True Crime with Kimbyr - Murdered After a Night Out: The Tragic Story of Rebecca Koster : Part 2

Episode Date: October 30, 2024

Becky's murder shocked the tight-knit community of Medford, Long Island. As her friends and family grappled with grief, investigators worked tirelessly to uncover the truth behind the senseless crime. In this True Crime with Kimbyr episode, Kimbyrleigha takes you deep into the investigation, examining the clues and evidence left behind. Was Becky targeted? Or was this a random act of violence? As the case unfolds, the details become even more chilling, leading to a shocking discovery that no one could have predicted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To further investigate, the detectives knocked on every door in that vicinity all around the neighborhood to see if they could find any evidence of Becky's whereabouts, but they found nothing. No one had heard or seen anything. Jason is sitting there perplex as to why they would send people in the cops over his place. He lives with Dan, and he's a close friend of Becky's. He's frustrated saying, if she was in my house, I would know. She's not here. She hasn't been here. He's like, wow. Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars.

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No way. Almost like this was unnecessary. But everyone looks suspicious at this point when they don't have any leads. The officers bring Dan down to the station and since this case has escalated into more of an endangered person's investigation, Philip Frendo from Suffolk County.

He's a detective. He's assisting. He sits down with Dan to ask him everything he knows about Becky. Dan's demeanor at this point is a mixture of frustration, confusion, anger, and concern. He explains, he met up with Nicole, Becky, a group with their friends at Kelly's alehouse. At some point, Nicole goes home. Everyone moves from Kelly's alehouse to butcher boys.

And then they hung out, drank, plate pool, everything was normal. When closing time came, Becky, along with two other women, got into Dan's car and he dropped Becky off first around 3.30. He says, those women can corroborate everything I'm telling you. And he tells Frendo, I did nothing wrong. I love her. I would never hurt Becky. So then they ask, was she intoxicated when you dropped her off?

And he's like, well, yeah, I mean, she'd been drinking. She was a little wobbly. I had to hold her up when I was bringing her to the door. But it's not like she couldn't get in her own door and unlock it and go inside. She wasn't falling down drunk. And they were like, are you sure she made it inside? And he's like, yes. I watched her go inside and close the door behind her.

Dan is cooperative. Detective Frendo asked him if he's willing to take her. a polygraph just so that they can clear his name. And most of you who know, polygraph results are not admissible in court. They're a detection device. They use them to probe for information. Maybe someone's hiding something. And using this, they can press them even further.

Dan agrees he'll take the polygraph, and they focus it on whether Dan had any knowledge of Becky's disappearance or her whereabouts. Well, it turns out the result shows deception, Even though they're not reliable, this result keeps Dan under the microscope. They sat there interviewing him for another couple hours. But they did reach out and they were able to confirm with those two other women that Dan drove her home and they saw Becky go into that house. Jason could corroborate that fact as well that Becky had not been at their place.

And Dan has an alibi for when Becky went missing and for when those texts were sent. He wasn't in a basement holding Becky captive. So Dan is cleared for now. But that doesn't mean much when it comes to Becky's family. family and friends. Jamie knew that Becky wouldn't lie about being tied up, and she would know if it was Dan, unless, I don't know, he had her blindfolded or something. Or maybe someone was trying to make it look like they were Dan. And even if the police couldn't prove Dan did something to Becky, there was no way she would lie to her mother. Something wasn't right. People wanted Dan arrested. He was having a nervous breakdown, pleading to Jason, what do I do to make people believe I didn't do anything wrong? While, detectives are interviewing Nicole and all of Becky's other friends that were with her on December 3rd into the early morning hours of December 4th. They're building out their timeline.

Nicole lets them know that the night actually started at Becky's house. They had bought some weed earlier that day, and she explained that Becky had a back injury and relied on smoking weed every day to deal with ongoing pain. That night, they were in Becky's garage, smoking and drinking. then they headed out to Kelly's Alehouse. And Nicole, like everyone has already said, goes home around 1.30 in the morning. Nicole says, Becky came outside. She grabbed a cigarette and her jacket out of my car.

And I have not seen her since. Well, that's more information than they had before. It doesn't really add much help to their search, but every piece of this timeline is important. And worried about Becky's disappearance spread quickly. The local news stations were all over this case now. They were going live from all the different locations Becky had been seen last, as well as gathering right in front of Dan's house and Barbara and Larry's house asking the public for help and to contact

the authorities with any information they may have. Her family hoped that the coverage from the media would bring in new leads. Her loved ones even spoke to multiple reporters, sharing their stories and hoping that this information would lead to Becky being found. They were pleading for help, and they were praying. for Becky's safe return. Barbara just clung to her phone. She refused to put it down.

She was hoping Becky would text her again. It was her lifeline to her daughter. It's all she had to hold on to. She was desperate for even the tiniest bit of hope that they would find her. She said that every time she heard that text tone from her phone, it was like her heart would stop. She was just clinging to it, watching and waiting.

And then around three hours after that first text from Becky came in, she manages to be able to text her, mom again. Wow, can you even imagine? Barbara can hardly handle it. And this text is worse. It read, quote, my phone is about to die and my mouth is taped. I can't talk. I think this is Comac. Don't tell Dan about my text or he will kill me. End quote. Comac is a part of town. It's not where Dan's house is located. It's about 30 minutes west of Becky's. Barbara is beside herself. Becky just texted that her life is in danger. She is in immediate harm and they don't know how to find her.

Barbara alerts the detectives and then she and all of her family and Becky's friends head over to Comac to search for her. They did what they had before in other locations. They drove up and down the streets just yelling her name. They had no idea where in Comac Becky would be. They were knocking on people's doors, they were screaming her name, just in case she heard them and she could alert them to where she was being held. This is intense. But again, the search was in vain. There's no sign of her.

So they have to go home and wait. They are back on the computer and wouldn't you know it? Becky's phone is pinging again. This time, it's off Northern State Parkway. It's on the other side of the island, but they don't care. They don't care how far they have to drive. They're going to find Becky. And this is all too much.

They don't have the resources that the detectives do. And they're giving them all this information. Every single time a new location pings, the cops go out there and look. However, this time it was a little more precise. It was a florist. But that didn't make any sense. It was closed.

It was so late at night. No one wants to be negative about Becky's text because it's all they have to hold on to. But they do begin to question things. Like, if she was tied up, how was she even getting to her phone to text? Her friends are trying to make sense of it. Like, could it be in her back pocket?

And then her hands are tied together behind her and she's able to kind of like slip it out. and then look behind her, kind of turn her head back and text. They don't know, but they're trying to stay positive. But some people, like Jason and Jamie, they questioned whether it was really Becky texting her mom or if it was someone else. Why wouldn't she call 911?

She's an intelligent, street smart woman. Why waste your time texting your mom at all? Just go get help. But they don't know the circumstances. Maybe she didn't have really good service. Maybe it was spotty, and only texts could go through, and she knew her family would contact the police. I would be thinking all of those same things, just running scenarios in my head.

Becky's family was becoming increasingly concerned as the days went by without her being located at Dan's house and still getting text implicating him. They told detectives what they thought was that the messages didn't sound like Becky. The perfect spelling. That was suspicious. Like, if you were distressed, would you add correct punctuation? No, it wasn't adding up. There were definitely red flags going up. And though Dan had been cleared, he wasn't making easy on himself.

after all the accusations and another text saying that he's holding her hostage because he does something very alarming. He goes on Facebook and he changes his name to Dan the killer. Why would he do that? Well, his friends assumed it's because he's lashing out, he's fed up, he's being accused of being a killer, and said, and Jason's insisting someone's playing a trick on them and they don't understand why they would want to frame Dan for this. Becky wouldn't do this. Detectives decide to pay a visit to Butcher Boys Bar and Grill where she was last seen right before before she disappeared. They were eager to examine any CCTV footage that might be available before it's too late. They were hoping it would lead them in the right direction. Would it show

Becky and Dan getting into an argument? Was there anything suspicious going on regarding staff or other patrons that interacted with Becky? While the footage shows different areas of the place, here is the actual footage. You can see back at the restaurant, the pool table, the bar area, and detectives saw Becky and Dan and her friends, and also several men approaching Becky throughout the night. The detectives wonder if one of them may have something to do with her disappearance. Nicole had mentioned that Becky was very trusting to a fault, and because she was so beautiful, she received a lot of unwanted attention. But she didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. She would try to be nice, even when guys were being pushy. Detectives noticed that anytime Dan would

leave Becky's side, men would walk right up to her and start talking. She would chat for a minute and then turn away and talk to her friends again or Dan would walk back up. This went on all night. I mean, sure, that's not uncommon. It's a public place, especially a bar. Lots of singles. They're there to meet people and Becky is gorgeous. She's not married wearing a ring. Guys would hit on her. How would they know she was taken until, of course, they spoke to her. Her friends were familiar with this song and dance. Becky would smile. She would be pleasant. She would tell them have a boyfriend. And then they would go back to just enjoying their night. Detectives show with this footage. to Barbara and Larry. At one point, Becky is captured on the security video, standing by a

jukebox at 3.20 in the morning with Dan beside her. Larry said that Becky looked like she wanted to get out of that bar. You could see her body language, and it looked as though she kept saying, I want to go home. Larry's like, you can see her. She's sitting there waiting to get out of there, while Dan and his friends are on the other side of the bar just still hanging out. While this investigation to Becky's disappearance continued, the detectives start to try to identify these men that were seen on the bar CCTV footage. They do realize it was late. Becky had to work and that's probably why she wanted to leave. But they also want to know if there was any other reason for her urgency about leaving.

Did someone make her feel uncomfortable? While the CCTV footage, like so many other times, is grainy. They can't make out who these people are. So they're doing their best to work with the staff on getting receipts and other information that can lead them to the people who spoke to Becky that night. Detectives also asked her friends if anyone stood out to them. Any men they encountered or that they saw Becky with. And they say, yeah.

One guy followed Becky to the bar when she went to go grab a drink by herself. And they saw her sitting there with him and talking for a little while. Detectives show her friends the footage, and they point the guy out. You can see him sitting right here, right next to Becky while she's waiting on her drink.

The man appeared to be African-American, well-dressed, well-groomed, And it seemed as though Becky and the man were just engaged in a normal conversation. But upon closer inspection, they see the light of a phone screen light up. It looked like Becky in the sky had exchanged numbers. Either that or Becky had let him use her phone because it looked like her phone passed between hers and his hands. They watch it again over and over again. It's really bad quality.

They can't really be sure exactly what was happening. but they want to see if they can identify this patron. But further, they want to take a look at Becky's phone records, so they request that information from her carrier and ask it to be rushed. This is about to take the investigation into a whole different direction. Meanwhile, over at Becky's, the investigation continued. TechNations were inside.

They were now taking DNA samples from Becky's family, hair samples from brushes, collecting things like her toothbrushes, among other things like dental references. They would need those and Becky's DNA to compare it with evidence they find, including a body. Should they locate one that matches Becky's description? This news filled her family with dread, because it was starting to look like this investigation was pointing more and more towards a murder rather than a missing person's case. With every passing day, they felt their hope of finding Becky alive slipping away.

Barbara wasn't getting any more text messages from her, so they were hoping that her phone records would reveal a history. clue. Investigators discovered that there was a series of phone calls and texts to and from Becky's phone that occurred after she returned home from the bar. This finding was particularly concerning because it suggested that Becky may have been in contact with someone once Dan witnessed her getting inside her house safely. He could be telling the truth and it wasn't him who spoke to her last after all. This new evidence prompts detectives to look even deeper. They see that Becky called a number around 3.30 in the morning, which is around the time that she was dropped off. Detectives tracked down who the number belongs to, and it's a friend of hers, Anthony Castro.

He's already been interviewed and he's been cooperating with the investigation trying to find her. He told detectives that she called him asking to meet up for a bit after she came home from the bar that night. But he declined. He's looked into and he's ruled out as a suspect. Then they move to the next number on her phone records. The next three calls are from a different number, one with a 617 area code, which is from the Boston area. The first call came in around 4 a.m. and Becky didn't pick up. Then another call came in at 4.10 a.m. and then another at 427 a.m.

They provide this number to Becky's family, and no one knows who it is. Her friends don't have anyone in that area code in their phones, and they don't know anyone that Becky would know out in Boston. Investigators call the number and no one picks up, So they attempt to request phone records for this number, but they're informed that it's associated with a prepaid cell phone. And unfortunately, due to the nature of that type of phone, it's harder for investigators to track down the owner's information.

In order to obtain more in-depth information, the police actually have to get a court order. It's hard for police to track a burner phone. Just like in the Long Island serial killer case that's going on right now, he is said to have used a burner phone or a prepaid phone without real service. So you can stay on top. and you can just throw it away after you're done with it.

This is how investigators in the case of Rex Heuerman believes he was speaking with those sex workers that he is accused of possibly killing. But of course we know people don't just use prepaid cell phones when they're criminals. I know I've had one before because I didn't have any credit to get a real phone like an AT&T and whatnot.

So it's definitely an option, especially for someone who might be younger. They may opt to go with a prepaid phone until they learn to become a pay phone to become more responsible. Well, after receiving the court-ordered information, they were able to get a hold of cell tower records to where this phone was pinging, but they could not locate any personal information

about its owner. Anyone can buy them at local gas stations, convenience stores, Walmart. They also get all of Becky's cell tower information, and now they know that she was indeed at her house on Falcon Avenue at 3.30 in the morning, like Dan had said. She was still at that location when the calls from the Boston number come in. The location of the unknown caller was west of Becky's house.

The first call lasted for 15 minutes, and while on this call, the pings from the unknown caller's phone were heading east towards where Becky was. The next call came in at 427 in the morning, and that call was only 20 seconds long. When they mapped the cell tower pings from both Becky and the unknown caller's phone, they're in the exact same place, Becky's house. Logically, investigators believe that whoever this was called Becky to see if she wanted to hang out, Well, police already know that she was looking to do something after returning home because her friend Anthony provided information about the content of the call she made to him at 3.30. So it stands to reason that the second call that came in right outside of Becky's was the unknown caller letting her know they arrived. That's why it's only 20 seconds. That's how long it would take to say, I'm here and for Becky to respond.

Not too long after this, both phones are traveling in the same direction. They're headed to an area to the north called Port Jefferson Station. It's about 15 minutes away. Soon afterward, there's no activity coming from Becky's phone. Except, of course, later when her family tries to obtain those pings on the computer. Cell phone tower pings are not precise. They give you a vicinity of where the person was located. So they have a lot of investigating to do at this point.

But they are further along than they have been. Everyone's wondering, who is this person that Becky left with? so late or so early in the morning when she had to be up for work at 6 a.m. Clearly they have to be the link to knowing what happened to her. So who were they? Well, once again, the investigation is going to take another turn and it's not a good one. Devastating, actually. On Tuesday, December 8th, four days after Becky went missing, a nationwide alert is put out with all the pertinent information. Now even more media outlets are all over this case. A beautiful young girl goes missing after a night out.

texting her mom that she's tied up. Of course, it drew interest. The media was basically living on Barbara's front lawn, just waiting for the news to break. And it was about to. At the same time that all this is happening in New York, there's another case that's gaining media attention 100 miles away in another state.

It's a place called Stonington, Connecticut. It's about three hours away from Becky's, and it's very rural. There's only about 5,000 people that live in that area, maybe less. Interestingly, it's on what is referred to as Long Island Sound, which is that body of water between Long Island and Connecticut. I've heard of it before, but I never knew where it was or anything like how it was formed. See how it's a cutout?

Well, that's because it was created when a glacier tore a hole in that land. We're talking 10,000, 15,000 years ago, but I found that fact to be worth mentioning. Unlike Long Island though, Stonington is not built up. It has a lot of underdeveloped land. a lot of farms, you can see what it looks like on this map. Just a lot of nothing. Well, there was something. Back on Friday, December 4th, around 7.15 p.m.,

less than 24 hours after Becky went missing, a man named Russell Morrison was driving towards his home down a dark, winding country road called Jeremy Hill in North Stonington, Connecticut. He was coming up to Route 201, which is also known as Mystic Road. This area is definitely the back roads. It's quiet, dark, and sleepy. He saw something up ahead.

It was on the left side of the road, and it was really bright, and it appeared to be a small brush fire. So he immediately calls 911, and as he gets up closer, he pulls over. Now, coincidentally, he just happened to be an assistant fire chief. The fire department was only three minutes away from this location, so Russell pulls over, relaying all this information,

including his exact location, to the 911 operation. They alert the fire department and they're out there within minutes. As a matter of fact, by the time Russell was able to pull out his fire extinguisher from his truck, the fire department was already there. The fire wasn't raging. It actually looked like it had just been set minutes before Russell saw it. They didn't have to use a fire hose. The chief was on the scene and he took a fire extinguisher and tried to combat the flames.

As they were getting smaller and smaller, he realized that there appeared to be a body on fire. Now I know in many cases I hear it's never a mannequin, and I'm starting to think we need another saying, it's never a brush fire. Because of the chief's belief that it's a body, he began aiming the fire extinguisher upward

instead of directly on the area. He did this to keep the chemicals from coming down aggressively. This was to preserve the evidence. And once the fire's out, they realize it's not just a fire, It's a human body on fire. State troopers are immediately notified

because this finding indicates that this is a crime scene. How many times is this now that I've unknowingly started researching a case only to find out it consists of finding a body burning on the side of a road? It's understandable. This is a common way for someone to dispose of a body

because fires are unforgiving. They destroy everything in their path. I can think of at least three recent cases involving fires. Celia Huda. She was the Florida Gator's shirt. leader, Andrea DeVesco, the college sorority girl, and the Friendsley family. It's unreal.

And it never gets easier to talk about these cases. Connecticut state troopers come out there. They block off the road. They designate it as a crime scene. They put up the yellow tape and they begin searching for any evidence that they could find. It's for sure the remains of a human body and as they're taking a closer look, documenting every detail of what they're seeing as soon as they get there so that they can have the most accurate picture of the scene.

They notice that the body is wrapped in a number of the scene. number of materials, layers of sheets, blankets, garbage bags, and then wrapped in duct tape, sort of like a mummy very tightly around and around, so that everything just stuck together. And of course, all these materials are melted together from the fire. It's clear to the troopers that this is not where this person died. They were brought to this location to be disposed of like trash on the side of their road. It's heartless. Clearly a person doesn't do this to themselves, so trooper,

The troopers call homicide investigators, along with crime scene technicians, to begin to collect evidence, take pictures, and prepare the body to be transported to the medical examiner's office. I want to show you some pictures of the scene from that night. This right here is the road that Russell was driving down. It's so dark that the troopers had to bring out a floodlight so that they could see what was going on. You can see one of those lights right here on the left side. That is where the remains were found. The yellow crime scene tape is up, along with cones blocking off the road.

off the road. The state police van is there on the right. And in the middle, that's one of the trooper's squad cars. Now the second picture is from a vantage point of that squad car, looking towards the opposite direction. And right here, this blurred out section is exactly where the fire was, and of course, where the body was found. And you can see what is most likely Russell's truck pulled over to the left. Here's a better look at that floodlight illuminating the area of interest. Look how close this is to the road. Introducing Taco Bell's new jalapino citrus salsa with bright citrus, real red jalapinos, guahillo chilis. Usually, you add sauce to the food, but when the sauce is this good, the food is just there to get the sauce to your mouth.

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It's as though the person who disposed of this body just opened up their cord door and threw them out. It's disgusting. No effort at all to hide anything. Of course, except lighting it on fire and expecting it to be destroyed. But thankfully, these men were there in the nick of time. You can even see smoke emanating from this area in this picture. It's just so eerie. Sometimes I debate about even showing any pictures of the scene,

but of course I do my best to respectfully conceal anything too gruesome while balancing being as informative and detailed as possible. And you probably know how much I like to dig in and find out where these locations are and what they look like today. I was able to use those crime scene photos to pinpoint exactly where this was. Here's a picture of the location. of the location on Google Maps, and you can see, here is the same sign on the right, the guardrails,

the pole here on the left, and even this tiny pole at the end of the rail on the left side where they found the remains. I wondered why there were guardrails. Why did they need them here? And I looked over, and that's exactly why. Because there is water right here. It's interesting for me to look at this area

so many years later. The remains were transported to the Connecticut State Medical Examiner Dr. Ira Canfer. He had 30 years of experience in his field and conducted over 4,000 autopsies. He would be carrying out to the exam on this body the next morning on Saturday, December 5th. Let me explain his initial findings to you.

He observed a partially burned body wrapped in layers, which he began to carefully and meticulously remove little by little. He wanted to preserve as much of them as possible for evidentiary purposes. This is a very difficult and tedious job with a lot of pressure to get things perfect because you only have one chance to do

determine who this person is, what happened to them, and who did it. Justice depends on it. No personal items were collected from the scene of the fire. However, canines, they did alert in that area that an accelerant had been used and they could smell the presence of gasoline. Now, every piece of evidence on the body is photographed and bagged and then sent to the police crime lab, and that's where analysts will examine it in detail. That's where they run all the DNA tests, they look for trace evidence. And I want to show you what show you what these layers of material looked like at the scene so you can get a better understanding with what he was dealing with. This right here looks to be a thick blue blanket. It appears to have

red stains on it that would be suspected blood at this point before being tested. And you can see that to the left at the end of the blanket there's a red tie on a black garbage bag and beyond that there's a strip of silver duct tape. As we move to the left, you can see more garbage bags as well as well as burnt debris, just ashes and destroyed materials. They really don't look like much, but they give you some perspective on what this doctor had to work through, just to get down to the actual body so he could start his examination. Once he was able to remove all the outer wrappings, he gets a much better view of the deceased individual and he determines it's a young female. As far as ethnicity was concerned, from what he gathered from the skin that was still intact, she appeared to be of Asian sent, possibly Latina, or even a light complexion African American. Her hair was cut off,

her nose was cut off, her fingers were removed, as well as all of her toes. Her ears had been taken off of her head, as well as chunks of skin. They had been excised, cut away, and it was left with deep gouges. One of those areas was on her right outer ankle. The skin was removed in a section. The front of the body was burned more than the back, but luckily, the fire had been put out fast enough, to where only the outer layer of skin had been charred. So as Dr. Canford carefully turned her over, he could tell that she had been placed face up before being lit on fire. Her back had not been burned.

It remained in contact with the ground, and there was apparently a large section of skin that had been removed from the lower portion of her back. The areas that were mutilated and removed were ones that could have had identifying characteristics to them. For example, we know, we know, that fingerprints can be used to identify someone, therefore the killer removed them. They may have believed that toes could have toe prints or the fingers and toes could have been

painted in a certain way. And the killer wanted to remove them so that their loved ones wouldn't recognize the victim. The ears could contain earrings that are identifiable heirlooms, passed down generation to generation. The nose could have a marking on it, like a birthmark or a mole or even a nose ring. So the perpetrator in haste could choose to just cut these areas off the body instead of taking out every piercing. It makes sense. However, the killer must not have looked in the victim's mouth because he left two things behind, a tongue ring and all of her teeth. Teeth are as good as fingerprints as far as identifying someone is concerned as long as they have dental records. Our teeth are naturally very unique different shapes

and sizes and positions, but also our dental work. That's a huge indicator that you have the right person identified. Fillings, dental implants, anything that shows up on an x-ray and has been documented can be matched to a victim. And even if the teeth are removed, if the jaw is still there, then they can use dental records. And in many of those cases, they can see evidence of dental work left behind. It's very interesting. But now for the internal exam and those findings, the doctor's job is twofold. He has to designate a cause and manner of death.

Determining a cause of death is harder than the manner of death because the burns. And one thing he wants to know is whether this person was alive. before the fire started. So he looks to the lungs to see if there's any soot present, and there isn't, which means that she did not inhale any smoke. Therefore, he determines that she was deceased before her body was set on fire. But because of the burns, external injuries are harder to locate,

so you have to look at the organs on the inside, and Dr. Canfer locates a laceration on the liver, as well as 200 cc's of blood in the abdominal cavity, which at this point had started to clot, and there are also four sharp force injuries to her neck. It's not readily apparent whether or not they happened pre or postmortem because of all the burning. But this wound to the liver is enough to determine that it was the cause of death and the manner is determined to be homicide. Now this begins a homicide investigation as soon as that doctor signs

an autopsy report with the manner of death as homicide, a full-blown investigation is on. Since they don't know who this woman is, Connecticut, detective, searched through all of their current missing persons reports, but they don't find any that match her description. So they widened their search to other districts and surrounding areas and put out an alert with all the physical characteristics that they determined existed on their Jane Doe, including the fact

that she had a tongue piercing. Well, detectives back in Suffolk County are checking all the reports like to do every day, and this alert of this Jane Doe stands out because of that tongue piercing. Becky had her tongue pierced. had her tongue pierced. It's something that her and her friends did together. You can see them in this picture right here. I mentioned it was unique, pink with a butterfly. Well, Jane Doe has the exact

same one. It's not enough by itself to say this is Becky, but Suffolk County believes it is. They already have Becky's DNA and dental record, so they hand them over to Connecticut to confirm whether this is Becky or not. And it doesn't take long for them to make the heartbreaking confirmation that the body found on the side of the road was that of 24-year-old Rebecca Costa. That is so sad. Her family was holding out hope. They also realized that the descriptions of where Becky had tattoos and piercings correspond with all of those areas that had been excised and cut off of her body. Wow, I can't even imagine. But of course, I can because I told you about each and every one. Clearly this killer tore her. apart. Her ears, they had distinctive earrings, that top, top left one with the bar. That's

why he removed it. Her nose cut off because she had a nose stud. Her hair removed because it was long and had a texture to it that someone could identify. And then her tattoos. To think how much time it took for this monster to cut her tattoos from her skin, it's unbelievable. It's horrifying to think of all this. It's a summer 9th. It's been five days since Becky had gone missing and her friends and family are exhausted. They have been working nonstop trying to find her. Now, they had heard about the unidentified body found on the side of the road in Connecticut,

but they never, not once, even thought to connect it to Becky. They were still looking for a missing person, not a dead person. And that day, after working as hard as they were, they wanted a break. They needed to get out of the house just to have some sense of normalcy. So the group of them had over to a restaurant

to get a bite to eat, and this is the first time that they went out and did anything that wasn't related to finding Becky since she disappeared. They had just sat down and they ordered their food and all of a sudden Larry gets a phone call. He hangs up and he tells everyone, stop what you're doing. We gotta go. It was Detective Frendo. They need them to come to the house because there has been a break in the case. They toss cash on the table and they rushed to get back home. Their first thought was, oh my God, they found her. I mean, of course they were hoping for the best for positive news. They were hoping they were hoping

They'd walk in and Becky would be standing there in the living room with her arms outstretched. And it would be a happy reunion. Well, Larry and Damien arrive home first and the detectives are already there. He quickly unlocks the door and lets them in and they don't wait. They don't wait for Barbara to arrive before delivering the heartbreaking news to Becky's stepdad and 15-year-old little brother. Not too long after this, Barbara and everyone else gets there. When she walked in and she looked at her husband's face, she knew it wasn't good. But she still wanted to hold on to hope.

She turned to the detective and she said, is it bad news? Did you find her? He told her to please take a seat and she's like, don't say it. Don't say it. He looks at her and he says, we found her. But I'm very sorry. She's been murdered. Barbara lost control.

She grabbed her coat. She ran out into the cold. She went down her driveway and she screamed. Someone murdered my baby. They killed my baby. She said it felt like half of her heart was ripped from her chest. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't believe that Becky would never come back home again.

She'd never see her face. She would never hug her. She would never hear her voice again. Now, we hear so many stories, and sometimes we don't sit with those feelings and those realizations. We forget that this is real. We don't take a minute and pause and imagine

what this must feel like for this moment. mother. It's a real family. They've spent 24 years raising their daughter all of those years, putting hard work in providing for her, teaching her, growing with her, watching her grow up, being in awe of how amazing she was, and having so much hope for her future. When something like this happens, it's not that your child dies, it's a piece of you that dies. Nicole was stunned when she heard the detective delivered the news about her best friend of 10 years. She didn't understand how this could have happened. Larry was numb. He didn't know what to feel. He had been in Becky's life a long time. How could someone do this to someone so special? He kept thinking,

how many hours he spent just the day before eight hours passing out 180 flyers? And he thought to himself, I can't go back to all those places and tell them to take them down because she's dead. Detective Frendo is a father himself. He has two kids. So he tells Becky's family, that he promises. He will find out who did this to her and make sure they get what they deserve. Then they all sit down with him so that he can explain exactly what they know so far

and how poor Becky died, as well as how she was found and where. He explained everything that they knew from law enforcement in Stonington, Connecticut. They said that Becky's body was found less than 24 hours after she disappeared. And when Barbara heard this, she was disgusted. She realized,

There was no way that those text messages that she had received were from Becky. Her remains had already been discovered around the same time that Larry was calling to report her missing. Barbara cannot even begin to think about the fact that Becky's killer was the one not only just sending those messages, but giving them false hope, tormenting them. Her killer was reading all of her pleas, all of her heartfelt and desperate messages that that she kept sending Becky, it was just too much to take in. Who would do such a thing? Well, the same type of person who did all of those other horrific things that the detectives

relayed to this poor family. With each detail, Barbara felt sick. She used to warn Becky that she was a prime target. She'd say, you're so beautiful. All these men are after you. But Becky just shrugged it off. She never thought anyone would do anything like this. This was her mother's worst nightmare. How could someone stab her in the liver, mutilate her, and then throw her away like trash? All she wanted to do was see Becky again. But she knew that wouldn't be possible. Not the way she was before. This wouldn't be Becky. Everything that made her her was gone.

She couldn't comprehend the kind of evil person that could commit such an act. She said there are demons out there that look like people. When Larry heard the details, he was praying that she was already dead before the body was set on fire. He said, this happened. at 7.30. It's not like it was even dark. Someone had to have seen something, but it was pretty dark considering where this area was. There were no streetlights here. But I understand his point. They want answers. Once the news of Becky's murder was out, the media couldn't wait to speak with the family. Both Larry and Barbara went on camera. They were so brave. They sat in their home, and they expressed

their shock and their heartache and they're disgust in the person who killed their daughter and continued to taunt them by sending them text messages from her phone. This is also something the Long Island serial killer did. He taunted at least one of the victim's family members. The calls are being made using the victim's phone. And in one of these calls, the caller admitted to killing and doing very perverse things to her body. Wow.

And recently, those calls were traced to a location in Midtown Manhattan near where the man that's in custody right now, Rex had an office. So similar. Using the victim's phone and tricking their family. Well, in Becky's case, Barbara said she felt stupid for believing that it was her daughter sending these texts. But it was the only hope she had. It's what kept her going and I felt so sorry for her.

Don't feel stupid because you did everything right. You kept in contact with her trying to trace her phone. The only person that should feel stupid and so many more things is the killer. How dare him pretend to give them hope? Barbara said on camera addressing the killer, quote, how would your mother feel if she got that message? We want closure. We just want to know who murdered our daughter and they should pay for it.

End quote. News of this murder has everyone in the community scared that there is a killer on the loose. Detective Friendo is going back to the evidence that they have at this point and he decides to ask everyone who was with Becky that night at Butcher Boys if they remember anyone that was acting suspicious. Well, Becky's friend Jennifer remember something. There was a guy at the bar that no one knew, and he kept coming up and trying to work his way into their group,

sitting next to them, trying to talk to women, make the feel uncomfortable, and he was very pushy and creepy, especially with all the questions he was asking. And then he grabbed Jennifer's phone, took it right out of her hand, and proceeded to put his number and his name inside as one of her contacts. Jennifer provides Detective Friend,

with this information. His name is Jay Brown. And guess what? It's a 617 number, just like the one that called Becky that night. The last call that Becky answered before she was killed. They compare the two numbers. They're an exact match. They have Jennifer take a look at that CCTV footage, and sure enough, she identifies the man's scene sitting right next to Becky that night as the same one who took her phone and was aggressively coming on to them. She recalled he's about six feet tall. He's African American. He was. very nicely dressed with a long-sleeve sweater vest on. As they keep going through this footage, they examine the video around 2.30 a.m., and that is when they see Becky, standing at the bar waiting for her drinks. And the man Jennifer has identified as this aggressive guy who took her phone

and put his number in without her permission is sitting there talking to Becky. At first, it looked like Becky had wanted to interact with this man and that she had exchanged numbers, but now it looked more like Becky was just trying to be nice. To a man that she had to be nice, to a man that was clearly being manipulative and forcefully taking her phone,

and she was probably intimidated enough to give him her number, so he would leave her alone. That's who Becky was. She was nice. She didn't want to hurt people's feelings. And honestly, who thinks that by simply giving a guy your number, it would lead to your murder? Well.

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