What started as a seek for one lacking girl led to a number of our bodies and the seize of a person police say is a serial killer.
Could 1, 2010: Shannan Gilbert disappears
Shannan Gilbert, 23, was working as an escort. Within the early morning hours of Could 1, 2010, Gilbert made a frantic cellphone name to 911. She had been at a consumer’s residence on Lengthy Island, and stated she believed somebody was after her. She took off working and advised the 911 operator there have been folks attempting to kill her. Then, Gilbert vanished.
Police would do an exhaustive seek for Gilbert. Months handed with out a signal of the lacking girl after which, in December 2010, close to Gilgo Seashore, a police officer and his Ok-9, Blue, discovered human stays. However it wasn’t Gilbert. As a substitute, they discovered the our bodies of 4 ladies.
December 2010: The Gilgo 4
The Gilgo 4. From left, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy.
Police discovered the our bodies of 4 ladies close to Gilgo Seashore on New York’s Lengthy Island. The ladies grew to become often called the Gilgo 4 and have been recognized as Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy. Police say all the ladies have been petite and three of them have been wrapped in burlap. Police started their hunt to discover a serial killer.
The killer had a kind
Dominick Varrone was chief of detectives on the Suffolk County Police Division,
WCBS
Dominick Varrone, who was Suffolk County chief of detectives on the time, stated there have been placing similarities among the many Gilgo 4. “Very petite. 5 foot or under, 100 pounds,” Varrone stated. The ladies have been additionally all of their 20s and have been all working as on-line escorts.
July 6, 2007: Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ remaining weekend
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, was the primary of the Gilgo 4 to vanish. She had been working as an escort in New York Metropolis when she vanished in July 2007.
Melissa Cann
Maureen Brainard-Barnes is also known as the primary of the Gilgo 4. She went lacking in July 2007. Brainard-Barnes was a single mom of two dwelling in Norwich, Connecticut. She had begun working as an escort, posting adverts on Craigslist and different web sites to satisfy shoppers. On July 6, 2007, her cellphone was contacted by a burner cellphone — a pay as you go cellphone that anybody should purchase and use anonymously. Between July 6 and July 9, there have been 16 interactions between the caller utilizing a burner cellphone and Brainard-Barnes’ cellphone.
July 8, 2007: Missy Cann’s final name together with her sister
Melissa Cann says her sister Maureen’s dying is at all times at the back of her thoughts. “It’s really really hard … I miss her so much.”
Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ sister, Missy Cann, acquired a name from Maureen late at evening from Penn Station in midtown Manhattan. In an interview in 2020, Cann advised “48 Hours” Maureen stated she was going to take the practice at midnight. Cann by no means noticed or heard from Maureen once more.
July 2009: The disappearance of Melissa Barthelemy
Melissa Barthelemy
Barhelemy household
Melissa Barthelemy, 24, moved from Buffalo, New York, to New York Metropolis to work as a hairdresser. In some unspecified time in the future, she additionally started working as an escort. In July 2009, almost two years to the day that Brainard-Barnes went lacking, Barthelemy disappeared.
July 17, 2009: Taunting cellphone calls start
Melissa’s youthful sister Amanda. (“48 Hours” agreed to not present her face.)
Within the weeks following Barthelemy’s disappearance, police say her then 15-year-old sister, Amanda, acquired a sequence of cellphone calls from a person calling from Melissa’s cellphone. The primary of those calls got here on July 17, 2009 at roughly 12:40 p.m. Various calls adopted within the coming weeks. In a single, the caller advised Amanda he had killed Melissa.
June 5, 2010: Megan Waterman
Megan Waterman, 22, was the youngest of the 4 victims whose our bodies have been found close to Gilgo Seashore. Megan was final seen on June 6, 2010, leaving a Vacation Inn Categorical in Hauppauge, N.Y.
Handout
Megan Waterman, 22, a mom from Scarborough, Maine, was additionally working as an escort. On June 5, 2010, she was contacted by a burner cellphone which had simply been activated that very same day.
June 6, 2010: Megan Waterman vanishes
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison launched video by no means seen by the general public of a foyer of the Vacation Inn Categorical in Hauppauge on June 4 and 6 in 2010. Seen in a yellow high is Megan Waterman in her remaining hours.
Suffolk County Police
At 1:31 a.m., Waterman’s cellphone was once more contacted by the identical burner cellphone because the day earlier than. Safety video confirmed Waterman leaving a Vacation Inn Categorical in Hauppauge, Lengthy Island, across the identical time. This was the final time she was seen alive.
“I can’t bring her back”
Lily Waterman tells “48 Hours” that if she may discuss to her mother, she would inform her how a lot she loves her. “I never got to really say those words.”
Elizabeth Meserve
Liliana Waterman was simply 3 years outdated when her mom disappeared. In her first tv interview in 2020, Liliana (pictured with Megan Waterman) advised “48 Hours” that if she may discuss to her mother, she would inform her how a lot she loves her. “I never got to really say those words,” Liliana advised correspondent Erin Moriarty. She stated she misses her mother day by day.
Sept. 2, 2010: Amber Costello disappears
Amber Costello, 27, disappeared in September 2010, after she left her residence on Lengthy Island to satisfy a consumer. In 2011, her roommate Dave Schaller advised “48 Hours,” “she was an amazing person, she really was.”
Handout
Amber Costello, a 27-year-old escort dwelling on Lengthy Island, was contacted by somebody utilizing a burner cellphone. The following day, she left her home to satisfy a consumer and by no means returned.
After Costello’s disappearance, police say her roommate Dave Schaller advised them about her shoppers. He described one in all them as wanting like an “ogre” and having “a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.” On the evening she went lacking, Schaller says, a consumer provided Cistello $1,500 for the evening – six occasions her hourly charge.
In 2011, Schaller spoke to Moriarty. “This guy was so relentless,” Schaller stated. “He called several times. He was on the phone with her for quite a while each time.” He says the consumer obtained Costello, an skilled escort, to do one thing she by no means did: go away residence with out her purse or cellphone and meet him in his automobile. At almost midnight, Schaller says Costello left the home, walked down the road, and he by no means noticed her once more.
Dec. 16, 2010: Nonetheless no Shannan
Spencer Platt/Getty Photographs
All through the spring of 2011, investigators continued a wide-ranging seek for Shannan Gilbert.
Could 2011: Six extra units of stays found
By Could 2011, police had found six extra units of stays within the space, bringing the full to 10 units of stays — together with the Gilgo 4. Investigators weren’t certain the identical killer was liable for all of the murders.
Suffolk County Police Division
By Could 2011, police had found six extra units of stays within the space, bringing the full to 10 — together with the Gilgo 4. Investigators weren’t certain the identical killer was liable for all of the murders.
Sufferer No. 5, Jessica Taylor, is an escort who went lacking in 2003.
One other set of stays police known as “Jane #6” has now been recognized as Valerie Mack, who additionally labored as an escort and went lacking in 2000.
Quantity 7, to investigators’ shock they discovered a toddler woman.
Quantity 8 was an Asian male wearing ladies’s clothes.
Quantity 9 was a feminine cranium belonging to Karen Vergata, an escort who disappeared in 1996.
Quantity 10, feminine stays, from a sufferer cops nicknamed “Peaches” due to a tattoo on her torso. Though her stays have been discovered 6 miles away, police say DNA has confirmed that “Peaches” is the mom of that toddler.
Dec. 13, 2011: Shannan Gilbert is discovered
In December 2011, a year-and-a-half after she went lacking, police discovered Shannan Gilbert’s belongings. Her purse, cellphone, footwear and even her denims have been discovered within the marsh eight miles from Gilgo Seashore. Every week later, her skeletal stays have been discovered a couple of quarter mile from her belongings. Investigators aren’t satisfied Shannan was murdered and theorize that she might have died of hypothermia or potential drowning.
John Ray Regulation/AP
In December 2011, a year-and-a-half after she went lacking, and a 12 months after the Gilgo 4 have been discovered, investigators discovered Gilbert’s stays. However they don’t consider she was murdered.
Years later, the Suffolk County Police Division launched the complete audio of Shannan’s 21-minute 911 name on Could 1, 2010, the morning she disappeared. Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison stated in an interview with Erin Moriarty, Gilberts’s dying was doubtless not a homicide. “It’s an unfortunate incident, but right now we believe that she just ran into the marsh and unfortunately drowned,” Harrison stated.
February 2022: A recent have a look at the case
Suffolk County District Lawyer Ray Tierney exits after a courtroom look by Rex Heuermann, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Riverhead, N.Y.
AP/John Minchillo
For almost a decade after the invention of the Gilgo 4, the investigation stalled. Till, in February 2022, a brand new job power was fashioned by Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison and Suffolk County District Lawyer Ray Tierney. In an interview withMoriarty, DA Tierney stated, “… a mere six weeks later … Rex Heuermann was identified for the first time.”
A tip from the previous
After Amber Costello disappeared in 2010, police say her roommate Dave Schaller advised them about her shoppers. He described one in all them as wanting like an “ogre” and having “a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.”
How did investigators get a suspect in six weeks? It seems that within the authentic case recordsdata have been a variety of crucial clues that the brand new job power was lastly capable of join. Costello’s roommate Dave Schaller had beforehand described one in all Costello’s shoppers and the kind of car he drove to investigators. The car was a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche.
With an outline of an”ogre-like” man, and the make and mannequin of his truck, police took a more in-depth have a look at Costello’s cellphone data from 2010. Schaller had advised them that earlier than Costello disappeared, there was one consumer that known as her incessantly.
The burner cellphone clue
Police again then knew the consumer was utilizing a burner cellphone. They usually knew that the Brainard-Barnes, Barthelemy, Costello and Waterman had all been involved with burner numbers proper earlier than they disappeared.
In 2012, with the assistance of the FBI, police decided that the majority of these calls linked to cell towers inside a small space of Massapequa Park, Lengthy Island. They known as this space “the box.” In keeping with DA Tierney, “the box” consisted of a few blocks inside Massapequa Park.
A suspect in sight
Rex Heuermann was noticed by legislation enforcement at a cellphone retailer in Midtown Manhattan on Could 19, 2023.
Suffolk County District Lawyer
Armed with their small radius of “the box” and the outline of an “ogre-like” man that drove a Chevrolet Avalanche, the duty power now had a major suspect. Police recognized an architect named Rex Heuermann as the person they believed might have been liable for the murders.
And after they checked out Heuermann’s private cellphone data, they are saying that his cellphone was in the identical space as these burner telephones after they have been used to contact victims. In addition they say that when the burner telephones contacted victims, they have been usually in Massapequa Park, the place Heuermann lived, or midtown Manhattan, the place his architectural agency was situated. In 2023, they seen Heuermann going right into a cellphone retailer to make a fee on a burner cellphone.
A DNA hit
Detectives tailing Rex Heuermann recovered his DNA from pizza crust in a field that he discarded in a Manhattan trash can.
Suffolk County D.A.
Police started to tail Heuermann. When he threw out a pizza field right into a trash can in midtown Manhattan, investigators discovered that Heuermann’s DNA on the pizza crust was per a DNA profile discovered on a male hair found with Megan Waterman’s physique. With DNA proof, together with the cellphone data linking Heuermann to the burner telephones, officers made an arrest.
July 14, 2023: A suspect in custody
Suspect Rex Heuermann leaving the Suffolk County Police seventh Precinct in reference to the Gilgo Seashore murders on his method to courtroom on July 14, 2023.
Splash by Shutterstock
Rex Heuermann, of Massapequa Park, Lengthy Island, was charged with a number of counts of homicide within the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. Heuermann is presently the prime suspect for the homicide of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, however he has not been charged together with her dying.
When requested about Heuermann’s innocence at a press convention, Heuerman’s legal professional Michael Brown stated, “What has my client told me? He told me he didn’t do this.”
Digging for proof
An excavator is seen on the residence of Rex Heuermann.. In keeping with legislation enforcement sources, investigators are wanting into whether or not any victims might have been killed on the home.
CBS New York
Police spent 12 days wanting by means of Heuermann’s home, pulling weapons out of the basement, and digging within the yard. One other vital piece of proof taken into possession was a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche registered to Heuermann on the time of the murders. It was sitting on property he owns in South Carolina after they recovered it.
A possibility to kill?
A married man, Heuermann has a daughter and stepson along with his second spouse, Asa Ellerup. Ellerup, who was born in Iceland, would take the kids to see her household there within the summers. It was throughout these journeys and others, police consider, that Heuermann killed the ladies.
Heuermann pleaded not responsible
Rex Heuermann is seen in a reserving picture from the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Workplace.
Suffolk County Sheriff’s Workplace/AP
Heuermann was arraigned in Suffolk County Courtroom in Riverhead, New York. He pleaded not responsible to the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. The decide ordered that he be held with out bail in a Suffolk County jail the place he’s presently awaiting trial.
Remembering Amber, Melissa and Megan
From left, Amber Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy
Investigators hope that the arrest can provide victims’ households a way of peace. Police Commissioner Harrison advised Erin Moriarty, “He took away somebody’s mother, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister, not just one person, multiple individuals.”
Different investigations?
Investigations unfold to South Carolina and Las Vegas the place Heuermann owns property, with detectives there taking a recent have a look at circumstances of lacking ladies. Heuermann has not been charged in any further investigations.
As for the opposite our bodies discovered close to Gilgo Seashore – Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, Karen Vergata, “Peaches”, the toddler woman, and the Asian male – none of them have been linked to Heuermann.
Prosecutors: Suspect’s cheek swab matches pizza field DNA
DNA from Heuermann’s cheek swab matches the DNA that authorities had beforehand collected from a pizza crust and used to hyperlink Heuermann to one of many victims, in accordance with prosecutors throughout a Sept. 27, 2023 courtroom look. Heuermann’s lawyer disputed the importance of the DNA pattern.
Jan. 16, 2024: Heuermann charged with fourth killing
Six months after his arrest, Rex Heuermann was indicted within the dying of a fourth alleged sufferer, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Investigators stated they linked Brainard-Barnes’ homicide to Heuermann through DNA from a feminine hair discovered within the buckle of a belt used to bind her ankles, toes and legs – eight trillion to at least one that it matched Heuermann’s spouse Asa Ellerup or daughter Victoria, who was tailed on a commuter practice and threw out an power drink, in accordance with courtroom paperwork. Prosecutors made it clear they believed all hair switch have been constituted of Heuermann to his alleged victims. The household was out of city for the murders of the Gilgo Seashore 4. Heuermann has pleaded not responsible to the murders.
June 6, 2024: Two extra circumstances linked to Heuermann
Suspected Gilgo Seashore serial killer Rex Heuermann is now charged with killing two extra ladies, Sandra Costilla and Jessica Taylor, 10 years aside on Lengthy Island.
CBS New York
Heuermann was charged with killing two extra ladies 10 years aside on Lengthy Island — the 1993 homicide of Sandra Costilla and the 2003 homicide of Jessica Taylor. Costilla’s dying was not beforehand tied to the Gilgo case. The Suffolk County district legal professional’s workplace says DNA from hair discovered close to Costilla and Taylor’s stays and pick-up truck proof join Heuermann to their killings. Heuermann has pleaded not responsible to all prices.
Dec. 17, 2024: Heuermann charged with seventh killing
Heuermann was charged with killing Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old from New Jersey who had been working as an escort within the Philadelphia space, in 2000. For years, she was identified solely as “Jane Doe #6.” Her partial stays have been present in Manorville, Lengthy Island, in 2000, and extra of her stays have been discovered on Gilgo Seashore greater than 10 years later.
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