Law&Crime Sidebar - Gilgo Beach Murders: 3 New Shocking Discoveries Found at Accused Serial Killer’s Home

Episode Date: July 25, 2023

Since accused serial killer Rex Heuermann was arrested in connection to the Gilgo Beach murders, investigators have been probing into every inch of the suspect’s home and life. The Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy breaks down three new shocking discoveries found at the alleged killer’s Long Island home with retired NYPD sergeant Joseph Giacalone.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at https://bit.ly/3rkw6gnLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieThey Walk Among AmericaDevil In The DormThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

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. There is a vault where he secured numerous amount of guns. Suffolk County's police commissioner separating fact from fiction in the Gilgo Beach murder investigation. We discussed three shocking items police have found so far. Introducing the next generation of pepper spray. Meet Palm, a new maximum strength self-defense product with a patented modular design, revolutionizing the self-defense industry.

Whether you're carrying the unit on your keys, snapping the unit on your backpack, your keychain, or carrying the unit in your pocket. Palm is the perfect everyday carry accessory. Palm's patented flip-top safety prevents any accident incidental misfire and its maximum strength formula provides you with the necessary range and capacity to bring peace of mind to you and your loved ones. Quality, safety, performance, peace of mind. Learn more at palm pepper spray.com. Welcome to Law and Crime's Sidebar podcast. I'm Janette Levy. Police spent the weekend searching the backyard of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer

Rex Horman. They brought in excavators to help in the search as they try to figure out whether any of the murders were committed at his home in Massapequa Park, a 20-minute drive from Gilgo Beach. Yeah, so I'm not sure who's saying that we knew about the green avalanche in 2010. I will say that we came about that information maybe a couple years ago, but we were unable to attach it to the Massapeco box, which I'm sure you're very familiar with. Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison described the search as fruitful. Cureman is being held without bail for the murders of Melissa Bartholome, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. He is suspected in a fourth death, the murder of Maureen-Brainard Barnes.

Gorman maintains his innocence and has pleaded not guilty. Joining me to discuss what has been found at the home is Joe Jackalone. He is a retired sergeant with the NYPD and also the author of the new book, The Cold Case, handbook. Joe, welcome back to Sidebar. Thanks for coming on. Thanks for having me again, Ingenit. There's, the police have been searching this house of Rex Horman's in Massapequa Park now for many days, well over a week, almost two weeks. They believe they'll be wrapping up their work Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, but that doesn't mean they won't go back. And there have been a number of items found at this house. One that really piqued my interest was this

vault in the basement with a heavy iron door. And apparently a large number of guns, I don't know hundreds is what we've kind of heard, but talk to me about why a residential home would contain something like a vault with an iron door, because that just seems like an odd thing to have in your home. Well, specifically in regards to any home, I mean, but we're hearing numbers anywhere from 200 to 300 guns, right? So the idea of trying to protect those guns might be the reason to have a bolt, such as this. Most people just have gun lockers, which are still very heavy and you could fit a lot of

guns in there. But I guess maybe even didn't want to get five or six different gun lockers and just wanted one big vault. That could be an answer for it. But I guess we should, we'll find out soon enough as the investigation concludes. And the police commissioner, Rodney Harrison, was very. careful and very, he wanted to clear this up because it had been reported over the weekend that it was a soundproof room. And I think people hear that and they think, oh my gosh, there was

basically a torture chamber in the basement or something to that effect. And he was very careful to say, look, I think that was misconstrued. It's not a soundproof room. It's a vault with an iron door. Whether or not it's soundproof, we really don't know. But is that an important distinction to make in your mind. Oh, yes, it is. And I think it's a good idea that the commissioner comes out and tries to be transparent on a couple of these issues, right? You don't want to answer every rumor out there. You don't want to answer every time somebody posts something because then it just creates lots of confusion. So this would have been a big deal, right? If this was a sound proof room, so I think getting it out there that this wasn't, this could have been something else, then I think

that, you know, I'm all for that kind of information to come out from the police department. One item that piqued my interest that they seized from the house was a doll in a glass case. And that got us all kind of thinking about how there were apparently dolls left in memory of the victims at these memorials. And this is pure speculation, obviously. But there have been people wondering, is that doll in the glass case a similar brand or a similar model to the ones found at the memorials from the victims? Why else would you see something like that, a doll in a glass case? Well, I think the police department feels the same way about the dolls, right? So we know that it was widely documented that dolls were left at the crime scene, which isn't unusual per se, right?

I mean, I've had cases where we've surveilled grave sites of victims, specifically around anniversary dates and the like, just to see if anybody shows up and who shows up. Because sometimes people leave trinkets, some people, you know, dolls, if it's young women specifically. So the police department knew about this. They saw you this doll. I mean, it's nothing I would put in my house. But the issue that comes down to is the police are doing exactly what they should be. They know what's involved in the case already. And when they spot something at the location that could be related, just take it.

You can always bring it back later on if it doesn't prove to be anything that's a part of the case. If you're going into a house like this and you're convinced this is your guy, what are you looking for? obviously we hear about people keeping items there may be trophies if crimes were committed in the house we have no idea if any of these homicides occurred in the home but there may be trophies there could be DNA depending on how clean this house is inside well they can find a lot of different things inside a house so yes they're looking i mean they did the storage facilities they're looking at other locations where he has lived or has a house so one of the things that you are looking for is anything that belong to the victims i know Some people like to call them trophies and what have you. It's something that serial killers have done in the past, and it's just something that Laura Forkman is looking for. It could be just driver's licenses. It could be, you know, personal belongings and those kind of things. Anything that really doesn't belong in the house, that's basically what they're looking for, right?

If something is out of place, something looks like it doesn't belong to either the wife or the children, they're going to take it and see exactly if there is any connection. Me personally don't believe that any of these murders happened at the house. I really don't think so. Just look at the neighborhood that you're living in, very close proximity to other neighbors. Everyone knows he was married, and everyone thought he was strange, right? That's what we're hearing now. So if you brought a young girl into your house and somebody was looking out the window, I think it would be a big, big issue.

And I think we would heard about it. The police commissioner has called the search fruitful without going into any detail. He said there have been items that we have taken into our possession. and that makes it fruitful. So in order to seize the items with a search warrant, I mean, you can't just go into the house willy-nilly and take everything. There are items that you have to list that you're looking for

that you believe have evidentiary value. When you go into a home, you can't just say, oh, yeah, we like this, we like that, we like this. So can you explain how that works? Sure. When you get a search warrant, right, if you have the probable cause, you go to the judge, they give you a search warrant.

It has to be very specific about the location that you're going to search. what you're searching for and what you intend to find there's also a document attached to that called a search warrant return in new york state so the police department has to make a list of everything that was taken because the judge and will take a look at what was asked for and what was taken now there's there there there could be exceptions to this right so if they find contraband or anything else in plain view or during their search and they find something they can of course seize that too so there are issues of dealing with fourth amendment and search warrants

But I think they're going to, they probably ask for anything that could be connected to these cases, these women in specific personal items and the like. And also, for instance, they find these guns and you have somebody who's under arrest, under the suspicion of this, you can automatically seize those too. The deck in the backyard of the home was dismantled over the weekend. And heavy equipment was brought in to do some digging. And they've dug up that entire backyard. It reminds me almost of John Wayne Gacy and the crawl space underneath his home, they're leaving no stone unturned when going through this home and the property. Exactly, right? So they brought in cadaver dogs. They brought in the ground penetrating radar. And at that point, I think they made the right

decision. Just excavate the entire yard, what you're looking for. Lots of neighbors have said that he was burning garbage and doing some other odd things in regards to that. So I think it was definitely worthy of an excavation because you're not supposed to be burning garbage, especially close proximity to other houses. So that kind of stands out in everybody's mind. But, you know, like everything else, you're there to do a job, do it right the first time because you don't get a second chance to do it, right? So you can hold that crime scene as long as you want. And once you release it, it's kind of, it's kind of gone. There's really no going back after that. More than 200 guns in the home. That's probably startling to some people. We don't know if this

guy, Herman, is a gun enthusiast or maybe his wife even is a collector of guns. We have no idea. There are many questions that remain unanswered here. Does this tell you anything, having 200, 300 guns? Not really. I mean, on Long Island, there are a number of gun enthusiasts. There's a number of gun ranges. There are a lot of places that, you know, people can go and do this. And some people enjoy it as a hobby, right?

I mean, that doesn't mean that, you know, I'm sure a lot of people saying, oh, my God, do a 300 guns. You know, it depends on, you know, what he was into doing. I mean, I really don't know anything about the man. And, you know, I could say that, you know, 300 guns is an awful lot to own. And it's not unusual, though. We have lots of people that own a tremendous amount of guns. I mean, they've already had the statistics to show. In New York, do you have to register guns?

I know that there are different laws in different states regarding possession of firearms. Well, and specifically, it's county related in New York State, right? So in Long Island, on Long Island, Nassar and Suffolk County, for long guns, just like shotguns and rifles and the thing, you can just go into the store and buy them with a driver's license. Handguns are all still, are, we require permits. You have to go to the Nassau County Police Department or the Suffolk County Police Department and apply for a permit and the like. They haven't told us the exact type of guns, but I would imagine that they're mostly long guns. There's also been some reporting that the crime scene investigators removed a portrait of a woman with a bruised face and a mirror.

What evidentiary or value could either of those items hold? Well, once again, right? So something that you won't find in just about any other household, just piqued probably interest, you know, would have piqued my interest, of course. I think investigators took it for the reason to see if this person is a real person, or it's not a painting or anything like that that somebody drew or, you know, so it's just something that they're going to look at, see if it matches up in any other cases. I know the internet went wild with this and they're trying to attach people to the case

and from different states, but I think right now we need to be paid. specifically with that kind of evidence and see I wish the police department would try to hide some of that stuff as they were taking it out because it led to a lot of a lot of speculation online and a filing cabinet was also removed that doesn't to me at least not a big deal there may be records they need to look through there may be other items in there that they just look at a little bit of restraint would probably help because we don't want to feed the fire we want a real factual information out there exactly right so I'm sure they also zoned in on any computers or laptops or any other electronic devices, including

the router, right? The router is a very important part of these investigations. A lot of people, even police departments sometimes skip that router when they're taking evidence in regards to electronic crimes, but it is a real important aspect of it because it tells you which computer was hooked up to a specific time when something was downloaded or accessed. And we know that the individual who was picking up women off of websites, whether it was, I think it was at the time was back page and then Craigslist, you want to make sure that you can actually prove that and you can do so if you had the right router and computer. Most definitely. Well, Joe Jack alone, retired NYPD Sergeant. Thank you so much as always for coming on. We appreciate your time

and your expertise. Thanks for having me again. That's it for this edition of Law and Crime's Sidebar podcast. You can listen to and download Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcasts. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. We will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.