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The Disturbing Murders Behind Bodies Found on New York City Beaches · Murder Files Unsealed

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the deep dive. When you think of New
• 0:03
  York City, yeah, it's usually the big stuff, right, the
• 0:07
  skyscraper is Times Square, that whole concrete jungle image.
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  Speaker 2: It's this picture of like density and maybe even safety,
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  you know, a city that feels really solid, really managed exactly.
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  Speaker 1: But what we're digging into today, based on our sources,
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  is this weird contrast because on the edges of all
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  that concrete you've got these beaches.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the shorelines, places you go to escape the city buzz,
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  But the reality we found in the documentation is much darker.
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  These same beaches keep showing up as well crime scenes, not.
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  Speaker 1: Just occasionally either, it's a pattern. You're talking about Rockway,
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  Coney Island, Staten Island. These places become dumping grounds, and
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  the cases we've researched link back to all sorts of motives,
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  from you know, drug stuff and gang heads to really
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  personal brutal acts.
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  Speaker 2: Right, So our mission today is to untack that. We
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  want to look at these specific cases pulled from the
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  source material and ask why why are these coastal areas,
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  these sort of liminal spaces the go to for killers
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  trying to make bodies disappear?
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  Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into it. And the first case really
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  sets the scene. I think it takes us back to
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  the nineties. Yeah, the whole club kid phenomenon. So the
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  nineteen nineties downtown New York scene. It was something else
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  and right at the center were the club kids. Michael
• 1:19
  Iig was kind of the ringleader. It was all about
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  outrageous costumes, huge parties, and.
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  Speaker 2: Let's be blunt, a lot of drugs fueling the whole thing.
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  The sources described this world of like extreme hedonism, but
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  underneath all the glitter, things were getting pretty frayed, pretty dangerous.
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  Speaker 1: And the victim here, Andre Melendez, was right in the
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  thick of it. People knew him as Angel.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, because of the signature Angel wings he wore pretty
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  much everywhere. He was a fixture in that scene.
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  Speaker 1: But the conflict, the thing that sparked this whole awful
• 1:47
  chain of events, it was depressingly mundane. Really.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. It was about money, unpaid drug debts. Melendez went
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  to Michael Ilig's apartment in Manhattan back in March ninety six.
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  He was there to confront Eyeli and another guy, Robert
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  Freeze Rigs about money he was owed.
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  Speaker 1: And after that confrontation, he just vanished poof Nobody saw
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  him again, and for what seven months, the party scene
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  just kind of carried on.
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  Speaker 2: It's pretty chilling. The silence lasted until April ninety six.
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  And this is where the geography gets really interesting. The
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  crime itself happened, you know, smack in the middle of
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  Manhattan in an apartment, right, But.
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  Speaker 1: The evidence turns up miles away on Staten Island, Oakwood Beach.
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  A fisherman finds this wooden box floating near.
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  Speaker 2: The shore and inside it's gruesome. A dismembered male torso
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  arms legs, but.
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  Speaker 1: No head, which immediately signals something, doesn't it the missing head.
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  Speaker 2: That's not ramming, Oh, absolutely not. That's a clear attempt
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  to make identification way harder, a calculated move.
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  Speaker 1: So the investigation begins. How did they actually id him
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  without the head?
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  Speaker 2: It took time, forensics had to rely on other means. Eventually,
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  dental x rays confirmed it was Melinda's. He was only
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  twenty six and.
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  Speaker 1: The autopsy what did that reveal about what actually happened?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the cause of death was determined to be asphyxiation.
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  Smothering probably happened during that initial fight in the apartment.
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  Speaker 1: But the horror didn't end there. The cover up. It's
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  almost unbelievable what they did next.
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  Speaker 2: It's deeply disturbing. The sources detail how lig and Rigs
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  tried to deal with the body in the apartment bathtub.
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  They injected it with dreno, apparently thinking it would speed
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  up decomposition.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my god.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And they hit him with a hammer too, just
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  to be sure he was dead. But one detail that
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  really stands out is the baking soda.
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  Speaker 1: Baking soda, Why do you.
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  Speaker 2: Try and mask the smell? They apparently poured loads of
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  it over the body while it was still in the
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  tub before they before they started dismembering it.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus, it's just the desperation.
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  Speaker 2: In that utter desperation, they cut up the body, put
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  the parts in.
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  Speaker 1: That wooden box, and then dumped it in the Hudson River.
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  Speaker 2: Exactly thinking, you know, the powerful currents would just wash
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  it all away out into the Atlantic. Problem solved, crime erased, but.
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  Speaker 1: New York's geography had other plans.
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  Speaker 2: It really did. Instead of carrying it out to see
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  the currents of the harbor system actually pushed the box
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  south and east right onto that beach in Staten Island
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  Oakwood Beach.
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  Speaker 1: So the place meant to hide the secret became the
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  place that revealed it.
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  Speaker 2: Precisely, the beach became the unintended witness.
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  Speaker 1: And the arrests they didn't happen right after the body
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  was found.
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  Speaker 2: Did they no, Which is another bizarre twist. Alig, apparently
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  fueled by drugs and maybe just sheer arrogance, started bragging
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  about the murder, bragging yeah too, friends acquaintances within that
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  same club scene. Word eventually got around, got back to
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  the police, and that led to their arrests.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. So his own hubris brought him.
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  Speaker 2: Down pretty much. Both he and Riggs pleaded guilty to
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  manslaughter in ninety seven. Alig did seventeen years, got out
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  in twenty fourteen.
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  Speaker 1: And the cultural impact, I mean, it was huge that
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  movie Party.
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  Speaker 2: Monster, right, It really marked the end of an era,
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  didn't it. The dark, ugly reality beneath the club kid
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  fantasy was laid bare. It showed how quickly that scene
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  could turn deadly.
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  Speaker 1: And it's fascinating, like you said, how a Manhattan crime
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  drugs apartment confrontation ended up relying on the city's waterways
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  and beaches for the disposal. The coast became the final scene.
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  Speaker 2: Which highlights how killers sometimes try to use natural forces
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  to their advantage, but nature, well, it's not always a
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  reliable accomplice.
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  Speaker 1: That's a perfect lead into our next case actually, where
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  a massive natural disaster didn't hide a crime, but dramatically
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  brought it to light.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, this case really flips the script on using nature
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  for concealment. We're talking about Superstorm Sandy October twenty twelve.
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  That storm just hammered New York City.
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  Speaker 1: I remember, just absolute chaos, widespread destruction, especially in the
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  coastal areas, and the cleanup afterwards was immense disorganized.
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  Speaker 2: And you can almost see how, in a twisted way,
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  a killer might look at that level of citywide chaos
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  and thinks opportunity. You know, who's going to notice one
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  buried body when there are mountains of debris everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: So the location here is Rockaway Beach in Queens, which
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  got hit incredibly hard by Samy exactly.
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  Speaker 2: And it's during the cleanup about mid November twenty twelve
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  that workers wading through all the wreckage stumble upon something horrific.
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  Speaker 1: He found a body, a.
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  Speaker 2: Partially buried body identified later as Sean Rucker, thirty two
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  years old, a local guy from far Rockaway, And.
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  Speaker 1: Was it immediately clear this wasn't storm related, like not
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  a drowning victim.
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  Speaker 2: Definitely. The sources are clear on that Rucker's body wasn't
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  just buried. It was bound and wrapped in this very
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  distinctive patterned cloth that pointed straight to foul play, a
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  deliberate concealment attempt.
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  Speaker 1: Bound and wrapped, okay, and the cause of death brutal.
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  Speaker 2: The autopsy showed he'd suffered more than a dozen severe
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  blunt force traumas to the head a bludgeoning just awful.
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  Speaker 1: And the timing when had he disappeared, that's key.
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  Speaker 2: He vanished just days after Sandy hit. So the killer
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  struck right in the middle of that post storm mayhem.
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  Speaker 1: Taking advantage of the chaos. So who was it who
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  killed Sean Rucker?
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  Speaker 2: It turned out to be someone very close his own roommate,
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  a guy named Thyron Aycock his roommate.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, do we know why? What was the motive?
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  Speaker 2: According to the investigation, it stemmed from a pretty minor dispute,
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  something petty, probably aggravated by the stress and cramped conditions
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  after the storm. It's shocking the level of violence compared
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  to the apparent trigger.
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  Speaker 1: So a petty argument escalates into this incredibly violent murder.
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  Speaker 2: Aycock used a hammer, and that hammer actually became crucial
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  evidence later when another roommate found where Acock had tried
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  to hide it.
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  Speaker 1: And Aycock's plan was to bury Rucker on the beach,
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  thinking sandy would cover his tracks.
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  Speaker 2: That seems to have been the calculation. He likely assumed
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  the storm damage, the erosion, the sheer volume of debris,
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  it would all provide perfect permanent camouflage for a shallow
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  grave on the beach. He was counting on the disaster
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  to hide his crime.
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  Speaker 1: But the disaster did the exact opposite.
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  Speaker 2: It did the very forces he was relying on. The
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  storm surge. The erosion actually uncut i'd the shallow grave.
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  It exposed the body enough for the cleanup crews to
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  find it.
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  Speaker 1: So the storm in a way solved the murder.
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  Speaker 2: Inadvertently, Yes, it betrayed the killer's plan completely.
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  Speaker 1: Once they found the body, linked it to the missing Rugger,
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  found the hammer, the distinctive cloth. Did Acock confess He did?
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  Speaker 2: The evidence trail led right back to him. He confessed
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  was convicted in twenty fifteen and got twenty five years
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  to life.
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  Speaker 1: It really underscores your point about the beach being unstable ground,
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  doesn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely It seems like an easy place to hide something fast.
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  But the sand, the tides, the storms, it's constantly shifting,
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  burying a secret. There is a huge gamble.
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  Speaker 1: A gamble that failed spectacularly in this case. But sometimes
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  sometimes the ocean holds onto its secrets much longer, which
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  brings us to a case that's still deeply unsettling.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're shifting back to Rockaway Beach again, but this
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  time for a mystery that's been haunting investigators for wow,
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  nearly two decades now. It's one of those cases that
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  really sticks with you.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds incredibly sad. When did this happen?
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  Speaker 2: February fifth, two thousand and five. Just a couple of
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  people out walking their dogs on the beach. They noticed
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  some colorful fabric washing around on the surf, mixed in
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  with the usual debris, and inside the fabric, tragically, Yes,
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  inside was the body of a little boy, headless. The
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  medical examiner estimated his age between three and five years old.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, it's a heartbreaking. A child found like.
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  Speaker 2: That it sent shockwaves through the community and the NYPD.
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  And what makes this case particularly challenging but also maybe
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  holds the key, is the stuff found with him, like
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  the fabric exactly. He was wrapped carefully, first inside a
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  yellow Duffel bag and then wrapped again in a very specific,
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  apparently quite rare Disney bed sheet.
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  Speaker 1: But Disney sheet that seems.
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  Speaker 2: Specific, very specific, and based on the decomposition, investigators figured
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  he'd probably been in the water for several weeks before
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  washing ashore.
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  Speaker 1: So it was ruled a homicide.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, definitely ruled a homicide, but the actual cause of
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  death still undetermined, mainly because, like the Melenda's case, the
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  missing head and potentially other parts make it extremely difficult
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  to pinpoint the exact method of killing.
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  Speaker 1: And the public reaction finding an unidentified child it was huge.
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  Speaker 2: People were horrified, deeply sad in He became known as
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  the Rockaway Boy or sometimes Baby Hope, you know those
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  names communities give when they're desperate for answers for justice.
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  There were memorials on the beach. It really struck a.
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  Speaker 1: Chord, of course, and the questions they must be agonizing
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  for the investigators.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely, was it an accident that someone tried to cover up.
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  Was it a deliberate murder by family or someone else?
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  Was he killed somewhere else entirely and then dumped in
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  the water. The dismemberment adds another layer of complexity.
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  Speaker 1: And is there any hope now after all this time.
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  Speaker 2: There is actually renewed hope? We know the NYPD Cold
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  case Squad, specifically Detective Matthew de Bonis, has been pushing
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  hard on this case again recently, like in twenty twenty four.
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  Speaker 1: How are they approaching it? What's new?
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  Speaker 2: A lot of it hinges on that Disney sheet. They're
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  using media attention to really focus on that specific blanket,
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  hoping someone recognizes.
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  Speaker 1: It, trying to trace the blanket itself exactly.
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  Speaker 2: If they can figure out, say, the exact year it
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  was made, maybe it was a limited edition where it
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  was sold. That could potentially narrow down the geographic area,
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  maybe lead them towards the family.
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  Speaker 1: It's painstaking work, and DNA hasn't technology advanced a lot
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  since two thousand and five immensely.
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  Speaker 2: That's the other major avenue genetic genealogy. They're trying to
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  build a DNA profile from whatever viable material they can
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  still get from the remains, even after all this time
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  in the water.
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  Speaker 1: And then run it through databases right.
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  Speaker 2: Public genealogy databases, private ones. The goal isn't necessarily to
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  find the boy himself or even his parents directly. It's
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  often about finding a relative, maybe a second cousin, a
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  third cousin, someone who's DNA is in the system and
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  shares enough markers, and.
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  Speaker 1: That relative could unlock the family tree lead them back.
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  Speaker 2: That's the hope. It's how many cold cases are being
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  cracked now, using to find distant relatives and then meticulously
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  building back the family connections.
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  Speaker 1: So after two decades of the ocean keeping, this secret
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  technology might finally give this little boy his name back.
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  Speaker 2: That's the goal, to identify him, figure out what happened,
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  and maybe finally bring someone to justice. It's a really
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  poignant reminder of the unsolved tragedies these beaches sometimes hold,
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  you know, hearing about.
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  Speaker 1: The Rockaway Boy and remembering the Melendez case, it makes
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  you think about this pattern of dismemberment. It seems to
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  come up again and again, especially on the Queen's coastlines.
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  Speaker 2: It really does, and that repetition is significant. Dismemberment isn't usually,
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  you know, a spontaneous act in the heat of passion.
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  It takes time, effort planning. It suggests a certain type
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  of killer or motive.
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  Speaker 1: Well kind of motive. What does it achieve for the killer?
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  Speaker 2: Well a few things. Usually One, it makes the body
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  easier to handle, to transport, to dispose up in pieces. Two,
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  like we saw with the Rockaway Boy and Melendez. Removing
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  the head or hands makes identification much much.
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  Speaker 1: Harder, right gets rid of dental records fingerprints exactly.
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  Speaker 2: And Third, historically, particularly with organized crime, dismemberment could be
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  used to send a very brutal, unmistakable message.
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  Speaker 1: A message of terror basically.
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  Speaker 2: And what's striking is that this pattern appears even in
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  places you might think are insulated from that kind of violence,
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  like Breezy Point in Queens. It's a gated community, quite exclusive.
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  Speaker 1: But still vulnerable to this apparently.
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  Speaker 2: So look at November twenty twenty three. A body washes
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  up there, headless, armless, legs still attached, but identity unclear.
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  Speaker 1: At the time was there any connection made.
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  Speaker 2: There was speculation linking it to a missing Irish filmmaker
• 13:39
  Ross MacDonnell, because his bike was found nearby Could it
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  have been an accident, a shark attack, suicide, maybe, but
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  the state of the body keeps foul play and specifically
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  that pattern of disposal very much on the table for investigators.
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  Speaker 1: And that wasn't the first time for Breezy Point, was it?
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  Speaker 2: No? Go back to February twenty thirteen, they found the
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  body of Marushia Cheong, five four year old woman. She'd
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  been missing for two months, vanished from her boyfriend's place.
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  Speaker 1: How she found.
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  Speaker 2: Bound and the injuries a broken neck, broken arms pointed
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  towards extreme rage of very violent personal crime. But again
• 14:14
  the binding, the disposal in the water near Breezy Point,
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  it fits that concealment pattern. And if we look back
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  even further, like Coney Island in nineteen ninety seven, there
• 14:23
  was the case of Jody Jakobashek, pregnant indicted with cleaner
• 14:26
  dumped near the water, driven by jealousy, different motive, but
• 14:30
  the disposal method has echoes.
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  Speaker 1: So are you saying these dismemberments like Melendez's are directly
• 14:34
  linked to the mafia or just mimicking their tactics.
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  Speaker 2: It's likely a mix. The methods certainly echo classic mob tactics.
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  For getting rid of bodies, dismemberment, waiting bodies down, using
• 14:45
  remote coastal areas or deep water. These were effective ways
• 14:49
  to ensure victims were never found or if found, to
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  send that chilling message.
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  Speaker 1: It may be modern killers, whether involved in organized crime
• 14:58
  or acting out of rage or desperation, just adopt those
• 15:01
  same brutal, effective tactics.
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  Speaker 2: That seems plausible. It's a playbook for maximizing the chances
• 15:06
  of getting away with it, borrowed from a history of
• 15:09
  violence associated with these very.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Shorelines, even Coney Island. You mentioned recent drownings, but it's
• 15:14
  past right.
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  Speaker 2: While recent finds might be unrelated tragedies, the history of
• 15:19
  Coney Island, especially under the boardwalk or in those more
• 15:22
  industrial waterfront areas nearby, includes cases of victims found bound,
• 15:26
  sometimes showing signs of torture. It reinforces this historical pattern
• 15:30
  of the coast being used for dark purposes.
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  Speaker 1: So the pattern suggests the city's edges remain this kind
• 15:35
  of accessible disposal route even today. Accessible.
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: Yes, but as we've seen, definitely unpredictable.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, we're talking about patterns and coastal disposal. We absolutely
• 15:46
  have to talk about the Gilgo Beach case. It's staggering
• 15:49
  in scale.
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  Speaker 2: It really is, and it's important, like you said, to
• 15:52
  make that geographical distinction right away. Gilgo Beach itself, where
• 15:56
  the main discoveries were made, is in Suffolk County, Long Island,
• 16:00
  so technically outside NYC.
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  Speaker 1: But the connection to the city is undeniable.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely crucial. The victims, many of them, were connected to
• 16:07
  the city. The whole investigation in a way bridges the
• 16:10
  gap between the city and these seemingly remote Long Island shores.
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  Speaker 1: How did it all start?
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  Speaker 2: It began back in twenty ten. The police were searching
• 16:19
  for a missing woman named Shannon Gilbert, who was last
• 16:22
  seen in that area. During that search along Ocean Parkway,
• 16:26
  they started finding other bodies.
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  Speaker 1: Other bodies chlural.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, Ultimately, remains belonging to eleven different individuals were uncovered
• 16:34
  along that stretch of coastline.
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  Speaker 1: Eleven eleven My god, was there a pattern immediately obvious.
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  Speaker 2: With the first four discovered, Yes, very clear. They became
• 16:43
  known as Gilgo Four.
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  Speaker 1: Who were they?
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  Speaker 2: Maureen Brainard Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy Meghan Waterman and Amber Costello.
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  They shared several characteristics. They were all petite women, all
• 16:53
  working as.
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  Speaker 1: Escorts and the NYC connection.
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  Speaker 2: They were advertising their services online, often finding clients in
• 16:59
  or from the New York City area, and crucially, all
• 17:02
  four were found wrapped in burlap. The cause of death
• 17:05
  for them was strangulation.
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  Speaker 1: Burr lab strangulation specific victim type that screams serial killer.
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: Unmistakably, it pointed to someone methodical, someone who knew the area,
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  using these isolated coastal thickets along Ocean Parkway as their
• 17:21
  dumping ground, and for more than a decade it remained
• 17:24
  this terrifying unsolved mystery haunting Long Island in New York.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Until the breakthrough in twenty twenty three the arrest of Rex.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Wireman Yes along awaited Development Hoyerman, an architect living in
• 17:34
  Massapecal Park relatively close by, was arrested. He's now been
• 17:37
  charged with murdering seven women, seven.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: So more than the original Gilgo four.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Yes, the charges include the Gilgo four plus Jessica Taylor
• 17:46
  and Valerie Mack. Their cases add another layer because parts
• 17:50
  of their dismembered remains were found in different locations, some
• 17:53
  in Manorville, which is further inland, and some near Gilgo Beach.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: Dismembered and scattered. Again, that suggests evasion.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Extreme planning. It indicates an effort to make identification and
• 18:05
  linking the cases even more difficult.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: What was the evidence that finally broke the case and
• 18:10
  pointed to Huyerman after so long?
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: It really came down to advances in DNA technology and
• 18:16
  some clever police work. One key piece was DNA recovered
• 18:20
  from a pizza crust that Huyman discarded outside his Manhattan office.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Pizza crust seriously.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Seriously, they were surveilling him, recovered the box, got his
• 18:29
  DNA from the crust, and it was a match to
• 18:31
  male hair found on or near Megan Waterman, one of
• 18:34
  the gilgofor Wow, that's incredible, And there was more. Other
• 18:38
  hairs found on several victims were linked through mitochondrial DNA
• 18:41
  testing to either Hoyerman himself or significantly to his wife
• 18:45
  or daughter, suggesting hares might have transferred from his home
• 18:48
  or car onto the victims.
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: So trace evidence preserved for years finally caught up with
• 18:54
  him through modern DNA analysis.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: Exactly. It highlights the power of forensic genealogy and mitocon
• 19:00
  andreal DNA analysis, especially when dealing with potentially degraded samples.
• 19:05
  Exposed to the elements near the beach. It took finding
• 19:08
  those tiny biological clues and linking them across time and distance.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: And there was mention of a planning document.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, sources referred to a document allegedly found on Huerman's computer.
• 19:20
  Reports suggest it outlines disturbing details, almost like a blueprint
• 19:24
  for his activities, indicating a high degree of premeditation and control,
• 19:28
  which contrasts sharply with say, the impulsive rage in the
• 19:32
  wrecker case.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: It sounds like the profile of a meticulous, organized predator.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: That's certainly what the prosecution is arguing. Of course, the
• 19:39
  trial so appending he maintains his innocence, and there are
• 19:42
  still unanswered questions. Some of the eleven remains found are
• 19:45
  still unidentified, and there's always the lingering question was there
• 19:49
  only one killer operating along that parkway?
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: A truly chilling thought. But the Gilgo case seems like
• 19:54
  the ultimate horrifying example of someone using that coastal isolation,
• 19:58
  accessible from the city, as a hunting and disposal ground.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: It perfectly illustrates that deadly paradox the city as the
• 20:06
  source of potential victims or clients in the seemingly empty
• 20:10
  natural periphery providing the cover for unimaginable violence.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Okay, so we've walked through these incredibly disturbing cases. The
• 20:17
  club kids, Sean Rucker, the Rockaway Boy, the pattern at
• 20:20
  Breezy Point, the sheer scale of Gilgo. Let's try to
• 20:23
  pull it all together. Why why do these beaches, these
• 20:26
  shorelines keep ending up as the final resting place in
• 20:29
  so many murders.
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: I think it pulls down to a few key factors,
• 20:32
  a kind of grim calculation killers make consciously or not.
• 20:36
  First and foremost, it's about isolation and seclusion.
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Even right next to a megalopolis like New York.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Surprisingly, yes, think about breezy points, gated nature, or the
• 20:45
  more remote stretches of Staten Island's coast, or those barrier
• 20:49
  islands on Long Island. Especially at night or during bad weather,
• 20:53
  these places can feel deserted. They offer easier access for
• 20:56
  disposal than say, trying to bury a body inland in
• 21:00
  a populated area. We even heard how certain spots were
• 21:03
  known mob favorites for this reason.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, so seclusion is key. What else?
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: The water itself, the tides and currents, killers bank on
• 21:11
  the ocean being a giant washing machine, basically.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Like Aleigan rigs, hoping the Hudson would just carry the
• 21:17
  box away forever exactly.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: The idea is that the currents will disperse remains, carry
• 21:21
  them far out to sea, destroy forensic evidence, make identification impossible.
• 21:26
  Its nature as an eraser.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: But we saw with Melends that's a huge gamble. The
• 21:30
  currents brought the box back.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: A massive gamble. The currents around NYC and Long Island
• 21:34
  are complex, powerful, but unpredictable. They can just as easily
• 21:38
  deposit things back onto shoreline, sometimes miles away, sometimes right nearby.
• 21:42
  It's not the full proof disposal method.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Killers might imagine what about the beach itself, right man.
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: That's the third factor. Sand is a concealer. Compared to
• 21:50
  digging in hard, rocky soil or even frozen ground in winter,
• 21:55
  sand is relatively easy and quick to.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Dig, allows for a faster burial you panic, or.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Just a more convenient shallow grave like Acock tried with
• 22:03
  Sean Rucker get the body covered quickly under the cover
• 22:06
  of darkness or chaos.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: But again flawed. Rutger's case showed erosion can just uncover
• 22:11
  it precisely.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Sand is unstable, wind waves, storms, shallow graves on beaches
• 22:18
  are inherently temporary. The environment the killer uses for concealment
• 22:22
  often ends up being the thing that reveals the crime.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: And you mentioned the message aspect earlier, right.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: The fourth element especially relevant when we see dismemberment the message. Historically,
• 22:32
  dumping a body, a particularly a dismembered one in a
• 22:35
  coastal area wasn't just about disposal for organized crime. It
• 22:38
  was a public terrifying statement. It utilized the boundary location
• 22:43
  the shoreline as a stage for projecting power and consequences.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: So modern killers might be tapping into that same psychological impact,
• 22:50
  even if they're not mobsters.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: It's possible whether it's a serial killer aiming for maximum
• 22:54
  concealment or someone in a rage mimicking those brutal historical tactics.
• 22:58
  The beach provides this unique combination of isolation for the
• 23:02
  act and potential, though unreliable, dispersal by nature.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: So when you look at NYC's fourteen miles of public
• 23:09
  beaches plus all the adjacent coastlines like Long Island, it's
• 23:13
  a huge accessible periphery and.
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: It attracts a whole range of perpetrators for disposal from
• 23:18
  the calculated planning of a Huierman, to the drug fueled
• 23:22
  panic of a leg to the rage driven act of Acock.
• 23:25
  It's where the city's internal darkness literally.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Washes up on shore, a grim intersection of urban crime
• 23:31
  and the natural world hashtag otro.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: So wrapping this up, We've journeyed through some truly harrowing
• 23:38
  stories today, all tied to New York's coastlines. You had
• 23:41
  the almost theatrical depravity of the club kid killing and
• 23:43
  the disposal of Andre Melendez.
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, then the stark irony of Hurricane Sandy exposing Sean
• 23:49
  Rucker's murder instead of finding.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: It, and that deeply sad ongoing mystery of the Rockaway Boy,
• 23:55
  where a simple Disney sheep might still hold the key
• 23:57
  after twenty years.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Plus the recurring brutal pattern of dismemberment on Queen's Shores,
• 24:02
  and of course the devastating scale of the Gilgo Beach murders,
• 24:05
  linking suburban horror back to the.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: City and the core takeaway for you listening, I think,
• 24:11
  is how these places we associate with sun and relaxation
• 24:14
  hold these incredibly dark stories, these lives cut short and
• 24:18
  left at the mercy of the tides. Geography becomes a
• 24:21
  character in these crimes, both concealing and revealing.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: But justice isn't always lost to the waves. We see
• 24:28
  these ongoing efforts the NYPD Cold case squad pushing on
• 24:32
  the Rockaway Boy case using genetic genealogy right.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: And the massive investigation and upcoming trial for Rex Horman
• 24:38
  in the Gilgo case. There's this constant pushback against the
• 24:42
  anonymity of the coast.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Offers, technology and sheer persistence chipping away at those secrets.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Exactly the beaches have been silent witnesses for too long,
• 24:50
  perhaps so the provocative thought to leave you with is this,
• 24:53
  considering how fast forensic science is moving and how the
• 24:56
  coastline itself is always changing, maybe the next tide won't
• 24:59
  reveal a new horror, but instead finally wash ashore the
• 25:02
  answers needed to bring closure for victims The ocean has
• 25:05
  held onto for far too long