Killing Grounds: The Gilgo Beach Murders (2026) s01e04 Episode Script
Part Four
♪
[Adrienne]
During the analysis of a hard drive
recovered
from the basement of the suspect,
the task force discovered
a Word document
titled HK2002-4.
[Ray] It was found in unallocated space,
which means it was erased,
but we were able
to forensically retrieve it.
The planning document is effectively
a blueprint of how to be a serial killer.
[Kristin] To look at it in real life
is horrible.
This is highly disturbing.
[John Ray] His whole being is devoted
to sex, torture, murder,
in the worst way that a human mind
could imagine.
[Dave Schaller]
This whole thing is just insane.
It's like you couldn't literally ask
for any more of a confession.
[Adrienne] The planning document is
extraordinarily damning.
What the investigators found was
that it was created,
not downloaded from the internet,
it was created by the user,
and investigators believe
that the exclusive user of that device
was Rex Hauermann sometime
between 2001 and 2002.
This is right after Valerie Mack
is murdered.
It's particularly critical
for the prosecution,
because it establishes the intent
and the mindset of the perpetrator.
The intent is crucial
to establish premeditation.
It begins with a four category section
with underlying headings.
Based on the experience of investigators,
they believe that "supplies"
references the tools necessary
to actually execute the murders.
"Problems" specifically details the things
needed to avoid apprehension.
"DS" is a reference to dump site,
where the bodies would effectively
be disposed of,
and "TRG" is a reference to the targets.
The target section references
Megan with a question mark.
Also, "small is good."
It's important to note
that the known victims
thus far are all small, petite women.
[Kristin] When we first got access
to this planning document,
it was very disturbing,
to the point that when I reported it,
I did a disclaimer to the viewer
to please be ready
for what you're about to hear.
You may not want to hear this.
Supplies: booties, acid,
rope, hairnets.
Problems: DNA,
bloodstains, foot/shoe prints.
[Adrienne] The document very clearly
lays out dump site one, Mill Road.
Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor's remains
were found close to Mill Road.
[Kristin]
Post-event: destroy file, change tires,
burn gloves, have story set.
As I read this,
I have to say, it's strange.
There's so many misspellings here.
Rex is well-educated, an architect.
[Donna]
He didn't spell well.
He would make me listen
to this tape recorder
when he would have me do proposals.
You know, he obviously didn't spell well.
[Kristin]
Use heavy rope for neck.
Light rope broke under stress
of being tightened.
Light rope broke under stress.
That's disturbing,
because he's now speaking,
allegedly, that this happened.
He's learning.
[Sara] Who fucking hurt him
that he had to do that to people?
He was hunting them.
He literally planned all that.
[Kristin] More sleep and noise control
equals more playtime.
He was not interested
in just killing them.
There was more that he had planned.
And where were they for that time?
They were somewhere.
[Ray]
When you look at the planning document,
it talks about, for lack of a better word,
a staging area, an area where
the victim would be brought.
And with regard to that, it talks about
hanging plastic
from either the ceiling or the walls
and how it was better to use pushpins
as opposed to tape,
because tape leaves adhesive marks
on the wall and the ceiling.
[Adrienne]
Authorities returned to search the house
about a year after the initial search.
That search was likely prompted
from the details provided
in the planning document,
specific to the use of pushpins and tape.
So, they were specifically looking
to see evidence of that.
Where in a house that you share
with your wife and two children
could you conceal a crime like this?
[Katherine] One summer, I worked
for a lot of different architects.
I was freelancing, and Rex said,
"Hey, I've got some work for you."
He asked me to come to his house
to measure it,
because he was going
to do some renovations.
So, I took the train
out to Massapequa Park,
and he picked me up at the train station.
Here's the front door.
You enter in here,
and here's the living room.
We actually measured the whole first
floor and the basement together.
The kitchen is right here, and the stairs
leading down to the basement.
When you go down the stairs,
it was finished.
There was carpet, there was a sofa,
and there was a little bar.
You know, it was a hangout area.
So, you can see how he would say,
hey, why don't you come down,
sit on the couch, you know,
have a drink, and just hang out.
You know, just chill out.
Even then, the women walking
down those stairs
had no idea what was about to come.
We were kind of working our way around
the perimeter of the room.
Probably ten feet away from the sofa
was this area
I'm calling the vault.
He was standing, literally,
his back was to the door of the vault.
And he said,
"You can't go in there."
I always remembered that, because
I don't know, something struck me
when he stopped
and said that to my face
in such a stern voice.
It really kind of caught me off guard.
[Adrienne] The vault would have offered
a level of privacy,
and to some degree,
a level of noise cancelation
that would have provided
an ideal environment
for the components of this crime.
[Ray] When we executed
the search warrant in the house,
we went back to the basement.
And using infrared lighting,
we were able to establish
a cordoned off area where we saw
this adhesive tape had been placed.
It really just reiterated
what that planning document
specifically talks about
with regard to staging areas.
[Katherine]
From the pictures that we've seen
from the house raids,
what I realized
in the last year and a half
is that there's a staircase
that's in the vault
that leads out to the backyard.
So, he had access
from this room to the backyard.
If you look at all the aerial photos
of his house,
you can see the basement doors.
They're directly underneath his kitchen,
directly in line with the stairs
that go down to the basement.
He was able to
move things around
in a discreet way.
It becomes apparent that there's
a high possibility that these women,
that he may have held them
for a period of time
in a room where he was able
to hang a drop cloth,
where he was able to test all these
different torture methods on them.
And they probably knew they were
gonna die, because no one could help them.
It's very scary for me
to look back on those times
and think how close I was
to somebody so evil.
In July of 2003,
he allegedly took Jessica Taylor.
Got together with her on a Monday night
and dumped her body on a Friday night.
So, he had her at the house
for those four days.
On his BlackBerry schedule,
you can see
that he has appointments at the DOB,
the Department of Buildings,
meaning, allegedly,
Jessica Taylor was still in the house
and he would go off to meetings.
[Ray]
Given the evidence in this case,
one of the things
that we argue is significant
is that with regard to all of the victims,
the defendant's family were out of town
during the commission of the crimes.
That would have, unfortunately, given
the defendant unfettered time and access
to the victims at a time where, you know,
no one else would be around.
[Nikkie] If I went back to his house,
I don't think I'd be here right now.
For years, I've told everybody--
everybody-- I said I went on a date
with the Gilgo Beach Killer.
I knew it was him, and nobody believed me,
which, again, goes to show
how little people
believe things
from people in that industry.
I was a felon at a really young age,
and nobody wanted
to fucking hire me, at all.
Except McDonald's, but you can't pay
for rent and a kid on McDonald's.
My friend showed me the website
sugardaddies.com.
So, I ended up becoming a sugar baby.
So, I met Rex Heuermann
through the website in 2015.
Initially, he wanted me
to come to his house.
He was like, why don't you just come over?
It'd be a lot more relaxed.
He didn't want to meet in public.
But I got him to agree to go
to the Steam Room in Port Jeff.
When we sat down, we talked like basics,
like, what do you do for a living?
Where do you work?
And then he asked if I knew
about the Gilgo Beach killing.
And, like, I'm from here,
so of course I have.
The way he talked about it seemed odd.
Honestly, it felt like he was, like,
sexually getting off to talking
about serial killers in Gilgo.
You know, when someone's blood pressure's
high and their face starts turning red,
and their palms get flushed,
and that's what he looked like.
It was so weird.
He honestly was in a rush
to try to get me to his house.
I was like, I really don't want to be
driving at night in an area I don't know.
That was, like, my polite letdown.
And he was like, "Why would you drive?
No, no, no, we'd take one car."
He was, like, very aggressive,
like, very pushy about it.
And then, he seemed, like, angry.
Like, he was mad that I didn't
want to go home with him.
It scared me.
I was, like, super uncomfortable.
[Adrienne] He had gone through
that process with the earlier victims,
and he hadn't gotten caught yet.
He'd gotten away with it for so long.
[Ray]
He lived this dual life.
He had the front-facing life, where he was
the architect who worked in the city,
had his own business.
And then, he had this aspect
of his life that he kept secret.
[Adrienne]
With the literature discovered in his home
during the execution
of the search warrant,
it seems as if the suspect has
a deep fascination with violent crimes
and with serial killers, in particular.
We know that he was fixated
with Mindhunter.
Mindhunter was written
by retired special agent John Douglas.
John was a pioneer in establishing
the behavioral science unit,
and he is known as being a linchpin
in the development
of behavioral criminal profiling.
The book Mindhunter provides insight
into serial killer behavior
and techniques used
by violent criminal offenders.
John Douglas famously wrote in that book
that if you want to understand Picasso,
you have to study his art.
If you want to understand
the criminal personality,
you study the crime.
I think this suspect liked being
thought of as an artist,
and it was an art form
that he had to perfect.
He was looking at the way
serial killers kill,
and also how investigators go about
tracking down and convicting
serial killers.
[Adrienne] And he makes it a point
to denote certain pages
to really pay attention to.
And if you have access
to that type of internal information,
you can definitely square up how you
execute a series of murders like this
to minimize the spread
of evidence, including DNA.
[Kristin]
"Body prep:
wash body inside and all cavities,
remove ID marks like tattoos,
remove marks from torture,
remove head and hands."
For the other six victims,
four of the six were dismembered.
Out of all of those four,
not only were they dismembered,
some body parts were recovered
along Ocean Parkway.
Others were recovered
in Hempstead Lake Park,
Fire Island, Manorville.
Typically, the perpetrators
undertake that, and it's a lot of effort,
in order to frustrate
and confuse investigators,
and to delay the identification.
That's the key.
[Kristin] Suffolk County District Attorney
Ray Tierney has always been clear
that this investigation is still going.
They're not stopping
until they investigate every single lead
that they could possibly have
related to this case.
And so, we knew there were gonna be
more charges coming.
[Ray] Today, the District Attorney's
Office filed a superseding indictment
charging the defendant
with two additional murders.
Those charges pertain
to the 1993 murder of Sandra Castilla
and the 2003 murder of Jessica Taylor.
The task force believes
that the planning document
was utilized by Heuermann
to methodically blueprint
and plan out his kills
with excruciating detail.
We allege that this document evinces
the defendant's intent
in committing the charged crimes.
[Kristin]
I did not suspect
that Sandra Castilla was going
to be connected to him.
That wowed me.
I was suspecting
Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack.
The reason is, we have known for years,
because police have said,
that Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack
most likely had the same killer.
Sandra Castilla kind of came
out of nowhere,
but the significance of that
cannot be understated.
There were two hairs
from Sandra Castilla's remains
that are of particular significance
in this case.
One was a female hair
that was recovered
from the victim's right arm,
and one was a male hair
that was recovered from a tape lift
of one of the shirts
that the victim was wearing
that was pushed above her head.
[Kristin]
They found a female hair on her right arm
that did not belong to her.
They believe it closely matches
who they call Witness 3.
Witness 3 is the woman that
Rex Heuermann was living with in 1993.
From a defense standpoint,
I don't know what strategy I would use
to explain that away.
The totality of the evidence
is extraordinarily damning.
[Michael Brown]
Good morning.
It looks like there's just
so much discovery that's forthcoming.
You see here, the interns here
have a box of,
I don't know how many terabytes
are in there,
but these are things that were
disclosed this morning,
and that's just on top
of all that we've received to date.
I think it's fair to say
that it's an unprecedented type of case.
[John]
Michael Brown is his lawyer.
He's a good lawyer.
Michael tried his first jury case
against me, and he beat me.
I stood in front of you folks a year ago,
and I said he wants his day in court.
He still wants his day in court.
He wants his trial.
If I were Michael Brown,
I know what I would do,
and I would start to look directly
at the DNA evidence and pull it apart.
The strongest piece of evidence
that they claim they have is a hair.
DNA evidence is science,
but the great mistake that people make
is that science is the voice of God.
It's not.
There are thousands and thousands
of people just on Long Island
that potentially could be
donors for those hairs.
And then, I would cast reasonable doubt
on whether or not he was guilty.
You have a search warrant when
Rex was arrested in July of last year,
and now the 10-month later search
apparently is gonna yield
three or four times
the amount of discovery
that the first search yielded.
Does that make any sense to you?
I would also attack the way the police
conducted the entire investigation
and pick the police apart.
[Michael]
There were numerous leads
that came
into the Suffolk County Police Department
suggesting that Chief Burke
was involved in this.
[Kristin]
Mike Brown, he's always been clear
that Rex had nothing to do
with any of this.
Any piece of evidence,
he's gonna rip it apart.
[Michael]
It all goes into the narrative.
It's any piece of the puzzle
that they can take and they can fit
and they can argue
that it's Rex Heuermann.
They've done that.
And things that don't work for them,
you don't hear about.
We talked about surveillance.
A year and a half
of poll cameras at his house.
[Kristin]
The defense have made a very good point
that all that was captured on that film
was Rex coming home,
playing with his dog, talking to his wife.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
I mean, I think probably what
he was saying about the poll cam
is we don't see him murdering
anyone else on the poll cam,
which means he didn't commit these other--
You know, I think that's what he's saying.
[Kristin] Heuermann has denied
tons of media requests.
So, it's interesting that the one person
he's decided to communicate with
is a convicted serial killer,
the Happy Face Killer.
[Keith] I try to explain to other killers
that are arrested and I write to 'em.
I tell them how the system works.
If you're arrested, it means
that the prosecutor has enough evidence
to take you to court and prove you guilty.
I've recently got a letter
from Rex Heuermann,
from the Long Island Serial Killings,
and I told him the same thing.
Isn't that kind of an admission of guilt?
Why is he writing
to another serial killer?
Is he seeking advice?
-Yes, sir?
-[reporter] Did you get a chance
to review the quote-unquote "manifesto"
that they talked about last month?
[Michael]
You've already made that assumption
that he's the one who drafted it
and he's the one who created it.
I don't know that. I don't know that.
You have a document that's attached
to a bail package from a computer
they claim was in his home
that's 23 years old.
But that's all I know.
The experts of the medical
examiner's office,
and these are folks
who are experts in their field,
they said that those hairs were unsuitable
for nuclear DNA testing.
Now, all of a sudden, magically,
we have a company in California
that says, no, we're able
to do nuclear DNA testing.
I don't understand how the Suffolk County
Crime Lab said it's unsuitable,
and within a month or two, we have
some magician on the West Coast
that says it's my client.
We're looking forward to trying this case.
[Adrienne]
In 1993, and certainly at the time
the bodies were discovered in 2010,
the capability to produce full
mitochondrial and nuclear DNA profiles
from rootless hairs just didn't exist.
The capability just wasn't there.
Since then, technology and science
have substantially evolved,
and we can now get a DNA profile
from a rootless hair
through nuclear DNA testing.
The profile that returned
excluded 99.96%
of the North American population.
Rex could not be excluded.
Even with DNA, believe it or not,
you can't have 100%.
There's too many variations.
We have here,
these are the, from the indictment,
the list of all the breakdown
of the DNA, right?
Sandra Costilla,
99.96% of North American population
can be excluded, but not Rex Heuermann.
99.98%.
99.96%.
Nothing here is 100.
And so, what the defense is going
to try to say
is that this is not a match.
Sandra Costilla increases
the potential victims
associated with the subject,
and there are likely more.
It showed he was likely killing
as early as 1993,
and most likely well before that.
The brutal nature of Sandra's murder,
as well as how the body was disposed of,
and posed, and mutilated,
suggests to investigators
that this was not his first time.
[newscaster] New information
as the investigation continues
into the accused
Gilgo Beach serial killer
[newscaster 2] Police
in both South Carolina and Las Vegas,
where he owns property,
are reviewing unsolved cases
for any possible connection.
[John]
There is extremely strong possibility
that he's responsible
for a number of other deaths
in other areas of the country.
[newscaster 3] There is a woman
in South Carolina who said,
"I know that face.
It was the last face I saw with my mother
before I never saw her again."
[newscaster 4] South Carolina's
Sumter County Sheriff's Office
posting this photo of Julia Ann Bean.
Bean's adult daughter telling authorities
the last time she saw her mother,
she was with a man driving a vehicle
similar to one
that's now been linked to Heuermann.
I did know that he went
down to South Carolina,
that they had property there,
because he had me paying the taxes for it.
[newscaster 5]
The FBI recovered a vehicle
that matches Heuermann's SUV
linked to the case,
and now investigators are
searching property
in Chester County, South Carolina.
If you could catch the gate open, there's
tarps, there's all kind of weird stuff.
He's got, like I said, a deuce and a half
military army vehicle in there, or he did.
[Kristin]
I think that every missing person's case
that involves a woman
in this country should be looked at.
[newscaster 6]
Cameron Bean telling NBC News,
"I saw her the night before my graduation.
She didn't come, which was definitely
something that was
out of character for her."
[Adrienne]
Prior to identifying a suspect,
you're limited in terms of the victims
that you'll tie that suspect to.
After the suspect was arrested,
you look at the suspect's behavior,
their lifestyle, their travel patterns,
and that drives you to look
at potential other victims
that were outside of the jurisdiction of
Suffolk County and outside of New York.
We don't know yet if Rex Heuermann
will be charged with their murders.
[newscaster 7] Heuermann and his wife
own a timeshare condo
at Club de Soleil
on Tropicana Avenue and Lyndale Road.
Property records show they bought
it in 2005 for $17,000.
In Las Vegas, he has a condo that's right
behind a sex worker establishment.
[newscaster 8]
Sources tell 13 Investigates
Metro has a number of cold cases
involving sex workers.
We've asked how many of those
unsolved crimes there are,
and we are still waiting
for that information.
[Kristin] I've spoken to a mom out there,
her daughter, she's from Canada.
Her daughter had gone to Vegas
to be a sex worker,
and she's never heard from her since.
And she waits with bated breath
at the phone
that Rex Heuermann
may have killed her daughter.
[Ray]
The defendant did spend time in Alaska,
as well as Atlantic City,
as well as other places.
And if any of those jurisdictions have
any information that they need
from the task force, we have provided it,
we're gonna continue to provide it.
[Dave] I guarantee you that
if they start looking into disappearances
and time frames when he was there,
there's gonna be bodies
all over the country.
You think that he was just killing
on Long Island for 30 years?
There's no chance in hell
that's going to be true.
[Kristin] Recently,
we learned from Suffolk Police
that they're still receiving tips.
They're up to about 7,000 tips.
[Ray] We're gonna concern ourselves
with what's happening on Long Island
and remain supportive
of those investigations.
But because I lack the jurisdiction,
we'll leave those investigations
up to those other places.
[Adrienne] One of the more
heartbreaking things about this case
is that the duration of it
and the time
that it's taken to apprehend a suspect
and the time that trial
will inevitably take,
is that many of these families
have suffered
incalculable loss
that most people could not live through,
and they have not been able
to see justice be done.
This is dorky, but I kept it.
This leaf blew in front of me, and every
time I moved it, it blew towards me.
So, I figured it was meant
for me to take it.
So I took it, and it's been
in this box ever since.
The families have waited for years,
sometimes decades,
to find out what happened
to their loved ones.
And not all of them are still here today.
Megan Waterman's mom,
Lorraine, died in 2022,
only months
before Rex Heuermann was arrested.
She died without knowing
who may have killed her daughter.
Mary Gilbert passed away in 2016.
In the beginning, I wanted
to pretend like it's not my life.
After my mother's passing,
I have gotten a lot more involved,
because I feel like I have to now.
I have to participate
in what my mother did.
She spoke a lot for Shannan
and justice for Shannan.
So, I believe that I have
to do the same thing.
These families always held out hope
that they would find
who did this to their loved ones.
And they died, some of them,
without ever knowing what happened.
The family members who are still alive
are carrying on the torch,
showing up to hearings
involving Rex Heuermann
to make sure that there is justice.
[Gloria Allred] We don't know where
this will end, but this case drags on.
And because there's so many victims,
it's taking a long time
for the case to go to trial.
So, it's a painful process
for many of the family members.
They are committed, however,
to seeing this through to the end.
They want the truth
about what happened to their loved ones.
So, Lynn, we don't know exactly
what's gonna happen today.
No.
You've been to the courthouse
that we're going to so many times, right?
I have.
[Gloria]
Probably you lost count, right?
This is the first time I'm gonna
see the defendant, though.
[Gloria] My guess is,
he's not gonna look at anyone
who is sitting there,
except maybe the judge.
[Lynn]
If he's smart.
I think it's very important, don't you,
that the family members come.
I do. We all need to be there
to support each other.
-[Gloria] Yes.
-And any new victims' families.
[Gloria]
Mm-hmm.
Let them all see
that we're all here for 'em.
[Gloria]
Yeah, exactly.
Because nobody can feel this except us.
[Gloria]
Exactly.
I mean, you can say that you feel sorry,
but you just don't know.
I don't think there's ever gonna be
any closure.
[Gloria]
Well, at some point, hopefully,
-it'll feel a little less painful.
-[Lynn] There may be justice.
Exactly. That's how I feel. Exactly.
[Lynn]
And no one else will be hurt.
[Gloria]
That's so, so important.
Gender violence, that makes the families
very angry and very upset.
We see horrific things happening
to women all over the world.
The bottom line is, this accused man
thinks he's powerful
hurting the vulnerable.
It's just tragic.
Doesn't think about family members.
Doesn't think about anyone,
except himself.
We go now to Long Island,
where suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer,
Rex Heuermann, has been charged
with a seventh murder.
[reporter] Suffolk's DA today said that
parts of Valerie Mack's dismembered body
were first found in Manorville
back in 2000.
That's when prosecutors
recovered a strand of hair
DNA has now traced back
to Rex Heuermann's daughter.
That courtroom audience
included the parents of Valerie Mack,
as well as family members
of some of the other alleged victims
of Rex Heuermann.
[Gloria] It was silent
when he came into the courtroom.
So, for that reason,
it was particularly startling
when he yelled, "Not guilty."
[reporter]
Family members let out an audible gasp
when Heuermann decided
to enter his own not guilty plea.
[Gloria] He certainly has a right
to say not guilty.
He can say it until he's blue in the face,
but really what matters is
what the evidence shows.
So, we'll have to wait and see.
How did you feel about this morning?
[sighs] It was very emotional.
I didn't expect to feel that way
when I saw him for the first time.
So, it was like feeling it
for the first time all over again.
Mm-hmm. But
you know, he's sitting alone
in a cell, most likely.
-That's all he's got.
-That's all he's got.
[reporter 2]
Here in New York,
the judge in the case of
accused Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann
is expected to announce whether key DNA
evidence can be used during the trial.
The type of testing has never been used
before in a New York courtroom.
[Kristin] We're in Riverhead,
Suffolk County for a big hearing.
The judge's decision today is monumental.
For months, Rex's attorney, Mike Brown,
put up every expert that he could find
that would argue
that the use of this DNA technology
was too new and
should not be allowed in the trial.
This evidence is critical,
because without it,
prosecutors have
what is a circumstantial case.
If the judge doesn't allow this in,
there is a chance
that a jury could find Rex Heuermann
not guilty because of it.
If this is all tossed, if the judge says,
look, it's just too new
to bring into this trial,
that's gonna be really
damaging for the prosecution.
[newscaster 9]
Breaking news out of Long Island.
Judge making a major ruling
surrounding DNA evidence
in the Gilgo Beach murder case.
[Ray]
Okay, thanks, everyone, for coming.
We received the decision.
The court's decision is
that the question hairs with regard
to the nuclear DNA testing, that
has been deemed admissible by the court.
This decision marks a significant step
in forensic DNA analysis.
The science was on our side,
and that's why we won.
[reporter 3]
Could you say anything about the trial?
This was very aggressively
and effectively litigated.
We're hurtling towards the trial stage.
[reporter 4] How did Rex Heuermann
react to this decision,
which would allow the nuclear DNA
to be used as evidence against him?
He was disappointed.
We believe
it's not scientifically reliable,
but the judge has issued a decision
saying this is acceptable.
We don't like it.
We don't agree with it.
But he's the umpire.
Mike, do you anticipate him taking a plea?
-A plea?
-A guilty plea.
I stood in front of you folks
from day one.
Everything we're doing is catered
and directed towards a trial.
It's what we do is we fight.
He has maintained that not guilty plea.
We go forward.
-[Kristin] Thank you.
-All right, guys? Okay, thanks.
[Kristin] Even though Mike Brown
said today there's no plea deal,
and I think that that was a legitimate,
genuine response,
you never know
what is happening in a case.
This decision today was a huge blow
to the defense
and a big win for prosecutors.
[reporter 5] Can you speak
for the victim's families?
How are they feeling today?
I think they're feeling relieved,
and I think they're happy
and pleased with the decision.
[Kristin]
And I think these families understand
that while their loved one isn't here,
they potentially have
who was responsible for hurting them.
Now begins the process of holding
that alleged person accountable
and to be a witness
to this process, to justice.
[interviewer] A lot more is gonna
come out in the trial, isn't it?
Yeah.
I think the DA's releasing this level
of evidence to rattle his cage
and hopefully to prompt a plea deal.
That's what I hope for,
because I hope the families
don't have to go through
the emotional tumult of a trial.
There were people behind the scenes
for a number of years
working on this investigation
to try to bring them justice, and
I'm glad that there's
finally progress.
But we still have a ways to go.
We have victims
where there are no suspects
that have been charged with those murders.
And those investigations
remain very active and ongoing.
[Gloria]
When I said I wanted to practice law
to a cousin of mine
who was a lawyer in Philadelphia,
he said, "Why?"
I said, "Because I would like
to help win justice."
He said, "There's no justice.
All you can do is mitigate the injustice."
We've helped to remove some of the fear
against the powerful person
who has hurt them in their lives.
And now, the fear is on the other side.
The fear is on the side
of the perpetrator,
because the fear is now he doesn't know
what the survivors are going to do.
[Sara]
Maureen, I owe her my life.
And if I can't help her, I can probably
help others that are just like us.
So that they're not afraid
to report something bad,
so that they're safe
from those kind of situations happening.
[Kristin]
I think that there is still
a pattern of behavior
in law enforcement,
who I have the utmost respect for.
But I do think that there is dismissing
that still goes on
with women who disappear.
The family members and the friends
who went to police made a fatal error
that shouldn't be a fatal error.
They told them the truth.
They told them what these women did.
The second that law enforcement hears
that these women have issues,
their cases get pushed to the side
for the cases of the wealthier,
the more put together,
the ones of the families
that have the ability to pay for lawyers.
And I think there will always be
questions about things
that we may not get the answers to,
like Shannan Gilbert.
I'm not sure that we will ever know
the truth about Shannan Gilbert.
I can definitely tell you over the years,
I have gotten so cold because of this.
The stuff I've heard, it just,
it makes you cold.
It does.
[Kristin]
Every person that walks in and says
I'm worried about where she is,
should be treated as if it was
the officer's own sister,
mother, aunt, cousin.
I hope that the department,
and I think they have,
has learned some lessons about
what works and what doesn't work.
Look, this idea of a task force
is so smart.
I mean, I would love to see
more investigations like this.
[Ray] Part of our motivation was
we wanted to let everyone know
that the lives of these
young women mattered,
and that if you engage
in this type of conduct,
eventually, you're gonna
be held to account.
[Stevie] I definitely
want people to be held accountable
for my sister's death.
And not just my sister,
but as far as this happening
to other women.
[Gloria]
This isn't just about murder.
This has roots deep in the culture.
And how some men see women.
Women in this country
and in this world are not safe.
It's not just in that kind of work.
Women are not safe.
[woman]
Maureen was a mother of two
amazing children,
and they will forever be
without their mother.
I think that these victims' family members
are standing up,
becoming fighters for change
for other women.
Amber would have accomplished her goals.
She wanted to work her own hours.
She wanted to be a veterinarian.
[Sara]
Maureen, she was a good mother.
She would definitely be proud
of her daughter and her son.
Melissa would have been
39 years old this year.
And she should have been
able to get married.
She should have been able
to have children.
She should be here to share
her laughter and her love.
The whole world deserved more of her.
I'm sick and tired of being angry.
[Gloria]
I always say, first, we cry.
And then, we fight.
[contemplative music]
[Adrienne]
During the analysis of a hard drive
recovered
from the basement of the suspect,
the task force discovered
a Word document
titled HK2002-4.
[Ray] It was found in unallocated space,
which means it was erased,
but we were able
to forensically retrieve it.
The planning document is effectively
a blueprint of how to be a serial killer.
[Kristin] To look at it in real life
is horrible.
This is highly disturbing.
[John Ray] His whole being is devoted
to sex, torture, murder,
in the worst way that a human mind
could imagine.
[Dave Schaller]
This whole thing is just insane.
It's like you couldn't literally ask
for any more of a confession.
[Adrienne] The planning document is
extraordinarily damning.
What the investigators found was
that it was created,
not downloaded from the internet,
it was created by the user,
and investigators believe
that the exclusive user of that device
was Rex Hauermann sometime
between 2001 and 2002.
This is right after Valerie Mack
is murdered.
It's particularly critical
for the prosecution,
because it establishes the intent
and the mindset of the perpetrator.
The intent is crucial
to establish premeditation.
It begins with a four category section
with underlying headings.
Based on the experience of investigators,
they believe that "supplies"
references the tools necessary
to actually execute the murders.
"Problems" specifically details the things
needed to avoid apprehension.
"DS" is a reference to dump site,
where the bodies would effectively
be disposed of,
and "TRG" is a reference to the targets.
The target section references
Megan with a question mark.
Also, "small is good."
It's important to note
that the known victims
thus far are all small, petite women.
[Kristin] When we first got access
to this planning document,
it was very disturbing,
to the point that when I reported it,
I did a disclaimer to the viewer
to please be ready
for what you're about to hear.
You may not want to hear this.
Supplies: booties, acid,
rope, hairnets.
Problems: DNA,
bloodstains, foot/shoe prints.
[Adrienne] The document very clearly
lays out dump site one, Mill Road.
Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor's remains
were found close to Mill Road.
[Kristin]
Post-event: destroy file, change tires,
burn gloves, have story set.
As I read this,
I have to say, it's strange.
There's so many misspellings here.
Rex is well-educated, an architect.
[Donna]
He didn't spell well.
He would make me listen
to this tape recorder
when he would have me do proposals.
You know, he obviously didn't spell well.
[Kristin]
Use heavy rope for neck.
Light rope broke under stress
of being tightened.
Light rope broke under stress.
That's disturbing,
because he's now speaking,
allegedly, that this happened.
He's learning.
[Sara] Who fucking hurt him
that he had to do that to people?
He was hunting them.
He literally planned all that.
[Kristin] More sleep and noise control
equals more playtime.
He was not interested
in just killing them.
There was more that he had planned.
And where were they for that time?
They were somewhere.
[Ray]
When you look at the planning document,
it talks about, for lack of a better word,
a staging area, an area where
the victim would be brought.
And with regard to that, it talks about
hanging plastic
from either the ceiling or the walls
and how it was better to use pushpins
as opposed to tape,
because tape leaves adhesive marks
on the wall and the ceiling.
[Adrienne]
Authorities returned to search the house
about a year after the initial search.
That search was likely prompted
from the details provided
in the planning document,
specific to the use of pushpins and tape.
So, they were specifically looking
to see evidence of that.
Where in a house that you share
with your wife and two children
could you conceal a crime like this?
[Katherine] One summer, I worked
for a lot of different architects.
I was freelancing, and Rex said,
"Hey, I've got some work for you."
He asked me to come to his house
to measure it,
because he was going
to do some renovations.
So, I took the train
out to Massapequa Park,
and he picked me up at the train station.
Here's the front door.
You enter in here,
and here's the living room.
We actually measured the whole first
floor and the basement together.
The kitchen is right here, and the stairs
leading down to the basement.
When you go down the stairs,
it was finished.
There was carpet, there was a sofa,
and there was a little bar.
You know, it was a hangout area.
So, you can see how he would say,
hey, why don't you come down,
sit on the couch, you know,
have a drink, and just hang out.
You know, just chill out.
Even then, the women walking
down those stairs
had no idea what was about to come.
We were kind of working our way around
the perimeter of the room.
Probably ten feet away from the sofa
was this area
I'm calling the vault.
He was standing, literally,
his back was to the door of the vault.
And he said,
"You can't go in there."
I always remembered that, because
I don't know, something struck me
when he stopped
and said that to my face
in such a stern voice.
It really kind of caught me off guard.
[Adrienne] The vault would have offered
a level of privacy,
and to some degree,
a level of noise cancelation
that would have provided
an ideal environment
for the components of this crime.
[Ray] When we executed
the search warrant in the house,
we went back to the basement.
And using infrared lighting,
we were able to establish
a cordoned off area where we saw
this adhesive tape had been placed.
It really just reiterated
what that planning document
specifically talks about
with regard to staging areas.
[Katherine]
From the pictures that we've seen
from the house raids,
what I realized
in the last year and a half
is that there's a staircase
that's in the vault
that leads out to the backyard.
So, he had access
from this room to the backyard.
If you look at all the aerial photos
of his house,
you can see the basement doors.
They're directly underneath his kitchen,
directly in line with the stairs
that go down to the basement.
He was able to
move things around
in a discreet way.
It becomes apparent that there's
a high possibility that these women,
that he may have held them
for a period of time
in a room where he was able
to hang a drop cloth,
where he was able to test all these
different torture methods on them.
And they probably knew they were
gonna die, because no one could help them.
It's very scary for me
to look back on those times
and think how close I was
to somebody so evil.
In July of 2003,
he allegedly took Jessica Taylor.
Got together with her on a Monday night
and dumped her body on a Friday night.
So, he had her at the house
for those four days.
On his BlackBerry schedule,
you can see
that he has appointments at the DOB,
the Department of Buildings,
meaning, allegedly,
Jessica Taylor was still in the house
and he would go off to meetings.
[Ray]
Given the evidence in this case,
one of the things
that we argue is significant
is that with regard to all of the victims,
the defendant's family were out of town
during the commission of the crimes.
That would have, unfortunately, given
the defendant unfettered time and access
to the victims at a time where, you know,
no one else would be around.
[Nikkie] If I went back to his house,
I don't think I'd be here right now.
For years, I've told everybody--
everybody-- I said I went on a date
with the Gilgo Beach Killer.
I knew it was him, and nobody believed me,
which, again, goes to show
how little people
believe things
from people in that industry.
I was a felon at a really young age,
and nobody wanted
to fucking hire me, at all.
Except McDonald's, but you can't pay
for rent and a kid on McDonald's.
My friend showed me the website
sugardaddies.com.
So, I ended up becoming a sugar baby.
So, I met Rex Heuermann
through the website in 2015.
Initially, he wanted me
to come to his house.
He was like, why don't you just come over?
It'd be a lot more relaxed.
He didn't want to meet in public.
But I got him to agree to go
to the Steam Room in Port Jeff.
When we sat down, we talked like basics,
like, what do you do for a living?
Where do you work?
And then he asked if I knew
about the Gilgo Beach killing.
And, like, I'm from here,
so of course I have.
The way he talked about it seemed odd.
Honestly, it felt like he was, like,
sexually getting off to talking
about serial killers in Gilgo.
You know, when someone's blood pressure's
high and their face starts turning red,
and their palms get flushed,
and that's what he looked like.
It was so weird.
He honestly was in a rush
to try to get me to his house.
I was like, I really don't want to be
driving at night in an area I don't know.
That was, like, my polite letdown.
And he was like, "Why would you drive?
No, no, no, we'd take one car."
He was, like, very aggressive,
like, very pushy about it.
And then, he seemed, like, angry.
Like, he was mad that I didn't
want to go home with him.
It scared me.
I was, like, super uncomfortable.
[Adrienne] He had gone through
that process with the earlier victims,
and he hadn't gotten caught yet.
He'd gotten away with it for so long.
[Ray]
He lived this dual life.
He had the front-facing life, where he was
the architect who worked in the city,
had his own business.
And then, he had this aspect
of his life that he kept secret.
[Adrienne]
With the literature discovered in his home
during the execution
of the search warrant,
it seems as if the suspect has
a deep fascination with violent crimes
and with serial killers, in particular.
We know that he was fixated
with Mindhunter.
Mindhunter was written
by retired special agent John Douglas.
John was a pioneer in establishing
the behavioral science unit,
and he is known as being a linchpin
in the development
of behavioral criminal profiling.
The book Mindhunter provides insight
into serial killer behavior
and techniques used
by violent criminal offenders.
John Douglas famously wrote in that book
that if you want to understand Picasso,
you have to study his art.
If you want to understand
the criminal personality,
you study the crime.
I think this suspect liked being
thought of as an artist,
and it was an art form
that he had to perfect.
He was looking at the way
serial killers kill,
and also how investigators go about
tracking down and convicting
serial killers.
[Adrienne] And he makes it a point
to denote certain pages
to really pay attention to.
And if you have access
to that type of internal information,
you can definitely square up how you
execute a series of murders like this
to minimize the spread
of evidence, including DNA.
[Kristin]
"Body prep:
wash body inside and all cavities,
remove ID marks like tattoos,
remove marks from torture,
remove head and hands."
For the other six victims,
four of the six were dismembered.
Out of all of those four,
not only were they dismembered,
some body parts were recovered
along Ocean Parkway.
Others were recovered
in Hempstead Lake Park,
Fire Island, Manorville.
Typically, the perpetrators
undertake that, and it's a lot of effort,
in order to frustrate
and confuse investigators,
and to delay the identification.
That's the key.
[Kristin] Suffolk County District Attorney
Ray Tierney has always been clear
that this investigation is still going.
They're not stopping
until they investigate every single lead
that they could possibly have
related to this case.
And so, we knew there were gonna be
more charges coming.
[Ray] Today, the District Attorney's
Office filed a superseding indictment
charging the defendant
with two additional murders.
Those charges pertain
to the 1993 murder of Sandra Castilla
and the 2003 murder of Jessica Taylor.
The task force believes
that the planning document
was utilized by Heuermann
to methodically blueprint
and plan out his kills
with excruciating detail.
We allege that this document evinces
the defendant's intent
in committing the charged crimes.
[Kristin]
I did not suspect
that Sandra Castilla was going
to be connected to him.
That wowed me.
I was suspecting
Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack.
The reason is, we have known for years,
because police have said,
that Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack
most likely had the same killer.
Sandra Castilla kind of came
out of nowhere,
but the significance of that
cannot be understated.
There were two hairs
from Sandra Castilla's remains
that are of particular significance
in this case.
One was a female hair
that was recovered
from the victim's right arm,
and one was a male hair
that was recovered from a tape lift
of one of the shirts
that the victim was wearing
that was pushed above her head.
[Kristin]
They found a female hair on her right arm
that did not belong to her.
They believe it closely matches
who they call Witness 3.
Witness 3 is the woman that
Rex Heuermann was living with in 1993.
From a defense standpoint,
I don't know what strategy I would use
to explain that away.
The totality of the evidence
is extraordinarily damning.
[Michael Brown]
Good morning.
It looks like there's just
so much discovery that's forthcoming.
You see here, the interns here
have a box of,
I don't know how many terabytes
are in there,
but these are things that were
disclosed this morning,
and that's just on top
of all that we've received to date.
I think it's fair to say
that it's an unprecedented type of case.
[John]
Michael Brown is his lawyer.
He's a good lawyer.
Michael tried his first jury case
against me, and he beat me.
I stood in front of you folks a year ago,
and I said he wants his day in court.
He still wants his day in court.
He wants his trial.
If I were Michael Brown,
I know what I would do,
and I would start to look directly
at the DNA evidence and pull it apart.
The strongest piece of evidence
that they claim they have is a hair.
DNA evidence is science,
but the great mistake that people make
is that science is the voice of God.
It's not.
There are thousands and thousands
of people just on Long Island
that potentially could be
donors for those hairs.
And then, I would cast reasonable doubt
on whether or not he was guilty.
You have a search warrant when
Rex was arrested in July of last year,
and now the 10-month later search
apparently is gonna yield
three or four times
the amount of discovery
that the first search yielded.
Does that make any sense to you?
I would also attack the way the police
conducted the entire investigation
and pick the police apart.
[Michael]
There were numerous leads
that came
into the Suffolk County Police Department
suggesting that Chief Burke
was involved in this.
[Kristin]
Mike Brown, he's always been clear
that Rex had nothing to do
with any of this.
Any piece of evidence,
he's gonna rip it apart.
[Michael]
It all goes into the narrative.
It's any piece of the puzzle
that they can take and they can fit
and they can argue
that it's Rex Heuermann.
They've done that.
And things that don't work for them,
you don't hear about.
We talked about surveillance.
A year and a half
of poll cameras at his house.
[Kristin]
The defense have made a very good point
that all that was captured on that film
was Rex coming home,
playing with his dog, talking to his wife.
Nothing out of the ordinary.
I mean, I think probably what
he was saying about the poll cam
is we don't see him murdering
anyone else on the poll cam,
which means he didn't commit these other--
You know, I think that's what he's saying.
[Kristin] Heuermann has denied
tons of media requests.
So, it's interesting that the one person
he's decided to communicate with
is a convicted serial killer,
the Happy Face Killer.
[Keith] I try to explain to other killers
that are arrested and I write to 'em.
I tell them how the system works.
If you're arrested, it means
that the prosecutor has enough evidence
to take you to court and prove you guilty.
I've recently got a letter
from Rex Heuermann,
from the Long Island Serial Killings,
and I told him the same thing.
Isn't that kind of an admission of guilt?
Why is he writing
to another serial killer?
Is he seeking advice?
-Yes, sir?
-[reporter] Did you get a chance
to review the quote-unquote "manifesto"
that they talked about last month?
[Michael]
You've already made that assumption
that he's the one who drafted it
and he's the one who created it.
I don't know that. I don't know that.
You have a document that's attached
to a bail package from a computer
they claim was in his home
that's 23 years old.
But that's all I know.
The experts of the medical
examiner's office,
and these are folks
who are experts in their field,
they said that those hairs were unsuitable
for nuclear DNA testing.
Now, all of a sudden, magically,
we have a company in California
that says, no, we're able
to do nuclear DNA testing.
I don't understand how the Suffolk County
Crime Lab said it's unsuitable,
and within a month or two, we have
some magician on the West Coast
that says it's my client.
We're looking forward to trying this case.
[Adrienne]
In 1993, and certainly at the time
the bodies were discovered in 2010,
the capability to produce full
mitochondrial and nuclear DNA profiles
from rootless hairs just didn't exist.
The capability just wasn't there.
Since then, technology and science
have substantially evolved,
and we can now get a DNA profile
from a rootless hair
through nuclear DNA testing.
The profile that returned
excluded 99.96%
of the North American population.
Rex could not be excluded.
Even with DNA, believe it or not,
you can't have 100%.
There's too many variations.
We have here,
these are the, from the indictment,
the list of all the breakdown
of the DNA, right?
Sandra Costilla,
99.96% of North American population
can be excluded, but not Rex Heuermann.
99.98%.
99.96%.
Nothing here is 100.
And so, what the defense is going
to try to say
is that this is not a match.
Sandra Costilla increases
the potential victims
associated with the subject,
and there are likely more.
It showed he was likely killing
as early as 1993,
and most likely well before that.
The brutal nature of Sandra's murder,
as well as how the body was disposed of,
and posed, and mutilated,
suggests to investigators
that this was not his first time.
[newscaster] New information
as the investigation continues
into the accused
Gilgo Beach serial killer
[newscaster 2] Police
in both South Carolina and Las Vegas,
where he owns property,
are reviewing unsolved cases
for any possible connection.
[John]
There is extremely strong possibility
that he's responsible
for a number of other deaths
in other areas of the country.
[newscaster 3] There is a woman
in South Carolina who said,
"I know that face.
It was the last face I saw with my mother
before I never saw her again."
[newscaster 4] South Carolina's
Sumter County Sheriff's Office
posting this photo of Julia Ann Bean.
Bean's adult daughter telling authorities
the last time she saw her mother,
she was with a man driving a vehicle
similar to one
that's now been linked to Heuermann.
I did know that he went
down to South Carolina,
that they had property there,
because he had me paying the taxes for it.
[newscaster 5]
The FBI recovered a vehicle
that matches Heuermann's SUV
linked to the case,
and now investigators are
searching property
in Chester County, South Carolina.
If you could catch the gate open, there's
tarps, there's all kind of weird stuff.
He's got, like I said, a deuce and a half
military army vehicle in there, or he did.
[Kristin]
I think that every missing person's case
that involves a woman
in this country should be looked at.
[newscaster 6]
Cameron Bean telling NBC News,
"I saw her the night before my graduation.
She didn't come, which was definitely
something that was
out of character for her."
[Adrienne]
Prior to identifying a suspect,
you're limited in terms of the victims
that you'll tie that suspect to.
After the suspect was arrested,
you look at the suspect's behavior,
their lifestyle, their travel patterns,
and that drives you to look
at potential other victims
that were outside of the jurisdiction of
Suffolk County and outside of New York.
We don't know yet if Rex Heuermann
will be charged with their murders.
[newscaster 7] Heuermann and his wife
own a timeshare condo
at Club de Soleil
on Tropicana Avenue and Lyndale Road.
Property records show they bought
it in 2005 for $17,000.
In Las Vegas, he has a condo that's right
behind a sex worker establishment.
[newscaster 8]
Sources tell 13 Investigates
Metro has a number of cold cases
involving sex workers.
We've asked how many of those
unsolved crimes there are,
and we are still waiting
for that information.
[Kristin] I've spoken to a mom out there,
her daughter, she's from Canada.
Her daughter had gone to Vegas
to be a sex worker,
and she's never heard from her since.
And she waits with bated breath
at the phone
that Rex Heuermann
may have killed her daughter.
[Ray]
The defendant did spend time in Alaska,
as well as Atlantic City,
as well as other places.
And if any of those jurisdictions have
any information that they need
from the task force, we have provided it,
we're gonna continue to provide it.
[Dave] I guarantee you that
if they start looking into disappearances
and time frames when he was there,
there's gonna be bodies
all over the country.
You think that he was just killing
on Long Island for 30 years?
There's no chance in hell
that's going to be true.
[Kristin] Recently,
we learned from Suffolk Police
that they're still receiving tips.
They're up to about 7,000 tips.
[Ray] We're gonna concern ourselves
with what's happening on Long Island
and remain supportive
of those investigations.
But because I lack the jurisdiction,
we'll leave those investigations
up to those other places.
[Adrienne] One of the more
heartbreaking things about this case
is that the duration of it
and the time
that it's taken to apprehend a suspect
and the time that trial
will inevitably take,
is that many of these families
have suffered
incalculable loss
that most people could not live through,
and they have not been able
to see justice be done.
This is dorky, but I kept it.
This leaf blew in front of me, and every
time I moved it, it blew towards me.
So, I figured it was meant
for me to take it.
So I took it, and it's been
in this box ever since.
The families have waited for years,
sometimes decades,
to find out what happened
to their loved ones.
And not all of them are still here today.
Megan Waterman's mom,
Lorraine, died in 2022,
only months
before Rex Heuermann was arrested.
She died without knowing
who may have killed her daughter.
Mary Gilbert passed away in 2016.
In the beginning, I wanted
to pretend like it's not my life.
After my mother's passing,
I have gotten a lot more involved,
because I feel like I have to now.
I have to participate
in what my mother did.
She spoke a lot for Shannan
and justice for Shannan.
So, I believe that I have
to do the same thing.
These families always held out hope
that they would find
who did this to their loved ones.
And they died, some of them,
without ever knowing what happened.
The family members who are still alive
are carrying on the torch,
showing up to hearings
involving Rex Heuermann
to make sure that there is justice.
[Gloria Allred] We don't know where
this will end, but this case drags on.
And because there's so many victims,
it's taking a long time
for the case to go to trial.
So, it's a painful process
for many of the family members.
They are committed, however,
to seeing this through to the end.
They want the truth
about what happened to their loved ones.
So, Lynn, we don't know exactly
what's gonna happen today.
No.
You've been to the courthouse
that we're going to so many times, right?
I have.
[Gloria]
Probably you lost count, right?
This is the first time I'm gonna
see the defendant, though.
[Gloria] My guess is,
he's not gonna look at anyone
who is sitting there,
except maybe the judge.
[Lynn]
If he's smart.
I think it's very important, don't you,
that the family members come.
I do. We all need to be there
to support each other.
-[Gloria] Yes.
-And any new victims' families.
[Gloria]
Mm-hmm.
Let them all see
that we're all here for 'em.
[Gloria]
Yeah, exactly.
Because nobody can feel this except us.
[Gloria]
Exactly.
I mean, you can say that you feel sorry,
but you just don't know.
I don't think there's ever gonna be
any closure.
[Gloria]
Well, at some point, hopefully,
-it'll feel a little less painful.
-[Lynn] There may be justice.
Exactly. That's how I feel. Exactly.
[Lynn]
And no one else will be hurt.
[Gloria]
That's so, so important.
Gender violence, that makes the families
very angry and very upset.
We see horrific things happening
to women all over the world.
The bottom line is, this accused man
thinks he's powerful
hurting the vulnerable.
It's just tragic.
Doesn't think about family members.
Doesn't think about anyone,
except himself.
We go now to Long Island,
where suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer,
Rex Heuermann, has been charged
with a seventh murder.
[reporter] Suffolk's DA today said that
parts of Valerie Mack's dismembered body
were first found in Manorville
back in 2000.
That's when prosecutors
recovered a strand of hair
DNA has now traced back
to Rex Heuermann's daughter.
That courtroom audience
included the parents of Valerie Mack,
as well as family members
of some of the other alleged victims
of Rex Heuermann.
[Gloria] It was silent
when he came into the courtroom.
So, for that reason,
it was particularly startling
when he yelled, "Not guilty."
[reporter]
Family members let out an audible gasp
when Heuermann decided
to enter his own not guilty plea.
[Gloria] He certainly has a right
to say not guilty.
He can say it until he's blue in the face,
but really what matters is
what the evidence shows.
So, we'll have to wait and see.
How did you feel about this morning?
[sighs] It was very emotional.
I didn't expect to feel that way
when I saw him for the first time.
So, it was like feeling it
for the first time all over again.
Mm-hmm. But
you know, he's sitting alone
in a cell, most likely.
-That's all he's got.
-That's all he's got.
[reporter 2]
Here in New York,
the judge in the case of
accused Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann
is expected to announce whether key DNA
evidence can be used during the trial.
The type of testing has never been used
before in a New York courtroom.
[Kristin] We're in Riverhead,
Suffolk County for a big hearing.
The judge's decision today is monumental.
For months, Rex's attorney, Mike Brown,
put up every expert that he could find
that would argue
that the use of this DNA technology
was too new and
should not be allowed in the trial.
This evidence is critical,
because without it,
prosecutors have
what is a circumstantial case.
If the judge doesn't allow this in,
there is a chance
that a jury could find Rex Heuermann
not guilty because of it.
If this is all tossed, if the judge says,
look, it's just too new
to bring into this trial,
that's gonna be really
damaging for the prosecution.
[newscaster 9]
Breaking news out of Long Island.
Judge making a major ruling
surrounding DNA evidence
in the Gilgo Beach murder case.
[Ray]
Okay, thanks, everyone, for coming.
We received the decision.
The court's decision is
that the question hairs with regard
to the nuclear DNA testing, that
has been deemed admissible by the court.
This decision marks a significant step
in forensic DNA analysis.
The science was on our side,
and that's why we won.
[reporter 3]
Could you say anything about the trial?
This was very aggressively
and effectively litigated.
We're hurtling towards the trial stage.
[reporter 4] How did Rex Heuermann
react to this decision,
which would allow the nuclear DNA
to be used as evidence against him?
He was disappointed.
We believe
it's not scientifically reliable,
but the judge has issued a decision
saying this is acceptable.
We don't like it.
We don't agree with it.
But he's the umpire.
Mike, do you anticipate him taking a plea?
-A plea?
-A guilty plea.
I stood in front of you folks
from day one.
Everything we're doing is catered
and directed towards a trial.
It's what we do is we fight.
He has maintained that not guilty plea.
We go forward.
-[Kristin] Thank you.
-All right, guys? Okay, thanks.
[Kristin] Even though Mike Brown
said today there's no plea deal,
and I think that that was a legitimate,
genuine response,
you never know
what is happening in a case.
This decision today was a huge blow
to the defense
and a big win for prosecutors.
[reporter 5] Can you speak
for the victim's families?
How are they feeling today?
I think they're feeling relieved,
and I think they're happy
and pleased with the decision.
[Kristin]
And I think these families understand
that while their loved one isn't here,
they potentially have
who was responsible for hurting them.
Now begins the process of holding
that alleged person accountable
and to be a witness
to this process, to justice.
[interviewer] A lot more is gonna
come out in the trial, isn't it?
Yeah.
I think the DA's releasing this level
of evidence to rattle his cage
and hopefully to prompt a plea deal.
That's what I hope for,
because I hope the families
don't have to go through
the emotional tumult of a trial.
There were people behind the scenes
for a number of years
working on this investigation
to try to bring them justice, and
I'm glad that there's
finally progress.
But we still have a ways to go.
We have victims
where there are no suspects
that have been charged with those murders.
And those investigations
remain very active and ongoing.
[Gloria]
When I said I wanted to practice law
to a cousin of mine
who was a lawyer in Philadelphia,
he said, "Why?"
I said, "Because I would like
to help win justice."
He said, "There's no justice.
All you can do is mitigate the injustice."
We've helped to remove some of the fear
against the powerful person
who has hurt them in their lives.
And now, the fear is on the other side.
The fear is on the side
of the perpetrator,
because the fear is now he doesn't know
what the survivors are going to do.
[Sara]
Maureen, I owe her my life.
And if I can't help her, I can probably
help others that are just like us.
So that they're not afraid
to report something bad,
so that they're safe
from those kind of situations happening.
[Kristin]
I think that there is still
a pattern of behavior
in law enforcement,
who I have the utmost respect for.
But I do think that there is dismissing
that still goes on
with women who disappear.
The family members and the friends
who went to police made a fatal error
that shouldn't be a fatal error.
They told them the truth.
They told them what these women did.
The second that law enforcement hears
that these women have issues,
their cases get pushed to the side
for the cases of the wealthier,
the more put together,
the ones of the families
that have the ability to pay for lawyers.
And I think there will always be
questions about things
that we may not get the answers to,
like Shannan Gilbert.
I'm not sure that we will ever know
the truth about Shannan Gilbert.
I can definitely tell you over the years,
I have gotten so cold because of this.
The stuff I've heard, it just,
it makes you cold.
It does.
[Kristin]
Every person that walks in and says
I'm worried about where she is,
should be treated as if it was
the officer's own sister,
mother, aunt, cousin.
I hope that the department,
and I think they have,
has learned some lessons about
what works and what doesn't work.
Look, this idea of a task force
is so smart.
I mean, I would love to see
more investigations like this.
[Ray] Part of our motivation was
we wanted to let everyone know
that the lives of these
young women mattered,
and that if you engage
in this type of conduct,
eventually, you're gonna
be held to account.
[Stevie] I definitely
want people to be held accountable
for my sister's death.
And not just my sister,
but as far as this happening
to other women.
[Gloria]
This isn't just about murder.
This has roots deep in the culture.
And how some men see women.
Women in this country
and in this world are not safe.
It's not just in that kind of work.
Women are not safe.
[woman]
Maureen was a mother of two
amazing children,
and they will forever be
without their mother.
I think that these victims' family members
are standing up,
becoming fighters for change
for other women.
Amber would have accomplished her goals.
She wanted to work her own hours.
She wanted to be a veterinarian.
[Sara]
Maureen, she was a good mother.
She would definitely be proud
of her daughter and her son.
Melissa would have been
39 years old this year.
And she should have been
able to get married.
She should have been able
to have children.
She should be here to share
her laughter and her love.
The whole world deserved more of her.
I'm sick and tired of being angry.
[Gloria]
I always say, first, we cry.
And then, we fight.
[contemplative music]