For over a decade, a suspect in the Gilgo Beach killings remained at large until authorities arrested family man Rex Heuermann, who they say lived a double life. Go inside the investigation of the man charged with murdering seven women. Originally Aired 01/16/25 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the Gilgo Beach murders?
This is Deborah Roberts, co-anchor of 2020. This week, we'll be bringing you a deep dive into the Gilgo Beach murders from Impact by Nightline. The number of alleged victims has grown. Prosecutors now have charged a Manhattan architect with the deaths of seven women. Here's an inside look at the alleged double life of the accused killer.
a Manhattan professional by day, and a serial killer by night? Rex Sherman is a demon that walks among us. Was he leading a horrific double life?
It's like two different people, like Jekyll and Hyde.
Authorities now charging him with a seventh killing. The shocking evidence in court filings that law enforcement says are detailed plans to hunt and kill.
He's talking about preferences, ways to improve. He's saying things like, use a thicker rope so it doesn't break under pressure. Hit harder next time.
The random 911 call that prompted intensive searches. And meet the woman who believes she escaped the Gilgo Killers.
I remember everything about that night because he scared the crap out of me.
Gilgo Beach. A spot that had once been synonymous with summer, surfing, and fun in the sun. That is, until police started finding body after body.
For more than a decade, those unsolved murders kept Long Island shore towns on edge.
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Chapter 2: Who is Rex Heuermann, the alleged Gilgo Beach killer?
Heuermann had a significant collection of violent bondage and torture pornography. Prosecutors said in addition to all this torture pornography, Heuermann searched references to the Gilgo Beach serial killings. And he seemingly, according to prosecutors, would keep tabs on certain victims, their families, even collecting headlines from People magazine and the New York Post.
A lot of what serial killers get off about is the planning. I am smarter than all of them. I beat the authorities. They can't catch me. And look how successful I am at this.
But for every piece of evidence comes the question. Why did it take so long for police to make an arrest? And could there be more victims out there?
If convicted, it's possible that Rex Heuermann could wind up being one of the most prolific serial killers of our time. I think that we are just starting to scratch on the surface the tip of the iceberg.
13 years after the first bodies were uncovered at Gilgo Beach, authorities finally zeroed in on Rex Heuermann. Plainclothes officers surrounding him on a busy street in Manhattan.
When they did make an arrest, I was stunned because there had been no media attention on the case at all for 11 months, not even a news article. So I was worried that behind the scenes, they had lost steam.
With the arrest, nonstop news coverage began, an orchestrated perp walk to finally show his face.
I've seen Rex Uriman in court, and he is a kind of a hulking figure. He's tall, wide. He even makes some of the court officers look small.
For days, authorities turned his home upside down, even digging up the backyard. Curious onlookers were there for every discovery.
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Chapter 3: How did the investigation into the Gilgo Beach murders unfold?
Law enforcement know the suspect has burner phones that are making phone calls in two locations. An individual who may live in Long Island and take the Long Island Railroad into Manhattan by Midtown and also work in that area. Thousands make that commute daily. And so now law enforcement has to figure out who's the one making this commute and are they the suspect they're looking for?
The case finally gets momentum in 2022 after Suffolk County announces the creation of a task force, bringing together local, state, and federal officials and breaking the case wide open. They start taking a fresh look at old evidence from Amber Costello's disappearance.
Right before she went missing, she had a client come to her home and essentially, along with her roommate, they engaged in a ruse with this client. And that ruse included taking the client's money and then the male roommate coming home, pretending to be Amber's boyfriend, and the client ultimately drove off.
Angry. Amber's roommate told investigators the truck driven by the client was a 2002 green Chevy Avalanche.
A distinctive vehicle that just isn't sold very much. in this part of the country. It's a Chevy Avalanche, which is kind of this hulking sort of truck, sort of SUV, and not a lot of people have it.
A female state police detective basically started with all the evidence from the beginning. What this detective did was looked up all the green 2002 Chevy Avalanches within a certain geographical area and also cross referenced a physical description that that same roommate provided. He described the suspect as being extremely tall, resembling an ogre.
And it didn't take this detective long to sort of zero in on somebody who seemed to match all of these things and who also had ties to the key locations of Massapequa Park and Midtown Manhattan.
Don't miss Good American Family.
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