True Crime All The Time - Long Island Serial Killer Part 4

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

The infamous Long Island Serial Killer case is one of the most disturbing and consequential serial murder investigations in American history. Rex Heuermann was arrested in Manhattan on July 13, 2023, and identified by authorities as the Long Island serial killer. Join Mike and Gibby for the 4th and last part of the Long Island Serial Killer case as they examine newly identified victims, additional murder charges, key forensic evidence, the discovery of an alleged murder-planning document, and Heuermann's eventual guilty plea in 2026.You can help support the show at patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact, merchandise, and donation informationSee 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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It's time to turn those what-ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at Shopify.com slash T-Cat. Go to Shopify.com slash T-Cat. That's Shopify.com slash T-C-A-T-T. Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 503 of the True Crime All the D. time podcast. As always, I'm Mike Ferguson and with me is my partner in true crime. Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you? One and only. The real Mike. You're the one. You're the one and only. Boy, you're full of yourself today, aren't you? The real give me. You know,

please stand up. All right, buddy. So we are coming to the final part, part four on our Long Island serial killer case. Are you ready to get into it? I am. So in part three, three, we covered how a Suffolk County Task Force, right, identified the suspect as well as his arrest, his background. Now, in part four, we'll cover additional charges and evidence, uncovered throughout the investigation, and how prosecutors sought resolution and justice for the victims. On August 24, 2023, authorities announced they had identified Jane Doe No. 7, who was found on Tobay Beach in 2011. As 34-year-old Karen Vergata, as we mentioned in part two, Karen's severed legs were first found in a garbage bag on Fire Island.

On April 20, 1996, her skull was found over 20 miles away in 2011. That's a big gap. It is a big gap. 15 years later, at the time of her disappearance in February, 1996, Karen was living in Manhattan and working as an escort. her identity was confirmed in October 22. But authorities first wanted to contact her family and initiate a confidential grand jury investigation. Authorities didn't say at the time of the announcement whether or not Karen was linked to Rex Herman.

And, you know, I get it. The grand jury investigation is important. But man, you really need to contact a family. Yeah. and go through all of that. At the news conference, D.A. Raymond Tierney also said authorities believe that they would soon identify three more victims, the Asian male and the woman and her daughter, who were found in April 2011. Those identifications would be made by the FBI using genetic genealogy.

Tierney also revealed that the distinctive belt with the initials W. or HM, which was first shown to the public in 2020, was used to bind Maureen-Branard-Barns remains. W.H. are the initials of Rex Heerman's father. There we have it. You know, it's amazing work, right? Obviously, if you think about it. Now, the fact that they had DNA and all that helps, but, you know, the burner phones, tracing all of the evidence. It's a lot of work, but it's also really good police work. It is. Yeah, they did a

really good job getting to the point where they're at. Yeah. On August 28, 2023, CBS reported that two women in the Suffolk County Jail claimed they had violent and aggressive encounters with Heerman over a decade ago. Since his arrest, the Suffolk County Human Trafficking Unit had been interviewing sex workers and showing his picture to women, five women had come forward with helpful information. Not surprised. I'm not surprised at all because we're talking about a man here. And he hasn't been convicted in the story, right, yet as we go through it. But we're talking about a man who killed a large number of women.

And also, I think, hunted. or tried to set up encounters, had encounters probably with people in which maybe there was violence, but he didn't kill them. But when you do that much and interact that much with sex workers over a long period of time,

then there's bound to be people who remember you. Of course. And he's not somebody you're not going to remember either, right? No, 6-4, great big dude. Yeah, ogre looking. Ugly as shit. Yeah, yeah. The ogre one is the one that really cracks me up.

Yeah. It really does. The following month, it was reported that investigators were looking into Hureman in connection with the death of 29-year-old Carmen Vargas, who was killed in 1989 in Freeport, about seven miles west of Hurman's home in Massapequa. at a court hearing on September 27, 2003. Prosecutor said that DNA from Herman's cheek swab matched the DNA from the pizza box, linking him to a hair found on one of the victims.

Defense attorney Michael Brown told CBS, when asked about Herman's mood and demeanor, well, he's somebody who has from the beginning said he's not guilty. I made it a point to tell him, just get through this, Rex. get to the point where we can go to trial and don't show emotion. He's a fellow who was working, has never been arrested, has a wife and children. Okay. Those are all facts. I don't know what they mean in relation to whether or not he's guilty of these crimes.

On January 16th, 2024, Rex Sherman was indicted for the death of a fourth victim, Maureen-Brainard Barnes. And he kind of felt like it was just a matter of time. Yeah, that they were going to get them on that one. Yeah. I mean, you know they were working hard to link it. He was linked to the murder via DNA from a female hair found in the buckle of a belt used to bind Maureen's ankles, feet and legs. The odds were $8 trillion to one that the hair matched Aza Ellorip or Victoria Heerman.

Authorities followed Victoria on a train and watched her throw out a drink. You know, again, I feel like that would be, I don't want to say fun because I don't, I don't know that police work is fun. But in the grand scheme of things, you know, it's like a spy movie, right? You're following someone. You're waiting for them to discard something that you think might have DNA on it. Okay. It's not like you can go up and ask them at that time because you're trying to build a case.

So you kind of got to be, you know, secretive about it. Well, if they know you're there, they're probably not going to throw in. thing away that they think they might have left their DNA on. But, I mean, eight trillion to one. That's what we're used to hearing, right? These numbers in the trillions, it's really to the exclusion of all others at that point. Prosecutors believed all hair transfers were made from Hurerman to the victims. His family was out of town during the murders of the Gilgo Beach Four.

So I think, you know, when you go back to us talking in the last episode about, you know, his wife's hair or, you know, things like that being found, well, they knew that she wasn't a part of the murders, right? She wasn't even anywhere near town. He was committing these murders while his wife and kids were away. Yeah. media, Aisa Alarip and her children were not involved, not even in the jurisdiction when these murders took place. In March 24, Heerman's former neighbor Etienne de Villiers, I don't know why that's, it's fun to say, but I'm also messing it up almost every time. I don't like you know it that time. I don't even know if that's how you say it, but it's fun,

said that Aza told him she didn't think Rex was guilty. Yeah, but why wouldn't she? She's going to say that because if she thinks he's guilty, then she's like, I've been with this monster. All this time. Yeah. No, it doesn't surprise me because I don't know that he was a monster to her. Yeah. Now, there are a lot of killers who treat their significant other horribly, right?

They're perpetrators of physical, emotional abuse, things like that. I'm not sure that this guy was. So I think in a case like that, wife, children, they're even more shocked that he could be involved in all of this. And when they were home, he probably was spending time with them. It was when they went away for the summer that he was, you know, doing these things. And they weren't there so they didn't know what he was doing. They just assumed he was probably working. CBS quoted DeVilleux saying, that house is a mess.

and he was spending a fortune on hookers. I told her face to face and she said, no, he wouldn't do that. I said, yes, he would. He was spending a fortune on call girls and wouldn't drop a dime on that house. I mean, people were really upset that he would not fix up this house, dude.

Yeah. And maybe even more upset once they found out that he was spending what money they thought should have been used to fix up this house on sex workers. It's like, hey, you could have fixed that house up and made it look better in the neighborhood for all of us. Right, which would have benefited us, but you were selfish and wanted to spend all your

money on sex workers. Oh, and by the way, you killed a number of those sex workers. ASA issued a statement at that time saying, I will listen to all the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of the trial. I have given Rex the benefit of the doubt as we all deserve. And I really don't blame her for that. No. I don't because, again,

I think up until, you know, it's proven, she believes that, you know, he's this good husband, the person that she thinks she knows. I just can't see many wives. Just I think I can see them walking into the, to the jail, you know, meeting their husband and saying, you know, what's this about you hiring all these sex workers and this Other stuff, you know, tell me now. You better tell me the truth. I already know the truth.

So go ahead and tell me the truth. You know, just kind of like getting into their face like an investigator would, but more. Yeah. Well, you scared me. I felt like you've done that before. Yeah. Yeah. Like you've literally delivered that line in a jail at some point.

I just feel like, you know, a wife would not just, he's innocent. I, you know, I'm sure she had to have a conversation with him. Yeah, but what's he going to say? Yeah. Yeah. I did all that or no, honey, you know me. I would have never done that. You'll see at trial, all the evidence is going to come out.

I have to imagine, although I don't know, but I have to imagine that he probably said, you know, something like that. Ace's attorney also said, you can go forward with a divorce and still not believe that your spouse of 27 years is capable of being a serial killer. And that's the thing that I think we have to keep in mind, right? It's not like they'd been married two or three years. No. 27 years is a long time.

It is. I said it. I just had my 30-year anniversary. Do you know how shocked my wife and kids would be if it came out that I was a serial killer? Oh, they would be very shocked. Yeah. If it came out that you were, my wife would be like, I told you that. I told you that years ago.

And she has told me that a number of times. I think Gibby is a serial killer. The fact that she keeps telling you again and again, I have to talk to her about that. But, you know, 30 years is a long time. be married. And again, I think you kind of hit on it, but, you know, what does that say about you? Yeah. Or what do you think in your mind that's that people are going to think about me? I've stayed with this man for all these years who may be a killer. If it, if it turns out to be true, well, what are they going to say about me? Yeah, absolutely. You don't want to believe it to be true

because it changes everything you ever knew. Yeah. And it's going to change your life, right? dramatically. It appears that Hurman's defense would focus on corrupt former police chief James Burke. At a hearing in April 24, defense attorney Michael Brown suggested the real killer might have alluded

arrest when Burke was running the investigation. He even suggested Burke might have been involved in the four murders. He said there were numerous leads alluding to Burke's involvement, but he didn't offer more details. Okay. I think

think that's a good defense tactic, right? Sure. I'm, I'm casting like a little bit of doubt. I don't have any proof. I'm, I can't give you anything, but, you know, we don't know that it wasn't this guy. Yeah, because, you know, he was into some strange things. After the hearing, Brown referred to reporting from the Washington Post that suggested in 2021, investigators focused on a retired police officer who lived near Heurman and planned to arrest him. Now, this was. was disputed by former DA Tim Sini. However, bringing up Burke's corruption would allow Brown to question how evidence was obtained in handling, which could lead to reasonable doubt at trial.

And I have always said it, but you write, trials are like a chess match. Each side's making moves and countering moves and, you know, things which on the surface may not seem to make a lot of sense, have, do make sense once you learn the, the overarching goal. Yeah. I guess for lack of a better term. Correct that show, the Lincoln lawyer.

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and 365-day returns, quince.com slash teacat. James Burke's lawyer, James O'Work, said that Brown was exploiting a giant conspiracy theory. And Jimmy Burke is a lot of things. Some of them are less than admirable, but he's not a killer. That same month, investigators used cadaver dogs to search a remote wooded section of Manorville, close to where partial remains were found in the early 2000s. neither of the Manorville victims had been linked to Rex, and officials wouldn't say what prompted the search.

But on June 6, 2024, Rex was charged with two more murders, the 1993 murder of Sandra Castilla, and the 2003 murder of Jessica Taylor. Now, Castia's death had not been previously linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killings. Sandra was from Trinidad and Tobago, but was living in New York City when she disappeared. On November 20th, 1993, two hunters near Old Fish Cove Road in North Sea, a hamlet,

Hamlet. Yeah. Almost said, Hamnet. I don't know what I said. You're thinking of, didn't come out. You were thinking of Hamlet's son,

Hamnet. Yeah. But it's a hamlet in South Hampton. They found, her remains. This is about an hour east of Gilgo Beach. Sandra was found lying on her back with her arms outstretched over her head. There were indications of sexual assault and she had multiple sharp force injuries. She was last seen the day before November 19th.

Now her death was originally linked to convicted killer John Bittrow, who authorities mentioned as a potential suspect right in the Gilgo Beach killing. back in 2017. We talked about him in a previous episode. But the three male hairs found on Sandra's body did not match bitroll. And we actually talk about it a lot. You know, when you have convicted killers, known killers, especially serial killers, does it not make sense to try to link some unsolved cases to these individuals?

You already know they're capable of. murder. Yeah. So I think it happens quite a bit. The DNA just kind of here disproved that it was BitRolf. The lab determined that 99.96 of the North American population could be excluded as a contributor of the male hair found on Castilla, but Rex Heerman was not a part of the group that could be excluded. Oh, there you go. You know, you can lock him in on that. Yeah. Now, it is a, It is a far cry from the number that we talked about, the six or the eight trillion to one. Yeah, yeah. 99.96% of the North American population is a lot of people.

There are what? 330 or 340 million now? I don't know what the number is now. They were 30 million in Canada, so. Oh, that's right. You got to include Canada. Yeah. Close to 400 million.

Yeah. That's all there is in all of Canada. I think it's only like 30-some million. I don't know. Not that much. Yeah. That doesn't seem right. Canada's huge.

Well, it's huge. It's got a lot of land. It does, right. I know it's densely, sparsely populated in certain sections, but 30 million. Could I be off? I think you could be. I don't know what the number is. You could be spot on.

You do spend a lot of time in Canada, so I'm surprised you don't know the answer. So much so that I think you're getting free health care at this point. which they might want to look into. They probably won't pay some taxes when I cross that border. Exactly. Yeah. But it's still a really high percent, right? That he, the hair belongs to him.

Right. But if you're a defense attorney, you can still argue that it's, uh, there's, there's 0.04% it's not him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can hang on to whatever you want to. Yep.

I feel like, uh, like, like, was that? There's a show we watch. I don't know if what was Seinfeld. But it was like, but there's still a chance, you know. So you're telling me there's a chance. Yes. Yeah. DNA evidence from Sandra's case was compared to DNA from the Gilgo case in 2014.

Another lab independently confirmed the DNA testing. A male hair was found on a surgical draught under Jessica's body. That hair was tested in 2003. And once again, 99.96% of the normal. Northern, a North American population could be excluded, but not Rex Sherman. I mean, I think, you know, prosecutors are ecstatic. You know, they're like, okay, another slam dunk. We already know what the defense is going to come back and say.

You know, they're going to try to play on this 0.04%, but we're not concerned. No, because, okay, look at it as one case, right? all this huge percentage is excluded he's not yeah but then you have another body and then you have um one case that's eight trillion to one and then you know you have all these that are stacking up so it's not just one so now what's the what are the odds that he can't be excluded from all of these different ones it's kind of compounded against him it goes up exponentially right the the idea that it that it is him also rex worked in the same area as jesska at the time of her murder he was also in midtown on july 25th 2003 the day she disappeared he also would have been

in possession of a vehicle matching the description from a witness at the scene by the dump site so now let's what are the odds that he can't be excluded he's in the same vicinity from where she disappeared. And he's also in possession of a vehicle. The numbers get crazy. Yeah, it's starting to stack up even more and more. At a certain point that how could it not be him, right? Prosecutors noted that Hurerman accessed a Newsday article titled

Cop Seek Help in IDing Manorville body about the discovery of Jessica's remains. after Jessica's body was found, he allegedly tried to cover up an internet search for a new truck, despite the fact that his vehicle was just over a year old. Yeah, but he probably said, I got to get rid of this thing because they... Somebody might have seen me.

Yeah. The latest indictment also revealed that Herman kept a planning document that was described as a blueprint for murder. The document was found on one of 350, electronic devices seized from his home. It was created in 2000 and modified over several years. I mean, a playbook, really. Now, I feel like I own a lot of electronic devices.

350 is a bow load. Yeah. Are you counting all your little tiny ones that you use? No. Okay. But you do have a lot. Yeah. Now, he also had like 300 guns.

So I don't know what's going on with this dude. He won't fix up his house. house, but he's got a vault with 300 guns and he has 350 electronic devices. But to, you know, to have something on there that basically is the blueprint for a murder. And to revise it over the years, it's not going to be good evidence. It's going to be good evidence against you. It's not going to be good for you. Yeah. It's not going to build well for him. The document contained instructions for how to select and kill victims and dispose of bodies.

It contained headings such as supplies, problems, with DNA listed as the top item under the problems heading. Now, isn't that funny, though? What he had listed as the top problem is the problem. Turned out to be his top problem. Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't think he was a dummy. I think he was a fairly intelligent guy.

So he knew that DNA was probably the thing that he really needed to worry about the most. My thought is, though, you can take all the precautions in the world. But as we talked about earlier, how do you know that one of your wife's hairs is clinging to your coat or your pants or something like that and is going to get transferred? Unless you're dripping down naked, shaving every piece of hair off of your body. Oh, it's just a disturbing image that I now have in my head. I wish you wouldn't.

And you're acting like an ape or something. I don't, please don't do that. And then go through some type of machine that washes you and blow dries you off. And then put on a like the hazmat suit and then go out and do your business in a car that was never yours that nobody you knew ever was in it. Yeah. Where are you getting this machine from? Do you have one of these machines? I'm just saying that it's going to be almost impossible.

Yeah. I think it's a lot harder than people. people think. I really do, which is a good thing because we don't want these people to get away with these crimes. The supply list included items such as booties, lie, acid, and a police scanner. Okay. Okay. I get it. Some people are list makers. My wife is a list maker. She is. But she's also not a serial killer. So no harm, no foul. If you are a serial killer, probably not a great idea to keep this evidence, this type of evidence just lying around.

But my thought is, and I have the same with a lot of killers, almost every killer. I just don't think they think they're going to get caught. No, I don't think so either. But, I mean, if anything, at least, you know, like, change the words up. Like put the last letter of the word at first and, you know.

Oh, yeah, because nobody could crack that code at the FBI. they have people that literally do this for a living. They can't crack that simple. They're like, what is this word? We don't know. This is like the zodiac cipher. We're never going to figure this out.

What are you thinking? There was a section titled Body Prep, which contained steps to clean and dismember bodies. And the packaging of bodies for transport. There were notes about removing tattoos and other identifying marks. And we know he removed at least one. At least one. At least one we know of.

But, you know, this is so specific gives. I mean, this, it's not like you could even argue that this is a list that you were going to go by for some construction work or a camping trip or something like that. You were literally talking about cleaning or how to clean and dismember. bodies. And, you know, they're saying it's getting updated throughout time. Sure. Okay. I mean, maybe, I don't know if they can. Can they go back and see when it was updated and see if it correlates with? Maybe. You know, okay, so you changed your list here because you came across something new with this victim and you want to make sure the next victim you were prepared. Yeah. It's, it's entirely possible. Another section titled Post-Event, listed tasks such as Burning Glove.

disposing of pictures, changing car tires, and setting up an alabom. I mean, this guy, you know, you might as well just hand this thing to the jury and say, convict me now. Yeah, here's everything I did. Chime is fee-free banking built for you. They are not like the stuffy, traditional old banks, charging you overdraft and monthly fees. Chime does things differently. They also have thousands of fee-free ATMs.

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And Chime card provided by Chime. Times Bank Partners for more information on APY rates. My pay, spot me, and travel perks, go to chime.com slash disclosures. Optional products and services may have fees or charging. The pre-prepap section included steps such as checking the weather, setting up staging area, and checking an area for surveillance cameras. You're also really ramping up the premeditation here. Oh, for sure.

You're not going to be able to argue that this was a spur of the moment, heat of the moment act when you're checking for surveillance cameras and all that. I mean, it seems like he's being really thorough. Well, again, he's an architect. Yeah. I think they're very detail oriented. This reminds me of somebody in a profession like that. The prep section outlined tasks such as building a table with a crossbar underneath to support heavier. objects. The document had specific sites for disposal of physical evidence. Then there was this section

things to remember and it included lessons learned from previous murders, such as the use of heavier rope since lighter ones broke under the stress of being tightened. I mean, as a prosecutor, I'm like, I'm liking this right here. Well, it might be part of the modifications. Yeah. Right. It's the after action report or whatever you want to call it, he's going back and saying what went wrong with previous encounters. The document had a note about the importance of sleep to avoid problems and to increase playtime, believe to be a reference to sexual mutilation and acts against victim. Make sure you get good quality sleep so you can not have any problems and

increase your play time. Wow. And problems was capitalized. So was the play and playtime. And I just wonder if problems, and I think they're trying to argue this, does refer to maybe not being able to, you know, get an erection? I don't know.

I think that they're trying to make that argument. Sure. As maybe that being part of it. The document also referenced the 1996 book Mind Hunter by John Douglas. Other books by the same author were found in Herman's house. I have all those books. They're right over there. Yep, they're right over here.

And they're good, right? John Douglas, famed FBI profiler. The show is also very good. The show is very good. I wanted to come back. Yeah. at a news conference announcing the charges. D.A. Raymond Tierney said,

Heerman was the lead suspect in the death of Valerie Mack, whose remains were found near Jessica's in Manorville. That's not really surprising, though. Now, I have to believe that they thought for quite a while, that he was involved in most, if not all of these suspected, you know, Gilgo slash Long Island serial killer cases. I mean, we did that unsolved this, you know, this week.

And in my mind, I'm like, maybe he drove on down to Atlantic City. Yeah. Maybe. We don't know. Tierney noted that an analysis of Herman's seized devices showed a significant collection of violent bondage, torture-related pornography dating back to 1994. Wow. And man, I don't know. I don't know what that does to somebody's brain.

Not going to be good. I mean, if you're looking at violent, torture, pornography, and that's what gets you off, how long can you look at that stuff before you need to actually experience? Well, and that's kind of what we've heard from a lot of serial killers. And you can see it in their backgrounds, right? They progress. it starts as fantasy, maybe peeping, stealing underwear off the clothes line, you name it, right? It runs the gamut of what people do.

But then at a certain point, it stops being fantasy to them and they make it reality. Tyranny said, it's alleged that the pornographic images that were accessed by Herman are consistent with the crime scenes of both Sandra Castilla and Jessica Taylor. Yeah. So not only is he watching all of this, when he does commit his murders, I hate to say it, but it's almost as if he's using this stuff as a playbook

for, you know, what he's going to do. I mean, these are his fantasies. Tierney said about the planning document, we allege that this document evidences the defendant's intent in committing the charged crimes that his intent was specifically to locate these victims, hunt them down, and to bring them under his control and kill them.

At the time of the charges, Aza Ellorup released a statement saying, she had not met Rex in 1993 and did not believe he's capable of any other alleged crimes. I mean, what else is she going to say at this time? Yeah. I don't know. The statement said today's indictment further illustrates that Asa Ellorup has no involvement in any of the alleged crimes that her estranged husband, Raxe-Herman, has been charged with.

Ms. Ellarup married Rex in 1996. She was not residing with him in the Massapequa Park domicile in 1993, the year Miss Castilla was murdered. Moreover, according to the government, at the time, of the death of Ms. Taylor, Ms. Ellrop was once again not in this jurisdiction. Yeah, I don't think people are thinking she had anything to do with this. No, I think that's what she's trying to make sure of, though, with this statement. Yeah. Distance herself. Yeah, I don't, I don't know if she's saying, oh, my husband didn't do this now at this point. I think she's just making sure everybody knows, hey, I hadn't even met this guy in 1993. But it did say after 20,

seven years, she maintains the belief that her estranged husband is not capable of committing these heinous acts. Well, you don't want to believe it because you were with somebody for that long. Like we said earlier, once you acknowledge it, what does it say about you as a person? Yeah, and I literally, I'm not blaming her at all. No. Assuming she didn't have anything to do with any of the criminal acts, which I don't believe she did. I don't even think she was anywhere near the.

places where these occurred, I think it would be natural for a lot of spouses to just not be able to believe that their partner was capable of this. According to CBS, Heerman was living with another woman at his Massapequa Park home before Sandra Castilla was killed. His wife and children were in Vermont when Jessica Taylor was killed in 2003. On December 17, 2020, Rex Heerman was charged with the murder of 24-year-old Valerie Mack, who was working as an escort in Philadelphia in 2000 when she went missing. Heerman told the judge, Your Honor, I'm not guilty of any of these charges. And this marked the first time he had spoken in court since his arrest in July 2023.

According to court documents, Harris found near Valerie severed wrist were linked to Hehrman's estranged wife, Asa Ellorup, and his daughter. to the exclusion of, again, 99.65 this time of the North American population. But here's the thing, right? We talk about how his wife and kids weren't really anywhere, even at home, at the time of most of these murders. But the other thing is his daughter would have been a very young child at the time of the murder. And there's no one that's going to believe that she committed this murder. No.

with her mom or however you want to spend it. All three of them went out together and did this as a group. Right, or that they went with him or anything like that. Court documents also noted that pornographic images of sexual torture found on Hurman's electronic devices showed binding similar to rope ligatures found on Valerie's remains. Heerman also reached out to a plumbing company for draining of his home's pipes after the murder. That's pretty interesting. That is interesting.

What was he flushing down those pipes? I don't know. Now, a lot of people, you know, have been caught from blood in their drain. I don't know if it was something like that. Or if he was trying to get rid of something and something got caught. Yeah. No idea. Court documents further allege that in his planning document, he referenced a dump site as Mill Road.

Valerie's remains were found near Mill Road. road in Manorville. I think it's hard to overstate how big a deal this planning document was. I think it's a huge discovery for the prosecutor. If you're on the jury and they lay out this planning document and then they're able to tie it to different murders, you got that, you got the DNA, you've got the burners, the cell records. It would be hard for anybody to say, oh, I think, I don't think this guy did it. Yeah, for sure. It really would be. There's just a, there's a lot more evidence here than a lot of

the cases we talk about. Absolutely. I think that's pretty easy to say. D.A. Raymond Tierney said that all this evidence was consistent with the murders occurring in the Massapequa Park home. Valerie's tattoos were removed and a similar cutting instrument was used to dismember Jessica Taylor and I do find that to be very interesting as well all the forensic type evaluations you know when and this is kind of morbid but you know they can go as far as as looking at some of the remains in the tool marks right and macroscopically matching them to another set of remains and say, oh, the same tool was used on both. That is unbelievable to me.

Yeah, how they can do that. Again, it's my whole thing about how is anybody getting away with anything these days? Very difficult. But they still are. Yeah. That's the scary part. I mean, look, he was able to do this for a long period of time. He really did.

Yeah. You know, that's that's the sad thing about it, you know, but once they were able to get on his trail, then that's when it fell apart for him. Yeah, it all kind of started to fall together pretty quickly, I think, or pretty well, you'd have to say. On April 8, 2006, Rex Heerman pleaded guilty to killing seven women between 1993 and 2011 and admitted to killing an eighth. In exchange for his guilty plea, he wouldn't be charged with the murder of Karen Vergata, who was identified in 2023. He originally faced 10 murder charges for seven murders. Three of those cases were charged as both first degree and second degree murder. Three double-up charges were dismissed with his plea. So, I mean, I guess he got out of some charges. But in the

grand scheme of things, he ain't never seen the light of day. Yeah, so why not go ahead and admit to it? If you did it, why not admit to everything you did? Why, what's, why hold back? Yeah, I don't know. I can see why maybe he just went ahead and wanted to plead guilty because by this point, he had to know the mountain of evidence against him. And there's just no way that he was getting around it. And maybe, I doubt this is why, but maybe he didn't want to put the victim's families. Maybe he didn't want to put his, you know, his wife and his kids through, you know, in these long trials. Yeah, I would say maybe his wife and kids.

Yeah. I don't know if he gave a, you know what about the victim's families. Now, maybe he could have. Maybe there were some things. He just didn't want to come out in open, he didn't want to come out in open court. That would have been very, very much true. Because there was more gruesome details to come out that, you know, he just said, I'm going to be convicted anyway. Let's just wrap this thing up.

I really don't know. At a news conference, Suffolk County, D.A. Raymond Tierney apologized to the families and commended the authority saying he thought by killing them, he could silence them forever and get away with murder. he tried to present himself as the harmless father next door, but he was wrong. There was no negotiation for reduced sins. It was Sherman's decision to plead guilty. And the families were asked if they wanted to accept the plea or go to trial. They agreed to accept the plea. And I don't blame him.

I mean, justice is going to be done, right? He's never getting out of prison. ever. We haven't talked about his sentence, but you know he's never getting out of prison. And the family doesn't have to hear some of the details, which you know would be very hard for them. I mean, you also look at it, but the plea, it's a slam dunk. It's done. Don't have to worry about anything going wrong at the trial, even though it looks pretty solid. Could something come out at the trial that ends up backfiring? Could. The other thing that prosecutors talk about a lot is, is what that does as far as appeals later on.

Yeah. Which is a really big deal. So I could understand why everybody involved thought the plea deal was, was a good idea. So he admitted to meeting all eight victims, strangling them and dumping their bodies. He also agreed to cooperate with the FBI as part of his plea. His sentencing is set for June 17. Yeah. So as of right now, we're in May. It's, I don't know when this comes out, but when we're taping this, it's in May. So it's about three weeks away from where we sit right now. I mean, I think there's no

doubt he's expected to receive life in prison. Sure. Without parole. A bunch of consecutive life sentences, maybe a number of sentences of something like 25 years to life. Heerman's defense attorney Michael Brown told reporters outside court that the guilty plea brought a sense of release for Hehrman. He said, when you have that type of stuff in your head and on your body, I think by admitting it, it's cathartic to some extent. Maybe. Yeah.

Okay. I just think he knew he was caught. I think he the gig was up yeah I really think he probably had conversations with his attorney I'm sure he had a really good idea of all the evidence that was you know against him and he just thought there's no way there's no way a jury is not going to find me guilty let's get it over with and we'll move on when asked whether his client has expressed remorse he said heerman is likely to have something to say in court on June 17. So that will be interesting, right? It's still yet to come. We'll have to see. He said that Herman will not provide details of how he committed the crimes at the sentencing here. Brown added he certainly wanted to save the families of the victims, the ordeal of going to trial, coupled with saving his family from that.

So I think you said that. I mean, it could be. Or the defense attorney just could be saying that. Hurman's ex-wife, Asa and their daughter attended the hearing. Asa and her attorney briefly addressed reporters, saying, My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Their loss is immeasurable, and the focus should be on them at this time in the moment. Melissa Cannes, the sister of Maureen-Brenard Barnes, said,

There's finally a sense of relief. Today is not about the person responsible. Today is about the women's lives who were stolen, about their voices, their future, their families. They are the reason we are here. Well said. Very well said. I mean, you've got to put this guy away, right?

He has to be held accountable for his actions, but they're not there for him. Everybody is there for the victim. Right. She also addressed other families going through something similar saying, keep going. Your loved ones matter. They're not forgotten. And one day answers can come. come. And that's a very powerful statement as well. It is. Because we, you and I do an unsolved podcast.

And we're always talking about how, you know, these families, they just don't, they won't give up. No. And they shouldn't, but they, they say it. We're never given up. They're troopers, man. And I think this is proof. And we see a lot of cases like this where even 20, 30, 40 years later, some of these cases can be solved. And the victims can get justice. Luckily, in this case, he was still alive to face justice. After the guilty plea, it was reported that Asa Ellorup was still living in the Pass Massapequa Park home and even sleeping in the basement, which has been called the

kill room. I don't know about that. It's a tough one. Yeah. I mean, is there not a motel eight down the road? I get it. Motels are, you know, expensive. but I don't know that that I want to live.

Now, she did live there for, what, 27 years or so? It's the home she knows. She does know the home well, but she now also knows that most likely people were killed inside that home. Yeah. So that's got to factor in a little bit, right? When you lay your head down on the pillow. But not home on the market.

But who's going to buy it? I don't know. There's probably somebody, somewhere says, I want to buy that home. Well, somebody will probably turn into some wacky museum maybe or something. Aisa said she constantly relives the horrific things that

happened in the home. Yeah, that's what happens if you're still going to live in the home. Yeah. In an episode of the Gilgo Beach Killer House of Secrets, Aza revealed that she's redone the basement where Rex told her he murdered and dismembered victims.

Listen, you can redo it all you want. I mean, this is an HGT TV rock the block. Yeah. Still, it happened. Redoing it doesn't take away what happened there. And I'm not putting her down at all. I don't want to be negative against her.

I don't think she had anything to do with this. I just think, man, I don't, I couldn't do it. No. She was asked what she wanted people to know about why she moved into the basement. She said, the brutal truth is that Rex Sherman said he dismembered the bodies in this room. That is the brutal truth. Okay. Now there's me. I'm in this room and I'm here because I do feel spiritual. I'm trying to say spiritually in my own way that I'm really sorry for what these victims went through. I'm haunted by dreams every night. It will never go away. It will follow me for the rest of my life. Okay. I'm not sure I understand that.

Yeah, I don't either. I think it's haunting you because you are in the area that the horrific. things happened. And not just in the area in the house. I just wonder if maybe she's also feeling some survivor's guilt, because we know that can happen as well. I just don't know. I really don't. As a condition of his guilty plea, Hureman was allowed to meet one-on-one with Asa and their daughter, Victoria, to confess to them before doing so in court. That's got to be tough. They asked him to explain of his motives, but he didn't explicitly state what pushed him to kill. Victoria recalled he said that his demons got to him. She asked her father, if he ever stopped to consider that the victims were someone's family,

and he responded that he didn't really think of the women as human beings. There you go. And I think that is pretty telling. It is. And also pretty consistent with serial killers. Exactly what I was thinking. I don't think that they see their prey, and I'm using that word on purpose, as human beings. I think they see their victims as prey.

And therefore, maybe they are able to kill. Most of us can't or wouldn't kill because we do see other people as human beings. And we don't want to take someone's life. Ehrman revealed that he choked the first victim to death inside his truck. in November 1993, this was the only murder that wasn't planned. He said it just happened. Was the catalyst for everything that happened after that? Could have been.

But he did say the other victims were all planned and were killed in the basement when his family was away. Again, not a place that I want to sleep. No. Not at all. Although the Long Island serial killer has been identified and multiple victims, have been to link to wrecks. There are still additional cases of victims found on the beach that remain unsolved.

Shannon Gilbert's cause and manner of death are still listed as undetermined. Police still believe that based on the evidence, she was a murder. Yeah. And her death was most likely non-criminal. But obviously, there are people that don't believe that. Perhaps one of the biggest developments is that the Jane Doe that we talked about, called Peaches and her daughter have been identified in April 2025 with the help of genetic genealogy. Peaches and her daughter were identified as 26-year-old Tanya Jackson, a U.S. Army veteran, and her two-year-old

daughter, Tatiana Dykes. And we mentioned it earlier, right? Tanya was found in Hempstead Lake State Park in Lakeview, New York. On June 28, 1997, Tanya's daughter was found 20 miles away, a long ocean parkway near Gilgo Beach in April 2011. Tanya, originally from Mobile, Alabama, served in the Army from 93 to 95. She and her daughter were living in Brooklyn and were estranged from their family at the time of their deaths.

They were identified in 2023. Law enforcement developed investigative leads pointing to Tatiana's father, Andrew Dykes as a suspect, Dykes was a married father of two and met Tanya when they were stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. He was listed as Tatiana's father.

On her birth certificate, he was transferred to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn. In 1995, Tanya and Tatiana soon joined him there before they went missing. Tatiana had been honorably discharged from the army and was a single mother living in Brooklyn's sunset park neighborhood. she was possibly working as a doctor's medical assistant she might have had a female friend or neighbor watching her baby dyke served in the army until 2001 as a military instructor specializing an anatomy and physiology he then worked as a florida state trooper busy guy yeah he after identifying the bodies investigators surveilled dykes in tampa and recovered a cup and straw he threw in the trash.

His DNA was linked to DNA from Tanya's remains. What I've learned is that I am not going to throw my trash anywhere public. I'm taking it home with me. And then I will burn it inside my home. What does it matter? You just said you've said a million times your DNA's all over this place. That's true. I'll just have him come down here and swab your chair.

Yeah. They'll get you. They'll get me. He was 66 years old and was arrested on December, 3rd, 2025, and then indicted on December 18th. He was charged with second-degree murder for Tanya's death. There wasn't enough evidence to move forward with a murder charge for Tatiana's death, but he is believed to be responsible. The case is currently proceeding. So that's interesting in that, again, you kind of just maybe assumed or many people assumed that it was Hureman. What did

strike me as being so different in that one is the the very young child two year old so now that could have been an outlier but turns out it wasn't him at all do you think you know at one point maybe dykes was thinking i think i'm in the clear oh i guarantee it yeah either they're never going to catch me because it's been so long or they're going to pin it on this guy yeah they're going to group it in with this guy and i'm going to get away with And now finally, as we wrap up this case, we have to talk about the identity of the Asian male found on Gilgo Beach on April 4th, 2011. His identity is still on that. The victim was found wearing women's clothing.

It's possible that they identified as a woman or were known by others as a woman. Investigators believed the victim died in 2006 or earlier from blunt force trauma. the victim was between 17 to 23 years old, about 5 foot six, and wearing a blue-ribbed short-sleeved shirt, women's pants, and a bra. The victim may have been a sex worker and spent time in New York City. One challenge in this particular case is that Asian people are underrepresented in the genealogy database. And I did not know that.

I did not either. But there were a number of articles that talked about it. So the Long Island serial killer case is coming to a resolution right in the courts. But there are still a lot of questions remaining. The public doesn't really know many details of Rex Herman's motivations for killing sex workers. And I don't know if he's going to give them. It's possible that maybe one day he'll be willing to give a detailed public confession or that additional murders could be linked to him in the future.

And I think that is a tough part of the case. And the motivation could just simply be that he was addicted to pornography. He wanted to experience those things in real life. Right. And he felt as though this was the only way he could do. I really have no idea. It could have been sexual in nature. I mean, I think it was.

I do too. I think it had something in a combo nation. Combo nation? Yeah. He had something to do with his mom and him, his relationship with his mom. Yeah, because that was strange. It was. And I think that had something to do with it, along with his, you know, fetish, fantasy,

whatever you want to say about the type of pornography that he liked. Yeah, the bondage, the torporology. of the torture. And I think it just kind of, you know, steam rolled from there. Yeah. I mean, you and I have covered so many serial killers.

And the one thing that, you know, never ceases to mystify me is how these guys can somehow gain sexual gratification from murder. Yeah. Sometimes, you know,

we've heard people talk about it the striking of blows is somehow sexually gratifying to its people. I'll never understand it. But I also, even though we're not surprised, we've been doing this for 10 years, I still don't understand how people can make the decision to kill people. I just can't. Yeah, I don't understand it either. And with him, you know, they have their victim count,

but I really believe he's probably killed more. I guarantee it. I guarantee with a guy like Heerman who was operating for that many years and doing it the way he was doing it. Because he's not going to volunteer. No. Right. Additional victims that they don't know about. But I'm sure that at some point, they will link additional cases to him.

I bet you anything. But that's it for our entire series on Rex Heurman, the Gilgo Beach murders, the long. Long Island serial killer. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.