The Gilgo Beach Murders: The Case Against Rex Heuermann

The planning document changed this case. Prosecutors say a digital file recovered from Rex Heuermann's basement laptop contained all-caps checklists for committing murder — organized by phase, with notes on sleep, evidence cleanup, alibi preparation, and what prosecutors believe are references to violence against victims. Jessica Taylor's case is where that document hits hardest, because the foren...

Prosecutors say Rex Heuermann kept newspaper clippings about his alleged victims — including a 2003 New York Post article about Valerie Mack's remains. They describe these as "souvenirs" and "mementos." They also say the planning document from his laptop included instructions to "remove head and hands" — matching exactly what was done to Valerie's body. And a female hair found on her remains match...

They were somebody's daughter. Somebody's sister. Somebody's mother. And according to prosecutors, they were chosen because the man who allegedly took them believed nobody would come looking. Rex Heuermann, 62, is expected to plead guilty at an April 8th court appearance to charges connected to the murders of seven women — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-B...

Sandra Costilla changes everything about the Gilgo Beach case. If you thought the killings started in 2007, prosecutors say you're off by 14 years. Sandra was found in the woods of Southampton in November 1993 — not on Gilgo Beach, not along Ocean Parkway, but 60 miles east, in a location nobody connected to the pattern until prosecutors applied advanced DNA technology to hairs found on her body....

Melissa Barthelemy was 24. Megan Waterman was 22. Amber Costello was 27. Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25. Jessica Taylor was 20. Sandra Costilla was 28. Valerie Mack was 24. Their remains were found scattered along isolated stretches of Long Island — some near Gilgo Beach, some in Manorville, some in remote wooded areas. For over a decade, no one was charged. Their families waited. And waited. And...

Rex Heuermann is reportedly expected to plead guilty to the alleged murders of seven women. After nearly three years of maintaining his innocence, the accused Gilgo Beach Killer and Long Island Serial Killer is apparently done fighting — and the reasons why tell you everything about how this LISK case was built. Defense attorney and former felony prosecutor Eric Faddis joins me for the complete br...

Rex Heuermann is expected to plead guilty to the alleged murders of seven women. But the Gilgo Beach Killer investigation uncovered eleven sets of remains — and the accused Long Island Serial Killer is not believed to be responsible for all of them. Shannan Gilbert's case remains uncharged. The Sandra Costilla murder was once attributed to convicted killer John Bittrolff before prosecutors reverse...

Prosecutors in the LISK case recovered a Word document from Rex Heuermann's basement hard drive — allegedly created in 2000 — that outlined how to select victims, dispose of remains, and avoid capture. They matched the accused Gilgo Beach Killer's DNA to hairs found on and near multiple victims using whole genome sequencing, admitted for the first time in New York history. And the original break c...

Rex Heuermann's legal team tried everything to fight the Gilgo Beach Killer charges. They moved to exclude the DNA evidence connecting the accused Long Island Serial Killer to the victims. They fought to break the LISK case into separate trials spanning different decades and different alleged methods. They filed a 178-page omnibus motion seeking dismissal of the Sandra Costilla charge and review o...

For nearly three years, the accused Long Island Serial Killer maintained his innocence. His attorney said there was no Gilgo Beach plea deal. The DA said the same. They were heading to trial in the biggest LISK proceeding in New York history. And then, reportedly, everything changed. Sources say Rex Heuermann is expected to plead guilty on April 8 to murdering seven women in the Gilgo Beach serial...

Seven families may be getting a phone call soon. Sources report that Rex Heuermann is expected to plead guilty on April 8 in the Gilgo Beach serial killing case — a case that went cold for over a decade before investigators finally broke it open. That plea hasn't happened yet. But if it does, it would represent the legal resolution these families have been waiting for since their loved ones went m...

If you've been following the Gilgo Beach case from the beginning, this is the moment the entire investigation has been building toward. According to multiple sources confirmed by the Associated Press and every major national outlet, Rex Heuermann — the architect from Massapequa Park charged with murdering seven women connected to the Long Island serial killer investigation — is expected to plead g...

Someone tried to delete this file. Forensic analysts recovered it anyway. According to prosecutors, document HK2002-04 is the Long Island Serial Killer's literal how-to guide for murder. The file was hidden on one of fifty-eight hard drives seized from Rex Heuermann's Massapequa Park basement. Created in 2000, modified through 2002, it allegedly contained eighty-seven details prosecutors say match...

Part 5 of 5: How the alleged Long Island Serial Killer was finally arrested. Investigators had been watching the man they believed was LISK for months. They had cell tower evidence placing his phone with burner phones in every instance. But they needed DNA to make the Gilgo Beach case. Then he threw away a pizza box. In this final episode, we examine how a discarded pizza crust allegedly provided...

Part 4 of 5: How prosecutors say the alleged Gilgo Beach Killer selected, contacted, and killed his victims along Long Island. July 2009. Amanda Barthelemy, fifteen years old, received a call from her missing sister's phone. A man's voice asked: "Do you know what I did to your sister?" Over the following weeks, the man called seven times. He described what he'd done. On August 26, he said: "You wo...

Part 3 of 5: The family fracture that defines the Long Island Serial Killer case. Asa Ellerup was married to Rex Heuermann for nearly three decades. In the Peacock documentary, she called him her "hero" and said Suffolk County police have "the wrong man." Their daughter Victoria has reached the opposite conclusion—telling producers she believes her father is "most likely the Gilgo Beach serial kil...

Part 2 of 5: The document prosecutors say proves everything about the Gilgo Beach murders. Hidden on one of fifty-eight hard drives seized from Rex Heuermann's Massapequa Park basement, forensic analysts found a deleted Microsoft Word file titled HK2002-04. According to court documents, it allegedly contained eighty-seven details prosecutors call LISK's "blueprint for serial murder." In this episo...

Part 1 of 5: How did Rex Heuermann—the man prosecutors call LISK—allegedly hide in plain sight for thirty years? This is the beginning of our comprehensive series examining the case against Rex Heuermann, the Manhattan architect charged with the Gilgo Beach murders. Seven victims between 1993 and 2010. Remains discovered along Ocean Parkway starting in December 2010. He's pleaded not guilty to all...

The biggest development in the Gilgo Beach case since Rex Heuermann's arrest. On January 13, 2026, Judge Timothy Mazzei finally set a trial date — right after Labor Day, September 2026. But the defense dropped a massive 178-page omnibus motion the night before that could change everything. Defense attorneys Michael Brown and Danielle Coysh are asking the court to dismiss the Sandra Costilla murder...

He looked like the guy next door — the dependable architect in a button-down shirt, the dad carrying groceries, the man waving from the driveway. But prosecutors say Rex Heuermann was also living a second life beneath that suburban shell: the man behind the Gilgo Beach murders, one of the most disturbing serial-killer cases in modern history. In this psychological deep dive, Hidden Killers host To...

In this powerful breakdown of the Gilgo Beach case, Tony Brueski and retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer take listeners inside the evidence story prosecutors will present to a single jury—now that a judge has ruled all seven murder charges against Rex Heuermann will be tried together. This ruling reshapes the entire strategy on both sides of the courtroom, giving the state a sweeping n...

The Gilgo Beach case just took a seismic turn. A judge has ruled that all seven murder charges against Rex Heuermann will be combined into one massive, high-stakes trial — a decision that reshapes the legal battlefield and raises the pressure on everyone involved. In today’s episode, Tony Brueski and defense attorney/former prosecutor Eric Faddis break down what this ruling really means for the pr...

Step inside the darkness investigators uncovered in the Massapequa Park home of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann. In this episode, we break down five of the most disturbing pieces of evidence seized from inside that ordinary-looking suburban house—items that paint a chilling psychological portrait of a man prosecutors say lived a double life for decades. From the child-sized doll en...

How does a family live beside an alleged serial killer for nearly three decades without realizing the monster in their own home? In this powerful episode, two top behavioral experts—retired FBI Special Agent Robin Dreeke and psychotherapist Shavaun Scott—break down the psychological blind spots, emotional dynamics, and manipulation patterns that may explain how Rex Heuermann hid a double life from...

In this deeply unsettling analysis, we examine two of the most revealing pieces of footage from the Gilgo Beach case: Asa Ellerup’s tour of the rooms she was forbidden to enter for 27 years, and her emotional responses during a jail call with accused serial killer Rex Heuermann. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins us to break down the psychological contradictions, trauma-bond patterns, and body-la...