and his wife had an alibi being out of the state, out of the country when some of these murders happened. So it, you know, it was an innocent transfer on her part. no knowledge or participation in the crimes. Well, and I think the other point to talk about is his wife and children. I mean, how shocking would that be? You're married to this man, the husband, the father of your children.

And then all of a sudden you find out that your dad, your husband has been charged with what are really absolutely heinous crimes. Yeah, we've talked. talked about so many cases over the years and heard about so many cases of serial killers that aren't loners. They usually, in many cases, have families, careers. And you have to think that those families, wives, children are just blindsided by this. You know, it's sort of reminiscent with the Golden State Killer or BTK. You know, here's this life that these people have.

And then it's shattered when they find out that's. someone they love is this monster. And I'm always fascinated by, you know, this notion that a serial killer can separate these lives, you know, be a good husband and a good dad at home, but then be out murdering people. A real Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde situation. What does it take to be able to pull that off? I don't know the answer to that. It's just a, it's a fascinating question to me. And I heard somebody mention in a conversation yesterday that in a way, the police officers that investigate these cases sort of have to do the same thing. Fresh air, longer days, a chance to reset. This season, let therapy be part of your spring

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and sort of leave that other part of their life behind investigating these cases. So it was a fascinating yin and a yang to detectives investigating these killers and the killers themselves, how they have to sort of have these separate personalities. Yeah, that's a great point. In January 2023, investigators were able to collect a DNA sample from pizza crust that Rex Herriman left in a pizza box he threw away outside his office. They used it to compare against male DNA collected in the case. On June 12th, the result,

vaults were back. They had definitive proof. His DNA match, the DNA of a hair, found underneath Megan Waterman's body inside the burlap she was wrapped in. Ironically, a pizza crust was also used to help nab the grim sleeper, Lonnie Franklin, in 2010. When Rex Heerman was arrested in July 2003, he had the burner phone that was used to log into the AOL account with him. Looking at the timing of his arrest, it's easy to wonder if investigators were trying to stop an impending murder. Marine, Melissa, Megan, and Amber had all disappeared in the summer. Heerman was actively contacting sex workers, and there's been reports that his wife was about to take another long trip. So perhaps that's why police decided to arrest him now, in case he was planning another murder.

As we mentioned earlier, Herman's wife took trips often, sometimes to Maryland or New Jersey, but also to visit family in Iceland. These overseas trips were longer, and usually over the summer. From July 8th to August 18th, 2009, she was in Iceland. This is when Melissa Bartholomey disappeared. She was in Maryland from June 4th to June 8th, 2010, during the period when Megan Waterman disappeared. From August 28th, 2010 to September 5th, when Amber Costello went missing, Herman's wife was in New Jersey. If the task force hadn't swooped in and apprehended Rex Heerman, perhaps he would have led them to more clues or evidence, but it may have meant additional victims. And the authorities

didn't want to chance that. The Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told the Daily Mail, we wanted as a task force to continue it, but we felt collectively that it was time to strike that balance and take him off the street. On July 14, 2023, Rex Herman pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder. Searches of his home had the public talking. More than 200 guns, at least 92 of them registered, were seized. Two separate storage units were searched with the medical examiner on scene, which could be a sign that police had discovered human remains or thought they might. Also removed from Harriman's home, a file and cabinet, a cooler or freezer of some kind, a doll of some sort in a glass box, and a

portrait of a painting of a blonde with a bruised face. It was also reported that tens of thousands of dollars in cash were taken from the home. There's been some information coming out indicating that Rex Herman was having financial problems and backed tax issues. So he may have been scrolling away this cash because he couldn't keep it in a bank. It seems overwhelmingly likely that Heron killed at the very least three women he's facing charges for, if not all for the Gilgo forer. The question remains, can the authorities connect Rex Heron to the other victims that were found via physical evidence? And if not, does that mean there could be a second killer in that area dumping bodies in close proximity to where Heerman is alleged to have

dumped his victim's bodies? Can we just stop for a minute and talk about 200 guns? That is a lot of guns. And I was shocked when it said 92 of them were registered. So 92 of them, he went through the process of filling out the paperwork, getting a background check, all of that. But then had what, let's say 108 plus that he obtained through some other means. Yeah, it definitely seems like an arsenal. And in the video that many of us have seen, police are just carrying items. after item up out of this basement, man came of his, you know, dungeon, whatever you want to call it,

who knows what it looks like down there. But apparently that's where he stored a lot of this stuff that they took out of the house. It does seem possible that Rex Heerman could be connected to some of the other victims, we mentioned, with Penn Station. So close to his office, he easily could have encountered Maureen Brainerd Barnes there. Remember, she had called her mom from that location the night she vanished. In the case of Megan Waterman, a very large man with shaggy hair was captured on surveillance entering the Holiday Inn lobby just after Megan did the night she vanished. It looks a lot like Hirman when you look at his build, but there is nothing conclusively proving. It's Rex Harriman. As of now, there's still a question of whether he killed the rest of the Lisk victims

and maybe previously unconnected victims. Rex Heerman was a seasonal employee at Jones Beach State Park in the summer of 1981. And again, from March 1982 to October 1984, he has worked as an architect in Manhattan since 1987. He certainly seemed to know the beach areas where the victims were dumped. The confirmed connection between Harriman and Jones Beach brings to mind the unidentified woman named Peaches, whose remains were found there. Could she be one of his victims? Some authorities think she was actually the victim of domestic violence and not the victim

of a serial killer. The unidentified Asian male victim doesn't really fit in with the others we've discussed, but Heron allegedly had searched for the term Asian male twink, so perhaps this victim, too, died at the hands of Rex Heron. Victim Valery Mac was only five feet tall and petite, which seemed to be a physical feature Rex Heron was attracted to. There are a few additional victims that may fit with the circumstances of some of the victims in this case.

If Heerman killed Peaches, he may have also killed a woman named Cherries, whose torso was found in a suitcase at Harbor Island Park in Mameronac on March 3, 2007. One of her legs was found at Cold Spring Harbor on March 21, 2007. And the next day, her other

leg was found at Oyster Bay. She was a light-skinned black or Hispanic woman with a tattoo of two cherries on her left breast. It looks a lot like the tattoo on peaches, but it could just be a coincidence. She had been stabbed to death, which doesn't fit the others, but as we know, serial killers do evolve and improvise. On January 23rd, 2013, skeletal remains of a woman with no sign of trauma were found wrapped in an undisclosed material in the brush at the end of Sheep Lane in Lattingtown near Oyster Bay. Her body was buried, unlike the Gilgo Beach 4, but she was wrapped like three of the Gilgo Beach victims were, though we don't know if it was with burlap or not. She was wearing a pendant of a gold pig, thought to refer to the Chinese year of the pig, 1971, 1983, or 1995.

21-year-old Jamie Seymour disappeared on July 22nd, 2005, after using a stranger's phone to call her mother from the Manhattan Port Authority. The last place Jessica Taylor was seen. She was petite, just like most of the Gilgo 4 and some of the LISC victims, she has yet to be found. So we'll have to wait and see if more victims are officially connected to wreck, HIRM. On July 18, 2003, Authority Search Hirman's property in Chester, South Carolina. His brother is said to be living there currently. But more interestingly, a green Chevy avalanche was towed from the home by police. A black avalanche was towed from Hurman's Massapequa Park home.

The same day as the search in South Carolina, Paige Lobdell from News Nation tweeted that the Las Vegas Metro Police had confirmed they were looking at all unsolved cases for any possibility that Rex Harriman may be involved. On April 18, 2005, Harriman and his wife purchased a timeshare in Las Vegas, and just weeks later, on May 4th, Lindsay Harris, a sex worker, disappeared from Henderson, Nevada,

just outside of Las Vegas. Parts of her body were discovered in Illinois on May 23rd of that year. It may be a stretch to try and connect Hehrman to the victims in Nevada, but you can't blame the authorities for looking into it. We talked about the Long Island serial killer once in a West Mesa episode and said it was far-fetched that the killer could be the same

in both cases, because they would have to go back and forth from New York to New Mexico multiple times. But now it seems like more of a realistic possibility, seeing how Heerman is connected to multiple states. The arrest of Rex Heerman has fueled online sluice into looking back at unsolved murders, which could possibly be attributed to him. In particular, a specific set of four murders that many have discussed over the years as possibly being related to the Long Island murders. On November 20th, 2006,

the bodies of four female sex workers were found in a shallow drainage ditch behind the Golden Key Motel in Ag Harbor Township, New Jersey, just outside of Atlantic City. They were all faced down, about 60 feet from each other, and they were all fully clothed,

except for their socks and shoes. This does not match the Gilgible, Beach 4, who were all naked. But as we mentioned earlier, killers can and do evolve or improvise. We mentioned that Rex Hiramann's wife visited New Jersey. So is it possible that he did too? We'll have to see if his arrest reignites the Egg Harbor Township investigation. While it looks like the case against Harriman for the Gilgo 4 murders is pretty solid, there could be other people responsible for some of the other Lisk murders. A man named John Bitrov was convicted of the murders of two women, including the mother of Melissa Bartholomey's

best friend, Rita Tangretti. Melissa made many calls to Manorville, where Bitroth lived at the time. Is it possible that there could be a Long Island serial killer, a Manorville killer, and a Gilgo Beach killer, whose crimes and dumping grounds are overlapping? It seems as if a second killer could have been targeting black women and putting them in suitcases or storage bins around this time. And it seems as if Rex Heerman targeted petite white women and dumped their bodies out in the open. On June 23rd, 2008, 39-year-old Tanya Rush disappeared on her way to the subway station in Brooklyn. Her body was found dismembered inside a black canvas suitcase on June 27, 2008, on the ramp, leading to the westbound southern state parkway in Belmore. Maybe Andre Isaac, also known as

Sugar Bear is a victim of this killer. The 25-year-old disappeared from East End, New York, just before Thanksgiving, 2002. He was last seen getting into a car, driven by a Hispanic man. His head was found with a single bullet wound on January 25, 2003, and his legs were later found in plastic bags a few miles away. Andre was known to cross-dress and was described as a gentle giant. could the same person who killed Andre also have killed the unidentified male Asian victim we mentioned earlier? Some things also make people wonder whether Kerman has multiple MOs or victim types. While his searches suggest that he's connected to petite white women, at least one of his searches was for the term black girl.

One mystery that remains is what really happened to Shannon Gilbert. after all, it was her 911 call that kicked off the discovery of the bodies. How did she really die? What circumstances led to her death in the marsh where she was found? Was she being stalked or chased the night she vanished? Or was she hallucinating due to drugs or mental illness? There's some evidence that mental health issues run in Shannon's family, and she may have been going through some sort of psychosis or mental break,

whether drug induced or not. Shannon's sister Sarah was diagnosed with schizophrenia and stabbed their mother, Marie, to death on July 23rd, 2016. Shannon was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which can have manic episodes that can lead to delusions and paranoia. Hopefully more answers will come in her case. During a press conference regarding the arrest of Rex Heerman, FBI special agent Michael Rodak said,

the charges show that we can overcome the most difficult challenges when federal, state, and local law enforcement work together. on the one task force. Many, especially those who believe this case could have been solved a decade ago, think this was a bit of slight shade thrown toward former Commissioner Burke and those who helped stall the investigation

for whatever reason. Rex Heerman is due in court on August 1st. He faces multiple sentences of life without the possibility of parole. According to his lawyer, Heerman was in tears after his arrest and maintains his innocence. According to the New York Post,

he reportedly had just one question for authorities upon his arrest. Is it in the news? Investigators in this case want to connect all the dots and find any missing pieces that may help them, and they want to hear from people who can provide more details about Rex Herman.

He has used the aliases Andrew Roberts, Thomas Hawk, Andy Roberts, and John Springfield online. He's used Tinder, Craigslist, AOL, and Gmail. If any of this sounds familiar to you, you can still submit a tip to the task force at gilgoNews.com slash submit a tip. Perhaps listeners can help ID some of the unidentified victims we've covered in this episode. The Asian male or transgender female doe or Ocean Parkway Doe is still identified. They were 5'6, between 17 and 23, had poor dental health and were killed

between 2001 and 2006. They also had a physical disorder, which would have affected the way they walked. Fire Island Jane Doe is also still unidentified. Her right leg had a three and a half inch scar on the lower portion, a one inch scar on the mid to lower leg, and a half inch scar on the ankle. Her left leg had a two inch surgical scar

with additional suture scars on the ankle. Authorities believe that peaches, and baby dough could be identified with the help of relatives of a man named Elijah Howe. Or Howard, they're not quite sure of the name, who lived in Pritchard, Alabama, with his wife, Carrie, and died in Mobile in 1963 with Lily May Wiggins Packard. Peaches may have ties to Connecticut as a tattoo artist there believes he's the one who did her tattoo in 1996. He remembered Peaches as a young black woman around 18 or 19 from the Bronx or Long Island.

If the tattoo Peaches hat looks familiar or there is someone missing from your family tree that seems like it could be hurt. You can call 1-800, call FBI and give them your tip. I had a conversation a couple days ago with someone that I know through work on the podcast. A male family member of his was good friends with Rex Heerman, and he was shocked by news of the rest of his friend for these murders. He didn't have an inkling that Rex Herman could be capable of something like this. He had gone hunting in upstate New York with Rex, and Rex had taken him duck hunting in the very areas where some of the bodies were recovered, and he'd been to the

hereman home multiple times. He'd gone down in the basement and seen a large gun collection. According to this source, Rex told him that he kept them down there hidden out of fear that the state would try and confiscate them. One interesting thing that may give us some insight into Herman's mind had to do with the condition and appearance of the Harriman home. Much has been made about how dilapidated and outdated it looks compared to homes in the rest of the neighborhood. According to my source's family member, Harriman told him that since it was his childhood

home, he wanted to preserve it just the way it was, just the way his father had left it. So he never updated or repaired it. And obviously I tried to get my source as family member who was Rex's friend to come on the show for an interview. And I was told that he wants absolutely nothing to do with a podcast or any media attention. And who can really blame them for that? To find out this person you were friends with and whose house you went to is accused of these heinous crimes has to be a complete shock. And I'm sure we'll eventually hear from other people who did know Rex Herman that are willing to talk. It will be interesting to see what they have to say.

So as we wrap up this episode more, there is a lot going on, like currently. And there's a lot to come in this case. And we brought up a lot of questions. You know, it will be interesting to see the outcome for Rex Herman as it relates to the murders that he's charged with. Will he ultimately be charged with more connected to more of the murders? because I think you asked the question, you know, could this guy have murdered many more people, which I think is a very real possibility or like we've asked in a lot of episodes, could there be two, three, four, five different serial killers operating in, you know, around the same

timeframe overlapping in areas? And I think that too is a real possibility. Yeah, we always talk about how frightening it is that there's either one person committing all this carnage or the other possibility that there's multiple people in that area capable of this stuff. It's frightening. But I think a trial will be fascinating because we talked about, you know, some of the evidence that's been thrown out there and some really great work, you know, obviously advances in technology of help. but you know the the personal cell phone versus the burner phone versus the victim's cell phones and how you know they're pinging either at the same time or that they're not pinging when heerman is out of the area um you know some of that stuff is fascinating and then obviously you've got to look hard at his wife's hair i mean to me that is going to be. a real lynchpin in the the prosecution's case.

Yeah, I'm no attorney, but this looks like a mountain of evidence in this case. You know, it's not one or two little things. It's a lot of stuff that they patiently collected and checked off that sort of connects to Rex Heron. You've got his wife's hair, as you mentioned, on multiple victims. You've got his DNA on at least one of the victims. you've got the cell phones, the electronics. So they really seem to have put forth a lot of thought

into all this evidence are going to present that connects him to at least three of these four victims solidly. And then I think we'll have to be patient to see if anything comes of all the other victims if they're able to find things that also connect him to these other victims as well. Well, and I think it shows you why the police took their time. right they they probably could have arrested him sooner it sounds like they wanted to wait even

longer but they they got a little scared that he was about to maybe possibly commit another murder so they swooped in and got him i mean i i like we talk about a lot i think this is a a trial and a case that many people will be following over the next months years who knows how long it's going to take to ultimately get there i don't know i don't know how long it's going to take to ultimately get there i don't know know I will be because I want to know all the details and whether or not, you know, not only is he guilty of these three or four murders, but what else do they tie him to? What worries me is that there might not ever be a full breakdown of his involvement, what he

did. He may not cooperate and he may fight this in court. You know, obviously, they don't really impose the death penalty in New York State. So if he fights it and is found guilty, it's the same outcome as just taking a plea from the beginning where he would divulge everything. So I'm worried that we'll never get all the answers. Then again, maybe somebody will play to his ego once he accepts that he's not getting out of jail. If that's the outcome, maybe someone will play to his ego and get him. to talk about what he did and sort of the way some of these serial killers eventually do,

they want the attention, they want everybody to know how police were outsmarted by them. So maybe that will eventually come out to where he starts talking in that manner. Yeah, again, we're just going to have to wait and see. Just a couple last second details we wanted to share that are fresh off the wire. And the first is that Rex Herman's wife has filed for divorce. So apparently she's seen enough to convince her. that Rex is guilty of these crimes. The other development is that police searching the Harriman home have repositioned their

vehicles in such a way as to obstruct the view of onlookers and press. And that's fueled speculation that investigators may have found something big there that they want to keep private. So with everything else we've talked about, we'll have to wait and see. Yeah, all interesting stuff for sure. So that's it for our episode on Rex Heerman. Like we said, a lot to be on the lookout for. for in the future.

If you love the show, haven't done so yet, give us a rating, a review, all of that helps. And keep telling your friends, word of mouth about the podcast really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, run Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook at facebook.com slash criminology podcast. And you can join our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast, discussion and fans. So that is it for another episode of criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then, we'll talk to you next week.