Original subtitles

[crickets chirping]

[footsteps walking rapidly]

[eerie music playing]

[man] Amber Costello was the last person missing

of the Gilgo Beach murders.

She went missing only three months before they found the bodies.

So there's your best fresh lead. That's the one you'll look at.

Everything else is old.

[dramatic music playing]

[Kolker] Shortly after the investigation begins in 2010,

police go to Amber Costello's house

where they try to figure out who was the last person to see her alive,

uh, what her movements were like, who she talked to.

[Schaller] At the time they found these bodies,

the cops came and spoke to me.

[police siren wailing]

[Schaller] I told them that there's a guy

that really lights up every friggin' red flag on the planet.

Maybe you should look into him.

Weeks before she went missing, there was a guy who had come to the house.

She told the guy, "I'm only dancing."

And "There's no sex."

I was out for the night.

Probably had been gone from the house for, like, 20, 25 minutes.

And she called, freaking out.

She's like, "I'm in the bathroom. I'm hiding."

"I told him I was dancing."

"He was grabbing on me." She's like, "'No' wasn't an answer for him."

[suspenseful music playing]

[Schaller] I came flying back to the house with Bear.

And we busted open the door, went right to the bathroom.

I'm like, "What's up?" And she's like, "Uh, is he there?"

Then I hear Bear say, "Who the fuck are you?"

I turn around, and here's this giant standing there.

[Brodsky] This dude was literally the size of the door.

He was pissed. Wanted his money back.

I was like, "You're out of here." And he's like, "No."

-[dog barking] -[Brodsky] We had a pit bull.

[thunder rumbling]

I told him I was going to let go of the dog.

It got him moving.

And the whole time, we're pushing him out, trying to fight him out the door.

But instead of looking at, you know, me fighting him,

he's looking past me at her.

It's almost like his eyes got this focus to 'em.

Imagine a predator who is just tripped,

like off, you know?

But his focus was on her.

Bear opened the door, pushed him out.

And as he's walking to the car, he's just looking straight at her.

And he's like, "I'll see you."

And… just got in the car and left.

When the cops asked me about it, first fucking thing I said,

"It's gotta be that motherfucker, man."

But those Suffolk County cops never did nothing about it.

[somber music playing]

[melancholy music playing]

[water running]

[Cann] "Unconditional love."

[inspirational music playing]

[Cann] What does that mean?

It means you advocate

for someone that is no longer here and doesn't have a voice no more.

[reporter] Every day, Melissa Cann is glued to the internet,

looking for any information about her sister's death.

[Cann] Did my sister cry? Did she beg?

Did she say, "Please, please?" Like, "I have kids." Like…

You know, there'll be all those answers that I'm pretty sure

the killer won't answer.

[dramatic music playing]

[reporter] But first, police have to catch the killer.

Over the past year, search crews uncovered a total of ten victims.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Kolker] By the beginning of April of 2011,

you've got ten unsolved murders.

And there were no leads, no suspects, no persons of interest.

This case had the attention of a nation and of the world.

A serial killer is stalking his next victim in New York City.

[in Japanese] New York, Long Island, a series of murders…

[in German] Shannan Gilbert is on her way to meet a client.

[in Mandarin] Megan Waterman disappeared in June 2010.

[Kolker] With pressure of several months of media attention

and no answers at all, the police have to respond somehow.

[dramatic music playing]

[indistinct chatter]

-Everybody all set? -[man] Yes, sir.

Okay, let's go.

Today, we're going to discuss some details

regarding the remains discovered by the Suffolk County Police Department.

You can see on this map,

original four victims who were discovered in December of 2010

and have subsequently been identified as Miss Costello, Miss Barthelemy,

Miss Barnes, and Miss Waterman.

Continuing on the map, number five found March 29, 2011.

The remains we found in 2011 was a partial set of remains,

ultimately identified as a woman named Jessica Taylor.

[tense music playing]

She had a distinctive tattoo that was relevant to identifying her.

Her torso had been found in Manorville in 2003,

about 50 miles to the northeast.

Then we found another young adult female,

a toddler child, and a male that was dressed in drag.

Forensic anthropologists conclude that the male is more likely Asian

in his late teens to early 20s.

[Cameron] Ninth set was a bag with extremities in it.

And then police found a skull.

[Kolker] Now we're faced with ten unsolved murder cases

by the spring of 2011.

Eleven if you count Shannan, who is still missing.

[man] Are you guys continuing the search, or even more searches going on?

Yeah, we're still concerned about the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert.

We're going to continue our efforts to find her.

Uh, it's obviously something that we'd like to bring to a conclusion,

both for our investigation and also for her family.

[woman 1] That was so hard to park with the baby, so I had…

[woman 2 exclaims]

How are you?

[inspirational music playing]

[Kolker] All of the victims' families, they all came to New York to speak out.

I met them all. I got them all together

with, you know, a tape recorder, like I was a talk show host,

sort of getting them all talking to one another and comparing notes.

[Barthelemy] When they went missing, it was just a single…

as they call it, a single prostitute and they just…

[Cann] And we only had one voice. But now we're…

[Barthelemy] Right, now we're together.

[Cann] One, two, three, four, five, six, seven-plus voices.

[Ela] I wanted to see where they found my daughter

and to pay my respects, to finally say goodbye to her.

We're also here to celebrate the lives of these women.

I finally was able to see where my sister was found.

In a sense, I was scared and I was sad.

But it also was a point of healing.

[melancholy music playing]

[women laughing]

[reporter 1] Melissa's mother sends this message to the killer.

You're a very weak man. You prey on small, innocent girls.

And we're gonna get you.

[reporter 2] This was supposed to be a final goodbye to all the girls,

but with Shannan Gilbert still missing, family members say they will continue

to return to this site as long as it takes.

[Gilbert] She is out there. She is missing.

And our family and our friends, we're gonna find her,

and we're gonna find out who hurt Shannan and all the others.

[Kolker] While I was reporting that year,

I can't tell you the number of times people would say to me,

"Why haven't they searched the marsh in Oak Beach?"

Which is really the last spot where Shannan had been seen.

[tense music playing]

[Cameron] In 2010, we never thoroughly searched the Oak Beach marsh.

That particular area was wet, soggy ground.

The water was brackish and cold. It was a very hazardous environment.

And to dedicate that amount of resources

when it was just a mystery as to what happened to her,

it was just not something that we did.

[Kolker] It's just amazing to me.

You know, she goes to Joe Brewer's house at Oak Beach.

She runs around and runs around.

And there's a marsh that's right here, and she's last seen right here,

and for 19 months, they never searched this marsh.

They don't come anywhere near it.

[woman whimpering]

[Kolker] It's just stunning.

I can't comment on how they're working the case

because they're not working the case.

[Kolker] And then suddenly, there were glimmers in the media

saying that the police were going to search the marsh finally.

[wind blowing]

[suspenseful music playing]

In December of 2011, police resumed the search for Shannan Gilbert.

[indistinct police radio chatter]

[Gallucci] Then right in the area where she was last seen…

-[dog barking] -…they find someone's belongings.

[dramatic music playing]

[reporter] Right now, police on Long Island, New York,

finding key evidence in their search for a missing New Jersey woman.

[reporter 2] Police think that they have found

some of her belongings,

but they haven't found her.

[Gilbert] I am just waiting to be contacted

by authorities to identify any items that they think may be hers.

I hope it's not.

I'm always giving out hope that we'll find her alive.

[Gallucci] Police confirmed they found her pocketbook, her ID,

her jeans, her cell phone, and her shoes in the marsh.

[melancholy music playing]

[Cameron] That changed the whole dynamic.

That triggered the all-in search.

[helicopter whirring]

[dramatic music playing]

[reporter] In the mud, water, and brush

that has grown taller than the average person,

authorities said because they found some of Gilbert's items,

officers will continue to search

the gated community of Oak Beach, Long Island.

[Cameron] It's an extremely difficult area to work.

There are reeds that are taller than your head.

We've had officers abruptly drop to their waist or deeper in that muck,

and they've been unable to extricate themselves.

They brought in huge vehicles to get through that marsh,

to get through the brush.

[Cameron] I believe that was close to 100 acres.

You know, it took days of searching to get through.

[Gallucci] As the search keeps continuing, it's getting very close to the anniversary

of when the Gilgo Four were found.

[melancholy music playing]

[Gallucci] So the victims' families were there

to remember their sisters, their daughters.

[reporter] Families spent the day here in Oak Beach

as police searched this area behind me for the remains of Shannan Gilbert.

They said they wanted to be near the area

where police found the bodies of their loved ones a year ago.

I was at the press conference at Oak Beach,

and it seemed like something big was happening.

[suspenseful music playing]

We had just left here putting crosses in with the four vic-- The four girls.

As we drove by, we'd seen

whatever they call that big machine down there.

And there was somebody cutting brush down,

and we knew they were searching for somebody in there.

We became sick to our stomachs.

[Gallucci] We expected something big to be announced,

and it kind of leaked to the press before, but we didn't have official confirmation.

Could this be Shannan Gilbert?

I… I didn't want to believe that.

[melancholy music playing]

[Gilbert] I got a phone call,

and they told me that they think they found Shannan.

And at first, I was hesitant.

I… I've heard it so many times before.

[sad music playing]

[Kolker] That day, the police confirmed

that the remains found were Shannan Gilbert.

[indistinct chatter]

I can't even talk.

I don't even have words to say how I'm feeling right now.

As much as today may be Shannan, it's not just Shannan.

It's all of us.

[Kolker] Shannan Gilbert's body was found naked

a half a mile away from where she was last seen,

but very far away from her belongings,

and it launched all sorts of theories.

Did someone dump her there,

or did she flail her way through the marsh

because she saw the lights from the highway on the far side,

and thought she could get there?

[tense music playing]

This may be just a young lady ran into the brush

in a hysterical state and fell down

and, you know, expired for some reason.

[woman] Do you think she accidentally drowned in that muck?

Yes, that's… That's… It looks like that right now.

When you look at the terrain, that's possibly what happened.

[Kolker] The police were saying

that Shannan Gilbert's death was accidental.

Everyone was amazed to think

that the police would assume this without any investigation.

Dormer's talking out of his ass.

Shannan was murdered.

Somebody stripped her clothes off

because they did not want Shannan to be found.

[Gallucci] She was found without her jeans on.

Any woman knows it's incredibly difficult to remove wet jeans,

and she was running for her life.

Would it make sense for her to stop in the middle of this marsh

and rip off a pair of wet jeans?

[woman yelping]

[Gallucci] It would make more sense to me

that her jeans were removed by somebody else.

[Cameron] I've heard some people make an issue that her pants were off,

so it had to be foul play.

But there's something called paradoxical undressing.

When you get hypothermic, about 20 to 50% of people

feel as though they're extremely hot in the late stages of hypothermia.

Even in the Arctic, they've found people that have stripped their clothes off.

[man] Do you still believe it was an accident at this point?

No, no, I will not believe that for the simple fact that…

Shannan was a strong woman.

I think it's too coincidental that Shannan was found

where the other victims were found.

There's more that connects Shannan to the murders

than does not connect Shannan to the murders.

[camera shutters clicking]

[indistinct chatter]

Okay. When you're ready, I'm ready.

Today we have met with the medical examiner

and the, uh, doctor in the medical examiner's office

who performed the investigation of Shannan Gilbert's death.

There was a lot of hope going into

the medical examiner analysis of Shannan's remains.

I was optimistic when I first walked in,

but now I'm more frustrated and angry than ever.

All I got was…

betrayal.

The county medical examiner determined that the cause of death

and manner of death of Shannan Gilbert was "undetermined."

The particular facts here are sex workers all found in the same area

and all but one determined to have been a homicide,

and this one complaining of an imminent homicide,

how can one say that it's inconclusive?

I came to think that there was willful ignorance here.

Willful neglect. Meaning intentional neglect.

So we wanted to do another examination beyond what the medical examiner had done

because we didn't have faith in what she'd done.

[reporter] New York forensic pathologist, Dr. Michael Baden,

investigated serial killers Joel Rifkin

and the notorious Son of Sam killing, David Berkowitz.

[reporter 2] Now Dr. Michael Baden has taken on the case.

[Ray] In his report, it was consistent with homicide

and he said that her death was inconsistent with natural causes.

[tense music playing]

[Dr. Baden] There is damage to the hyoid bone and the windpipe.

Those are the two bones in the neck

that get injured and fractured in strangulation.

One has to seriously consider that she was strangled

and this is a homicide.

[Ray] There were red flags one after the other after the other

as to what was not looked into by the police for years on this case.

The question becomes, "Well, what about the others"?

Can you deny that they're all sex workers

laying in what's really an extended common grave of Ocean Parkway?

That some of their torsos are found in Hempstead and Manorville

and other parts of Long Island, with their heads and hands, arms and so on

being found along Ocean Parkway, in this similar or same places?

How do you say that that's mere coincidence?

[keyboard clacking]

[Gallucci] I always felt like the Gilgo victims

were related to the Manorville victims.

So I did a story linking the homicides.

[melancholy music playing]

[Gallucci] One was mostly just talking about, like,

"Since you're paying attention to these cases now

because there's a serial killer,

pay attention to these cases that have been cold for so long."

[tense music playing]

Out of the new victims that were found, they were able to identify Jessica Taylor.

And she had a lot of similarities to The Gilgo Four.

They were young women in their 20s.

They worked as sex workers, and they were very petite.

Jessica Taylor was also last seen working

near the Port Authority in Midtown Manhattan.

It was very similar to the disappearances of Melissa Barthelemy

and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who also disappeared

from the New York City area.

Based on cell phone records, police believe

that the suspect worked in Midtown and lived locally on Long Island.

Both Jessica Taylor and Jane Doe Number Six were dismembered

and their body parts were found on Ocean Parkway in 2011,

and in the early 2000s in the Pine Barrens of Manorville.

So, I was sure they were linked to The Gilgo Four.

I really felt it was the same killer. I just…

I really felt that one person did this.

[Kolker] As a reporter going out to cover this case,

people would take me aside and say,

"The thing you need to know about Suffolk County is

that the police this and the district attorney that."

And the first 20 times I would sort of wave it aside saying,

"This is a murder case. I don't want to talk about conspiracy theories."

But after a while, it became clear that these weren't theories.

[melancholy music playing]

[man] In the beginning of the Gilgo Beach investigation,

I started at Newsday as an investigative reporter

looking into police and prosecutorial misconduct.

Suffolk County PD is one of the largest law enforcement jurisdictions

in the United States,

and it's one of the highest paid police forces in the United States.

So really it's like hitting the lottery among police departments.

And, with that, I think comes a lot of power.

[Kolker] The police commissioner, Richard Dormer,

who's on the verge of retirement, has been telling people that he thinks

that one killer is probably responsible for them all.

The issue of one killer, two killers, three killers

for the ten remains that have been found has been discussed.

The facts of the case indicate one person.

[Kolker] He doesn't have exact evidence to suggest this. He just sort of says,

"What are the odds that there'd be more than one killer operating

in the same geographic area? It has to be one killer."

But the DA, Thomas Spota, doesn't like that explanation.

When he says that the theory is that there was only one killer, uh,

Uh, I very much disagree with that theory.

[Kolker] Spota was relying on the idea that those first four women

who were found in December

were all found as intact skeletons bound in burlap.

There were other remains that were found not so far from there,

but they weren't all intact and there was no burlap.

So he was able, with that information,

to suggest that there's no way to link these people to one killer.

[Spota] The area in and around Gilgo Beach

has been used to discard human remains for some period of time.

As distasteful and as disturbing as that is,

there is no evidence that all of these remains

are that of a single killer.

I was just shocked.

Ocean Parkway could have been a dumping ground,

but it could also be

that the killer's been leaving body parts there for years,

and no one's ever found them.

And he got comfortable, and he adapted and he learned.

So it just seemed way too early in the investigation for Spota

to completely shut out the theory that there was only one killer.

[tense music playing]

[Kolker] Most mysterious thing

was why would a district attorney openly go to war

with the police commissioner in front of everybody

at a press conference where the whole world is watching?

[Cann] Watching you guys publicly go back and forth to each other,

how do you expect us to trust in you?

Nobody knew. "Is there more than one serial killer?"

"What's happening here?"

[Kolker] This is a DA that wants to control the police department.

This is the biggest case to happen, uh, to this police force in a generation,

and he's not about to let Commissioner Dormer,

who is on his way out, and he can't control, run away with it.

I think Spota uses his theory,

which is based on little more than a hunch,

to dissent from Dormer

in order to establish himself as the person in power.

[Kolker] Just a few weeks after Shannan's body was found,

the police commissioner, Richard Dormer, he was gone, he retired.

There was an incoming county executive, and he appointed new leadership.

When I came into office,

I'm looking to see, "Okay, how am I gonna set leadership in this department?"

A couple of people that I respected very much,

recommended strongly somebody by the name of Jim Burke.

Jim Burke worked in Tom Spota's office for ten years.

He was head of investigations for that office

and Tom Spota highly recommended him.

Spota was a highly respected, well-regarded district attorney.

That says a lot to you.

[tense music playing]

[Cameron] He went from inspector to being a DA's officer to chief of department,

which is about a four rank jump.

The highest sworn rank.

[Garcia-Roberts] Burke, throughout his career,

he was known to be a troubled officer, who was chased by scandal.

He had more than a dozen Internal Affairs complaints against him.

And so to put that underqualified, scandal-plagued officer

at the top of one of the largest jurisdictions

in the United States, was a completely shocking move.

[melancholy music playing]

Tonight, we will present our first

Thomas J. Spota Prosecutor of the Year Award.

The award is named in honor of Thomas Spota,

District Attorney of Suffolk County since 2002.

[Garcia-Roberts] Thomas Spota goes way back in Suffolk County.

He got his start as a prosecutor in the 1970s.

He spends two decades as this kind of headline-making prosecutor.

I started looking into the past

of how Jimmy Burke and Tom Spota came to operate as a pair.

And the reporting just became more and more disturbing

the more that I looked into it.

[somber music playing]

This really is a horrible story.

Teenage boy disappeared on a bicycle Friday night

and then was found murdered the next day.

[Garcia-Roberts] On April, 1979, there's this horrific discovery made.

A 13-year-old boy named Johnny Pius is found dead in the schoolyard

beaten and trampled,

and most disturbingly, stones stuffed down his throat.

It's this really shocking crime in Smithtown,

which is this whole suburban ideal.

And so there's a lot of pressure to solve the case by the community,

and that pressure sort of all lands on the desk

of a young, rising prosecutor, Tom Spota.

Pius was found with a sneaker print on his face.

In detectives' minds, who wear sneakers? Kids.

So homicide cops start pulling teenagers off the street

trying to get a confession.

And they eventually find their guy.

A 15-year-old boy scout, who's never been in trouble before,

who confesses in the back of a detective's police car.

[man] Who put the first rocks in his mouth?

[boy] I put one in, my brother put one, and I put another one.

But his confession doesn't really make a ton of logistical sense,

and there's almost no chance

that the confession was gonna hold up in court.

[tense music playing]

Despite that, Spota sets out to bolster it.

And he does that by trying to make snitches of other kids.

Would you state your name for the record?

In the evening of…

And then this 16-year-old, run-of-the-mill juvenile delinquent,

rescues the case with a very convenient story,

and his name was Jimmy Burke.

Did you hear Danny Culotta ask Michael Quartararo

who killed John Pius?

Uh, he said,

"How could you kill somebody for stealing a minibike?"

"How could someone kill someone for just stealing a minibike?"

And did Michael Quatararo respond to that?

Yes, he did. He said,

"If you were drunk and stoned and you didn't wanna get caught,

you would do the same thing."

Burke's word becomes Spota's strongest weapon

in prosecuting these kids.

[man] Those boys, they go to jail, partially on Burke's testimony.

But when you take a deep dive into it…

They might've cut some corners to get those convictions.

Suffolk County uh, was, during that time, known for a very…

I think it was 95% confession rate on homicides.

There's no legitimate way to get confessions in that amount of cases.

That likely indicates that these confessions

may be dubious at best.

And when you read the testimony of Burke, it's hard to avoid any conclusion

other than that Burke is saying exactly what he thinks Tom Spota wants him to say.

And it was central to what, in my opinion,

was most likely wrongful convictions in the Pius case.

[Trotta] This case sets the relationship up

between Jimmy Burke and Tom Spota for the next 30 years.

Jimmy Burke becomes a city cop, and then he became a Suffolk County cop.

He rises up through the ranks.

Tom Spota takes Jimmy Burke over as the commanding officer

of the district attorney squad in the DA's office.

And now Burke was the chief of police,

in one of the most powerful positions in Suffolk County,

and in charge of the Gilgo Beach investigation.

[Kolker] Right after James Burke arrived,

they stopped collaborating with Nassau County, the neighboring county.

They never collaborated with the state police.

They didn't collaborate with the local sheriff's office.

In fact, the FBI was finishing up a first round of cell phone data analysis,

and they were ready to come and continue work on it.

And when they arrived, Tom Spota, the DA, sent them away.

saying that their work wasn't relevant to the investigation.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Trotta] I was a Suffolk County detective

who was assigned to the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force

when Burke became the chief of department.

I was told from a high-ranking police officer

that they wanted subpoenas for a cell tower dump

of every phone that was hitting off X cell tower and Y cell tower,

because that's how you determine where a burner phone comes from.

That was not granted by Burke.

Burke said, "That's too invasive."

[Hart] You know, pretty early on, after Jim Burke was chief of department,

it was apparent that neither he nor the district attorney, Tom Spota,

wanted the Bureau involved.

There was a lot of work done on the cell phones early on.

And then it kind of, you know… It kind of dissipated after that.

[man] Detectives were also obstructed

from providing information to the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit

to assist with the analysis, the profiling of the killer.

And that was the doing of Tom Spota and James Burke.

[interviewer] Can you talk about the memo that you… That you saw there?

This is a, uh, a department directive

assigned by James C. Burke, Chief of Department.

And it states that when a member of the service is contacted

by a member of an outside law enforcement agency,

the member must notify a supervisor at the first possible instance.

Basically, they didn't want anybody talking to the FBI anymore.

It's like, you know, the FBI is offering to help you.

They're giving you the people. They're paying for the expense.

But Jimmy Burke didn't want the FBI involved in Suffolk County

in any way, shape, or form.

You know… It's a why. "Why would you do that?"

-[camera shutters clicking] -[indistinct chatter]

[Ray] Good morning.

We are here today because there has now been a significant development

in the Oak Beach, Gilgo Beach murder or murders case.

Leanne met chief of police of Suffolk County, James Burke,

at a party in Oak Beach in 2011, and she had sexual relations with Burke,

for which he paid.

We started to engage in, uh, sexual behavior. Um…

He was, uh, frustrated because he could not consummate the act.

Uh, he began to get really aggressive,

um, and he used, uh, the term that I was not a "good whore."

[man 1] And this happened after the investigation was already underway?

[Leanne] The first time I had met him in passing was in April 2011,

and then August 2011 is when we had our mini tryst.

[man 2] Did Burke mention anything about the Gilgo case at all?

Like maybe in a joke or…?

No, but he seemed to like to choke me.

[man 3] How would you characterize his behavior?

Aggressive.

[Garcia-Roberts] Throughout his career, Burke is dogged

by Internal Affairs investigations involving allegations that he did drugs

and that he carried on relationships with sex workers.

[tense music playing]

[Trotta] So Internal Affairs does an investigation into Burke.

Burke comes in with a lawyer.

Guess who his lawyer was.

Tom Spota.

Not only was he not fired, he wasn't demoted.

So you have a serial murderer killing prostitutes on Long Island,

and your police chief is a guy who patronizes prostitutes.

You know, everyone said it was like…

All the cops amongst ourselves would say, "It's a joke. He doesn't care about that."

He would call them "misdemeanor murders," where they really weren't important.

They're not a high priority. They're just prostitutes.

[Kolker] It was very easy for conspiracy theories

to blossom in a moment like this.

"Maybe he's affiliated with the serial killer in some way."

"He's slowing down the investigation because he's covering up for his friends."

[Trotta] There was a lot of conjecture that Jimmy Burke was involved.

If you look at the fact pattern, patronizing prostitutes,

strangling women, allegations,

it doesn't take a stretch to think that maybe he's involved.

[Gallucci] We had somebody who was specifically targeting sex workers

and for the bulk of this investigation, especially under Jimmy Burke,

this was a community that was largely ignored.

[Sini] You know, one aspect in victimizing marginalized individuals,

is that perpetrators feel a sense of safety, protection,

because they feel that the person won't go to law enforcement to report anything.

[Gallucci] Knowing that sex workers might be afraid

to come forward with information,

police were not active in reaching out to them

and making them feel comfortable coming forward.

So they weren't really utilizing the community of people

who probably are the most valuable assets in solving these cases

and leads were slipping through the cracks.

[melancholy music playing]

-[dance music playing in bar] -[indistinct chatter]

[somber music playing]

[woman] There is the one date that stands out to me.

I remember the entire date vividly

because I never felt that kind of fear.

[suspenseful music playing]

When I tell you this is like, a massive man, like, he was gigantic.

At first, we started talking, kind of basic talk.

And then he looked at me and he asked,

"Have you heard about the Gilgo Beach killings"?

His body language changed.

It seemed like he was excited to talk about it

because he would talk in numbers, like, "Girl Number One, Girl Number Two."

It was very dehumanizing.

And then he said to me, "Well, how do you think

they get rid of the bodies at night without being noticed?"

He was like, "I live right by there. It's really dark and secluded."

And then goes,

"So, are you gonna come over with me?"

I had a really, really bad gut feeling that I needed to get out of there.

And I texted my friend to meet me in the parking lot.

And I said, "I think I'm on a date with the Gilgo Beach killer."

I was so freaked out by it.

And if you look at my pictures from then,

I look very similar to what his taste in women was.

I was like 120 pounds, 5'5".

And it's scary.

But at the time I was on probation.

So there was no chance I was walking into a police station.

They would have arrested me.

[interviewer] So if there had been an open call

from Suffolk County to say,

"Come in, give us any information, you'd be safe," would you have done it?

Yeah.

Especially with the stuff he said.

[melancholy music playing]

[Brass] It just chilled me to the core.

[indistinct chatter]

[Ela] Why am I doing this memorial again?

Because I need to keep Amber, Megan, Maureen, Melissa,

Shannan, Jessica Taylor, and all the unidentified people out there.

I need people to realize that justice hasn't been served.

Have you gotten any updates from police, from investigators?

Um, honestly, Suffolk County Police Department

have not talked to me.

I am at the point right now of setting up a PayPal account

to try to get donations to hire a private investigator myself.

[somber music playing]

For a few years, it just kind of seemed pretty quiet.

I was advised not to post things for my safety

or to have my profile public.

But I was always like, "I'm gonna do it because if this person wants to find me

or contact me again, I'm going to let them."

You can know I'm always gonna be watching and waiting.

That was the easiest, closest way to possibly catch him.

[melancholy music playing]

[tense music playing]

A stunning arrest today.

A man who has lived for 20 years in a quiet Suffolk County neighborhood

is tonight charged with two women killed two decades ago.

Suddenly there's a new interesting development

out on Long Island.

These two murder victims from unsolved cases back in the '90s

are tied through DNA to a suspect out in Long Island.

[reporter] John Bittrolff has been charged with two counts of second degree murder

for the deaths of 20-year-old Colleen McNamee

and 31-year-old Rita Tangredi.

Both women were known prostitutes.

[reporter 2] Investigators say there could be an additional victim.

[reporter] Bittrolff may be responsible for the December 1993

Southampton murder of Sandra Costilla.

All of the women's remains were uniquely positioned

in the very same manner,

including Sandra Costilla, the third victim.

John Bittrolff was the prime suspect for the murder of Sandra Costilla,

but the police find no DNA connecting him, so he wasn't charged.

[Kolker] Those bodies were found in the Pine Barrens near Manorville,

which is significant because two of the victims connected

to the Long Island serial killer case are linked to remains

that are out in Manorville.

So, it got everybody talking.

[Gallucci] This man's going after sex workers

and leaving them in the woods.

This is very, very similar to the women who were found on Ocean Parkway.

[Funderburg] I saw that there was an arrest.

It was actually good news for a while.

It's been a while. We needed some good news.

Could this person also be the one who killed our loved ones?

[Gallucci] At the time,

the assistant DA believed there was a possible connection

between the Gilgo homicides and John Bittrolff.

But Spota quickly shut that down.

There is no evidentiary or investigative link

between these murders and any of the Gilgo victims.

I was hopeful that we would get just a little closure

on all the spiraling questions and thoughts I've always had.

But… nothing.

What about these other women?

What about Shannan Gilbert?

What about this huge case that's sitting right under your noses?

Why can't you make any headway in the Gilgo case?

[Garcia-Roberts] There's this big question as to why Suffolk County law enforcement

did not make progress on the case.

And I think we now know that one of the main reasons it stagnated

was because rather than focusing on that case,

Burke and other top investigative minds in law enforcement

were totally consumed with just trying to keep him out of prison.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Garcia-Roberts] In late 2012…

[glass breaking]

…a petty criminal named Christopher Loeb

and a buddy are breaking into cars in Smithtown.

Christopher Loeb is severely addicted to heroin and other opioids,

and he's breaking into cars to support his habit.

One of the cars that they break into is a black GMC Yukon,

and Loeb steals from that truck a duffel bag.

Takes it back to his house, he starts rifling through it,

finds a gun belt, pornography, and sex toys.

Then he finds that there's union cards that say "chief of department."

And he starts to realize

that this duffel bag belongs to Jimmy Burke.

This guy, Christopher Loeb, could be the most unlucky guy on the planet Earth.

He had no idea whose car he was robbing.

So they bring Christopher Loeb into the precinct.

[Garcia-Roberts] All of a sudden, top detectives start showing up.

It's basically all hands on deck, even though it's just a car robbery.

Jimmy Burke goes there and in sum and substance slaps him around,

beats him up, "Don't mess with me, I'm gonna give you a hot shot of heroin."

Chief Burke threatened to kill me with a hot shot.

He threatened to kill my mother. Officer Leto threatened to rape my mother.

They chained me to the floor for ten hours.

They beat me, assaulted me.

I couldn't even lift my-- I could barely lift my neck.

[Garcia-Roberts] From the very beginning, the police department closes ranks.

The feds knew about this beating within days and started investigating.

But when feds show up to try to interview the key witnesses,

they run into this blue wall of silence

where they can't get police to tell the truth about what occurred.

[Trotta] It ultimately took three years for the FBI

and the U.S. Attorney's Office to break him.

They were waiting for a crack in the armor,

and it finally occurred.

One of the people in the room gave up the fact that, yes,

the chief of police went in there and beat the guy up.

[dramatic music playing]

Dramatic fall from grace for the former Chief of Department

for the Suffolk County Police.

[reporter] It is a strange sight indeed, James Burke in handcuffs.

The FBI arrested the 51-year-old veteran cop this morning.

The investigation into the defendant Burke's assault of Loeb

began more than two and a half years ago.

Burke repeatedly met with members of the Suffolk County Police Department

to agree on ways to get their stories straight.

[Hart] The first time I met Jim Burke was when he was arrested

and he was brought back to the Long Island office of the FBI.

So I went in to where he was being photographed and fingerprinted

and introduced myself, as the head of the office, and he told me

how much he'd meant to come out and meet me.

I said, "You're here now, so I'm glad we're meeting."

He was charged with civil rights violations

and obstruction of justice.

Burke was ultimately held accountable.

He was convicted and sentenced to almost four years in a federal prison.

And it starts to become clear that there was corruption here.

It was deep-seated.

[interviewer] In retrospect,

does the extent to which Spota went to defend Burke…

[chuckles]

…seem like it was something that should have raised alarm bells for you?

[inhales sharply]

[sighs]

[inhales]

[sighs]

I trusted some people that didn't really merit that trust

and, uh, you know, I regret that I didn't see that earlier.

It was inconceivable to me

that you could rise to that level of authority

if you weren't a person of integrity.

[inaudible]

[Hart] Ultimately, it was in the investigation

that was launched by the FBI into the incident with Chris Loeb.

That then started to unravel a conspiracy

that Burke had with Tom Spota to cover it up.

And that conspiracy was what brought down the district attorney, Tom Spota, as well.

[reporter] It's a stunner in Suffolk County.

Thomas Spota wielded influence and power for 16 years as district attorney

is himself in federal court.

[Garcia-Roberts] After a federal trial,

Spota is convicted of obstruction of justice.

He spent close to three years in federal prison.

So it was this stunning end to this rise of the two men together

where they also ended up causing each other's downfall.

[Kolker] There was a changing of the guard in Suffolk County.

Geraldine Hart, who had been running the FBI's Long Island office

for a very long time, steps in as the new commissioner.

[reporter] Geraldine Hart coming on as the Suffolk Police Commissioner,

the first woman to hold the position.

That milestone began with Hart jump-starting the investigation

into the unsolved Gilgo Beach serial killings.

[Hart] When I came over to Suffolk as the commissioner, it was so different.

You know, the deck had been cleared.

I really wanted to set the tone that that was in the past

and that we were now, you know, in a new day.

These families matter, and these girls matter,

and we're gonna do everything we can to solve it.

Within a couple days,

we had the leadership of the Suffolk County Police Department

out to the FBI office.

We all kind of sat together and said, "What does this look like?"

"Can we review what was done? Can we add to what was done previously?"

"And if anything was not done, can we do it now?"

And then just it was all systems go.

[tense music playing]

We were the first department in the state to utilize genetic genealogy.

This is new science. Let's use it.

[reporter] DNA from one of the unidentified victims

was run through publicly available ancestry sites.

Genetic matches were found.

[Hart] Today, we are announcing that Jane Doe Number 6

has been positively identified as Valerie Mack.

That was an important piece for the family who didn't know what happened

to their loved one, and it also began to give us new leads in the investigation.

The thought was reintroduce the case to the public,

provide information moving forward, and also receive information.

Today, we are sharing information with the public

that we hope will shed new light on this investigation.

A black leather belt embossed with the letters HM or WH

was recovered during the initial stages of this investigation.

We believe that the belt was handled by the suspect

and did not belong to any of the victims.

[Cann] It was exciting because then it was,

like, information that was finally coming in.

I started getting hope again but for a different reason.

For justice for her.

[melancholy music playing]

[Garcia-Roberts] We know the case was botched over the years.

The big question is, how dire were those missteps in reality?

-[thunder rumbles] -[eerie music playing]

[Schaller] I've had that fucking guy's face in my head for years.

Something stuck about him.

In 2011, police had a description of the perp,

which a witness described him as ogre-like.

[Schaller] Gave him the exact description.

Guy's like 6'8", 350, beady-ass eyes, hair color, everything.

Not only that, police had a description of the truck.

I told them he got into a green Avalanche.

[Garcia-Roberts] It's a unique truck, a dark-colored Chevy Avalanche.

[Schaller] How many fucking 6'8" giants

driving around in Massapequa driving a Chevy Avalanche?

They had their answers for fucking years.

[suspenseful music playing]

[melancholy music playing]