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The 17 year murder spree of evil New York serial killer Rex Heuermann · Murder Files Unsealed

0:00
Speaker 1: Picture a courtroom. Just put yourself right there. It's April eighth,
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twenty twenty six.
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Speaker 2: Right.
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Speaker 1: We are in Riverhead, New York, out in Suffolk County,
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and the room is just it is packed, yeah, spanning
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room only, I'm sure, Oh absolutely, it is suffocating in there,
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heavy with tension, with grief. You've got reporters crammed in,
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and most importantly, the families who have been waiting for
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this exact moment for over a decade.
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Speaker 2: Unimaginable what they were feeling in that room totally.
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Speaker 1: The air is just thick and Standing right there before
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Judge Timothymazaie is a sixty two year old man, architect exactly,
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a guy who commuted to midtown Manhattan for decades, right,
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a guy who lived in this very quiet, leafy suburb.
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His name is Rex Andrew Hoereman. The judge looks at him,
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the whole room just like holds its collective breath, and
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Hoereman simply says one word. He says guilty, just like that,
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just like that. No trial, no you know, drawn out
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defense strategy, just the sudden crushing weight of a seventeen
0:57
year nightmare collapsing right there in a sterile Long Island courtroom.
1:02
Speaker 2: Wow. I mean, it is a word that carries just
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an incomprehensible amount of gravity. Right, that single utterance effectively
1:11
closed the book on what was arguably one of America's
1:15
most terrifying, most notorious unsolved mysteries, the Gilgo Beach murders.
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Speaker 1: Right, But like to truly understand the sheer scale of
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what happened, we really have to look far beyond that
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court room.
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Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, we have to go back.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, So today we aren't just looking at the sensational
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headlines you've probably already read over the years. We are
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pulling from this incredibly extensive, detailed dossier to really deep
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dive into the unvarnished story, the whole picture, exactly, from
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the nineteen ninety three death of Sandra Costilla all the
1:45
way to this modern day courtroom reckoning. We're going to
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explore the blind spots this predator lived inside, the microscopic, digital,
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and biological breadcrumbs that finally destroyed his perfect facade, and
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most importantly, the lives of the women who were taken.
2:00
Speaker 2: Because if we connect this to the bigger picture, this
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isn't just a story about a serial killer. It's really
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this profoundly chilling. Look at how predators actively exploit societal infrastructure,
2:11
how they find the cracks in our communities, the margins
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of society. It just build a life inside them.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, they nest right there exactly.
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Speaker 2: And on the flip side, it's a story about how technology, specifically,
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you know, the evolution of genetic genealogy and digital footprint
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tracking over a twenty year period is finally irreversibly catching
2:31
up to them.
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Speaker 1: Okay, let's unpack this because to understand how a monster
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operates for seventeen years, we have to look at the
2:38
architecture of his everyday life. It wasn't just a mask
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you put on. It was a load bearing structure.
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Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it. Yeah, it was
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camouflage in its absolute purest form. I mean, when we
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look at the timeline from the dossier, Rex Horman was
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born September thirteenth, nineteen sixty three, and he spent almost
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his entire life in Nasall, County, Long Island, specifically this
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area called Massapeco Park. And if you understand the geography
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and the sociology at Massapicckle Park, you really start to
3:05
understand the camouflage.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, because it's quintessential Long Island suburbia, right, We're talking
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like tree line streets, single family homes with neat little lawns,
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driveways with basketball hoops.
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Speaker 2: Exactly the American dreams sort of set up. Right.
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Speaker 1: It is a quiet, middle class enclave where people move
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specifically to escape the chaos of the city. They go
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there to raise their kids, to live a highly predictable life.
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Speaker 2: And predictability is the key word here. Horneman fit into
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that predictability flawlessly. You know, he worked as an architect
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in Manhattan. He ran his own firm, designing buildings, navigating
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city bureaucracy since nineteen eighty seven.
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Speaker 1: Why since eighty seven, just grinding it out in the city.
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Speaker 2: Yeah. And he had a brief marriage in nineteen ninety
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that ended in divorce, and then in April nineteen ninety
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six he married his second wife, Asa Eleup. Together they
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raised a daughter a son, and they helped care for
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a steps on from her previous relationship. And they lived
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in his childhood home, this modest but fairly spacious house
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right on one of those exact tree line streets you mentioned.
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Speaker 1: And he drove a truck right very specific one.
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Speaker 2: Yes, he drove a Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck, an early
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two thousands model.
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Speaker 1: Okay, we definitely need to bookmark that because we'll get
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to why that specific vehicle is so critical later.
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Speaker 2: Oh. Absolutely, it's a huge piece of the puzzle.
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Speaker 1: But just like to anyone looking at him, to his neighbors,
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to his clients, he was just a commuting professional. He
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put on a button down shirt, he took the Long
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Island Railroad, he went to work, he came home.
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Speaker 2: Right, what's fascinating here is the psychological framework required to
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maintain that environment.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, how do you do that?
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Speaker 2: Well? We often fall back on cinematic tropes, right, thinking
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of these individuals as having a quote unquote split personality
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or being entirely unhinged and chaotic.
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Speaker 1: Like they're visibly manic or something exactly.
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Speaker 2: But the psychology of an organized predator is entirely different.
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It relies on profound psychopathy, sure, but also a highly structured,
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almost rigid mindset. Horman wasn't some transient killer moving from
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town to town leaving a chaotic trail of impulsive violence.
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He was deeply angered.
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Speaker 1: But I have to push back a little here because
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it's just hard to fathom how someone maintains that anchor
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with a family in the house.
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Speaker 2: It is hard to.
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Speaker 1: Grasp, right, Like, It's like a real life juckle and hide.
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But mister Hyde is just a guy complaining about his
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commute on the Long Island Railroad. How do you compartmentalize
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that level of extreme sadistic violence when you are sharing
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a kitchen with your wife and kids. How do you
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switch from arguing about a zoning permit in Manhattan to
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hunting human beings?
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Speaker 2: You compartmentalize it by utilizing the very structure of that
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family life as a logistical tool.
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Speaker 1: Wait, really as a tool.
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Speaker 2: Yes, organized predators often build these robust external lives, not
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just for the social capital, you know, the presumption of
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innocence that comes with being a business owner and a father, Yeah,
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but for the practical scheduling it affords them. They don't
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view their family as a hindrance.
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Speaker 1: They view them as a prop a.
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Speaker 2: Variable, a variable to be managed.
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Speaker 1: Man that is bleak, and that leads directly to this
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really chilling detail from the investigation sources. The dossier notes
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that his wife, Asa, and the children were conveniently traveling
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out of state during each specific window when a.
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Speaker 2: Murder occurred every single time.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, this wasn't a coincidence exactly.
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Speaker 2: He utilized the natural rhythms of his family schedule, vacations,
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trips to visit relatives, you name it. He used them
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to create secure windows of opportunity.
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Speaker 1: So he knew exactly when the house would be empty.
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Speaker 2: Right. He wasn't stroking randomly and hoping he didn't get caught.
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He was calculating his hunting time around his domestic life.
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When the house was empty, the environment was completely under
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his control. The suburban home transformed from a family residence
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into a secure staging ground.
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Speaker 1: That is absolutely terrifying, you know. Following the April twenty
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twenty six plea, Asa Ellerup expressed profound public shock. She
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offered prayers for the victim's family, stating their loss was
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quote immeasurable.
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Speaker 2: I can't imagine what she went through realizing who she
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was living with.
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Speaker 1: Right, and the defense attorney made it a point to
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emphasize that the family was completely uninvolved and oblivious. But
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for you listening, just put yourself in the shoes of
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the victim's families or even his neighbors. That ordinary veneer
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makes the reality so much worse. Doesn't it.
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Speaker 2: It really does.
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Speaker 1: The idea that this guy was seamlessly blending into society,
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like checking out at the local grocery store buying milk
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while meticulously planning his next kill, well.
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Speaker 2: It shatters our foundational sense of security, doesn't it.
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Speaker 1: It totally does.
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Speaker 2: We inherently want to believe that dangerous people project danger.
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We look for visual cues to protect ourselves, you know,
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the creepy guy in the alleyway. When the threat is
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entirely invisible, when it looks like the guy sitting next
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to you on the train. It forces us to realize
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how vulnerable we actually are to organized malice.
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Speaker 1: Which brings us to the women who were taken. Because
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that suburban facade, that architectural firm, the commute, it all
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existed to facilitate the hunt.
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Speaker 2: That was its ultimate purpose.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and when you look at the demographics of the
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victims outlined in the dossier, a very distinct, very tragic
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pattern emerges. We are talking about eight confirmed victims, seven
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of those he was formally charged with, and one he
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confessed to you in the plea deal.
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Speaker 2: And this is where we see the predator's calculus in
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stark relief. When you analyze the victims. There were almost
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all young women, primarily in their twenties, but the most
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striking commonality was their physical profile. They were petite, consistently
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under five foot two and weighing around one hundred pounds.
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Speaker 1: I noticed that immediately in the source material, and I
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have to ask why that specific physical profile under five
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foot two and one hundred pounds. I mean, it feels
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less like a crime of passion and more like a
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hunter selecting a very specific type of game he knew
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he could physically overpower and control.
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Speaker 2: It is entirely about utility and physics. An organized killer
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like Hoyerman is deeply risk averse when it comes to
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the actual execution of his crimes. He wants zero surprises.
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He was a tall, heavy set man. By deliberately targeting
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women who were physically much smaller, he was guaranteeing absolute
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physical dominance. He was minimizing the chance of a struggle
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that could leave defensive wounds on him, scratches, bruises.
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Speaker 1: Right, stuff that could later be used as evidence exactly.
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Speaker 2: Furthermore, a smaller victim is logistically easier to restrain, transport,
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and ultimately dispose of. The physical profile was a highly
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calculated component of his methodology.
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Speaker 1: But the physical profile was really only one part of
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the equation, wasn't it. The other part was their social vulnerability.
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The sources detail how these women shared specific compounding hardships,
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economic struggles, addiction, family estrangement.
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Speaker 2: Very marginalized situations.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, many were working as escorts or sex workers, increasingly
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utilizing the Internet, specifically sites like Craigslist to find clients.
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Speaker 2: This is a critical point about how creditors operate within
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societal blind spots. Heureman target them because he understood the
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sociological realities of marginalization. In his twisted logic, he believed
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they wouldn't be missed, or, more accurately, that society wouldn't prioritize.
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Speaker 1: Looking for them, and historically he wasn't entirely wrong about
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how the system works. Sadly, when a young woman from
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a wealthy suburb goes missing, it's an immediate national news story, helicopters,
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search parties, wall to wall coverage exactly. But when a
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woman struggling with addiction who engages in sex work goes missing,
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the institutional response has often been delayed, dismissive, or just
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clouded by moral judgment.
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Speaker 2: You hit the nail on the head. He weaponized their
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economic desperation and society's prejudices against them. And the shift
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to Craigslist is significant.
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Speaker 1: Here right because of the anonymity.
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Speaker 2: Exactly in the nineteen nineties, street level sex work carried
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different risks for a predator of visibility, police patrols, witnesses
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seeing a license plate. The Internet privatized the entire transaction.
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It allowed a predator to lure a victim directly to
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an isolated location, communicating entirely through anonymous, untraceable digital channels.
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Speaker 1: It was like a cloak of invisibility.
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Speaker 2: The Internet provided a massive screen that Huemen exploited to
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the fullest.
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Speaker 1: Let's look at the timeline because it's vital to say
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their names and understand the chronological evolution of these crimes.
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The timeline starts much earlier than the public initially realized.
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It starts in nineteen ninety three with Sandra Costilla.
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Speaker 2: Right nineteen ninety three.
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Speaker 1: She was twenty eight years old, a native of Trinidad
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and Tobago living in New York City. She disappeared around
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November nineteen or twenty, nineteen ninety three. Her body was
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found the very next day by hunters in the woods
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in north Sea, And for those not familiar, that's actually
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out in the Hampton's area. It's about sixty miles away
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from Gilgo Beach.
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Speaker 2: Sandra Costilla's case is fascinating from an investigative standpoint because
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for decades she wasn't connected to the Gilgo Beach investigation at.
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Speaker 1: All because the geography was so different.
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Speaker 2: Yes, the geography was different, and authorities initially suspected a
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completely different convicted killer, a man named John Bittrel, might
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have been responsible.
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Speaker 1: Oh right, They chased that false lead for a long time.
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Speaker 2: They really did. Bittrolf had committed similar crimes in similar areas,
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so the hypothesis made logical sense at the time. But
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he was eventually cleared of her murder.
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Speaker 1: So she just sat as a cold case for decades, decades.
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Speaker 2: It wasn't until June twenty twenty four, utilizing incredible leaps
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in forensic science, that DNA from hares found on her
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remains finally linked her death to Heyerman. She had been strangled.
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Her death represents the earliest known point in this horrific
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seventeen year spree, showing that he was active and lethal
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long before he established his ultimate dumping ground on Ocean Parkway. Wow.
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Speaker 1: And then we moved to nineteen ninety six and Karen Viergatta.
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She was thirty four years old, last heard from on
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Valentine's Day. She was the victim he wasn't formally charged
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with initially, but confessed to during the twenty twenty sixth PLEA. Yes,
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her case involved the level of brutality that is just
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hard to stomach, and it introduces a new element to
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his methodology. Her legs and feet were discovered on Fire
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Island later that same year, but her skull wasn't found
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until twenty eleven near to Bay Beach in Nassau County.
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Speaker 2: The dismemberment and the scattering of remains, this is a
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profound escalation in his behavior.
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Speaker 1: Why do that? Why not just bury the whole body.
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Speaker 2: By dismembering a victim and scattering the remains across different
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jurisdictions and geographically isolated areas, the killer is actively disrupting
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the investigative process.
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Speaker 1: Oh I see right.
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Speaker 2: If a local police department finds a leg on a beach,
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they have a profoundly difficult time identifying the victim, let
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alone determining the cause of death or finding a suspect.
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It compartmentalizes the evidence, just as he compartmentalized his life.
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It spreads the data points so thin that no one
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can connect.
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Speaker 1: Them, ma'am. Then fast forward four years to the year
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two thousand Valerie Mack, who also used the name Melissa Taylor.
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She was twenty four years old, a mother from Philadelphia
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with a young son who had been in foster care.
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Speaker 2: A shart breaking story.
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Speaker 1: It really is. She vanished while working as an escort.
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Partial remains, specifically her torso, wrapped in garbage bags, were
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found in the Manorville Woods in November two thousand and then, horrifyingly,
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more of her body surfaced at Gilgo Beach over a
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decade later, in twenty eleven.
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Speaker 2: Valgermax case is a testament to the endurance of cold
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case investigators and the evolution of science. For twenty years,
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she was known only as a Jane dukstit Jet. Think
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about that, two decades without a name. Her family had
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no idea. It wasn't until twenty twenty that she was
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finally identified using genetic genealogy, cross referencing her DNA with
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public ancestry databases to find distant relatives and build out
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her family trade.
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Speaker 1: And once she was identified, the entire perspective on the
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case shifted, isn't it entirely?
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Speaker 2: When Hureman was charged with her murder in December twenty
14:40
twenty four, the evidence wasn't just circumstantial anymore. It included
14:44
DNA from his household found on her remains, and terribly
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specific tool marks that matched the dismemberment of another victim.
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Speaker 1: Wait, tool marks like from a saw or a nine.
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Speaker 2: Yes, that's the crucial link. The tool marks show a
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mechanical consistency. He's using the same implements, the same techniques.
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It demonstrates that the dismemberment wasn't a frantic, paniced attempt
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to hide a body.
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Speaker 1: It was a practice, methodical process exactly. He had a system,
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and that leads us to Jessica Taylor. In two thousand
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and three. She was in her early twenties. Last scene
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in July at the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan,
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which is a massive transit hub right, a place of
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constant motion and anonymity.
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Speaker 2: A very easy place for someone to vanish without anyone
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noticing immediately.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, her torso was found in Manorville that
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same year, and additional remains were found along Ocean Parkway
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in twenty eleven. She had advertised as an escort. She
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was petite, She fit the horrifying mold perfectly. He was
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charged with her murder in June twenty twenty four based
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on those identical dismemberment patterns and DNA links.
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Speaker 2: So by the early two thousands you have this established
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chilling methodology. He is luring vulnerable women, employing extreme violence,
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taking the immense risk of transporting bodies, utilizing dismemberment to
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obscure identity, and using remote stretches of La Long Island, Maniville,
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Fire Island, North Sea as his dumping grounds.
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Speaker 1: He's spreading them out.
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Speaker 2: He's experimenting with geography. But then the pattern shifts. He
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stopped scattering them across the island and begins centralizing his crimes,
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leading to the group of victims that became known as
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the Gilgo Four.
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Speaker 1: The Gilgo four. This is the sequence of murders that
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eventually brought this case to the forefront of national consciousness.
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It starts in two thousand and seven with Maureen Brainerd Barnes.
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She was twenty five years old, a mother of two
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from Norwich, Connecticut. She had struggled working as a telemarketer,
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fell behind on her mortgage, and turned to sex work
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as a last resort to make Ben's meet. She was
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last seen in July two thousand and seven planning to
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meet a client outside of Manhattan Super eight motel. She
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was just four to eleven and weighed one hundred and
16:42
five pounds, and when she was eventually found, she was
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bound with three leather belts.
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Speaker 2: The introduction of the bindings is significant. He's no longer dismembering,
16:51
He's binding and one of those belts became a critical
16:54
piece of the evidentiary puzzle. Years later. It bore a
16:57
microscopic trace of DNA that was eventually matched to Hoyerman's wife.
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Speaker 1: That is such a grotesque intersection of his two lives,
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right He is literally bringing items from his suburban domestic life,
17:07
items carrying of the biological trace of his oblivious family
17:10
into the heart of his sadistic crimes.
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Speaker 2: It highlights the unavoidable reality of transfer evidence. He thought
17:16
he was in total control, but he couldn't control the
17:18
microscopic world. You can't, and as we see with Maureen Brainard, Barnes.
17:23
The cruelty extended far beyond the murder itself. Shortly after
17:27
she disappeared, a friend of Maureen's received a blocked call
17:31
from someone claiming Maureen was alive and working in a
17:34
quote whorehouse in Queens, A taunting call.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and we see that psychological warfare escalate dramatically with
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the next victim, Melissa Barthelemy. In two thousand and nine.
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She was twenty four years old. She had moved to
17:46
the Bronx from upstate New York, hoping to become a
17:48
hair stylist. She used the alias Chloe on Craigslist. She
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vanished in July two thousand and nine. She was four
17:54
foot ten and ninety five pounds.
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Speaker 2: The torment inflicted on Melissa Barthelemy's family is just its stating.
18:00
For five weeks after she disappeared, her fifteen year old
18:03
sister received a series of vulgar, mocking phone calls.
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Speaker 1: Five weeks.
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Speaker 2: Yes, and the caller wasn't using a block number or
18:09
a burner phone. He's using Melissa's actual cell phone.
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Speaker 1: The sources detail the specific language he used, and it's awful.
18:15
He asked this teenager was your sister? A whore like you,
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and the final call announced that Melissa was dead and rotting.
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These calls were later traced by cell tower data back
18:24
to two highly specific locations, Midtown Manhattan, near Penn Station
18:28
and Massapequa, right where Horman lived and worked, which.
18:32
Speaker 2: Raises an incredibly important question about his core motivations. Why
18:36
take the immense risk of turning on a victim's cell
18:38
phone in the middle of a crowded city to call
18:41
her family?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, why do that? It seems incredibly reckless.
18:44
Speaker 2: It tells us that the act of murder wasn't enough
18:46
to satisfy him. He required power, He required a sense
18:50
of omnipotence. By terrorizing the sister, he was extending his
18:54
control over the victim long after she was gone, and
18:56
he was feeding off the terror of the survivors. It's
18:59
a hallmark of an organized sadist.
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Speaker 1: It's sickening, truly. Then in twenty ten, the timeline accelerates rapidly.
19:06
Megan Waterman twenty two years old from Scarborough, Maine. She
19:09
was a sex trafficking victim and a deeply loving mother
19:12
to a three year old daughter. She disappeared in June
19:14
twenty ten after leaving a motel in a Hopoge, Long
19:17
Island to meet a client. Her family knew something was
19:20
wrong immediately instinctively because she didn't call to check on
19:23
her little girl. Hoyerman had used a burner phone to
19:26
arrange that meeting, and.
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Speaker 2: Then just three months later, amberln Costello in September twenty ten.
19:32
She was twenty seven living in West Babylon. She was
19:35
a former waitress, had been a very strong student in
19:37
her youth, but turned to addiction as a coping mechanism
19:40
after surviving childhood sexual assault. A stranger, communicating through a
19:44
burner phone, offered her twenty five hundred dollars for her services.
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Speaker 1: Twenty five hundred dollars. That is a massive amount of
19:50
money to offer for a single meeting.
19:52
Speaker 2: It was an overwhelming financial lure. He understood exactly what
19:56
it would take to override her instincts and ensure she
19:58
walked out her front door. That night, she left her home,
20:02
and crucially, her roommate actually caught a glimpse of the
20:05
client and his vehicle. The roommate described a large man
20:09
and a first generation Chevrolet Avalanche Wow. Amber was four
20:13
foot eleven and about one hundred pounds when she was found.
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She was wrapped in burlap and the tape used to
20:19
bind her and carried his wife's DNA.
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Speaker 1: You listening right now, I want you to remember these
20:22
aren't just names in a file. These were daughters, mothers, sisters,
20:26
who had full lives, aspirations, and people who loved them.
20:29
Their family sat in that Riverhead court room in twenty
20:31
twenty six and wept as this man calmly, clinically detailed
20:35
how he killed them. Asa Ellerup was right when she
20:38
said their loss is immeasurable. But for so long that
20:40
loss was entirely hidden from the world, which brings us
20:43
to the accidental graveyard.
20:45
Speaker 2: The discovery, because despite all his meticulous planning, he was
20:49
an entirely chaotic, unrelated event that brought his pristine facade crashing.
20:53
Speaker 1: Down exactly we know who was taken, but how did
20:57
the secret finally spill out into the open. Here's where
21:00
it gets really interesting, because it highlights how fragile a
21:04
criminal enterprise actually is.
21:05
Speaker 2: It hangs by a thread, it really does.
21:08
Speaker 1: In the early morning hours of May one, twenty ten,
21:11
a twenty three year old escort named Shenan Gilbert made
21:15
a frantic, terrifying twenty three minute nine to one one
21:18
call from a client's home in the gated community of
21:21
Oak Beach.
21:21
Speaker 2: Right.
21:22
Speaker 1: She was panicked, screaming there trying to kill me. She
21:25
fled the house into the night, vanishing into the dense,
21:28
marshy brush of the Barrier Island.
21:30
Speaker 2: Shenan Gilbert's disappearance triggered a massive sustained polease search of
21:34
the area. Now, Oak Beach is located right along Ocean Parkway,
21:38
which is a long, highly desolate stretch of Barrier Island
21:41
on the southern edge of Long Island.
21:42
Speaker 1: Can you describe what that area looks like for someone
21:44
who's never been there.
21:45
Speaker 2: Sure, it's bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on one side
21:48
and the Great South Bay on the other. It's very sandy,
21:51
covered in thick, thorny scrub brush. And as officers and
21:54
canine units are out there month after month combing through
21:57
this incredibly thick, unforgiving scrub brush looking for Shenan, the
22:01
environment yields a completely different horror.
22:04
Speaker 1: On December eleven, twenty ten, during a routine canine training
22:07
exercise in the area, an officer and his dogs stumble
22:10
upon something hidden deep in the brambles, but it isn't Shannanne,
22:15
it's the skeletal remains of Melissa berthelemy.
22:18
Speaker 2: Yeah.
22:18
Speaker 1: Two days later, as they expand the search grid, they
22:20
find Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, and the very
22:24
next day, December thirteenth, they find Maureen Brainerd Barnes, the
22:27
Gilgo four, all petite women, all wrapped in burlap camouflage,
22:32
all bound, and all dumped within a single half mile
22:35
stretch of the brush just off the shoulder of Ocean Parkway.
22:37
Speaker 2: Let's analyze the geography of this specific half mile stretch
22:40
because it speaks volumes of it as psychology. Why stop
22:43
scattering the bodies across the state and start clustering them here?
22:46
Speaker 1: Yeah? Why put all his eggs in one basket? So
22:48
to speak.
22:48
Speaker 2: Ocean Parkway, especially at night or in the off season
22:52
winter months, is virtually abandoned. There are no street lights.
22:55
The brush right off the shoulder is impenetrable unless you
22:58
actively push into it. To a predator who has likely
23:01
driven that route countless times commuting or exploring, it looks
23:05
like a private, secure, invisible dumping ground.
23:08
Speaker 1: It's close enough to his home in Nassau County, maybe
23:11
a twenty minute drive for extreme convenience, but remote enough
23:15
to feel completely safe from detection.
23:17
Speaker 2: Precisely, it was an environmental blind spot. He was using
23:20
the natural landscape of Long Island to conceal his crimes.
23:24
The burlap itself is significant too. Oh so burlap blends
23:27
perfectly with the dead vegetation and sandy soil of the
23:30
salt marsh. It doesn't reflect light. He was actively designing
23:34
these disposal sites to remain undiscovered indefinitely.
23:37
Speaker 1: But then Shannan Gilbert makes that call. It's like throwing
23:39
a rock through a stained glass window. If she hadn't
23:42
panicked that night, those burlap sacks might still be buried
23:44
out there. But the chaotic event forced law enforcement to
23:48
scour every inch of that brush, and the search didn't
23:52
stop with.
23:52
Speaker 2: The gilgo for no It kept going.
23:54
Speaker 1: By April twenty eleven, the horror had expanded exponentially. Police
23:59
found six more more sets of remains in the surrounding area.
24:02
Speaker 2: This is when the true scale of the graveyard became apparent.
24:05
That spring, searchers found the torsos and scattered parts that
24:08
were later linked to Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor. They
24:11
also found the remains of an unidentified Asian male who
24:15
was wearing women's clothing and tragically a toddler.
24:19
Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
24:19
Speaker 2: It's deeply important to note, as the dossier outlines, that
24:23
not all of the remains found on that beach have
24:25
been definitively tied to Horman. The area may have attracted
24:28
other predators, or there may be crimes he hasn't confessed.
24:31
Speaker 1: To, and we should clarify. Shenan Gilbert herself was eventually
24:34
found in December twenty eleven, a full year later, deep
24:37
in a nearby marsh. Her death was officially ruled in
24:40
accidental drowning, a tragic consequence of her fleeing into the
24:43
treacherous wetlands.
24:44
Speaker 2: In the dark, though that is still heavily debated.
24:47
Speaker 1: Right we have to acknowledge that her family and independent
24:50
pathologists have long disputed that finding, arguing she may have
24:54
been murdered by someone in that Oak Beach community. But
24:57
regardless of what happened to Shanan that night, her desperate
25:00
call was the catalyst. It forced law enforcement to realize
25:03
they weren't just looking for one missing woman, they were
25:05
looking at the undeniable signature of a highly prolific serial killer.
25:10
Speaker 2: The Gilgo four became the anchor of the investigation. The
25:14
identical modus operande, the specific physical profile of the victims,
25:17
the bindings, the burlab camouflage, the clustered dumping ground. It
25:21
was a textbook signature. It told investigators exactly how the
25:24
killer operated. But identifying the signature is very different from
25:28
identifying the author, and that is.
25:30
Speaker 1: The most agonizing part of this timeline because after the
25:33
bodies were found in twenty ten and twenty eleven, the
25:35
trail went ice cold for over a decade. We are
25:38
talking about a massive, multi jurisdictional task force, millions of
25:42
dollars spent, intense national media scrutiny, FBI behavioral analysts flying in,
25:48
and nothing. Just a decade of dead ends and false hope.
25:51
Speaker 2: We have to understand why the trail went cold. It
25:54
wasn't necessarily for lack of effort. It was because the
25:57
killer's methodology was specifically designed to exploit the investigative limitations
26:02
of the time. When you have no crime scene, because
26:05
the beach is just a disposal site, and victims who
26:08
operate on the margins of society, traditional detective work struggles.
26:13
Speaker 1: There were so many theories floating around for years. Some
26:15
investigators and armchair detectives thought it might be the work
26:18
of multiple perpetrators working together, like a cult or a ring.
26:22
Speaker 2: Yes, the multiple perpetrator theory often arises when the logistics
26:25
of a crime seemed too complex for one person moving
26:29
a body, acquiring the burlap, maintaining this secrecy it seemed overwhelming.
26:35
But more prominently, there was the theory that the killer
26:37
might be in law enforcement, or at least highly trained
26:39
in forensic countermeasures.
26:40
Speaker 1: The cop killer theory that was everywhere. People assumed he
26:44
had to be a cop because he knew to use
26:46
burner phones, he knew to keep conversations under three minutes
26:49
to avoid trace times, and he seemed to know exactly
26:52
where jurisdictional boundaries lay, dumping bodies in State Park territory
26:56
to confuse local police databases.
26:58
Speaker 2: It was a very seductive theory. It provided an explanation
27:01
for his apparent invincibility. People wanted to believe he was
27:04
a criminal mastermind with inside knowledge, rather than accepting the
27:08
terrifying reality that he was just a meticulous architect who
27:12
read upon forensics. There was even a theory about a catcher,
27:15
someone whose sole job was to lure the women out,
27:17
manage the criigslist communications, and then hand them over to
27:20
the actual killer.
27:22
Speaker 1: It felt like they were chasing ghosts in the marsh.
27:24
But then the narrative entirely shifts. We enter the era
27:28
of the digital and biological breadcrumbs. It's twenty twenty two.
27:32
A new Suffolk County Police Commissioner comes in, a new
27:35
District Attorney is elected, and a renewed, highly aggressive multi
27:39
agency task force is launched. And this time they are
27:43
heavily fueled by massive advances in cold case technology and
27:46
digital forensics that simply didn't exist in twenty ten.
27:50
Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, this is
27:52
where the intersection of old school shoeleather detective work and
27:56
cutting edge science breaks the case wide open. Yeah, you
27:58
absolutely need both. You need the human element to find
28:01
the right puzzle pieces, you need the supercomputers to put
28:04
them together.
28:05
Speaker 1: Let's break down exactly how this happened, because it is
28:07
a masterclass in investigative persistence. First, you have the old
28:11
school detective work. A witness statement from twelve years prior
28:14
when Amberlin Costello disappeared in twenty ten, her roommate had
28:17
described the client's vehicle as a large, dark first generation
28:21
Chevy Avalanche.
28:23
Speaker 2: That specific vehicle detail is crucial. A first generation Chevy
28:27
Avalanche manufacturer between two thousand and two and two thousand
28:30
and six is a very distinct vehicle. It has unique
28:34
plastic body cladding that makes it stand out from a
28:37
standard silverad or Ford F one fifty. When the new
28:40
task Force took over in twenty twenty two, they decided
28:43
to completely re examine all the old tips, ignoring previous biases.
28:47
They ran a massive database search through the DMV for
28:50
every single registered first generation Chevy Avalanche in the Greater
28:54
Long Island area at the time of the murders.
28:56
Speaker 1: And out of thousands of results, Rex Horman's name popped up.
28:59
He owned two thousand and two avalanche. But as you
29:02
pointed out in the notes, thousands of people own that truck.
29:05
Having the truck alone isn't probable cause for an arrest.
29:07
It's just a single data point and a sea of noise, exactly.
29:11
Speaker 2: But it gave him a name, a target. Now they
29:14
could take that single data point and begin layering the
29:16
digital footprint over it. And this is where the technological
29:19
leaps become the killers undoing. Investigators went back to the
29:22
cell phone records. They knew the killer had used burner
29:25
phones to contact the victims, to arrange the meetings, and
29:28
to make those horrific taunting calls to Melissa Bartholemy's sister.
29:31
Speaker 1: The killer used prepaid burner phones, buying them with cash
29:35
and registering them under fake names. Hoyerman used the alias
29:39
Thomas Hawk, very clever Tomahawk. He thought he was completely untraceable.
29:44
Speaker 2: But here is where the science of cell cite location
29:46
information or CSLI comes into play. Back in two thousand
29:50
and nine and twenty ten, public understanding of CSLI was
29:54
incredibly rudimentary. Most people, even highly organized criminals who watched CSI,
30:00
believe that a phone only tracked you if you were
30:02
actively making a call, or if it was registered in
30:05
your real name.
30:06
Speaker 1: But that's not how the hardware works.
30:08
Speaker 2: Not at all. It's like setting off a digital flare.
30:10
A cell phone is essentially a sophisticated two way radio,
30:13
even if you never dial a number. The moment you
30:15
power that device on, it begins a digital handshake, with
30:18
the nearest cell towers constantly shouting I am here, I'm
30:21
ready to receive a signal. By analyzing the historical data
30:24
from those towers, investigators can triangulate the location of that
30:27
specific phone within a defined geographic sector at any given
30:31
moment it was powered on.
30:32
Speaker 1: So when they polled the historical CSLI data for the
30:36
Thomas Hawk Burner phones, what did they find?
30:38
Speaker 2: They found a digital map pointing directly to Rex Hoyerman.
30:42
The data showed that these Burner phones were frequently pinging
30:44
off cell towers in two highly specific, highly localized areas,
30:50
Massapego Park, right near Hoyerman's house, and Midtown Manhattan, right
30:54
near his architectural firm. Furthermore, the times those phones pinged
30:59
perfectly match the chronological timeline of when the victims were contact.
31:03
Speaker 1: But I have to ask a question here because this
31:04
blows my mind. He used an alias, sure, but he
31:07
turned the Berner phones on in his own living room
31:10
and at his desk at work. For an architect who
31:13
clearly plans meticulously, who uses burlop to blend into a marsh,
31:17
isn't that an incredibly sloppy digital footprint.
31:20
Speaker 2: It seems incomprehensibly sloppy in retrospect through a twenty twenty
31:24
six lens. But we have to contextualize the timeline. He
31:28
was operating under a fundamental misunderstanding of the technology. He
31:31
believed the anonymity of the cash purchase and the fake
31:33
name protected him. He didn't realize the hardware itself was
31:36
betraying his physical location. It's a classic example of a
31:39
predator's technological hubris. He thought he was smarter than the system.
31:43
Speaker 1: Wow, okay, so the net is tightening. You have the
31:46
Chevy Avalanche, you have the cell phone towers pinging in
31:49
his exact, highly specific locations. Then investigators pull his financial records.
31:54
They subpoena his American Express data, and the algorithm matches
31:58
up again. His credit card swipes place him in the
32:01
precise geographical areas buying gas, buying supplies during the critical
32:05
time frames of the victim's disappearances. The digital web is
32:08
entirely inescapable, but a digital footprint is still circumstantial to
32:13
make an arrest. To secure a conviction, you need the biology.
32:16
You need the DNA masterstroke.
32:18
Speaker 2: And this is where the science gets truly mind bending,
32:21
where we see forensics achieve something that was considered impossible
32:24
a decade earlier. By early twenty twenty two, he is
32:27
the prime suspect. The task force is confident they have
32:29
their man, but they need his DNA to compare to
32:32
the crime scenes. They can't just knock on his door
32:34
and ask for a swab that would alert him and
32:36
potentially cause him to destroy evidence or flee. So surveillance
32:39
teams start following him, a dedicated unit tracking his every
32:42
move in Manhattan, just.
32:44
Speaker 1: Waiting for him to slip up, waiting for him to
32:45
discard something. And he does. He finishes eating a pizza
32:49
outside his office on Fifth Avenue, and he throws the
32:51
crust into a public garbage can. Investigators immediately swoop in
32:56
and snag that discarded pizza crust, That half.
32:59
Speaker 2: Eaten pizza crest provided his direct, uncontaminated DNA profile. Now
33:04
they take that profile and compare it to the trace
33:07
evidence recovered from the bodies found over a decade prior.
33:11
And here's where the novel technology comes in, whole genome
33:14
DNA sequencing from rootless hairs.
33:17
Speaker 1: I want to make sure we really understand this because
33:19
it's the lynchpin of the case. I thought that if
33:21
a hair didn't have the root attached, it was essentially
33:24
useless for DNA profiling.
33:26
Speaker 2: For a very long time. That was absolutely true. In
33:28
forensic science, a hair is composed of a root which
33:30
sits under the skin, and a shaft, which is the
33:33
part we see in traditional DNA analysis. You need that
33:36
root the vollicle because that's where the intact nuclear DNA
33:39
is located. Nuclear DNA is the unique, definitive genetic blueprint
33:43
of an individual. If a hair naturally sheds or breaks
33:46
off without the root, the shaft only contains mitochondrial DNA.
33:49
Speaker 1: And mitochondrial DNA isn't unique to one person.
33:53
Speaker 2: Correct. Mitochondrial DNA is passed down entirely through the maternal line,
33:57
so you share the exact same mitochondrial DNA as your mother,
34:00
your siblings, your maternal grandmother, and thousands of distant relatives.
34:04
It's not a unique identifier. It can only narrow the
34:07
suspect pool. It cannot definitively point to one person. For decades,
34:11
rootless hairs found at crime scenes were incredibly frustrating for
34:15
investigators because they were essentially useless for direct identification.
34:19
Speaker 1: But the technology evolved exactly.
34:22
Speaker 2: Whole genome sequencing changed the entire landscape. The shaft of
34:25
a hair does contain nuclear DNA, but it's heavily degraded,
34:28
shattered into microscopic fragments by environmental exposure and time. What
34:32
this new technology does is act like a massive, highly
34:35
complex biological jigsaw puzzle. It extracts those shattered fragments of
34:39
nuclear DNA from the shaft and uses advanced computational algorithms
34:43
to sequence them, targeting single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs. It
34:48
essentially reconstructs the unique genetic profile from the damaged fragments.
34:52
Speaker 1: That is incredible. So they apply this technology to the
34:55
hairs that were found on the victims back in twenty ten.
34:57
Speaker 2: Yes, when they apply whole genoue sequencing to the male
35:01
hairs found on the burlap and the adhesive tape used
35:04
to bind the victims, they successfully extracted a nuclear DNA
35:08
profile and they compared it to the DNA from the
35:11
pizza crust. Was a statistical match. The probability that the
35:14
hair belonged to anyone other than Rex Horrman was astronomically.
35:18
Speaker 1: Low, and it wasn't just his hair that condemned him.
35:20
As we touched on earlier, the investigators also found his
35:23
wife's hair on three of the victims, not because she
35:26
was ever there or had any knowledge of the crimes.
35:28
But through the microscopic reality of transfer DNA.
35:31
Speaker 2: It's the ultimate demonstration of low cards exchange principle, a
35:35
foundational concept in forensic science which states that every contact
35:40
leaves a trace. You cannot enter an environment without bringing
35:44
something into it and leaving with something from it. Horreman
35:47
thought he was being flawlessly careful. He was using burder phones,
35:51
he was dismembering bodies. He was using burlap to blend
35:54
into the marsh. But he couldn't control his own biology.
35:57
A stray hair from his wife falls onto his swing
36:00
at home. He wears that sweater while preparing the bindings
36:02
or transporting the victim. The hair transfers from his sweater
36:06
to the adhesive tape.
36:07
Speaker 1: The overlapping data points the Chevy Avalanche, the cell towers
36:11
pinging in his living room. The American Express records the
36:14
male hair on the burlap, the wife's hair on the tape.
36:17
It creates an inescapable mathematical certainty. He was trapped in
36:20
a web of his own making.
36:22
Speaker 2: He was We've caught the killer using technology, but the
36:26
dossier takes us a step further. We actually use that
36:28
same technology to look inside his head. Once he was arrested,
36:31
we transitioned from the how of the investigation to the
36:34
terrifying why and what of these crimes. We get to
36:37
go inside the mind of the architect.
36:38
Speaker 1: When law enforcement finally executed the search warrants on his
36:42
home in Massapecal Park and his office in Manhattan, the
36:45
sheer volume of digital evidence they uncovered was staggering. The
36:49
dossier states they seized four hundred and twenty two smart devices.
36:54
Let that number sink in. Four hundred and twenty two devices, phones, tablets, laptops,
36:59
external drives, flash drives. Why on earth does someone need
37:03
four hundred and twenty two devices unless they are obsessively
37:06
compartmentalizing a massive, illicit digital life.
37:09
Speaker 2: It speaks to a profound level of digital hoarding and
37:12
obsessive categorization. He wasn't just hiding his crimes, he was
37:15
archiving them. And when forensic experts started cracking those devices
37:18
by passing the encryption and recovering deleted slack spaceed data,
37:22
the search history they found exposed the raw, unfiltered architecture
37:26
of his psychology.
37:27
Speaker 1: What did they find in that search history?
37:28
Speaker 2: We are talking about thousands upon thousands of highly specific
37:32
searches for extreme sadistic content, torture, redhead porn, deeply violent
37:37
non consensual scenarios. Search is indicating an active interest in
37:41
child exploitation materials. It wasn't casual browsing. It was the
37:45
digital footprint of a man whose inner life was consumed
37:48
by violent sexual fantasy, and.
37:49
Speaker 1: He was equally obsessive about the case itself, wasn't he?
37:52
Speaker 2: Yes, he was constantly running searches for updates on the
37:55
Gilgo Beach investigation. He was searching for the names of
37:58
the lead detectives. He wanted to know exactly what the
38:01
police knew, but chillingly, he was also searching for information
38:05
on the victims' families, reading interviews with their siblings and
38:08
parents while he was walking around free.
38:10
Speaker 1: That goes back to what we discussed about the phone
38:12
calls to Melissa Barthelemy's sister. He didn't just want to
38:15
kill them. He wanted to consume the aftermath, reading about
38:19
the family's grief, listening to the police press conferences. It
38:22
allowed him to relive the crimes. It allowed him to
38:25
gloat over his perceived superiority. He believed he was outsmarting
38:30
the entire system.
38:31
Speaker 2: It is the defining behavior of a classic organized sadist.
38:35
An organized sadist derived sexual and psychological gratification not just
38:39
from the physical act of violence, but from inflicting sustained
38:43
mental suffering and maintaining absolute control. They're highly methodical, they're
38:48
driven by complex, evolving fantasies, and they require an immense
38:52
amount of control over their environment and their victims.
38:54
Speaker 1: And absolutely nothing proves that need for control more than
38:57
the body prep blueprint. This is the detail from the
39:01
dossier that truly shook me. It's hard to even process.
39:05
Forensic investigators found a deleted word document on one of
39:08
his devices that literally outlined his methodology for murder. It
39:12
was a step by step drafting document.
39:14
Speaker 2: It was a clinical, bullet pointed manifesto of violence. It
39:17
listed the supplies he needed to procure before a hunt.
39:20
It listed potential dump sites, evaluating their pros and cons,
39:23
and it contained these chilling self reflective reminders to himself.
39:26
Remove head and hands, burn gloves. Consider a hit to
39:29
the neck next time.
39:30
Speaker 1: Consider a hit to the neck next time. He is
39:33
evaluating his own performance. He is treating human murder like
39:36
an architectural drafting process. He's reviewing the structural integrity of
39:40
the crime, noting the flaws, and planning logistical improvements for
39:43
the next iteration.
39:44
Speaker 2: Precisely, the blueprint is the ultimate manifestation of the organized sadist.
39:50
It removes the humanity from the victim entirely in that document.
39:53
They are no longer people with wives and families. They're
39:55
simply a project, materials to be managed. And what made
39:59
this document so legally damning was that the experts noted
40:03
the specific instructions in this digital blueprint perfectly matched the
40:06
physical evidence of dismemberment done to victims like Vellery mac
40:09
and Jessica Taylor. He followed his own horrific instructions to
40:13
the letter.
40:13
Speaker 1: So what does this all mean? When you combine the
40:17
taunting calls, the obsessive checking of the investigation, the blueprint,
40:21
it shows this was never a crime of passion or
40:24
a sudden loss of control. It was about extending and
40:27
archiving his power. He wasn't just an architect of buildings.
40:30
He literally drafted a blueprint for human suffering, formatting it
40:34
in a Microsoft word document just like he would a
40:37
zoning application.
40:38
Speaker 2: It is overwhelming. It is a mountain of undeniable proof,
40:41
the whole genome, DNA sequencing, the CSLI cell data, the
40:44
financial records, the confessions via his own digital blueprint, which
40:48
brings us to the final reckoning. We move from this
40:51
avalanche of evidence to the inevitable conclusion the court room
40:54
where we started this deep dive, and we finally understand
40:56
why ultimately a trial was averted.
40:58
Speaker 1: Let's look at the timeline of the endgame, because it
41:01
moved surprisingly fast once the dam broke. Koyerman was arrested
41:04
on July thirteenth, twenty twenty three, right outside his office
41:08
in Manhattan. He was swarmed by plan clothes officers and
41:11
taken into custody. He was initially charged with three of
41:14
the Gilgo four murders. Over the next year, as the
41:17
forensics lab ground through that massive cash of four hundred
41:20
and twenty two devices and tested more trace DNA, the
41:23
additional charges trickled in Maureen Brainard Barnes in January twenty
41:27
twenty four, Sanvra Costilla and Jessica Taylor in June twenty
41:31
twenty four, Valerie Mack and the others by December twenty
41:34
twenty four.
41:35
Speaker 2: The defense initially fought back with everything they had. They
41:38
filed extensive pre trial motions attempting to suppress the evidence.
41:42
They specifically challenged the whole genome DNA sequencing from the
41:45
rootless hairs, arguing it was two novel, that it hadn't
41:48
been fully accepted by the broader scientific community and shouldn't
41:51
be admissible under standard evidentiary rules.
41:53
Speaker 1: But the courts upheld it. The judge ruled the science
41:56
was sound and mathematically reliable. A massive, high security trial
42:01
was set for September twenty twenty five. The media circus
42:04
was gearing up. You had networks preparing for months of
42:07
gavel to gavel coverage, but then the pivot.
42:10
Speaker 2: On April eighth, twenty twenty six, Foreman agreed to a
42:13
comprehensive plea deal. He formally waived his right to a
42:16
trial in open court. He admitted to strangling each of
42:19
the victims. He admitted to the methodology luring the women
42:22
with burner phones in cash, binding them with tape and belts,
42:25
and discarding them in the brush. He even admitted to
42:28
the intentional killing of Karen Vergata, the victim he wasn't
42:31
formally charged with, but whose dismembered remains had haunted investigators
42:35
since nineteen ninety six.
42:36
Speaker 1: And the punishment is absolute. He received three consecutive life
42:40
sentences plus four consecutive twenty five years to life terms,
42:43
no possibility of parole ever. Formal sentencing is scheduled for
42:47
June seventeenth, twenty twenty six. But the reality is he
42:49
will die in a concrete box. He will never see
42:52
the outside of a prison again.
42:53
Speaker 2: The aftermath of that plea, however, is complex, and it
42:57
leaves a lot of unresolved emotions for those involved. You
43:00
have Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney calling it a
43:03
moment of profound closure for the region, praising the relentless
43:07
work of the task force. You have the defense attorney
43:10
Michael Brown, noting that the police spared everyone, the victim's
43:13
families and Horman's own family, the grueling, years long trauma
43:18
of a public trial.
43:19
Speaker 1: Author Robert Kolker, who wrote the phenomenal essential book Lost
43:23
Girls about this case long before an arrest was made,
43:26
said the plea affirmed the victim's humanity. It forced the
43:29
killer to stand up, say their names and admit what
43:31
he did to them. And we've seen documentaries like Netflix's
43:34
Gone Girls really amplifying the broader story and the systemic
43:37
issues it uncovered.
43:39
Speaker 2: And that broader story, the societal impact is truly significant.
43:44
This case, perhaps more than any other in recent memory,
43:47
forced a public reckoning regarding the safety, marginalization, and humanization
43:52
of sex workers. It highlighted how predators systematically exploit societal
43:56
prejudices and law enforcement blind spots. More, from a legal
44:00
and scientific standpoint, it completely redefined cold case investigations globally.
44:05
The integration of genetic genealogy, hold genomes, sequencing on rootless hairs,
44:10
and historical CSLI mapping is the new gold standard for
44:14
catching predators who thought they had gotten away with it.
44:16
Speaker 1: But I have to ask you, and I think a
44:18
lot of people wonder about this. Do you think a
44:20
plea deal brings real, visceral closure or to skipping the
44:23
trial leave families feeling like the full truth, the granular
44:26
details of those seventeen years wasn't fully aired out in
44:29
the public square. A trials where all the secrets are
44:31
dragged into the light, where witnesses testify, where the entire
44:34
scope of the evil is laid bare. A plea deal,
44:37
while it guarantees a conviction and a life's sentence kind
44:40
of locks the door on the details.
44:41
Speaker 2: It is a profound, agonizing dilemma for the families. A
44:45
trial forces the public to witness the reality of the crime,
44:49
which can be deeply validating for families who felt ignored, dismissed,
44:52
or marginalized by the system for decades. They want the
44:56
world to see the evidence. However, trials are inherently adversary.
45:00
The defense, doing their job, would have actively tried to
45:03
undermine the victims, attacking their lifestyles, their addictions, their choices,
45:07
all to introduce a sliver of reasonable doubt. For many families,
45:11
avoiding that secondary trauma, Avoiding the cross examination of their
45:14
loved one's memory, and simply hearing the perpetrator stand up
45:17
and say I did this and I am guilty provides
45:20
the only true, sustainable form of closure available in a
45:24
situation this horrific.
45:25
Speaker 1: It's a heavy, heavy reality to synthesize everything we've explored today,
45:29
We've journeyed from a quiet, predictable suburban home with a
45:32
basketball hoop in Massapichel Park, down a desolate, brush choked
45:36
stretch of Ocean Parkway into the microscopic world of shattered
45:40
DNA fragments, and finally into a brightly lit courtroom where
45:43
seventeen years of terror were ended with a single word.
45:46
Speaker 2: It is the ultimate horrifying cautionary tale about the architecture
45:50
of deception and the lengths to which an organized mind
45:54
will go to build a life around their darkness.
45:57
Speaker 1: To you listening, whether you're driving to work or sitting
45:59
at home, it is a staggering reality. To confront a
46:03
monster doesn't have to look like a monster. They can
46:05
check off a daily commute, buy coffee at the corner deli,
46:08
complain about the weather, maintain a family life, all while
46:12
harboring a meticulous drafting board level of evil.
46:16
Speaker 2: And while the book on rex Huierman is closed, the
46:19
dossier leaves us with a final, deeply unsettling thought to consider.
46:24
We discussed earlier that along that same stretch of Ocean Parkway,
46:27
amidst the brush where the Gilgo fur were found, other
46:30
remains were discovered an Asian male, a toddler, others whose
46:34
stories end in that salt marsh, but who have not
46:36
been definitively linked to.
46:37
Speaker 1: Hoyemen Right, the graveyard was larger than his confirmed victim.
46:41
Speaker 2: We are dealing with a highly organized killer, who operated
46:44
with near impunity for two decades, and who documented his
46:47
crimes with obsessive detail across four hundred and twenty two devices.
46:51
What are the chances that the complete blueprint of his
46:54
terror is fully known to us? Is it possible there
46:56
are other sites, other victims we haven't found, And more terrifyingly,
47:01
if he could exist so seamlessly, so perfectly camouflaged in
47:04
the fabric of society for so long, how many other
47:07
architects are out there right now? Men hiding behind the
47:10
veneer of a quiet suburban life, particulously drafting their own nightmares,
47:14
just waiting for a discarded pizza crust to be their
47:16
undoing