All language subtitles for The Gilgo Beach Killer House of Secrets - S01E01 - Monster Among Us_Subtitles01.ENG

Translated By The_Proffs

Translated By The_Proffs

[***]

REPORTER:
Out here along Ocean Parkway,

where the body count
just keeps on rising.

The so-called "Gilgo Four"

were all petite women,

all under five foot five,
and they were all sex workers.

We have a serial killer
on our hands.

The only word that really
came to mind was monstrous.

It's the perfect tabloid story.

But it turns
into something much bigger

than a simple,
like, serial killer case.

REPORTER:
After years of controversy

surrounding guns
and a sex worker,

the Suffolk County Police Chief
resigned today.

This whole part of the story
is so extraordinary.

ALGAR:
The investigation
pretty much slows to a crawl

for almost a decade,
shockingly.

Find this killer
before he strikes and murders

someone that you love.

McGARVEY:
And then, after 13 years,

this bombshell
drops out of seemingly nowhere.

REPORTER:
A suspect now under arrest
in connection

to the unsolved
Gilgo Beach murders.

SHEEHAN:
I remember thinking, "Oh, shit.

Who would have suspected that
that guy was the killer?"

He basically was the person
that lived next door.

But the most mysterious figure
in this whole thing is the wife.

SHEEHAN:
The idea that the wife
didn't know anything

about what he was doing
is hard to believe.

She has not talked to any of us.
We can only speculate.

[***]

Does everybody really believe
everything they hear?

[***]

[PHONE DIALING]

[***]

RYDER:
So, the early Gilgo case
starts with Shannan Gilbert.

Shannan showed up as a sex
worker to a house on Oak Beach.

She ran from that residence
and then called 911.

And when she fled,
she knocked on two other doors.

She ran into that
mucky bramble area

on the swampy side
of the street

where she disappeared.

My name is Patrick Ryder.
I am the Police Commissioner

for the Nassau County
Police Department.

Which is right next
to Suffolk County,

where Gilgo Beach is
here on Long Island.

Ocean Parkway
runs west to east.

It'll take you
from Jones Beach,

which is about 40 miles
from Manhattan,

all the way east to Oak Beach,
where Shannan was last seen.

Along that roadway

on the right and left side,
it's all bramble.

You can't see the beach.

There's high dunes
to protect it

from, obviously, the tides.

And right in the middle
is Gilgo Beach.

Gilgo, in the summer
during the day, very busy area.

[***]

But at night time,

you could pull over
on the side of the road,

shut your lights off,
and nobody'll see you.

If you're in tight
to the bramble area,

nobody will see your car.

It's that dark
in some areas at nighttime.

As detectives, nothing is harder

than when someone comes in
to report a missing person.

I'm a cop,
but also I'm a parent.

Parents are parents.
You know, you want results

knowing that, "Listen,
that's my child out there."

My name is Rick Tirelli.
I grew up on Long Island,

and I'm a former New York City
Homicide Detective.

Shannan was a sex worker
who disappeared in Oak Beach,

just seven miles east
of Gilgo Beach.

REPORTER:
Shannan Gilbert went missing
on May 1st of last year

after she ran screaming
from a client's home at 5 a.m.

It's the last
she was seen alive.

TIRELLI:
John Mallia,
who was a K-9 police officer,

was looking for Shannan's body.

He's out there in the bramble
in the cold December weather.

And he ends up
finding something.

But it's not Shannan.

REPORTER 1:
We're live on Gilgo Beach.

An extensive search that goes on

for a good mile
along the bay here.

You can see crime scene
investigators behind me.

REPORTER 2:
A K-9 unit
on a training exercise here

uncovered the first body.

MALLIA:
The dog gave me an indication.

At that point, I saw
the skeletal remains of a body.

REPORTER 2:
When search teams returned
to the same location today

to look for more evidence,
they found instead

three more bodies
stuffed in these brushes.

The thing with Gilgo is

everyone on Long Island
and friends of mine

who worked on other serial
killer cases knew it was big.

You start to wonder like, like,

"Where's this guy going?
What's going on?"

RYDER:
So once we start
uncovering bodies,

you start getting the concern,

"How did these happen?
Who are our victims?

What is the commonality?
What can we do to solve this?"

REPORTER 3:
Out here along Ocean Parkway,

where the body count
just keeps on rising

and the grisly mystery
just deepens as police excavate

an apparent serial killer's
dumping ground.

TOULON:
The commonality
amongst the four women

that were originally found
was they were all bound.

They were all Caucasian.

They were relatively, uh, small
in height and small in frame.

And I thought I've seen it all,

have dealt with
all types of crimes.

But when it came to
Gilgo Beach,

to have a serial killer
of this magnitude.

You know, I've been a resident
of Suffolk County for 33 years,

and I wanted to make sure
we had a hand in solving this.

RYDER:
We look at it
from a personal standpoint.

There's a weight
on everybody's shoulders

of an unsolved homicide,

but none more
than a serial killer.

Find this killer
before he strikes, and hurts,

and murders
someone that you love.

[***]

ALGAR:
Once the word came down that
there were four bodies there,

I drove from New York City
as fast as I could

all the way out to Gilgo Beach.

It was December.

It was absolutely
bone-chilling that day.

I've been a reporter
for 20 years.

So when a story
on a case like that,

your question is, "Are they
related or are they not?"

If they are related,
you drop everything else,

and you devote yourself to
finding out how they're related.

Four bodies in one place.

The assumption
is serial killer.

And once that phrase comes out,

there are no other stories
at that point.

And the peace and beauty
of Fire Island was shattered.

A very different papacy.

MURPHY:
I grew up on Long Island,

and I've been a reporter
for more than four decades.

From Gotti to Gilgo,
I've covered it all.

I will be the first to tell you

that I am a wannabe
police detective.

And when a case is unsolved,
I wanna know why.

The Gilgo Four were found in
very thick bramble, thick brush,

just in about 30 feet

on the westbound lane
of Ocean Parkway.

They were all naked,
and they were all bound.

Three of them with tape,
and one was bound with belts,

and three of them
were wrapped in burlap.

We're asking ourselves
all these questions:

"How did they die?

Where were they killed?"

It could take weeks or months
to identify the four bodies

found over
the past couple of days.

I'm Shannon McGarvey.
I'm an investigative writer.

I've been working
on the Gilgo case

for the better part
of a decade.

The so-called "Gilgo Four"
were all petite women,

all under five foot five,
and that was chilling.

Within a week,
there was no indication

that there was
a person of interest,

never mind a suspect
in this case.

How long
has this been going on?

Who are the victims?

Were they dumped all at once?

Anything is possible
at this point

because there's so many
unanswered questions.

These questions started
coming out in the beginning

and just really fueling the
media frenzy around the case.

SHEEHAN:
I've been a field reporter
for theNew York Post,

going on 14 years, and I've seen
some of the most horrific shit

that anybody has ever seen
that people shouldn't see.

FITZGIBBON:
I've covered crime.

I've covered courts, police

for almost four decades.

We are the blue collar paper
on Long Island.

The everyday New Yorker
reads the New York Post.

What sells is this hunger
for the sensational.

You don't get more sensational
than a serial killer.

A lot of it is
the monster among us.

The fact that my neighbor
could be this horrific killer.

It just captures
the imagination. Always has.

You know,
from Jack the Ripper on down.

I don't think it's a coincidence
that four bodies

ended up in this area.

We're looking at that, that
we could have a serial killer.

So it becomes very obvious

to the police commissioner
at the time.

We have a serial killer
on our hands.

And then fast forward
about a month later...

REPORTER:
We are following
some breaking news

out of Long Island, New York.

The medical examiner in Suffolk
County identified the remains

of all four bodies
found last month.

The Gilgo four are identified
and we learn that

they're Maureen
Brainard-Barnes,

Melissa Barthelemy,

Megan Waterman,
and Amber Costello.

REPORTER 1:
Maureen Brainard-Barnes,
a mother of two,

was working as a Craigslist
escort in Manhattan,

and disappeared in July 2007.

REPORTER 2:
After placing an ad
on Craigslist,

Melissa vanished in July 2009.

REPORTER 3:
Megan Waterman
went missing in June

after agreeing to see a client

on Long Island
through Craigslist.

REPORTER 4:
Amber, a sex worker,

was murdered
around September 2nd, 2010.

It really made me sick.

If there were many more bodies
out there, we want to find them.

It's one of the most intense
cases I've ever covered.

People should be on very,
very high alert.

How sadistic is this person?

DORMER:
These young women were abused
and raped and killed.

What is he capable of?

...how another body found
in the same area.

He's a monster.

[***]

REPORTER 1:
It started
as an effort to find clues

in the case of a missing woman,
Shannan Gilbert.

I'd like to report that
we found human remains.

REPORTER 2:
Four bodies wrapped in burlap,
dumped alongside Ocean Parkway.

REPORTER 1:
That search has turned
into a gruesome murder mystery,

with evidence that suggests a
serial killer is on the loose.

We're looking at that, that
we could have a serial killer.

REPORTER 2:
These grim discoveries mark
the third serial killer murders

involving prostitutes
here on Long Island

in more than two decades.

Long Island
has a notorious history

for really disturbing
murder cases.

REPORTER 2:
An unknown woman was found
murdered in a pickup truck.

And serial killers.

We had the Amityville Horror,
Ronald DeFeo Jr.

REPORTER 1:
It remains one of Long Island's
most disturbing crimes.

Six members of the DeFeo family

were gunned down
in their Amityville home.

MURPHY:
Back in the early '90s,

Joel Rifkin had graveyards
all over the place

where he would dump
parts of bodies.

REPORTER 2:
The landscaper is suspected
of being involved

in the deaths of 18 women,

several of whom
were sex workers.

MURPHY:
We had Robert Schulman.

REPORTER 2:
After he fatally
assaulted them,

he took a knife and a saw
and cut off their limbs.

Have anything to say at all?

Then there was John Bittrolff.

REPORTER 1:
Bittrolff is facing charges

for two murders
and is a suspect for a third.

Three women were beaten,
suffocated,

and found undressed
in distinct poses.

So there's a rich history
of serial killer activity

and gruesome murder on this
relatively isolated island

in New York City's backyard.

I've covered it all,

and I've never seen
a serial killer case

like the Long Island
serial killer.

It's sort of on another level.

This guy, whoever it was,

was eluding the authorities,

and really confounding
not only the reporters,

but the community.

CANN:
Why did you pick her?

How did you pick her?
How did you get her?

You know, did my sister cry?
Did she beg? You know?

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

I'm afraid that
they'll never find this person

and he'll continue
to keep on killing girls.

And it's a horrible feeling.

It is true. As the case
progresses, as time passes on,

he may get sloppy.

He may make mistakes.

But he hasn't done that
up until now.

[***]

RYDER:
So...

when you're an investigator,

your job
is to give that family relief.

Your job is to speak
for the victims.

Your job is to comfort
the families of those victims.

You also have a job to solve it.

Let me first thank everybody

for coming on such short notice.

What is now very clear

is that the area
in and around Gilgo Beach

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

TIRELLI:
In the beginning, I think

that the Suffolk
County Police Department,

and the agencies
that were working with them

took a lot of good investigative
steps to try to find this guy.

MURPHY:
The first year of the case,
the FBI was involved.

Chief Dominick Varrone

was the head of the detective
bureau in Suffolk County.

He said he had meetings
with Geraldine Hart,

an FBI agent
here on Long Island.

They were actually starting
to work with the cell phone data

that they were able to get
from the victims' phones.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes
was last seen alive

on July 9th, 2007.

But three days before,
she started getting

a series of phone calls
from a burner phone.

Then, three days after Maureen
Brainard-Barnes disappears,

there are two outbound calls
made from her cell phone

near the Long Island Expressway
in Suffolk County.

Melissa Barthelemy disappeared
on July 10th 2009.

About a week
before she vanished,

her cell phone was contacted
by a burner phone.

And then on July 10th,
the day she went missing,

that burner phone traveled

from Massapequa Park on Long
Island to Midtown Manhattan.

And then later that evening...

Melissa Barthelemy's
cell phone traveled

from Midtown Manhattan
out to Massapequa Park.

The next day, Melissa's phone
pings at a cell site

in Massapequa at 1:43 a.m.

So there are important clues
here that detectives

are picking up on
at this early stage.

First, the killer
is using burner phones

as part of his MO.

Secondly, investigators now know

that there's three general areas
where the story is unfolding.

Nassau County,
where Massapequa is.

Suffolk County,
where Gilgo Beach is.

And Midtown Manhattan.

Now, Gilgo Four investigators
dig deeper and reexamine a clue

from the original investigation
into Melissa's disappearance

almost two years earlier,
in April 2009.

Within a week of Melissa
Barthelemy's disappearance,

her teenage sister
starts to receive

a series of very sick
and twisted calls

from a man that's using
Melissa's cell phone.

She was just 15 years old
when she received a phone call

she says, "was straight
out of a horror movie."

There are some diary entries

that Melissa Barthelemy's
teenage sister Amanda made.

Have you figured out
who this is?

No. Where's my sister?

Are you gonna be a whore
like your sister now?

No. Where is my sister?

She's dead. I killed her.

They're very taunting and angry
words. He obviously enjoys it.

And he's sick in the head.
I'm scared of my own protection.

ALGAR:
Now, in 2011,
during the Gilgo investigation,

an FBI team
that was working on the case,

they were able to track
these calls to a degree.

Investigators
were able to triangulate

the phone calls
made from Melissa's phone

to her sister, Amanda.

The caller kept them brief,
and there was an early theory

that he knew
that if you stayed on the line

for a certain amount of time,
you could get a precise trace.

He seemed cognizant of that
and ended the calls early.

And we're wondering
what's going on here.

How sophisticated is this guy?

Does he have
a law enforcement background?

Does he know
how to cover his tracks?

We're asking ourselves
all these questions

because they're not
finding the guy.

ALGAR:
Still, they were able to track
the phone calls.

To Times Square,

Madison Square Garden

and Massapequa Park.

So, there was finally
some solidity

to the origins of this person.

Once this information
was released,

and you had
two zones of interest.

Massapequa and Manhattan.

We were asking ourselves,

did this person
live in Massapequa

and live some
quiet suburban life there?

And did he commute
into Manhattan every day?

FITZGIBBON:
We reported this
April 10th, 2011

and asked the question,
"Did her murderer

work in Midtown
and commute from Long Island?"

MURPHY:
So, detectives now have
a general idea

of where the killer
traveled to and from,

and then they learn more.

Shortly after the bodies were
identified in January of 2011,

police went to the home
of Amber Costello.

One of the Gilgo Four.

And they interviewed
her roommate, Dave Schaller.

McGARVEY:
In the days leading up
to Amber's disappearance,

Amber and Dave had been running
a ruse in the house

where Amber
would invite a John over

and Dave would bust out
in the middle of the meeting

and pretend to be
an outraged boyfriend.

Thus scaring the John away.

And then Amber
pockets the money.

That's the ruse that they run
on a very particular client.

The day before Amber disappears.

MURPHY:
On September 1st, 2010,

this client
accesses her Backpage ad.

The investigators check
Amber's cell phone records

and see that a burner phone

between Massapequa
and Amityville

contacts Amber Costello.

Not long after that,

the burner phone
travels toward West Babylon,

where Amber Costello lives.

[***]

This client...

shows up.

He's in the house.

And apparently pays his money.

McGARVEY:
Dave busts out.

Runs the client off.

And Amber pockets the money.

But this time...

...the client continues
to contact her.

He sends a text message.

[PHONE CHIMES]

"That was not so nice.

Do I get credit for next time?"

Within two minutes
of that text being sent,

the cell site indicates that

the burner phone
is in Massapequa Park.

So the next night,
this same burner phone

pings in Midtown Manhattan.

Then it pings in Massapequa.

And then it ends up pinging
where Amber Costello lives.

The next night, Amber Costello
tells her roommate,

Dave Schaller, that she's going
to see this same client.

And of course,
she never came back.

ALGAR:
Schaller told police that
this client resembled an ogre,

and he was around
6'4" inches tall.

This guy was so relentless,
he called several times.

This is somebody
that I've seen.

I might be the one of the only
people who knows who he is.

MURPHY:
He was described
as this hulking man

who looked like an ogre.

He wore these sort of large
glasses. He had bushy hair.

Equally significant,
Schaller says

that he was driving
a unique vehicle.

A dark green, first-generation
Chevrolet Avalanche.

MURPHY:
By the end of 2011...

All within
the first year of the case.

[PHONES RINGING]

Just think about what
the investigators already have.

A description of the killer.

The make and model of his car.

And a pretty good idea
of the area where he travels...

Between Long Island
and Manhattan.

ANNOUNCER [OVER PA]:
Penn Station.

Clearly,
he is very knowledgeable

about the Gilgo Beach area.

It's very deserted.
It's very desolate.

Which implies that
he either works in that area

or he lives in that area.

Investigators were actually
closer to targeting a suspect

than they ever had been.

ALGAR:
So the obvious question is

why didn't investigators
take the next step?

Why does this case continue
to drag on for another decade?

And in that time, does the
killer become more emboldened?

Hunting and killing and stalking
without any fear of reprisal?

How many more women have to die
before he's caught?

[***]

REPORTER:
These mothers, stepdads,

aunts and other relatives
gathered for a vigil

in remembrance
of three young women

whose remains were discovered
and identified in this area.

ELA:
We have a lot of questions
that we want answers to.

You know who you are.

You know what you did
to these women.

Somebody out there
knows something.

Somebody had seen something.

Don't be afraid.

You turn this person in,

you're gonna save
another human's life.

BARTHELEMY:
You're a very weak man.

You prey on small,
innocent girls,

and we're gonna get you.

McGARVEY:
As the families
of the Gilgo Four

are gathering
for their daughters,

something honestly
unbelievable happens.

Shannan's body's discovered.

REPORTER:
The woman they've been looking
for, Shannan Gilbert.

Police believe they have
finally found her remains.

DORMER:
We believe that Shannan Gilbert

ran into that area
the night that she disappeared.

And looking at the terrain,

it's very easy
to get engulfed with water

and fall down and not be able
to get out of there.

So we surmise that that's
what happened to Shannan.

McGARVEY:
Law enforcement said that
she had drowned.

But the official autopsy report

listed her death
as undetermined.

And I think even at one point,
said death by misadventure.

It seemed to be victim blaming.

And you have to ask yourself,

is it because
she was a sex worker?

REPORTER:
These women were reportedly
prostitutes or escorts,

and how does
that affect an investigation?

I'll be very frank about it.

Will it get
the exact same amount

of close attention and manpower

that say a missing schoolteacher
in Central Park might get?

The reality is they will not.

Let's face it, they have sex
with strangers for money.

McGARVEY:
The subtle message that

was coming out during this time

was like,
"If you don't wanna get killed,

don't be a sex worker."

They were all beautiful women.

They weren't just prostitutes,
as everybody is saying.

RYDER:
It's been spun
a lot of different ways.

I don't care
what your occupation is,

what your race,
religion, gender is.

You're a victim of ours, we'll
give you everything we got.

We are driven by a passion
to give victims closure.

TOULON:
I can tell you the original
investigators had one goal.

Bring the person who has killed
those women to justice.

RYDER:
They're women.

They're women
that were murdered.

They're victims.

But sometimes
these things take time.

They're not done overnight.

ALGAR:
So law enforcement
has all of this information

about these women
all the way back in 2011.

And remember, they also had
solid information

about the man who targeted
and killed them.

RYDER:
Their profile told them
the killer was a big man,

kind of a recluse.

Who either drove
a Chevy Avalanche

or had access to one.

He probably lived
in a middle-class community

on Long Island.

The man had a job.

He likely commuted every day,

like thousands of people
in Nassau County do

every day to Manhattan.

McGARVEY:
And then at the end of 2011,

with all of this
forward momentum on the case,

there was an election.
Which means new appointments.

There was a changing
of the guard in Suffolk County,

and a new
Chief of Police comes in.

A guy named James Burke.
And everything changed.

James Burke inherited
the Gilgo Beach case

when he became Chief of
Suffolk County Police in 2012.

TIRELLI:
Jimmy Burke
was a friend of mine.

Jimmy was actually one of
the smartest men I've ever met.

But he had these demons in him.

McGARVEY:
Before he was appointed,

an anonymous letter
was even written

about this guy
warning Suffolk County

not to appoint him
as Chief of Police.

ALGAR:
Burke's unquenchable taste
for prostitutes

and his aggressive
sexual appetites,

his presence
at swingers parties,

those tales were not rare.

But he seemed to be invincible
to scrutiny

or discipline or punishment.

MURPHY:
Now he's taking over.

He's the new sheriff in town.

And he basically does
whatever he wants.

James Burke decided
to remove several members

from the task force
that were working

to try and solve this case.

ALGAR:
He wanted his own regime.

He wanted to get rid of anyone

who might have any competing
loyalties prior to him.

There were the Chief of
Detectives, Dominick Varrone,

who had 40 years on the job,

had tremendous
institutional knowledge...

was simply taken off the case.
He wasn't even debriefed.

TOULON:
And then
there's Geraldine Hart,

FBI Supervisory Agent
for Long Island.

The Gilgo Beach investigation
is perhaps the most well-known

and complex that this department
has ever undertaken.

She was also removed from
the task force by James Burke.

Why is that important?
It's important because

the people
who had been investigating Gilgo

up until that point
did not relay their findings

to the next group
of Burke's personnel

who would take up the case.

Removing a partner like the FBI
who has vast resources,

especially the forensic
capabilities that they had,

tragically, it makes it harder
for this case to be solved.

ALGAR:
One of the theories at the time

was simply
that the Suffolk Police

wanted credit for cracking it,

as opposed to
federal investigators.

So perhaps a case of hubris.

These are people encroaching
on our investigative territory.

So let's keep them at bay.

Once this case is solved,

we want to be able to raise
the trophy for our department

that will benefit Burke's career
and all those around him.

It turns out, though, that's
not the reason why he did it.

My name is Alexis Linkletter,

and I am
an investigative journalist,

podcaster,
and I'm from Long Island.

This case essentially fell into
my lap between 2012 and 2013

when Chris Loeb, a guy
I went to high school with,

a guy I'd known
since seventh grade,

essentially found himself at
the center of this insane story.

REPORTER:
After years of controversy

surrounding guns
and a sex worker,

the Suffolk County Police Chief
resigned today.

MURPHY:
James Burke was arrested

for the cover up of an assault
on a suspect, Chris Loeb.

REPORTER:
Christopher Loeb of Smithtown,
was taken into custody

for stealing belongings from
Burke's department-issued car,

which was parked
outside his home.

That wouldn't necessarily have
been particularly interesting,

except for what was found
inside the duffel bag.

Which was sex toys, pornography,
and other just strange items

that you wouldn't expect
a Police Chief to have

in his department-issued SUV.

LINKLETTER:
After this happened,
Chris is brought back

to Suffolk County
Police Headquarters,

and he's chained to a floor.

He's beaten for hours.

He's taunted by James Burke

and several
of his subordinate officers.

REPORTER:
Burke has now pled guilty
to federal charges

of assaulting a suspect
and conspiring to cover it up.

FITZGIBBON:
This whole part of the story
is so extraordinary.

One has to ask, how much
did the Burke scandal

impact the Long Island
serial killer investigation?

It has a huge impact because

it happens
during this critical period,

where the original Gilgo
investigation

actually had made
some very good progress.

ALGAR:
Remember,
Suffolk County investigators

had this profile of an ogre

who lived somewhere
in Massapequa Park.

Who works somewhere
in Midtown Manhattan.

Who either once owned

or still owns
a Chevy Avalanche.

And because of this corruption
in the SCPD,

he's been given this five-year
grace period to live his life.

Did this person
continue to commit murder?

What if they moved away
from Long Island?

I had pretty much
given up hope at this point.

Will investigators ever find
the Long Island serial killer?

[***]

[***]

ALGAR:
So, after James Burke is ousted

as Suffolk County police chief
in 2015,

the investigation into
the Long Island serial killer

pretty much slows to a crawl
for the next three years.

But in the spring of 2018,
the Suffolk County Executive

selected Geraldine Hart
as the Police Commissioner.

Ironically, Geraldine Hart

was a former
FBI Supervisory Agent

for Long Island who was actually
removed from the Task Force

originally by then
Police Chief James Burke.

MURPHY:
All of a sudden, we hear

there's going to be
a press conference

about this piece of evidence
never seen before.

I would first like to introduce

Suffolk County
Police Commissioner

Geraldine Hart.

Today we are releasing
a significant piece of evidence

found at one of the crime
scenes along Ocean Parkway.

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.

There have long been questions.

What size is the waist
of the belt?

It wasn't long after
that the police release a video

of Megan Waterman,
one of the Gilgo Four.

MURPHY:
Megan Waterman is last seen

leaving the Holiday Inn Express
in Hauppauge, Long Island.

She's in the lobby at the desk.

And then she just walks out
that door.

And vanishes.

ALGAR:
At this point,
there is now a steady

dispersal of new evidence
from the new regime

in Suffolk County
police headquarters.

They created enough momentum
at this point

to start to spur some questions
if they were closing in.

Did they have a suspect?

Are they releasing these items
to perhaps get a reaction...

from the person
who's on their radar?

There was this big rev up

which really made us feel like
they were about to solve it.

But then,
it just dropped off again.

And it was quiet again.

[***]

MAN:
With a serial killer like this,
the thrill is in the kill.

What really drives him
is not sex

but rather the power
over another human being.

TOULON:
But it's not really until 2022
when everything changed.

You have Ray Tierney

that's elected
as a District Attorney.

One of the first things that
Ray Tierney said to me was:

"I wanna work with the sheriff's
office on every case possible,

including Gilgo.

And then a few months later,

Rodney Harrison is now selected
as the Police Commissioner.

REPORTER:
Rodney Harrison's career with
the NYPD leads to a new role

as he steps in
as the commissioner

of the Suffolk County
Police Department.

This is
a bittersweet moment for me.

TOULON:
Rodney Harrison,
who is a former chief of police

with the New York City
Police Department,

was also chief of detectives.

A wealth of experience
when it comes to investigations.

He came into this building...

And said to me,
he met with my staff, he goes:

"We're gonna work
collaboratively on everything,

and there's not gonna be
any silos."

We will not rest until we bring
those accountable to justice.

That solving this serial case

is gonna be
very, very important to me.

He announced the creation
of a task force

dedicated solely
to the Gilgo case.

And he used language
that we had not heard

in a very long time.

TIRELLI:
Now remember,
the early investigation

turned up a lot of clues.

There was a lot of meat
on the bone.

Now, he's doing the legwork.
It's a puzzle.

You're putting pieces in,

and at the end,
you assemble a puzzle.

About a year
after they found the bodies,

Suffolk County PD
had two specific areas

that were of great interest
to them.

REPORTER:
Cell data traced the killer's
calls to New York City.

And also to Massapequa Park
in Long Island.

Now, the task force
and the FBI reexamined

the cell phone data
from the time of the murders.

There's an area of a confluence
of cell phone towers,

and that was mapped out.

They called it the box.

One box was in Massapequa
on Long Island,

and one box was in Manhattan.

Somewhere in this area,
it's a possibility

that the killer lived
within Massapequa's box.

But so did 500 other families.

FITZGIBBON:
But it's not as if
police didn't have

some very specific clues
to work with.

Back in 2010, Amber Costello's
roommate, David Schaller,

had given investigators
a description

of both the suspect
and his vehicle.

MURPHY:
Dave Schaller remembered
this hulking man

that came into the house
on September 1st, 2010

who looked like an ogre.

[KNOCKING ON DOOR]

He was described as being
between 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-6.

And then when he ran out of that
house, the vehicle was seen.

And apparently, this vehicle
was a first generation

dark green Chevy Avalanche.

It was an unusual vehicle.

I don't wanna Monday morning
quarterback anyone.

But if I get
a specific vehicle...

without a plate, what we do
is we'll run a search.

So the state police
plug that Avalanche in,

and they give you
every Avalanche that color

in Massapequa, Nassau County,
whatever you give them,

and they'll give you
all those cars.

So police conduct a search
for that particular vehicle.

They overlay it
in that zone of interest

in Massapequa.

And they get a hit.

[***]

ALGAR:
In March of 2022,

for the first time since 2010,

13 years after the Gilgo Four
were discovered,

Police have a name.

And they now have a suspect.

FITZGIBBON:
And what's the best way

to confirm that he's the man?

DNA.

In 2010,
investigators found five hairs

on three of the victims.

Because the bodies
were exposed to the elements,

those hairs were degraded.

So you couldn't use

traditional
DNA analysis on them.

At the time, investigators
could only determine that

four of the hairs were female,
one was male,

and they were all Caucasian.

MURPHY:
In 2010, the technology
was not advanced enough

to identify whose DNA
was on those hairs.

But by 2022, DNA technology
had finally advanced enough

where investigators could pull
a profile from the hairs.

TOULON:
The problem, however,

was the suspect
had never been arrested.

And so,
if the suspect has never had

any interaction
with law enforcement,

his fingerprints or any DNA
has never been in our system.

RYDER:
So, once they had a target,

they went
after collecting family DNA.

TOULON:
One of the things
that you have to think about

when you're surveilling someone
and you need DNA, you know,

you wanna get
a DNA that's discarded.

MURPHY:
But to get the samples,
you have to get creative.

First, investigators pose
as sanitation workers,

and show up at the house,

and start collecting bottles
outside the home,

and they do DNA swabs.

Then one day, the suspect

walks out
of his Manhattan office,

and he's holding a pizza box,

and he throws it
in the garbage can.

The investigators
take the box out,

and they swab the pizza crust
and the napkin,

and they send that
to the crime lab.

It was very important to connect
that pizza crust, or that DNA

to the DNA at the crime scene

to conclusively link
the suspect to the crimes.

MURPHY:
As they're waiting
for the results to come back,

subpoenas are issued,

and they're searching his
personal cell phone records.

They're trying
to connect the dots

between his regular cell phone
and the burner phones.

TIERNEY:
We executed over 300 subpoenas,
search warrants

pertaining to this individual.

We were able to identify

seven separate burner phones
that he used.

We compared
his personal cell site records.

If the personal phone
would bounce off a cell tower,

it was always consistent
and in close proximity

with the target phones.

MURPHY:
All this occurs
over the course of a year.

Investigators now have
cell phone data

that puts burner phones,
and the suspect's cell phone,

and some of the victims'
phones together.

And then the DNA results
come back.

And they have enough
to make an arrest.

So now, it's time
to close in on him.

At least 10 investigators
from the Gilgo Beach Task Force

who've been watching this guy
for the last year

are in position
outside the suspect's office

in midtown Manhattan,
ready to move in.

And finally, here he comes.

[***]

They box him in
so he can't escape.

After nearly 13 years.

ALGAR:
After all of the turmoil

in the Suffolk County
Police Department.

And now, this moment of
redemption in the investigation.

This architect,
father, stepfather, husband,

is arrested as the Gilgo
Beach serial killer...

whose name we learned
is Rex Heuermann.

[***]

REPORTER 1:
We wanna begin right now with
breaking news out of New York.

REPORTER 2:
A major development
in a long unsolved case

is revealed by investigators.

REPORTER 3:
Police have arrested a suspect
in the murders on Gilgo Beach.

McGARVEY:
After 13 years,

this bombshell drops
out of seemingly nowhere,

and it just cracks the case
wide open.

REPORTER 2:
You can see the suspect
walking down Fifth Avenue

when a group of agents
swoop in and make the arrest.

REPORTER 1:
They corner him
so he can't escape.

Charged with killing
three women,

Rex Heuermann
is also the primary suspect

in the death of a fourth.

SHEEHAN:
I remember thinking, "Oh, shit.

Who would've suspected that
that guy was the killer?"

The old thing:
"It's right under your nose."

It's right in front of you.
You can't see it sometimes.

So the Nassau County
Police Academy,

which has the Intel Center at
the time, was on Second Avenue.

We were two blocks
from the actual house,

literally around the corner.

It's like, "Jeez, I passed
that block a thousand times.

I worked out of that building.

I drove past it a dozen times,
you know, easily.

TOULON:
The fact that he was the devil
that walked amongst us...

He made you scratch your head,

like,
"Wow, how did this happen?"

Because he basically was the
person that lived next door.

FITZGIBBON:
It doesn't take long to figure
out a serial killer is gonna be

the front page of
the New York Postthat day.

It's the perfect tabloid story.

Who is Rex Heuermann?

What's his family situation
like? What's his background?

REPORTER 1:
Rex Heuermann,
a longtime resident

of Massapequa Park,
Long Island.

REPORTER 2:
A 59 year-old architect

who's also
a husband and a father.

Rex Heuermann is a demon
that walks among us.

A predator that ruined families.

SHEEHAN:
At the exact same time,

there is a media circus
at the courthouse.

There's a media circus breaking
out in front of his house.

REPORTER:
Residents of Massapequa Park
were shocked to discover

that Rex Heuermann had been
living just a few houses away.

To know that something
like this is going on,

or someone is living 'em
in this community, it's crazy.

FITZGIBBON:
We're scrambling to get
any information we can.

Who is this guy?
What's his background?

Shocking.
You know, it's scary, too.

SHEEHAN:
The rest of the houses
in this neighborhood

are middle-class homes.

His looks more like
a house of horrors,

and he's an architect.

Neighbors told us
that they wouldn't let

their kids trick or treat
at that particular house.

The guy was odd.
I kept him at arm's length

because I really didn't
wanna be close to him.

REPORTER 1:
This is the house that police

have been swarming
this morning,

105 First Avenue
in Massapequa Park.

REPORTER 2:
Using heavy equipment
and forensic K-9 units,

police combed through
the home's backyard.

REPORTER 1:
Officers in hazmat suits
going into the house.

So clearly,
they're in there to do

some sort of forensic activity.

REPORTER 3:
Police are looking into
whether the victims

were ever inside the residence.

REPORTER 4:
Authorities uncovered
more than 200 firearms

in a vault
located in the basement

of Rex Heuermann's home.

It was a big gun vault.
It was a huge gun vault.

The guy had 300 guns
in his house.

The neighbor was describing it
as a soundproof locked room.

Years ago, I've seen
a bunch of guys carrying this

incredibly heavy object
in there.

And I said,
"Wow, that's heavy rocks."

And he said it was an iron door
for the basement.

FITZGIBBON:
The whole speculation is
he's butchering these people

in his own basement.

That he had a killing vault.

We have obtained
a massive amount of evidence,

as well as trace evidence,

including blood, DNA,
and hair fibers.

It's not like TV.
It's going to be a while

for the analysts
to do their job.

Remember, these crimes weren't
committed at Gilgo Beach.

So the question is,

did Heuermann commit
these crimes in his house?

REPORTER:
Did the family
know about his actions?

And are they
assisting investigators?

As this unfolds,
we'll learn more information

about what the family knew.

SHEEHAN:
The idea that the wife
didn't know anything

about what he was doing
is hard to believe.

The most mysterious figure
in this whole thing

is Asa, Rex's wife.

Because we don't know
what her role is,

what her motivation is.

Nobody's opinion is
that they have a bead on Asa,

on whether
she was involved or not.

It's kind of like
a big question mark,

because Asa has not talked
to any of us.

We can only speculate.

As the days tick by, the other
reporters were desperately

trying to report this story,
and find her and talk to her.

But it was like a black hole.

[***]

ASA:
How could you not know?

How could you not know

that your husband
was a serial killer?

Known what?
My husband was home here.

He's a family man.

They're telling me
that he's been soliciting sex

from sex workers. What?

I don't have sex
with my husband?

I don't satisfy him.

He comes home
and eats my dinner.

It's not good enough?

[SCOFFS]

No, it's...

I don't believe
my husband did this.

[***]

[***]

Translated By The_Proffs

Translated By The_Proffs