Law&Crime Sidebar - 3 Shocking Developments in Gilgo Beach Investigation as Suspect Faces New Charge

Episode Date: January 22, 2024

Authorities in Suffolk County, NY revealed new information about suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann during a recent hearing, including new DNA results. Heuermann is now charged with four murders. The bodies of the victims, who all worked as escorts, were found buried along Gilgo Beach more than a decade ago. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the latest details and what they could mean for Heuermann’s case. PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY 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.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. The alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer now faces a new murder charge and the district attorney lays out some of the evidence they have against their suspect. and that suspect's defense team goes to bat for him after some really disturbing internet history is revealed. We have three of the most shocking updates in the case of Rex Eurman. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Long Crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

The Gilgo Beach murders happened more than a decade ago, and over the course of several years, 11 sets of human remains were discovered along that shore in Long Island, New York. Now, in the last several months, the serial killings are back in the headlines after law enforcement say they finally have a suspect. In July, police arrested 60-year-old Manhattan architect Rex Heurman. He was originally charged for the murders of three women, Melissa Bartholomey, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman. But he was also the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Marine Brainerd Barnes. And now he is officially charged with her murder. Here's Raymond Tierney, Suffolk County, D.A., talking about this latest development.

We've charged the murder of Maureen-Branes Barnes to add to the already charged murders of Melissa Barthelamy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. The defendant is charged with murder in the second degree, not murder in the first degree, because for murder in the first degree, you have to commit three murders within a 24-month period, and the numbers just don't work. Work out. Okay, now to explain that a little bit, Heurman is charged with second-degree murder of Castello, Bartholome, and Waterman, but also first-degree murder for each of them. Because under the murder statute in New York, you can be charged with first-degree murder

if you intentionally cause the death of two or more additional persons within the state in separate criminal transactions within a period of 24 months when they were committed in a similar fashion or pursuant to a common scheme of plan. Now, prosecutors believe that he killed Bartholomey in 2009, she went missing in July of 2009, and that he killed Waterman and Costello in 2010. Waterman went missing back in June of 2010.

Costello went missing back in September of 2010. So the three killings all happened, allegedly, in that 24-month window. They were all done in the similar way, common scheme, common plan, and that's how they got him for first-degree murder for all three. The reason he is in charge with first-degree murder for Braynard Barnes is because it is believed that she was killed in 2007. That's when she went missing. So it is outside of that window. Nonetheless, Heurman still charged with her second-degree murder, meaning intentionally killing someone. And here is Heurman's attorney, Michael Brown, speaking about that indictment.

We entered an not guilty plea this morning. He has maintained his innocence from day one. He entered not guilty plea on the original indictment, and he again entered a not guilty plea this morning. What is the reaction then to that? To the new charges? Well, we had advance notice that it was coming, so I explained that to him. Again, he said, I'm not guilty of these charges.

He's looking forward to fight these charges, and we're doing that. We're going to continue to prepare. I expect that additional discovery will be forthcoming on the newest victim, and we're going to examine that. Now, we also got a big update from prosecutor Ray Tierney concerning DNA evidence. I think the most, well, the biggest change is the DNA evidence, and we've received a significant DNA evidence between the time of the first arraignment and this time, which I'll synopsize for you at this time. We've always spoken, right from the very beginning, we spoke about the five hairs of significance that were recovered from three of the four burial sites of the women. We now have nuclear DNA results for all five of the hairs, so I'll go through it.

The hair that was found on Brainer Barnes, it was found on the buckle of the belt that secured her lower body. And we also found three hairs at the site of Megan Waterman's burial. We found two female hairs and one male hair. The male hair was found at the bottom of the burlap that Megan Wardeman. was wrapped in, and the two female hairs were found around the head area, one at the top of the burlop, and one near the tape that was used to restrain a Megan Waterman's head. The fifth hair was a female hair that was found in the area of Amber Costello's head. Now, at the time of the original arraignment, we reported on mitochondrial DNA results for three of those hairs. with regard to the Megan Waterman hair

that was found outside the head area. It was consistent with the genetic profile of both ASA, the mitochondrial DNA profile of both ASA and Victoria Heerman. And you could exclude the rest of the population to 99.69% of the rest of the population with regard to the one male hair of significance that was found on the burlop with Megan Waterman. Again, that genetic result was consistent

with the defendants, and 99.96 of the population could be excluded. With regard to the male hair, again, that was the, we received the mitochondrial DNA profile with regard to that. The nuclear DNA profile on that was 1.48 times 10 to the 100. 69th power as to come from someone sharing the same genetic profile as the defendant. And finally, with regard to Amber Costello, we received the nuclear DNA profile on that,

and that was 4.654 times 10 to the 63rd power as likely to have come from someone with the same genetic profile as his daughter, Victoria Heerman. So again, the mitochondrial DNA for mother and daughter are going to be the same. Nuclear are going to be separate. Everyone has a separate nuclear DNA profile except for identical twins. So the reason it took so long to indict Heerman for Brainerd Barnes' death is because of this new, advanced, cutting edge, as he calls it, nuclear DNA technology. And as he explained, authorities essentially matched up DNA from Heurman's estranged wife, Asa Ellorup, to the hair found used to bind. Brainer Barnes. And as compared to mitochondrial DNA testing, DA Tierney says that nuclear DNA testing

is more discriminant. The technology allows you to get nuclear DNA results from hair, and they use nuclear DNA testing on all five of those hairs. By the way, investigators say that Ellorup was out of town when Brainer Burns was killed, so she's never been charged. She's never been accused of being involved in these killings in any way. Just want to make it clear, but it's just another way that the prosecutors have tied this back to Rex Ewerman. Now, Mr. Brown, Again, the attorney for Rex Eurman also talked about the DNA and whether it could really be connected back to his client. You have mitochondrial DNA, which in regards to my client,

let's assume for a moment that, number one, the DNA on the victim is, in fact, the perpetrator. That's a big leap, but let's just take that because we have transfer DNA. You have people walking around without gloves at the crime scene. There's photographs. I think some of you folks have published that. But let's just make that assumption. Now you have two out of 10,000 could be the donor. Suffolk County, Nassau County, total we have 3 million people.

That's about 600 people that potentially could be donors for that DNA. That's one piece of evidence. We have been told that the evidence is unsuitable for nuclear DNA testing. This morning was the first time, and this is 13 plus years, that miraculously nuclear DNA testing and results have come forward. There has been testimony, there has been lab reports that consistently said it was incapable of having nuclear DNA testing. And we had mitochondrial DNA and those statistics were quite frankly not very convincing.

The initial mitochondrial DNA testing, we are certainly going to look into the lab report courts, the lab testing, and the transfer of evidence, because that's somewhat disturbing to learn for the first time after 13 years that we now have nuclear DNA testing. Saying all of a sudden they have nuclear DNA holding prosecutors to their burden, so it's definitely going to be a DNA fight if this ends up going to trial. By the way, I think it's pretty clear from watching sidebar episodes like these that the world isn't always the safest place. And of course, getting injured can be really scary.

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All right, let's get back into it. Now remember, it is our understanding from reporting that all four of these victims work as escorts. In new court filings, prosecutors say that Heuerman had hundreds of instances of contact between himself and sex workers. In a bail application, investigators said that when they arrested Hewerman, they found burner phones that he allegedly used for, quote, illicit activities. They say that he contacted sex workers on those phones hundreds of times between 2020 and 2023. Heurman reportedly contacted a sex worker who goes by the name Mia in March of 2020. Mia suggested that the two meet up the following day, but Heuerman allegedly replied

that he was only free that day because his wife was out. Now, during a news conference after the latest hearing, Mr. Brown said that the existence of burner phones and even the use of a sex worker services was irrelevant. It didn't make Heurman a killer. So what they have is they have pinging of cell phones. There is nobody, not one person on the face of this earth, that is going to say that back then my client possessed the cell phone that was a burner phone and was communicating with any of these girls what you have is pinging Massapequa Park New York City Massapeville Park the population if you just limited to his neighbors there's 17,000 people in Massa Peoples Park in New York

City in Midtown New York City where his he's an architect where his business was located there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people at any given time that we'd be using any of those cell sites and thinking. But something else that's making headlines right now as well is Brown's apparent defense of some of Heurman's really vile alleged internet searches traced to a burner phone and email account for a Thomas Hawke authority say that this is Heurman. Now these searches included things like rape and torture, autopsy photos of female bodies, even very specific searches like, quote, skinny black slave girl and, quote, tied up fat girl porn.

But Brown says we shouldn't judge anyone for their search history. Searches. So that's another interesting point. Searching the internet. Ask yourselves what you search on your computers and your phones. So one thing leads to another. You see a show about something. you start searching.

And they talk about how somebody's killed, you start searching. And then they talk about another way, and you start searching. Think about if they look at your own personal search history, how all of a sudden you're guilty because of your search history. Think about what you search, what your friends search, what your kids search, what your neighbor's search. That in and of itself makes you guilty? Maybe, but adding it to all the rest of the evidence, not great.

All right, so what's next in the search for justice? Well, let's go back to Raymond Tierney. You know, we said at the very beginning that we were going to take a comprehensive look at the Gilgo four cases. I think we've done that. We've completed that. We use the grand jury process. Now we move to the second phase. The second phase being the prosecution of these four cases, as well as continuing to use the grand jury to investigate the other cases, the other bodies and the other murders.

which we think are investigatively significant. We're certainly going to do that. We're going to use the same methodology. We use the grand jury. And if we come to a result in the time, and when the time is appropriate, we'll have further comment on that. All right.

So there you go. Some new developments in the Gilgo Beach saga, and we will continue to follow updates in this case as it progresses. But that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for watching. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast. Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak you next time.