Original subtitles

Translated By The_Proffs

Translated By The_Proffs

[***]

[DOG BARKING]

July 13th, 2023, um...

started out like a normal day.

ANNOUNCER [OVER PA]: The next station is Penn Station.

I was at my job, working for my dad.

He was a very well-known architect in Manhattan.

The last thing I said to my father before I left was:

"I'll see you at home."

[TRAFFIC BUSTLING]

It was 11:00 at night, and I was waiting for my husband,

but he didn't come home.

[SIRENS WAILING] And then suddenly,

I see them come on the front porch,

and I just hear banging.

"FBI open up!"

"Okay, Victoria.

This isn't happening. This isn't happening."

ASA: They push their way in, and they asked me:

"Do you know why we're here?"

And I said, "My husband's guns?"

VICTORIA: I knew my dad had stuff with the IRS,

Department of Labor, but FBI?

ASA: And the woman investigator says to me:

"Have you heard about the murders on Gilgo Beach?"

And I said, "I've heard of them,

but I don't know anything."

And she said, "Your husband, he knows all about it."

VICTORIA: And they said, "We have evidence

your dad murdered all these women.

And your home is now a crime scene."

Never would have imagined I'd be hearing that in my life.

They're telling me that my husband

is alleged to be some horrific serial killer.

VICTORIA: They started asking about if my dad

was ever sexually advancive towards me, or touched me,

and I said, "No, no,

I cannot really recall anytime he was like that."

ASA: And then the investigator says to me that my husband

will be charged in the morning with murdering three women.

And I told her she's crazy.

No.

No.

[SCOFFING] No!

No freaking way is this man going out,

soliciting sex from a sex worker,

killing them and dumping them on Gilgo Beach.

[***]

On the morning of July 14th, 2023,

I was in, I think, the first row.

And I did notice that a number of the families

came into the courtroom.

You could just feel the tension in the air

and the anticipation waiting for this guy to come out.

Rex, did you do it?

REPORTER: Rex Heuermann, 59,

charged with three murders today.

Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello,

and Megan Waterman.

All sex workers, all in their 20s.

HARRISON: He's a demon, he's an animal.

He's somebody that should not be around other human beings.

MURPHY: I remember he wasn't reacting to the charges against him.

It almost seemed like there was a deadness in his eyes.

His form, his face, his expression.

I remember thinking, this man is six-foot-four,

and Melissa Barthelemy was four-foot-nine.

That disparity in size.

The only word that really came to mind was monstrous.

REPORTER: He's behind bars without bail

due to the nature of the accusations.

[***]

TOULON: When he first came into our custody,

and I went and I introduced myself...

Rex had a very smug look of importance.

One of the things I noticed was there was no despair.

There was no show of emotions.

I've never seen someone who's very stoic,

very quiet in their demeanor.

SASSE: All of the family members of these victims,

we never thought we'd never see this day.

So I'm rejoicing, I know they are too.

TOULON: The one thing I can say to all the families is,

first, that I apologize for the Law Enforcement community

because it took so long for us to identify a suspect

and bring him into custody.

It's bittersweet because I don't necessarily

like having that closure, but it is such a relief

that we do know who it was.

HARRISON: Even with this arrest, we're not done.

There's more work to do in this investigation

regarding the other victims.

This case is not over, it's only beginning.

We're continuing to execute search warrants,

and we anticipate getting more evidence.

MURPHY: It was sort of an adrenaline rush

after having covered this case for nearly 13 years.

To finally realize, hey,

Massapequa was significant all along.

Those first reports about cell phone pings

coming near Penn Station.

It made sense because this guy,

he has an office in midtown Manhattan.

Worked right near Penn Station,

and he took the train every day back to Massapequa.

ANNOUNCER [OVER PA]: The next station is Massapequa Park.

So now we wanna find out who knew him best.

We wanna find out from his neighbors, what was he like?

We wanna find out from his coworkers,

were there any clues?

[***]

McGARVEY: In hindsight, is it possible that no friends, no family

ever suspected that something was off about this guy?

Did he fit the stereotype of a serial killer?

Or was there this other side of Heuermann?

REPORTER: Nassau County police cars and trucks lined the street

as investigators search inside Rex Heuermann's home.

RYDER: I received a phone call.

We moved our people into position,

so we were the first ones with Suffolk

as they executed the search warrant

with their crime scene van,

and their command post, and their detectives.

REPORTER: There's been a steady stream of investigators

removing evidence from the house.

ASA: The night of the raid,

they drove us over to the hotel and they got us a room.

They have a cop 24 hours outside

keeping an eye on me.

I watched the news.

They were taking bags and bags of stuff out of the house.

REPORTER: One of the more unsettling pieces of evidence

is a child-sized doll kept inside a glass case.

ASA: Are they testing the doll for DNA?

My head, it's spinning.

There's no telling now what else they'll recover.

Spinning.

Spinning.

RYDER: We're gonna make sure

that we're not gonna turn this

into some kind of sideshow.

[***]

[INDISTINCT CHATTER]

REPORTER: The family of the accused Long Island serial killer

made an emotional return to their home

after investigators spent days there tearing apart the deck,

excavating the yard, doing a deep search for any evidence.

After 13 days of cutting their property to pieces,

the family just moves back in.

REPORTER 1: We know that it's--

REPORTER 1: Are you staying in the house?

REPORTER 2: So we're not blaming you for anything.

REPORTER 1: We feel very bad, and we wanted--

SHEEHAN: It was bizarre.

It was like they were in a fishbowl

and we were watching them.

REPORTER: Rex Heuermann's wife

and the suspect's adult stepson

was seen crying on the front porch.

A woman whose husband is charged with being

one of the worst killers in decades.

She really is a mysterious figure.

We don't know what role she's playing

or how much she knew or didn't.

We also didn't know what kind of world

they'd built in that house.

OFFICIAL: The house could be categorized as cluttered.

There was a lot of boxes and it was a very cluttered,

I would say, environment.

FITZGIBBON: Nobody's gotten in that house.

There's like an army of media outside.

But no one knows what life is like

inside the Heuermann house.

WOMAN 1: This is crazy.

WOMAN 2: They aren't leaving, are they?

REPORTER: Forensic teams in protective suits and cadaver dogs

were brought in during the 12-day search.

We were looking for your tangible items of evidence,

as well as trace evidence, including blood and DNA,

and, uh, hair fibers and the like.

[CONTINUES OVER TV] Now, it goes from here to trace section

and then to, if appropriate, the DNA section.

So that's a-- That's a process.

We haven't ruled in or ruled out anything with regard to that.

VICTORIA: When we got back home

after they raided it,

it was not recognizable.

No beds, no clothes.

Our bathroom sink was broken.

They should have actually deemed our house uninhabitable.

ASA: Oh, look at this.

It was as if they were trying to leave us for dead.

They broke that.

They pulled this out of the wall.

They pulled it out. Yeah.

That's what that hole in the wall was from.

ASA: What is in here? CHRIS: Garbage. Nothing.

Well, something was in here because it's not in here now.

ASA: The kids, they were

crying themselves to sleep

before we actually got into the house.

We were all doing it.

Fear, anxiety, uh, guilt.

All of those emotions are all going

like a roller coaster.

Rolling. Rolling and rolling and rolling.

But we needed to come home.

They have a lot of sentimental stuff in the house.

And I still feel Rex is here.

BROWN: They went through that house with a fine-tooth comb.

They dug up the backyard. They went into walls.

They went into pipes.

They went under the cement foundation.

And they have yet to show anyone

any evidence in that home.

[***]

CHRIS: When I first came home,

I couldn't even get in and out of that garage.

'Cause everything was all stacked up high as your head.

They took a lot of stuff from this garage.

He had his screwdrivers against the wall over here.

We had a big--

Very heavy band saw right here.

The radial arm saw was right here.

And then he had a table saw underneath here.

I was always afraid of the table saw

because it's very dangerous.

I hate this. I know.

[SOBBING] I know.

I know.

But I'm here.

And we can do this together, okay?

All right?

All right. Come on.

[SNIFFLES]

SHEEHAN: After the arrest, they hand out this movie script indictment.

They wrote this thing like a thriller

and put all the best parts right up front.

Sadistic and twisted.

Pornographic, Google searches, burner phones,

records of taunting victims' family members.

It was upsetting, but it was tabloid gold.

ALGAR: You couldn't get your hands on that document fast enough.

And as I read through it, I-I was stunned on many levels.

One: on the level of detail,

and the thoroughness of the investigation.

And what quickly became apparent

was a very solid case against him.

I was also, like many people,

sickened by some of the searches that he had made.

The worst part of the bail application

was seeing the verbatim internet searches.

OFFICIAL: There was a lot of torture porn

and what you would consider depictions of women

being abused, being raped and being killed.

He was looking for really horrific types of pornography.

Child porn, torture of girls,

sobbing girls, rapes of girls.

There were searches that pertained to children.

Children as young as 10.

My jaw is dropping.

How sadistic is this person?

[PHONE RINGING]

OPERATOR: To accept this free call, press one.

To refuse this free call, press two.

[BEEPS]

[***]

How are you doing?

REPORTER 1: The suspected serial killer, Rex Heurmann,

remains in jail on murder charges.

REPORTER 2: He's been held at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead

since he was arrested.

[***]

[PHONE RINGING]

ASA: Hello.

How are you doing?

I'm doing great.

Now that I've got you on the phone.

All right. What did you have for dinner?

Oh, okay.

Uh-huh.

Yes, you are.

Okay.

Yes.

Bye.

ASA: I'm talking to him all the time.

But he only has a certain amount of time

to be able to make calls,

so I can't get too comfortable

talking to him about things that are gonna hurt him.

[SIGHS]

Um...

Telling him that I love him.

That will hurt him.

[***]

The two of us were married for 27 years.

We were a hundred percent part of each other's lives.

Does everybody really believe

everything they hear?

HARRISON: Rex Heuermann is a demon.

REPORTER: Charged as a serial killer.

Do you really believe everything that's being said?

REPORTER 1: This man is a sexual sadist.

REPORTER 2: He enjoyed torturing his victims.

Well, we didn't buy it.

REPORTER [OVER TV]: Rex Heuermann has pled not guilty,

and insists through his lawyer that he's innocent.

The only thing I can tell you that he did say

as he was in tears, was, "I didn't do this."

REPORTER [OVER TV]: He is an unlikely suspect.

A husband, father of two,

an architect working in Manhattan

dealing with arcane building codes.

How you doing? Good to see you.

REPORTER: In February 2022, he was interviewed

about his job for a YouTube show.

I'm Rex Heuermann. I'm an architect.

I'm an architectural consultant. I'm a troubleshooter.

Born and raised on Long Island. INTERVIEWER: Okay.

I met Rex when I was 18 years old.

We went to different high schools.

I went to Farmingdale.

He went to Massapequa.

I've been working in Manhattan since 1987.

VICTORIA: Bonjour TV did an interview with him.

I was primarily a receptionist in my dad's office,

and I was there listening to his whole story.

INTERVIEWER:

REX: That's an interesting question.

I have one tool

that's pretty much used in almost every job,

and it's actually a cabinetmaker's hammer.

It is persuasive enough... [LAUGHING]

...when I need to persuade something.

Sometimes I have to be the heavy framing hammer.

Other times, I'm the lightweight hammer

just to nudge things along. [LAUGHING]

[TRAFFIC BUSTLING]

VICTORIA: Starting when I was in college...

he got some really big jobs.

Then he was very busy for a couple of years.

And actually, I was honestly

really inspired by my dad.

I looked up to him.

One. Two. Three.

Can you smile? That is.

[LAUGHING]

I felt like, damn, I have some really big shoes to fill.

[CHUCKLES] Yeah.

ALGAR: When you think that he committed these acts

while he was still seeing clients

at his architecture firm,

made it even more chilling

because he compartmentalized things

to such a degree that he was able

to outwardly conduct his life

as normal in an otherwise routine way.

But his job was very demanding.

And when it started to be visible

that the stress was weighing on his mental health.

[DOOR CLOSES]

Sometimes he would come home frustrated.

He needed to wind down.

But he never...

no, he never hit any of us.

...were injuries to her face, torso, breasts.

VICTORIA: The worst he would do...

OFFICIAL: The women were bound at the head,

the chest, and later, at the legs.

VICTORIA: ...was he would throw a plate into the sink.

REPORTER: The remains of three sex workers

were discovered bound and concealed in burlap sacks.

[***]

That-- That's the worst.

Listen, like, my dad was an open book,

and a lot of people who knew my dad,

long term clients, people he worked with for years.

It was no secret he hunted. It was no secret he had guns.

He was an open book.

JIMENEZ: I've known Rex Heuermann for 17 years.

I met Rex at the building department in 2006.

Big old Rex comes in, and he says, "Hi, I'm Rex."

Really friendly, really nice.

Because we're both architects,

we have a lot of things in common.

Certain political views,

the scotch, the cigars, the guns, all the macho stuff.

He was easy to be friends with.

We would go to the range and shoot rifles...

[GUNSHOTS]

...pistols...

all kinds of guns.

The first time I went to Rex's house,

I pull up and I look at the house.

It's pretty unimpressive.

It looks a little bit rundown.

It doesn't look like it's been redone.

And being an architect, I sort of said:

"Oh, why is... no, I'm not gonna judge him."

Yeah, I knew he grew up there.

When he got the house from his mother,

I think he wanted to keep it the way it was.

It has to do with arrested development.

That's what drove him not renovating it.

He did have a little office,

and I think his little office was above the gun room,

if I think of it architecturally.

And that was behind the garage.

The garage was a woodshop, and he had a great woodshop.

He was a great woodworker.

VICTORIA: He was really good with his hands.

My dad did build me that dollhouse,

and it was one of the best things he ever built.

I love that dollhouse.

One of the most pressing questions on the case

after his arrest was, "Where did he do this?"

So the revelation that it was likely

that he did indeed commit these crimes,

or some of them in his own home,

his own family home, in the basement.

In this sort of sinister looking,

beaten down building was shocking.

REPORTER 1: A total of 279 firearms were removed from the basement

as part of the investigation.

REPORTER 2: Investigators say most of the guns

were stashed inside a basement vault,

sealed behind a solid iron door.

[***]

VICTORIA: A lot of media, they're calling the vault the "kill room."

That's where he stored all his guns.

As a kid, he showed them to me.

And he did teach me how to use a gun

when I was old enough.

But the vault was always locked.

The only times I was in there was if he was in there.

I know plenty of people who own firearms.

I don't know anybody that has a gun safe

that can be considered a "vault." "A walk-in vault."

ASA: This is the steel door.

It had a combination lock.

It's this lever here.

It's a very easy way to get out,

so no one can get locked in here.

Now, this is the room

where he displayed his firearms collection.

So the famous gun room when I sat there,

I recall vividly that he said:

"In 30 years, you're the fourth person

to ever be in this room."

And I was like, "wow."

And that's when he showed me his collection.

So, he started collecting rifles

and all kinds of guns early on when he was 18.

And it was an amazing collection.

There's nothing in this case

that suggests that those guns

were utilized in the commission of any crime.

A walk-in gun vault, that's one thing,

but a secret room...

I was like, "Oh, my God."

[CREAKS, CLOSES HEAVILY]

GRACE: According to a colleague of Rex Heuermann's,

he had a room specifically built in his basement

that even his wife was not allowed to enter.

VICTORIA: That's the secret room everybody talks about.

It's kind of a walk-in closet...

[SHUTTER CLICKING]

...in the gun room

that is actually right under the stairs.

He didn't want anybody to have access to it,

the secret room, so nobody would know.

Not because he was hiding anything,

but because he wanted to secure a safe in there.

I actually didn't see what the inside of it

actually looked like until after all this happened.

I couldn't get in there myself.

For me, I was asking myself:

is this some kind of House of Horrors?

Does he have a dungeon in there?

Is he killing people like Silence of the Lambsstyle?

FITZGIBBON: The obvious question was:

"What's going on inside that secret room?"

The answer is, "We won't fully know until the trial happens."

Then, we'll learn what investigators found.

[SIRENS WAILING]

The Heuermann home has become a symbol

of Rex's descent and decay.

Outwardly, it's a ramshackle building.

There's a possibility now that there were some

unspeakable horrors that took place in its basement,

and its dungeon.

It's become Long Island's new Amityville Horror house,

to some degree.

The stain a serial killer leaves

on the psyche of a community.

Anything to say at all?

ALGAR: It remains for decades.

Our nice, quiet neighborhood of Massapequa Park

will now be known for the home of a serial killer.

And then there's the family who lived there.

If it turns out that he was this prolific killer,

was Rex's wife, Asa,

willfully ignorant of what was going on?

How could she not know?

[***]

[***]

REPORTER 1: Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann

is facing more turmoil.

His wife of 27 years filed for divorce on Wednesday.

REPORTER 2: Online filings list the divorce as uncontested.

FITZGIBBON: The initial public impression of Asa

was that she wanted to distance herself.

She filed for divorce.

The question is did she know about any of this?

It's hard to read this family,

as far as how good was he at living this double life.

Did she actively not want to realize what was going on?

REPORTER: Heuermann has also filed the papers

to turn the marital home solely over to her.

He bought it from his own parents two decades ago.

I understand why she divorced my dad.

They did the divorce to protect the assets.

It's now legally her house. She was married to him.

She gets the asset from the divorce.

If we lost the house, we'd be homeless.

It's our house.

But that doesn't mean that we're not a family anymore.

LINKLETTER: We know nothing about their marriage.

We know nothing about the dynamic between them.

And we know nothing about why Rex Heuermann zeroed in on Asa

as the person he wanted to marry.

This could have been something

he thought through very carefully.

[***]

Could it be that when he was finding a partner,

he handpicked somebody who he could possibly manipulate,

possibly control?

I think we have to really open our minds,

as far as how Asa ended up in this situation.

We don't know yet.

ASA: I moved here in with Rex in November of 1995.

That's my favorite.

I met Rex when I was 18 years old.

He was going to college. I was working at 7-Eleven.

I was born in Iceland.

My younger brother was adopted to an Icelandic family,

and I was adopted to America.

But because of that,

I traveled a lot to Iceland with my family.

And Rex, he traveled a lot.

He went on archeological digs.

He's the kind of guy you turn your head

and you go take a look at, you know.

He was tall, handsome...

debonairing young man.

I love tall, dark and handsome. That's me.

And at that time, I was madly in love with the man.

There's no doubt about that.

But then, I met my first husband,

and got married.

But things did not go well at all.

After my son Christopher was born,

my ex-husband became somebody completely different.

I was in the process of getting a divorce.

Christopher's father, he wasn't very nice about it.

He said to me,

there's no way in the world he was gonna be okay

with me being happy with somebody else.

Rex was the kind of person that you could call

even if you just wanted to talk.

And that's it.

We were friends.

Everybody needs a friend.

So Rex came with me, one time,

to go pick up my son.

Rex was standing there

and he heard what he said.

Rex then says, "Okay, I'm not worried.

Let's get a lawyer. Let's take him to court."

And then he paid for the lawyer to take him to court.

So fast forward, I got my divorce.

There was no reason to hold back.

You know what I mean?

So Rex said to me, "I've got a nice house.

I mean, it's not big, not elaborate.

How about you come and see if you'd like to stay there?"

I'm like, "Yes, I would love to."

And then I found out I was pregnant with Rex's baby.

And he said to me, "Well, how do you feel about marrying me?"

And I said...

yes.

There's a picture of me,

and I'm looking up, going, "I finally got him."

He's mine.

[BELL RINGING]

REPORTER 1: Rex Heuermann, the man charged

with three of the Gilgo Beach murders,

returned to court on Long Island today.

REPORTER 1: Rex Heuermann appeared in court today

for a conference rather than a hearing.

His lawyer Mike Brown

is seeking 75 pages of discovery materials.

[CONTINUES OVER TV] He is petitioning for lab documentation

from the Suffolk County Crime Lab.

The 59-year-old architect is also the prime suspect

in the disappearance and killing of the fourth woman,

but he hasn't been charged yet in that case.

ASA: This is gonna be the first time

that I'm gonna go to court and see Rex.

Of course, I'm anxious.

Everybody's going to be staring at me.

OFFICIAL: The only thing his wife knows about the charges

is what's been relayed by the press.

She's having a very difficult time processing

that the man that she was married to for 27 years

was capable of these crimes.

It's been a difficult journey for her.

That should do it.

ASA: All of these girls that were found on Gilgo Beach,

they were girls.

They were somebody's daughter.

They were somebody's sister.

Nobody deserves what they got.

[***]

But Rex was not seeing prostitutes.

He's a family man.

He didn't do this.

McGARVEY: Police have all of these pieces

of, like, really damning evidence against Rex Heuermann.

It makes you wonder if this evidence

will finally make Asa believe Rex is the killer.

I would need to hear it from Rex, face-to-face,

that he killed these girls,

for me to believe it.

My husband never kept me out of anything.

That's why I'm going to the courthouse.

That's why I wanna see it for myself.

It's important for me to know what he's going through.

And I want to be a part of it.

REPORTER 1: Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann

is expected in court this morning.

And a new twist, so is his estranged wife.

REPORTER 2: This marks the first time Asa, his wife,

has chosen to appear in court on his behalf.

I think we have some video of her arriving.

There was a huge press scrum

of people trying to get images of her.

Let's go!

Don't put your hands on me again, you fucking asshole!

We've never seen her appear before at court

to either support her husband or just to look on.

But at least today, we did see her arrive

for this very brief hearing.

REPORTER: The man accused of the Gilgo Beach murders

made his first court appearance since September.

But it was his estranged wife Asa

who drew the most attention...

Off to the side.

...showing up to one of Rex Heuermann's hearings

for the very first time.

RAY: She lived with this man

in a 1343 square-foot home for 27 years.

And you want me to believe

that she's not involved in his activities?

MAN: She should be considered a suspect

and not just a bystander.

[***]

[***]

REPORTER 1: Surrounded by state court officers, Asa Ellerup,

the estranged wife of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer

Rex Heuermann, attends his court appearance,

a first since his summer arrest and arraignment.

REPORTER 2: During the court proceedings, she exchanged glances with Rex.

Numerous sources reported on Asa's smiling at her husband.

REPORTER 3: Heuermann has been charged with three murders.

REPORTER 4: He's a prime suspect for a fourth possible murder.

Where are you guys with that?

So the grand jury is continuing,

and we anticipate it, um, concluding shortly.

[PHONE RINGING]

MACEDONIO: I just got back to the office from doing arraignment.

That was a huge, huge, huge win.

Nice job on that, though, today.

The whole thing, even Rex, okay?

[PHONE BEEPS]

That was Mike Brown.

So at one point, he got to make eye contact with you.

[SIGHS] I liked seeing him.

I really liked seeing him.

It was comforting. Nobody can be in your position.

A serial murderer.

You're married to him for 27 years.

ASA: I just don't see him that way.

No, that's not the Rex I know.

[PHONE RINGING]

So if they're gonna sit there and they tell me

that he only did this

during these particular time periods

that I was away on vacation, I'd have to question that.

If the man is that much of a genius,

that he's capable of doing that, okay, I don't believe it.

[***]

The whole speculation is

he's butchering these people in his own basement.

VICTORIA: The task force is alleging

that these murders happened when we were on vacation.

Melissa Barthelemy disappeared in July 2009.

She was last seen

sitting outside her apartment in the Bronx.

All right.

So here's my bathroom.

After everything that they went through in my house,

nothing is private.

The door.

They took it.

Brand new.

They're alleging that he killed one of these girls

when he remodeled the bathroom when I was in Iceland.

I remember, July 10th, 2009...

I planned a trip to go to Iceland

for five weeks to visit my family.

I asked Rex:

"Are you okay with me taking the kids

to spend time with my family?"

And he said yes.

Rex was always working,

working, working, working, to bring home a paycheck.

The reason why my husband didn't go with us on vacation

is construction building is highest in New York City

during the summertime.

And he would also try to take advantage of times

that we were not in the house

to do some reconstructing in the house.

When I was in Iceland, I remember that conversation,

when he called me the night before he left.

He said to me, "I made a big mess.

And I have a big surprise for you when you get home."

He told me he had ripped apart the whole bathroom,

and he threw everything out.

He had gone to the Home Depot

to pick up some supplies.

There are receipts from when it was retiled,

and he had put in a toilet

and a sink downstairs in the basement,

and he had redone the plumbing.

The bathroom had been completely gutted

from top to bottom.

That was Rex.

He's a problem solver.

He got on a flight

to Iceland the next day.

They ripped up the bathtub

looking for trace evidence of blood.

They've ripped into everything.

It takes approximately four weeks

to do a bathroom like this.

I was in Iceland for five weeks.

If she went missing July 10th,

then I guess they're assuming

that she was held hostage here in this house.

And then he killed her and dumped her body

the night before he left for Iceland.

McGARVEY: Remember, within a week from when Melissa went missing,

her little sister begins receiving a string

of sick and twisted phone calls from the alleged killer.

MURPHY: Once Rex Heuermann left the area of New York

and flew to Iceland to join his family on vacation,

the taunting calls to Melissa's sister stopped.

McGARVEY: Megan Waterman was last seen in June 2010

outside a Holiday Inn in Hauppauge, New York,

which is in Long Island,

just six months prior

to her remains being found on Gilgo Beach.

When Megan Waterman went missing on June 6th, 2010,

two days before that,

my mom, my brother, and I went to Six Flags in Maryland.

ASA: Rex doesn't do roller coasters,

and he doesn't do water slides

because he suffers from severe motion sickness.

So I had bought season tickets to go to Six Flags

for my children.

VICTORIA: I was, like, a roller coaster junkie when I was a kid.

It was a lot of fun, and they're great memories.

PERTEL [CRYING]: She loved her daughter so much.

She was just very kindhearted, you know?

She made mistakes. Who doesn't?

She didn't deserve this. Nobody deserves this.

Megan never thought she would end up in sex work,

but she was coerced by somebody she was dating.

VICTORIA: The task force is alleging

that two days after we went on vacation,

my dad murdered Megan...

and discarded her while we were away.

I don't-- Um...

I'm not sure that it...

I don't know whether it did or didn't happen.

At the time, I was 13 years old.

The portrait that was emerging of Rex was paradoxical,

because you had this narrative

of a man simply living his family life

and going to work every day.

ANNOUNCER [OVER PA]: The next station is Penn Station.

ALGAR: On the other hand,

he is living this incomprehensibly evil life.

He does not look capable of what he did.

I was honestly very shocked.

ALGAR: Taking a sex worker captive.

Killing her, disposing of her,

with his family apparently unaware and on vacation.

I'm convinced that the person they're looking for

is not a family man.

You prey on small, innocent girls.

The routineness of it added a sinister layer to the case.

He didn't do this.

It's somebody who doesn't take their kids on vacation

because they don't have any kids.

SASSE: Just looks like a cold monster.

None of these girls stood a chance.

ALGAR: And then we hear there's more evidence coming.

There's more twists coming, there's more turns.

There's no reason to think that this case is going to become

any less confounding and astonishing

than it already has been.

REPORTER: Prosecutors long suspected Heuermann

had a hand in Brainard-Barnes's killing,

one of the Gilgo Four.

Now they say they've got the proof

to support that claim.

[***]

[***]

REPORTER: Rex Heuermann, the accused Long Island serial killer,

appeared in court again today

as he's now charged in the death of a fourth woman.

In January of 2024,

Rex Heuermann is indicted

on the fourth murder in the Gilgo Four,

for Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

[PEOPLE CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY]

We're here to discuss the superseding indictment.

TIERNEY: Well, the biggest change is the DNA evidence.

We now have nuclear DNA results for all five of the hairs.

This nuclear DNA evidence is really overwhelming.

One hair is tied to Rex Heuermann,

three hairs are tied to his wife Asa,

and one hair is tied to his daughter Victoria.

FITZGIBBON: The significance

of the Maureen Brainard-Barnes charge

is that it's the first time in the case

that there was nuclear DNA.

Nuclear DNA is what the cops want.

That's, like, ties right to an individual, a suspect,

and identifies him.

LINKLETTER: It's very hard to dispute nuclear DNA evidence,

'cause it is, like, somebody's fingerprint.

FITZGIBBON: The initial three victims he was charged with

were mitochondrial matches,

which more eliminates other suspects

rather than pinpoint him.

So this was a massive development.

REPORTER: Five hairs discovered on multiple victims

have now been matched through nuclear DNA

to the Heuermann family. MURPHY: We're wondering,

will this change Asa and Victoria's opinion?

I mean, where do you find three members of the same household

tied to crime scene murders?

REPORTER: Investigators say

they linked 25 year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes' murder

to Rex Heuermann via DNA from a female hair

found on a belt used to bind her ankles, feet and legs.

ASA: In July of 2007,

I was on vacation trying to do something fun with my kids.

There were credit card receipts of us being in Atlantic City

at this particular time period.

They're alleging that my husband

managed to go to work...

solicit sex from a sex worker...

[PHONE RINGS] [DOOR CHIMES]

...sit on a train...

and then come home, make plans,

pick 'em up,

kill 'em, dump 'em...

turn around,

and go to Atlantic City to come see us.

I'm sorry, it's bullshit.

I'm sorry for my language.

REPORTER: Hairs found on Megan Waterman's body,

and the burlap bindings match Rex Heuermann

and his wife's advanced DNA profile.

And a hair found on Amber Costello's body

matches Heuermann's daughter, Victoria.

LINKLETTER: Victoria decided to join Asa in court that day,

where this evidence involving her is made public.

FITZGIBBON: So the first time that Victoria goes to court

for her father's case happens to be the same day

that her DNA is linked

to a hair found on one of the victims.

I mean, she's not a suspect.

Her father did this when she was on vacation.

But how does that feel like?

I mean, what's going through her mind at that point?

The general public is just curious about Asa

and her and Rex's children.

REPORTER: For the daughter to show up,

this is the first time we've seen her.

Is there still a basis of hope that their father

is not who the prosecutors believe him to be?

I don't know if people are so obsessed with Asa and Victoria,

out of curiosity, or anger,

or what it is that's drawing so many eyes to them.

But people really can't seem to get enough

of learning about them, and staring at them,

and studying their every move.

VICTORIA: All these people swarming around me...

I kind of felt humiliated.

VICTORIA: It was like the walk of shame.

Excuse me.

MACEDONIO: This is Victoria on the train.

When is that picture?

That was on May 25th of this year.

There's an undercover agent that was part of the task force

that was trailing Victoria.

To find out today that she was followed on the train,

and her DNA was taken.

You know, that was extremely emotional for her as well.

MURPHY: The bombshell that came out with the indictment

for the Maureen Brainard-Barnes murder

was that hair that was found on another victim, Amber Costello,

was tied to Rex Heuerrmann's daughter.

And what the investigators had done

was follow her home one day from work

on the Long Island Railroad.

And she was drinking from a can, an energy drink.

When she got off the train in Massapequa,

she threw the can in the trash,

and the investigators retrieved it,

had it tested in a forensic lab,

and there was a pretty strong match

to a hair that was found on Amber Costello's body.

You drink that Monster Java? Is that what you drink?

I've drank it before. Yeah.

How does that make you feel

seeing that you had someone surveilling you?

VICTORIA: I went from being a normal person,

contributing to society every day,

to this laughingstock all over the internet, and TV, and news.

Victoria.

[SHUTTERS CLICKING]

When I was in the middle of the media frenzy, I'll admit,

I probably felt like, humiliated.

I know I don't have anything to be shameful about,

but that's what it felt like, just the bombarding,

people's disappointed faces.

I didn't really feel like a person.

They ask questions, why didn't I see anything?

How did I not know?

I was 10, 12, and 13 years old when these girls were murdered.

I was in school, which, you know,

which takes up a good chunk of the day.

And then I was home,

or doing after school activities.

And that's exactly how I wouldn't know anything.

And now that I actually look back on my childhood,

I do find it very hard to believe

my dad actually really did all this.

VICTORIA: Like I said, I saw him

at regular times every day, morning, night,

and the vacations that he did join us on.

But, like, like I said, at the same time,

there was a lot of hours out of the day

that I also was not home,

including vacations that he did not join us on.

And that's exactly what I mean by on the fence.

There's, like...

Well, you know, like he was definitely very much around,

you know, 90 percent of the time.

But then there's that other 10 percent of the time he was not.

I feel like I can't know whether or not he did or didn't

because I was not around for it.

I was too young to understand.

LINKLETTER: Rex Heuermann ruined more than just the lives of the victims

and their families whose lives he stole.

He ruined his own family's lives.

Is it right that they're under the microscope in this way that

everybody's talking about them?

Is it fair? No, it's not fair.

But they're caught in this web.

They're caught in Rex Heuermann's wake.

When you look at all this stuff together,

the DNA, the hairs, the cell phone records,

the searches,

it's like an avalanche of evidence.

And we were about to learn that.

After Rex Heuermann's arrest,

law enforcement seized more than 400 devices,

phones, hard drives, laptops

from his home, and from his office.

And it was absolutely insane to read about what they found

on his electronic devices.

TIERNEY: We recovered numerous electronic devices

from the defendant, including laptops, smartphones, tablets.

REPORTER: No doubt there are digital forensic investigators

scrutinizing Heuermann's e-mails,

computers, and burner phones.

MURPHY: After Rex Heuermann's arrest,

law enforcement seized more than 400 electronic devices,

phones, hard drives, laptops

from his home, and from his office.

Investigators discovered videos and stills dating back to 1994.

FITZGIBBON: There's just, like, reams and reams

of, like, really sick pornography

that are on Rex's, you know, devices.

This is really over the top, grotesque porn.

MURPHY: They're seeing vile, torture pornography,

child pornography, breast mutilation,

vaginal mutilation.

Sexualization of decapitated women.

It was insane.

It's just stomach-turning to think about it.

But it wasn't just what they found that was alarming.

It's what they couldn't find.

Heuermann had searches for wiping

and erasing data from his computers.

MURPHY: Investigators discovered evidence

that he's actually buying specific software

that can shred the files in his computer.

So they're going to have to find a way

to look into stuff that's been deleted.

And they need professional forensic extractors

to get to that.

Eight months after the arrest,

investigators were able to forensically extract

this Microsoft Word planning document

that essentially changed the course

of this entire investigation.

It was called HK 2002 to 2004.

The prosecutors believe "HK" stands for "Hunt Kill,"

and it's basically a blueprint for a serial killer.

REPORTER 1: Just a short time ago, Police on Long Island announced

new developments in the serial killer investigation.

REPORTER 2: Police are now out searching the woods around Manorville.

MURPHY: The document starts with the preparation,

and that involves making sure

that your tires are in good order,

and that you've surveilled the areas

where you will be traveling to pick up your victim.

REPORTER: Search is taking place roughly 45 miles

from the notorious Gilgo Beach site.

And to dispose of your victim,

to make sure there aren't too many

surveillance cameras around.

REPORTER: Same location where the remains of two murder victims

were found more than 20 years ago.

Make sure you decapitate the victim.

Makes it harder to identify them.

REPORTER: The search has widened to the hamlet of North Sea

where 28 year-old Sandra Costilla's body was discovered

back in November of 1993.

If they have tattoos, you have to try to scrape them off.

REPORTER: Could police be zeroing in on new evidence in her murder?

MURPHY: He's talking about potential problems.

Bloodstains. Hair left behind.

We are following some breaking news

out of Long Island, New York this morning.

Right now, police are searching the home of Rex Heuermann.

And how does he counteract that?

Well, he has to prepare and get supplies.

REPORTER: Police are back at the Heuermann bungalow.

Authorities have not commented on why they have returned

after nearly a year since Rex's arrest.

FITZGIBBON: We find out that there's a second search going on

at Rex Heuermann's house, on the heels

of police searching in Manorville and Southampton.

You don't get a second search warrant just on a whim.

So something led them back to the house,

and that's significant.

MURPHY: So he's getting drop cloths.

He's getting booties for his shoes.

He's getting hair nets

so that his hair won't get on the victim,

or so he hopes.

What more could they be looking for?

Could it have something to do with evidence

that was found in Manorville?

MURPHY: So this is elaborate preparation that's going on.

This person, this killer,

is trying to think of every potential thing

that could go wrong, that would help identify him.

And then the news breaks.

Now, to breaking news

in the Gilgo Beach murders investigation.

Tonight, Rex Heuermann is facing new murder charges.

Rex Heuermann has been charged

with the murders of two more women.

FITZGIBBON: Now, we're linking Rex Heuermann to Sandra Costilla

who disappeared in 1993.

She was 28 years old.

Like the other victims, she was a sex worker.

And he's also charged with the murder

of Jessica Taylor, also a sex worker.

She was 20. She made a phone call to her mother,

and they chatted for several minutes,

and she made plans to go visit her mother

in upstate New York in Poughkeepsie,

on her birthday, several days later.

Rex Heuermann worked in the very same vicinity

where Jessica Taylor was known to street walk.

ALGAR: Heuermann's murders of Costilla and Jessica Taylor

completely disrupted the profile

that many of us were operating with

in terms of both methodology, and timeline.

FITZGIBBON: Now we know that Rex Heuermann has been

allegedly killing these women

for nearly 30 years.

Much, much earlier than we ever thought he was doing.

Secondly, Jessica Taylor's body was dismembered.

She was decapitated. Her arms were removed.

Remember, the Gilgo Four, their bodies were found intact.

McGARVEY: Suddenly, everything we thought we knew

up until this point completely changed.

REPORTER: As the crime scene expands, so does the mystery.

So all of a sudden, anything is possible.

It means that he could be responsible

for dozens and dozens of murders.

Our investigation now has broadened.

Now, the entire case mushroomed.

[***]

[***]

Translated By The_Proffs

Translated By The_Proffs