Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to killing 7 women, admits to killing eighth | "48 Hours" Full Episode | Forensic Files

It is a case that has haunted the public for more than 13 years and many feared that the Gilgo Beach murders may never
be solved. >> The officer located a body. >> And it seemed to be wrapped in burlap
which didn't make any sense. The crime scene gets expanded. I'm called and chief we found another
set of remains. They find another one. And another one. We were dealing with a serial killer.
They're available, they're vulnerable and very petite. >> This killer has a type.
>> Right. Does he want the petite body because he wants to feel more empowered and more in control?
>> I want the world to know like my sister mattered. I want answers. I just want answers.
>> An arrest more than a decade in the making in a serial killer case that's baffled law enforcement and the public.
59-year-old Rex Heuermann pled not guilty. >> I got my phone. I couldn't believe it.
>> So just who is Rex Heuermann? An architect who ran a company called RH Consultants and Associates.
>> Rex. Hello. >> Hi. How you doing? >> Nice to see you. >> When a job that should have been routine
suddenly becomes not routine. >> Yeah. >> I get the phone call. >> Rex Heuermann is a mystery man. Rex is
capable of presenting himself one way to one person, one way to another person. >> My first memory of Rex was that he was
very big, imposing, scary, angry. He was bullied. He was bigger than everyone else. The kids would gang
up on them. And Rex was very smart, too. >> He's a smart person, very smart. >> He liked to shock people. He was
interested in power games. Rex loved hunting and he loved guns. >> Going out, shooting, hunting, that was
his passion. >> All petite, all bound in burlap bags. >> The burlap on the bodies, that points
right at a hunter. >> It was DNA collected from a pizza slice he tossed in a Manhattan trash can that
came back as a match with hair found on the victims. >> That's where we obtained, you know, his
full profile from from that pizza crust left in the box. >> In terms of speaking to my client, the
only thing I can tell you that he did say, as he was in tears, was, "I didn't do
this." >> Everyone's just trying to put the pieces together. I want to know what I missed.
I think we all want to know what we missed. >> Not far from this quiet stretch of Gilgo
Beach on Long Island, New York, investigators uncovered the hidden remains of four young women.
The mystery of who they were and how they got here might have stayed a secret if not for a woman named Shannon
Gilbert. In the early morning hours of May 1st, 2010, 23-year-old Shannon, working as an
escort, called 911. >> State police. >> Yeah, there's someone at the house with me.
>> The call came from a neighborhood not far from Gilgo Beach. >> These people are trying to kill me.
>> Shannon starts running, knocking on doors. >> Where are you, Shannon? >> She screams.
And then, nothing. Shannon was gone. >> Hello? Hello? >> K9 searched the area exhaustively for
Shannon Gilbert. >> Dominic Varrone was chief of detectives at the Suffolk County Police Department.
Months passed without a sign of the missing woman. And then, in December 2010, near Gilgo Beach, a police officer
and his K9 named Blue found human remains. >> Everyone assumed it was Shannon Gilbert.
>> But it wasn't Shannon. Stunned searchers would go on to discover the remains of
four other women. The women were identified as Maureen Brainard Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and
Amber Costello. Like Shannon, all were in their 20s, all were online escorts, all petite. Three of the four were
wrapped in burlap, the kind you can find in hunting stores. They became known as
the Gilgo Four. >> It's really, really hard cuz I miss her so much. >> 48 Hours has reported on this case since
2010. Over the years, we've secured exclusive interviews with the family and friends
of the Gilgo Four. Missy Cann will never forget the wintry day when she got the devastating news.
>> The detectives came to my house and just said that Maureen has been positively
identified as one of the victims on Ocean Parkway. >> Her sister, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, a
mother of two, was the first to disappear on July 9th, 2007. >> She was very smart
and very creative. >> She liked being a mom? >> She loved being a mom. >> But life as a single mom living in
Norwich, Connecticut was difficult. Missy didn't know it, but Maureen had turned to escort work, and that July
went to New York City for a weekend to make money. On her way home, she called Missy from
Penn Station in Midtown, Manhattan. >> Attention, please. >> I could hear the motions from the train
station. From the time that she called me, it was poof, she was gone. >> She reported Maureen missing.
Eventually, officers would tell Missy that after her sister's disappearance, someone had used Maureen's cell phone to
make a call from Long Island. It wasn't known then, but those two locations, Long Island and Midtown,
Manhattan, would become important clues in the hunt for a serial killer. Nearly two years to the day that Maureen
vanished, 24-year-old Melissa Bartholomew went missing in July of 2009, also from Midtown Manhattan.
Lynn Bartholomew is Melissa's mother. >> How often do you think about Melissa? >> Every single minute of the day. It just
didn't happen to the girls. I mean, it destroyed all of our families. >> Melissa moved from Buffalo to New York
City to work as a hairdresser. At some point, she also began working as an escort and then disappeared.
About a week after she went missing, Melissa's then 15-year-old sister, Amanda, started getting calls from
Melissa's phone. We agreed not to show Amanda's face. >> She answers, you know, "Melissa, where have you been?"
And this voice is saying, "Oh, this isn't Melissa." >> Steven Cohen was the family's lawyer at
the time. >> He was taunting Amanda and he said, "Do you know what I did to your sister? I
killed Melissa." >> All I can say is he's sick. And he's going to make a mistake and
we're going to catch him. >> Those calls from Melissa's own phone may very well have been that mistake. When
police traced them, the calls placed the person they believed to be Melissa's killer in Midtown Manhattan.
The following year, Megan Waterman, the mother of a 3-year-old girl, disappeared
from a hotel on Long Island. >> Part of you's like missing. It's just like something's always off.
>> We spoke with Megan's daughter, Lilliana, in 2020. >> I would do anything to bring her back,
but I can't and it just like frustrates me so bad. >> Megan's family says the 22-year-old was
a creative but troubled young woman who loved fashion and was devoted to her daughter. What would you say to your mom
if you could? >> I would just want to tell her that like I love her. I just want her to know that
she has a special place in my heart and no one can ever replace her. >> Like the other two women, Megan
disappeared in the summer on June 6th, 2010. She was working as an escort on Long
Island. >> No matter what her job was, she was a person and she needs justice. >> This haunting video from a Holiday Inn
Express is the last time she was seen alive moments before she went to meet a client. Cell phone records later placed
her phone in a Long Island neighborhood called Massapequa Park. Amber Costello was the last of the Gilgo
Four to disappear. She lived here just 7 and 1/2 miles from Massapequa Park. >> She used to say she was 4'11", but she
wasn't. She was like 4'9", you know. I mean, she was small. >> Amber's friend and former roommate Dave
Schaller spoke with us in 2011. >> She was an amazing person. She really was. >> He says Amber was addicted to drugs and
used sex work to support her habit. >> But as amazing as she was, was as tormented as she was.
>> After Amber disappeared, police say Schaller told them about her clients. He described one of them as looking like an
ogre and having a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche. On the night she went missing, Schaller
says a client offered Amber $1,500 for the night, six times her hourly rate. >> This guy was so
relentless. He called several times. He was on the phone with her for quite a while each time.
>> He says the client got Amber an experienced escort to do something she never did, leave without her purse or
cell phone and meet him in his car. >> I walked out the front door with her. She She gave me a hug. She's like, "I
love you." And she left. >> It was nearly midnight. Schaller says that when Amber left this house, she
walked down the street and he never saw her again. Schaller told us that he didn't see the
client's face that night, but suspects he had seen him before. >> So, this is a guy you might have seen?
>> Yeah. This is somebody that I seen. I might be the one of the only people who
knows who he is. >> It would be more than a decade before Schaller's description would lead to a
break in the case and a prime suspect. >> To see a timeline of how the case unfolded, go to 48hours.com.
>> The shocking developments in a murder case gone cold. >> My coworker called me and she said, "Did
you hear what happened to Rex?" And I'm like, "No." >> A husband, a father, an architect stood
before a judge charged as a serial killer. >> She says, "It's Rex." I said, "No way."
>> This house was a main focus and they brought out a lot of evidence. >> I just didn't think it was real.
>> A Long Island community is still a crime scene tonight. >> I even thought to myself, it's crazy
that there's two Rex Heermans out there. >> Mary Shell and Muriel Henriques worked
with Rex Heuermann and couldn't wrap their heads around the news. >> We never thought he would be
that kind of person. >> It's shocking. >> In July of 2023, nearly 13 years after
the Gilgo 4 were discovered, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison made the announcement.
Authorities believe Rex Heuermann is the Long Island serial killer. >> Rex Heuermann is a demon
that walks among us. A predator that ruined families. >> The man he calls a demon is a 6'4"
architect. He's charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, and is the prime suspect
in the death of Maureen Brainard Barnes. >> What did my client tell me? He told me
he didn't do this. >> Heuermann was living about 20 minutes from Gilgo Beach in Massapequa Park, the
very same town where Megan's phone last connected with a cell tower. And Heuermann worked here at his
architectural firm in Midtown, Manhattan, just blocks from where Maureen disappeared, the same area where
several of the threatening calls to Melissa's little sister were made. >> The cause of death with regard to the
three victims is homicidal violence. >> A married man, Heuermann, lived in this rundown house and has a daughter and
stepson with his second wife, Asa. Asa, who was born in Iceland, would take the children to see her
family there in the summers. It was during these trips and others, police believe, that Heuermann killed
the women. >> You never got any kind of hint of another life. >> No. >> She was totally right.
>> Muriel Henriquez worked at Huermann's company RH Consultants and Associates and spoke exclusively to 48 Hours. She
said she saw nothing alarming about the Rex Huermann she saw daily. >> A little bit of a nerd in a way. He
liked to talk about himself. What he knew. I mean, not a narcissist, but a little
bit of a, you know, I know everything kind of guy. >> Pompous? >> Pompous. >> She remembers him running to and from
job sites, eating fast food on the run. >> Pizza. That was his number one thing.
>> Police say they found nearly 300 guns in a basement vault. >> When she heard that police had recovered
almost 300 firearms from a vault in Huermann's basement, she was surprised only by the number. She knew him as an
avid hunter. >> Going out, shooting, hunting, that was his passion. >> What was it about hunting he liked?
>> I don't know. I guess he liked the idea of having a prize. >> Stalking prey? >> Stalking prey.
And winning. He liked to win. You know. >> And while she says it never occurred to
her that Huermann could be dangerous, she does remember a time when his tracking skills unnerved her. It was her
40th birthday and she had booked a cruise vacation. >> Where are you going? Cuz I'm going to,
you know, I'm going to be in the middle of the ocean. You're not going to find me in the middle of the ocean.
He said, "Oh, yes, I can." >> Muriel didn't think much of the comment until the second day of her trip.
>> There was a white envelope under my door. It was a note from him. The note said, "I told you I could find
you anywhere." >> He had photos from hunting trips. >> Mary Shell worked with Huermann in the
summer of 2010. It was the The summer that both Amber Costello and Megan Waterman vanished.
>> He would talk about, you know, the meats in particular that bear meat could keep
in the freezer for months. >> Hearing authorities now say that some of the victims were wrapped in a burlap
that hunters often use was chilling. >> The burlap really got to me. >> Since Huermann's arrest, Mary has
written about her experience with him. She's also talked to other former female employees who said they weren't always
treated with respect. >> He would have one of them clean the toilet if he thought the
cleaning person hadn't done a good enough job. >> A woman in the office? >> Yes.
>> He more than once commented on women's bodies. If someone perhaps had gained some weight, you know, that kind of that
kind of thing. >> John Parisi grew up with Huermann. He says Huermann was bullied as a child.
>> I remember meeting Rex when I was in first and second grade. He was a loner. Not many friends.
The children were super mean to him. Made fun of him and teased him. >> But John says he never saw Huermann
fight back. >> He was big enough that if he got upset and started swinging, he would
hurt somebody. But he never did. >> As Huermann got older, John points out things didn't get much better.
>> He was rejected by many girls. We all go through that awkward stage growing up.
And it seemed like that awkward stage stayed with him longer than usual. >> Still, he says many in the community
find it hard to believe that Huermann is a notorious serial killer living a double life for more than a decade.
>> People were saying, "Oh my god, I can't believe we have a serial killer in our
town, and we grew up with, and we walked amongst the killer." >> Another classmate of Huermann's, actor
Billy Baldwin, took to social media when the news broke, tweeting, "It was mind-boggling."
>> Rex, hello. >> How you doing? >> The awkward Long Island teenager grew up to be a confident and seemingly
successful architect. Antoine Amira met and interviewed him in 2022. >> Born and raised on Long Island?
>> Okay. >> Been working in Manhattan since 1987. >> There's nothing in my interview
that made me think that this person in front of me is a dangerous person. >> Antoine is a hotel food and beverage
manager in New York who loves real estate. He has a YouTube interview show where he handpicks guests whom he thinks
are interesting and accomplished. >> I'm an architect. I'm an architectural consultant. I'm a troubleshooter.
>> Antoine says Huermann was well-known for his skill at helping companies and individuals get building permits.
>> When a job that should have been routine suddenly becomes not routine, >> Yeah.
>> I get the phone call. >> Got you. >> Correct. >> What really stood out for me was he was
very very very smart. >> And known, says Antoine, for his ability to find loopholes in the rules.
>> He was pleased when he was doing it. >> That he could >> That he that he could out outwit the the
system. >> That's it, folks. That was Rex. >> But Antoine says he remembers it was
hard to get Huermann to crack a smile. >> It's selfie time. >> Selfie time. >> Not during the signature sunglasses
selfies he takes with every guest. >> 2 3 Can you smile? >> That is. >> If police are right, Rex Heuermann was
able to hide a life as a serial killer. And if he did, his habit of eating pizza
on the go would turn out to be his undoing. For more than a decade after the discovery of the Gilgo four,
Rex Heuermann's name never appeared on a suspect list until a new task force was
formed with Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison and Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney.
>> In February of 2022, we formed the task force and then a mere 6 weeks later, Rex
Heuermann was identified for the first time. >> A suspect in 6 weeks? So, how did they
do it? It turns out that buried in the original case files were a number of critical clues that the
new task force was finally able to connect. Remember Amber's roommate, Dave Schaller?
>> She's like, "I love you." You know, she gave me a hug. And she left. >> He had told police about one of Amber's
clients and his vehicle. >> Just a large-built man and that he was driving this this
first-generation Chevy Avalanche. >> A first-generation Chevy Avalanche with a description of an
ogre-like man and the make and model of his truck. Police took a closer look at Amber's phone records from 2010.
Schaller had told them that before Amber disappeared, there was one particular client calling incessantly.
>> He called several times. He was on the phone with her quite a while each time.
>> Police back then knew the client was using a burner phone. That's a prepaid phone that anyone can
buy and use anonymously. And they knew that Maureen, Melissa, and Megan had all been in contact with
burner numbers right before they disappeared. In 2012, with the help of the FBI, they
determined that most of those calls connected to cell towers inside a small area of Massapequa Park. They called it
the box. >> So, how large an area is that box? >> It's, you know, a couple of blocks
within within Massapequa Park. >> The new task force began the search for a large-built man who also lived in that
small area and owned a Chevy Avalanche at the time of the disappearances. >> Was there a
aha moment when all of a sudden his name came up? >> Once we were able to attach the
Avalanche inside of that Massapequa box, which then attached to Rex Heuermann, that was the moment we said, "Okay,
there's something here." >> The task force now had a prime suspect, and when they looked at Heuermann's
personal cell phone records, they found that his phone was in the same area as those burner phones when they were used
to contact a victim in Massapequa Park or in Midtown Manhattan. >> It was always consistent.
>> Tierney says this was also true for those awful calls Melissa's family got from that man using her phone back in
2009. >> He said, "Do you know what I did to your sister?" And he said, "Well, I killed Melissa."
>> The task force says that it confirmed that Huermann does in fact use burner phones. Investigators say he had two
different burner numbers in 2022, and they say they watched him put money on one of those accounts here. And
according to court papers, the team also documented three email accounts using fake names, including John Springfield,
Thomas Hawk, and Hunter 1903. And all linked to those burner numbers. And prosecutors say that Huermann was
using a burner phone to send these selfies to solicit and arrange for sexual activity.
One of those accounts linked to Huermann, prosecutors wrote, was used to conduct, quote, "thousands of searches
related to sex workers, sadistic torture-related pornography, and child pornography."
>> There was a lot of torture porn, and depictions of women being abused, being raped, and being killed.
>> Investigators also say that while they were busy watching Huermann, Huermann was trying to watch them, conducting
searches on the task force and the Gilgo victims. >> Not only pictures of the victims,
pictures of their relatives, their their their sisters, their children, and he was trying to locate those
individuals. >> The circumstantial evidence was building, but investigators also had
physical evidence from the Gilgo four, including one male hair that was found in the burlap used to quote "restrain
and transport Megan Waterman's body." And they wanted to see if they could link it to Heuermann.
Police tailed Heuermann, and when he threw out this pizza box in this trash can here in Midtown Manhattan, they
pounced. >> The pizza, which was you know, obviously very significant. >> Tierney says that Heuermann's DNA that
was found on that pizza crust was consistent with a DNA profile from the hair found with Megan Waterman's body.
And that DNA profile is only found in 0.04% of the population. >> That was a remarkable day. It was, you
know, the weekend and you know, you read you get the report and you read it and then you read it again and then you read
it a third time and then you read it a fourth time. Uh and then you start making calls.
>> With the DNA, the search histories, and the burner phone evidence, the team felt
it was time. >> When we decided to take down the case, we you know, it was a sudden decision.
We did see him contacting a number of sex workers using a burner phone, which obviously is concerning.
>> Plainclothes officers arrested him around the corner from his office. >> I don't think he had any clue.
I don't think he had any clue that we were onto him. >> Police spent 12 days looking through
Heuermann's home, pulling those guns out of the basement, and digging in the backyard. They say it will take some
time to comb through what they have now, and they were tight-lipped about what they found.
>> Has the search been fruitful? >> Great question and the answer is yes. >> Can you elaborate on fruitful? You said
yes, it's fruitful. >> There have been items that we have taken into our possession. That makes it
fruitful. >> And one more big piece of evidence taken into possession, a first generation
Chevy Avalanche Heuermann once used. And it was sitting on property he owns in South Carolina when they recovered
it. >> We were able to seize that Chevy Avalanche pursuant to a search warrant and we're certainly going to analyze
that. >> But there were female hairs found on some of the victims' bodies that don't
belong to the victims. So who do they belong to? >> What do you make of the evidence against
Rex Heuermann? Join the conversation now on social media. >> After Rex Heuermann's arrest, his quiet
neighborhood in Massapequa Park was overrun by investigators and media, focusing intense scrutiny on the
ramshackle home and its remaining residents, his stepson Christopher Sheridan, daughter Victoria Heuermann,
and his wife of more than 25 years, Asa Ellerup. >> Their life going forward is always going
to be the wife or the children of suspected serial killer. That's what's going to be from now on.
>> Attorney Bob Macedonia represents Asa Ellerup, who has since filed for divorce
from Heuermann. He says she was as stunned as anyone by the accusations. >> She had no idea any of this going on.
The allegations are shocking. Nobody wants to think that they've been living with sleeping next to a serial killer
for the past 25 years. >> As it turns out, Asa may have inadvertently helped focus the
investigation on her husband. Investigators say they've identified strands of female hair that were found
on two of the victims. >> One hair on Waterman comes back to his wife or the DNA profiles are consistent.
And then the DNA profile from Costello is consistent with the wife. >> Although prosecutors have evidence that
Asa was out of town when those murders occurred, they will have to explain how those hairs got on the victims. Suffolk
County DA Ray Tierney says it could be as simple as transfer. >> You live at home with a spouse,
a little bit of your hair falls on your shoulder as well as your spouse's. Then you go out and you interact with a third
party and that hair gets on them. >> Asa Ellerup has not been charged or named a suspect in any of the murders.
>> You don't believe that Rex Heuermann's wife was involved in this in any way. >> There's no evidence to indicate that,
no. >> Along with the public scrutiny of Asa, there's also been support from people
that perhaps know all too well what she's going through. Kerri Rawson, the daughter of serial
killer Dennis Rader, who named himself BTK, tweeted, "Asa and her kids are also victims."
>> I can tell that they are going through hell. >> And from Melissa Moore, the daughter of
Keith Jesperson, a serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer for taunting authorities with letters signed with a
happy face. >> She reached out immediately to myself and we put her in contact with Asa.
>> At a press conference, Macedonio announced Moore set up a GoFundMe page for Asa, which raised over $50,000.
Money he says will largely go to medical bills. Asa is battling breast and skin cancer. And because Rex Heuermann was a
sole provider for the family, Macedonia says she will soon lose her health insurance.
>> Asa would like me to express her thanks for the support she's received. Um she's
going through a very difficult time. >> Asa's children have also paid a heavy price. Her daughter, Victoria, who
worked for her father at the architectural consulting firm, and her son, Christopher, are both now
unemployed. Asa struggles to support them, says Macedonia, while she's also trying to figure out how to start over.
>> How is she getting through every day? >> Honestly? >> Yeah. >> Minute by minute. Um she has no one else
to turn to at this time. Family and friends have been hesitant to have her come over because they don't
want the media attention. She gets followed wherever she goes. >> For the moment, she and her children
continue to live in the house in Massapequa Park, which the family says was excessively damaged during the
police search, seen in these photos provided by Asa's attorney. It's a daily reminder of the unimaginable crimes her
estranged husband is charged with, and the investigation that continues into what else he may have done.
Rex Heuermann, awaiting trial, is locked inside a Suffolk County Jail in a 60-square-foot cell.
He denies killing Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. Their voices now silent as the sand
where they have been ruthlessly discarded. >> How sure are you as you're sitting here
now that Rex Heuermann is the Long Island serial killer? >> So, we're just at the beginning stages
of this case, but we would not have brought this indictment if we weren't confident in our case.
>> He took away somebody's mother, somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, and not just one person, multiple
individuals. >> Heuermann is currently the prime suspect for the murder of Maureen
Brainard-Barnes, and for investigators, an obvious question still hangs heavy. If Heuermann is a killer, are there
other victims? I mean, isn't there a real concern that there may be other victims out there?
>> Always. Who's to say that there's not more bodies out there that we need to investigate?
>> In 2011, police did find other bodies along Ocean Parkway after finding the Gilgo 4.
There is victim number five, Jessica Taylor, an escort who went missing in 2003.
Another set of remains, police called Jane Doe number six, is now identified as Valerie Mack, also working as an
escort. Number seven, to investigators' surprise, they found a toddler girl. Number eight, an Asian male dressed in
women's clothing. Number nine, a female skull belonging to Karen Vergata, an escort who disappeared
in 1996. Number 10, female remains from a victim cops nicknamed Peaches because of a
tattoo on her torso. Although her remains were found 6 miles away, police say DNA confirms Peaches is the mother
of that toddler. None of those victims has been linked to Huermann. Is it that you can't connect
him yet or you believe he probably isn't the person who killed these other other
individuals. >> I don't know. >> Investigations also spread to Las Vegas and South Carolina where Huermann owns
property with detectives there taking a fresh look at cases of missing women. And then, there's Nikki Brass.
>> I remembered him because one, he's massive. And how many massive like 6'5" architects work in Manhattan with
Massapequa? >> You're going from brown and blonde. >> Now a hairdresser, Nikki claims she may
be one that got away. She told us she used to work as an escort and while we cannot substantiate her story, Nikki
claims she can't shake her memory of the night she says she was solicited for sex
by Rex Huermann and says she fled the restaurant where they met. >> I had never gone anywhere and like felt
fear. My gut was telling me I needed to get away and I've never had that before.
>> Nikki says what she found most disturbing is that Huermann himself brought up those bodies bound in burlap
by Gilgo Beach. >> He wanted like really get into it. Like he asked me how I thought they could get
rid of the bodies without being caught in that area. And I said I've never been over there.
I've never even seen Gilgo Beach. And his response was, well, it's really dark and desolate.
>> I'm John Ray and I'm the lawyer >> Nikki is now represented by John Ray, an attorney who is also representing
Shannon Gilbert's family. In December of 2011, investigators finally found Shannon here in the marsh,
not far from Gilgo Beach, but they don't believe she was murdered. >> It's an unfortunate incident, but right
now we believe that she just ran into the marsh and unfortunately drowned. >> A former investigator told us that he
believes Shannon was high on drugs that night and says her death was an accident. Something John Ray just can't
believe. While he doesn't think Shannon was a victim of Huermann, he does believe she was murdered and points to
that 911 call. >> It absolutely makes no sense that she's found where she is except that someone
else put her there or killed her there. >> While questions remain about Shannon's
last hours, there's no question she's the reason so many families may finally be getting answers they have long waited
for. We spoke to her sister Sherre in 2011. >> If my sister, you know, didn't make that 911 call, I
don't think that these other women would have been recovered either. >> Now investigators hope that with an
arrest, they can give the victims' families, who stood with them, a sense of justice
and of peace. >> I've gotten to know the families and I'm inspired by them and I'm impressed by
their patience. >> A local legend has it that this place, Gilgo Beach, was named for a skilled
fisherman called Gil. These silver-gray waters once his secret hunting ground. Today, this beach area is better known
for a relentless hunter of human prey, a serial killer whose chilling presence can still be felt in the ocean air.
>> CBS next Saturday, 48 Hours brings you back-to-back episodes all summer long.
Next week, secrets and lies. >> He said if anybody talks to anybody about this, I'll kill them.
>> And did you want your stepfather dead? >> No. >> Plan was murder. >> 48 Hours crime time double feature next
Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.

On April, 8, 2026, Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to killing seven women between 1993 and 2011, and admitted he killed an eighth in a series of murders that came to be known as the Gilgo Beach serial killings.

This "48 Hours" investigation, "The Gilgo Beach Serial Killings," last aired on June 15, 2024.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

For video licensing inquiries, contact: licensing@veritone.com

Brief Summary

The episode details the Gilgo Beach murders and Rex Heuermann's arrest, highlighting victim stories and investigation challenges.

Key points

The Gilgo Beach Murders. A case that haunted the public for over 13 years, involving a serial killer targeting petite women.
The Chilling Evidence. DNA from a pizza slice links Rex Heuermann to the murders, revealing a shocking twist.
The Discovery of the Gilgo Four. Investigators uncovered the remains of four young women, leading to a shocking revelation.
The Impact on Families. The families of the victims share their heartbreak and the lasting impact of the murders.
Rex Heuermann Arrested. After years of investigation, Rex Heuermann is arrested and charged as the Long Island serial killer.
The Chilling Phone Call. A man taunts Melissa's family with a horrifying confession.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just want answers.

1:00WatchApr 8, 2026

Tension

75/ 100High tension

More from 48 Hours

Solve the Crime

Read a real case one clue at a time, then see how your call held up against the investigators.