The Gilgo Beach Killer

In the early morning hours of May 2, 2010 police received a frantic phone call from escort Shannan Gilbert claiming that someone was trying to kill her.

Gilbert was unable to provide the dispatcher with her location other than that she was near Oak Beach on Long Island. The call would last about 20 minutes before Gilbert hung up.

When police arrived they questioned residents in the area, some of whom stated they were awoken to the sound of a hysterical woman banging on their door, but by the time any of them answered she had run off into the night.

After a month, there was still no sign of Gilbert and police feared the worst. They brought in a cadaver dog to search the community. The search continued through the summer and fall with no sign of Gilbert.

Then in December, based on data from the FBI that suggested bodies are normally disposed of near roadways, while searching along the shoulder of the parkway the cadaver dog got a hit.

Investigators discovered the skeletal remains of a woman in a disintegrating burlap sack. The remains were too decomposed to be Gilbert, but police now had a potential crime scene. Police began to canvas the area and two days later the remains of another woman were found, and then another, and then another. Police now had the remains of four dead women all disposed of in a small area, but still no sign of Gilbert.

Due to the encroaching winter, all further searches were put off until the spring. Between March 29 and April 11 the remains of six other people were found in the Gilgo Beach area, including those of a baby.

The remains of Gilbert would eventually be discovered in December 2011 in a marsh in Oak Beach. The official cause of death is listed as accidental drowning and the police don't consider her to be one of the Gilgo Beach Killer's victims. However, and independent autopsy the family had done ruled her death as the result of strangulation.

Over years of DNA testing, it has been determined that Gilgo Beach was not this killer's only dumping ground. Some of the remains found at Gilgo Beach were matched to partial remains found at Fire Island, Hempstead Lake, and Manorville with some of these remains dating back to 1996.

Along with the ten official victims, there are eight other possible victims, including Shannan Gilbert.

While investigators did name John Bittrolff, a carpenter from Manorville who had been convicted of murdering two prostitutes, as a potential suspect in 2017 no arrests have been made...

Until last night that is.

As he left his Manhattan architecture firm, Rex Heuermann was apprehended by police. Heuermann is a life long resident of Long Island, currently residing in Massapequa Park. Just a 25 minute drive from the Gilgo Beach dumping ground.

There is a press conference scheduled for later this afternoon but it was just revealed a few minutes ago that Heuermann has been indicted on six counts of murder.
Source

a reply to: Threadbare

I love that technology has advanced enough to solve some of these old cases! I'll be looking forward to the documentary on this one.

I watched an 8 part documentary on those murders a few months ago called The Killing Season (available on Hulu) in which internet sleuths were trying to crack the case. www.imdb.com...

The story is quite fascinating. To no one's surprise, Heuermann's name is not on their suspect list; at least, not that I recall. Anyhow, I'm thrilled the authorities think they have their guy; I honestly thought this one would go unsolved due to the victims being prostitutes.

Apparently, there was some very fine detective work that went into cracking the case.

a reply to: nugget1

There's some good ones out there already.

I'll be interested to see what finally led investigators to Heuermann. I saw some people online mentioning it may be another 23&me situation but haven't seen that mentioned in any articles.

a reply to: WeDemBoyz

I honestly thought this one would go unsolved due to the victims being prostitutes.

It took the authorities almost 20 years to get the Green River Killer out in Washington and those were almost all prostitutes.

Funny thing is a buddy of mine lived out there in the early 90s and I would accuse him and his brother of being the killers all the time when I talked to him on the phone lol.

a reply to: Threadbare

I'm trying to see if I can find the indictment but based off the reporting of people that have seen it here is how they were able to hone in on Heuermann.

Following the murder of Melissa Barthelemy, Heuermann made several calls to Barthelemy's sister using her phone. Unreleased until now, the cell phone pinged a tower in the Massapequa area. This led investigators to believe they would one day find the killer in the area.

The next piece of evidence came from the disappearance of Amber Lynn Costello. A witness to the disappearance told investigators that the killer drove a first-generation Chevy Avalanche. In March of last year investigators found a first-generation Chevy Avalanche registered in Heuermann's name.

This led to Heuermann's cell phone records being subpoenaed. Apparently these corresponded with cell site locations for three burner phones used to set up meetings with three of the girls, as well as the calls made to Barthelemy's sister. They also found that Heuermann's wife was out of town at the time of at least three of the murders.

On January 6, investigators were able to recover a pizza box that had been discarded by Heuermann. From there they were able to get Heuermann's DNA and compared it to a hair that had been recovered from the burlap used to wrap Megan Waterman. Last month the results came back and showed a mitochondrial DNA match.

They also matched hairs on three of the victims to Heuermann's wife. As she was out of town for the murders, this is believed to be incidental transfer and she's not involved.

a reply to: Threadbare

Thanks!

a reply to: Threadbare

During the press conference it was mentioned that an arrest took place when it did is because Heuermann had been patronizing sex workers. They were afraid he might strike again.

Which leads to the question of whether or not he actually ever stopped after 2010. There could be 10+ more victims out there. Or maybe the discovery of his dumping ground in 2010 scared him enough that he stopped.

Although, based on his porn preferences I doubt that's the case.

wow! Reading about how they narrowed it down to the killer is amazing . I remember reading ,and seeing TV shows on these murders .I feel so badly for all the women he killed, may they finally get some peace .RIP . … and I hope a jury sentences Huermann to death . Take him out back and shot him , slowly …. Does New York have the death penalty ?

I live on Long Island in Manorville. There were two bodies found here that were initially tied to the Gilgo Beach murders. However, that killer dubbed "The Butcher of Manorville" (real name is John Bittrolff) was caught and convicted for 2 murders here.

The interesting part, at least for me because I live here, is that he is possibly responsible for a few of the murder victims found at Gilgo Beach. It seems like that little strip of land is a dumping ground for bodies.

a reply to: DerekJR321

While two of the victims found at Gilgo Beach had remains found at Manorville, they weren't Bittrolff's victims.

a reply to: Threadbare

So parts of the victims were at Gilgo Beach AND Manorville? I didn't know that. There's an area a few miles north of me that has had a few bodies, or parts found at. It's basically all woods (Halsey Manor Road.. I probably misspelled that). There are a lot of random grave sites in the area from the late 1700s. We went looking for them several years ago and a hunter told us that body parts were found. Wonder if that was the same incident.

a reply to: DerekJR321

Parts of Jane Doe no. 7 were found on Fire Island in 1996. Parts of Jane Doe no. 3 were found in Hempstead Lake State Park in 1997. Parts of Valerie Mack were found in Manorville in 2000. And parts of Jessica Taylor were found in Manorville in 2003.

a reply to: Threadbare

Just heard that police have seized over 200 firearms from the home.