00:00:08
It is a case that has haunted the public for more than 13 years and many feared that the Gilgo Beach murders may never
00:00:16
be solved. >> The officer located a body. >> And it seemed to be wrapped in burlap
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which didn't make any sense. The crime scene gets expanded. I'm called and chief we found another
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set of remains. They find another one. And another one. We were dealing with a serial killer.
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They're available, they're vulnerable and very petite. >> This killer has a type.
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>> Right. Does he want the petite body because he wants to feel more empowered and more in control?
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>> I want the world to know like my sister mattered. I want answers. I just want answers.
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>> An arrest more than a decade in the making in a serial killer case that's baffled law enforcement and the public.
00:01:10
59-year-old Rex Heuermann pled not guilty. >> I got my phone. I couldn't believe it.
00:01:16
>> So just who is Rex Heuermann? An architect who ran a company called RH Consultants and Associates.
00:01:23
>> Rex. Hello. >> Hi. How you doing? >> Nice to see you. >> When a job that should have been routine
00:01:29
suddenly becomes not routine. >> Yeah. >> I get the phone call. >> Rex Heuermann is a mystery man. Rex is
00:01:37
capable of presenting himself one way to one person, one way to another person. >> My first memory of Rex was that he was
00:01:46
very big, imposing, scary, angry. He was bullied. He was bigger than everyone else. The kids would gang
00:01:56
up on them. And Rex was very smart, too. >> He's a smart person, very smart. >> He liked to shock people. He was
00:02:05
interested in power games. Rex loved hunting and he loved guns. >> Going out, shooting, hunting, that was
00:02:14
his passion. >> All petite, all bound in burlap bags. >> The burlap on the bodies, that points
00:02:21
right at a hunter. >> It was DNA collected from a pizza slice he tossed in a Manhattan trash can that
00:02:29
came back as a match with hair found on the victims. >> That's where we obtained, you know, his
00:02:34
full profile from from that pizza crust left in the box. >> In terms of speaking to my client, the
00:02:39
only thing I can tell you that he did say, as he was in tears, was, "I didn't do
00:02:44
this." >> Everyone's just trying to put the pieces together. I want to know what I missed.
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I think we all want to know what we missed. >> Not far from this quiet stretch of Gilgo
00:03:44
Beach on Long Island, New York, investigators uncovered the hidden remains of four young women.
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The mystery of who they were and how they got here might have stayed a secret if not for a woman named Shannon
00:03:59
Gilbert. In the early morning hours of May 1st, 2010, 23-year-old Shannon, working as an
00:04:11
escort, called 911. >> State police. >> Yeah, there's someone at the house with me.
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>> The call came from a neighborhood not far from Gilgo Beach. >> These people are trying to kill me.
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>> Shannon starts running, knocking on doors. >> Where are you, Shannon? >> She screams.
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And then, nothing. Shannon was gone. >> Hello? Hello? >> K9 searched the area exhaustively for
00:04:59
Shannon Gilbert. >> Dominic Varrone was chief of detectives at the Suffolk County Police Department.
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Months passed without a sign of the missing woman. And then, in December 2010, near Gilgo Beach, a police officer
00:05:15
and his K9 named Blue found human remains. >> Everyone assumed it was Shannon Gilbert.
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>> But it wasn't Shannon. Stunned searchers would go on to discover the remains of
00:05:30
four other women. The women were identified as Maureen Brainard Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and
00:05:38
Amber Costello. Like Shannon, all were in their 20s, all were online escorts, all petite. Three of the four were
00:05:48
wrapped in burlap, the kind you can find in hunting stores. They became known as
00:05:53
the Gilgo Four. >> It's really, really hard cuz I miss her so much. >> 48 Hours has reported on this case since
00:06:04
2010. Over the years, we've secured exclusive interviews with the family and friends
00:06:10
of the Gilgo Four. Missy Cann will never forget the wintry day when she got the devastating news.
00:06:18
>> The detectives came to my house and just said that Maureen has been positively
00:06:24
identified as one of the victims on Ocean Parkway. >> Her sister, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, a
00:06:31
mother of two, was the first to disappear on July 9th, 2007. >> She was very smart
00:06:39
and very creative. >> She liked being a mom? >> She loved being a mom. >> But life as a single mom living in
00:06:46
Norwich, Connecticut was difficult. Missy didn't know it, but Maureen had turned to escort work, and that July
00:06:54
went to New York City for a weekend to make money. On her way home, she called Missy from
00:07:02
Penn Station in Midtown, Manhattan. >> Attention, please. >> I could hear the motions from the train
00:07:09
station. From the time that she called me, it was poof, she was gone. >> She reported Maureen missing.
00:07:16
Eventually, officers would tell Missy that after her sister's disappearance, someone had used Maureen's cell phone to
00:07:24
make a call from Long Island. It wasn't known then, but those two locations, Long Island and Midtown,
00:07:34
Manhattan, would become important clues in the hunt for a serial killer. Nearly two years to the day that Maureen
00:07:45
vanished, 24-year-old Melissa Bartholomew went missing in July of 2009, also from Midtown Manhattan.
00:07:55
Lynn Bartholomew is Melissa's mother. >> How often do you think about Melissa? >> Every single minute of the day. It just
00:08:02
didn't happen to the girls. I mean, it destroyed all of our families. >> Melissa moved from Buffalo to New York
00:08:08
City to work as a hairdresser. At some point, she also began working as an escort and then disappeared.
00:08:17
About a week after she went missing, Melissa's then 15-year-old sister, Amanda, started getting calls from
00:08:24
Melissa's phone. We agreed not to show Amanda's face. >> She answers, you know, "Melissa, where have you been?"
00:08:34
And this voice is saying, "Oh, this isn't Melissa." >> Steven Cohen was the family's lawyer at
00:08:41
the time. >> He was taunting Amanda and he said, "Do you know what I did to your sister? I
00:08:48
killed Melissa." >> All I can say is he's sick. And he's going to make a mistake and
00:08:56
we're going to catch him. >> Those calls from Melissa's own phone may very well have been that mistake. When
00:09:04
police traced them, the calls placed the person they believed to be Melissa's killer in Midtown Manhattan.
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The following year, Megan Waterman, the mother of a 3-year-old girl, disappeared
00:09:20
from a hotel on Long Island. >> Part of you's like missing. It's just like something's always off.
00:09:30
>> We spoke with Megan's daughter, Lilliana, in 2020. >> I would do anything to bring her back,
00:09:37
but I can't and it just like frustrates me so bad. >> Megan's family says the 22-year-old was
00:09:44
a creative but troubled young woman who loved fashion and was devoted to her daughter. What would you say to your mom
00:09:52
if you could? >> I would just want to tell her that like I love her. I just want her to know that
00:09:58
she has a special place in my heart and no one can ever replace her. >> Like the other two women, Megan
00:10:03
disappeared in the summer on June 6th, 2010. She was working as an escort on Long
00:10:11
Island. >> No matter what her job was, she was a person and she needs justice. >> This haunting video from a Holiday Inn
00:10:21
Express is the last time she was seen alive moments before she went to meet a client. Cell phone records later placed
00:10:30
her phone in a Long Island neighborhood called Massapequa Park. Amber Costello was the last of the Gilgo
00:10:43
Four to disappear. She lived here just 7 and 1/2 miles from Massapequa Park. >> She used to say she was 4'11", but she
00:10:50
wasn't. She was like 4'9", you know. I mean, she was small. >> Amber's friend and former roommate Dave
00:10:56
Schaller spoke with us in 2011. >> She was an amazing person. She really was. >> He says Amber was addicted to drugs and
00:11:05
used sex work to support her habit. >> But as amazing as she was, was as tormented as she was.
00:11:12
>> After Amber disappeared, police say Schaller told them about her clients. He described one of them as looking like an
00:11:20
ogre and having a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche. On the night she went missing, Schaller
00:11:27
says a client offered Amber $1,500 for the night, six times her hourly rate. >> This guy was so
00:11:37
relentless. He called several times. He was on the phone with her for quite a while each time.
00:11:42
>> He says the client got Amber an experienced escort to do something she never did, leave without her purse or
00:11:49
cell phone and meet him in his car. >> I walked out the front door with her. She She gave me a hug. She's like, "I
00:11:55
love you." And she left. >> It was nearly midnight. Schaller says that when Amber left this house, she
00:12:04
walked down the street and he never saw her again. Schaller told us that he didn't see the
00:12:10
client's face that night, but suspects he had seen him before. >> So, this is a guy you might have seen?
00:12:18
>> Yeah. This is somebody that I seen. I might be the one of the only people who
00:12:22
knows who he is. >> It would be more than a decade before Schaller's description would lead to a
00:12:29
break in the case and a prime suspect. >> To see a timeline of how the case unfolded, go to 48hours.com.
00:12:52
>> The shocking developments in a murder case gone cold. >> My coworker called me and she said, "Did
00:12:59
you hear what happened to Rex?" And I'm like, "No." >> A husband, a father, an architect stood
00:13:04
before a judge charged as a serial killer. >> She says, "It's Rex." I said, "No way."
00:13:10
>> This house was a main focus and they brought out a lot of evidence. >> I just didn't think it was real.
00:13:17
>> A Long Island community is still a crime scene tonight. >> I even thought to myself, it's crazy
00:13:23
that there's two Rex Heermans out there. >> Mary Shell and Muriel Henriques worked
00:13:31
with Rex Heuermann and couldn't wrap their heads around the news. >> We never thought he would be
00:13:38
that kind of person. >> It's shocking. >> In July of 2023, nearly 13 years after
00:13:45
the Gilgo 4 were discovered, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison made the announcement.
00:13:51
Authorities believe Rex Heuermann is the Long Island serial killer. >> Rex Heuermann is a demon
00:13:58
that walks among us. A predator that ruined families. >> The man he calls a demon is a 6'4"
00:14:07
architect. He's charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, and is the prime suspect
00:14:16
in the death of Maureen Brainard Barnes. >> What did my client tell me? He told me
00:14:21
he didn't do this. >> Heuermann was living about 20 minutes from Gilgo Beach in Massapequa Park, the
00:14:28
very same town where Megan's phone last connected with a cell tower. And Heuermann worked here at his
00:14:36
architectural firm in Midtown, Manhattan, just blocks from where Maureen disappeared, the same area where
00:14:43
several of the threatening calls to Melissa's little sister were made. >> The cause of death with regard to the
00:14:49
three victims is homicidal violence. >> A married man, Heuermann, lived in this rundown house and has a daughter and
00:15:00
stepson with his second wife, Asa. Asa, who was born in Iceland, would take the children to see her
00:15:10
family there in the summers. It was during these trips and others, police believe, that Heuermann killed
00:15:16
the women. >> You never got any kind of hint of another life. >> No. >> She was totally right.
00:15:22
>> Muriel Henriquez worked at Huermann's company RH Consultants and Associates and spoke exclusively to 48 Hours. She
00:15:31
said she saw nothing alarming about the Rex Huermann she saw daily. >> A little bit of a nerd in a way. He
00:15:38
liked to talk about himself. What he knew. I mean, not a narcissist, but a little
00:15:43
bit of a, you know, I know everything kind of guy. >> Pompous? >> Pompous. >> She remembers him running to and from
00:15:49
job sites, eating fast food on the run. >> Pizza. That was his number one thing.
00:15:56
>> Police say they found nearly 300 guns in a basement vault. >> When she heard that police had recovered
00:16:02
almost 300 firearms from a vault in Huermann's basement, she was surprised only by the number. She knew him as an
00:16:11
avid hunter. >> Going out, shooting, hunting, that was his passion. >> What was it about hunting he liked?
00:16:18
>> I don't know. I guess he liked the idea of having a prize. >> Stalking prey? >> Stalking prey.
00:16:25
And winning. He liked to win. You know. >> And while she says it never occurred to
00:16:31
her that Huermann could be dangerous, she does remember a time when his tracking skills unnerved her. It was her
00:16:39
40th birthday and she had booked a cruise vacation. >> Where are you going? Cuz I'm going to,
00:16:45
you know, I'm going to be in the middle of the ocean. You're not going to find me in the middle of the ocean.
00:16:49
He said, "Oh, yes, I can." >> Muriel didn't think much of the comment until the second day of her trip.
00:16:57
>> There was a white envelope under my door. It was a note from him. The note said, "I told you I could find
00:17:03
you anywhere." >> He had photos from hunting trips. >> Mary Shell worked with Huermann in the
00:17:12
summer of 2010. It was the The summer that both Amber Costello and Megan Waterman vanished.
00:17:20
>> He would talk about, you know, the meats in particular that bear meat could keep
00:17:24
in the freezer for months. >> Hearing authorities now say that some of the victims were wrapped in a burlap
00:17:31
that hunters often use was chilling. >> The burlap really got to me. >> Since Huermann's arrest, Mary has
00:17:40
written about her experience with him. She's also talked to other former female employees who said they weren't always
00:17:47
treated with respect. >> He would have one of them clean the toilet if he thought the
00:17:54
cleaning person hadn't done a good enough job. >> A woman in the office? >> Yes.
00:17:58
>> He more than once commented on women's bodies. If someone perhaps had gained some weight, you know, that kind of that
00:18:06
kind of thing. >> John Parisi grew up with Huermann. He says Huermann was bullied as a child.
00:18:17
>> I remember meeting Rex when I was in first and second grade. He was a loner. Not many friends.
00:18:24
The children were super mean to him. Made fun of him and teased him. >> But John says he never saw Huermann
00:18:32
fight back. >> He was big enough that if he got upset and started swinging, he would
00:18:38
hurt somebody. But he never did. >> As Huermann got older, John points out things didn't get much better.
00:18:47
>> He was rejected by many girls. We all go through that awkward stage growing up.
00:18:53
And it seemed like that awkward stage stayed with him longer than usual. >> Still, he says many in the community
00:19:04
find it hard to believe that Huermann is a notorious serial killer living a double life for more than a decade.
00:19:13
>> People were saying, "Oh my god, I can't believe we have a serial killer in our
00:19:18
town, and we grew up with, and we walked amongst the killer." >> Another classmate of Huermann's, actor
00:19:25
Billy Baldwin, took to social media when the news broke, tweeting, "It was mind-boggling."
00:19:32
>> Rex, hello. >> How you doing? >> The awkward Long Island teenager grew up to be a confident and seemingly
00:19:39
successful architect. Antoine Amira met and interviewed him in 2022. >> Born and raised on Long Island?
00:19:48
>> Okay. >> Been working in Manhattan since 1987. >> There's nothing in my interview
00:19:54
that made me think that this person in front of me is a dangerous person. >> Antoine is a hotel food and beverage
00:20:05
manager in New York who loves real estate. He has a YouTube interview show where he handpicks guests whom he thinks
00:20:13
are interesting and accomplished. >> I'm an architect. I'm an architectural consultant. I'm a troubleshooter.
00:20:19
>> Antoine says Huermann was well-known for his skill at helping companies and individuals get building permits.
00:20:27
>> When a job that should have been routine suddenly becomes not routine, >> Yeah.
00:20:33
>> I get the phone call. >> Got you. >> Correct. >> What really stood out for me was he was
00:20:39
very very very smart. >> And known, says Antoine, for his ability to find loopholes in the rules.
00:20:48
>> He was pleased when he was doing it. >> That he could >> That he that he could out outwit the the
00:20:55
system. >> That's it, folks. That was Rex. >> But Antoine says he remembers it was
00:21:00
hard to get Huermann to crack a smile. >> It's selfie time. >> Selfie time. >> Not during the signature sunglasses
00:21:09
selfies he takes with every guest. >> 2 3 Can you smile? >> That is. >> If police are right, Rex Heuermann was
00:21:24
able to hide a life as a serial killer. And if he did, his habit of eating pizza
00:21:31
on the go would turn out to be his undoing. For more than a decade after the discovery of the Gilgo four,
00:21:58
Rex Heuermann's name never appeared on a suspect list until a new task force was
00:22:04
formed with Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison and Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney.
00:22:15
>> In February of 2022, we formed the task force and then a mere 6 weeks later, Rex
00:22:20
Heuermann was identified for the first time. >> A suspect in 6 weeks? So, how did they
00:22:28
do it? It turns out that buried in the original case files were a number of critical clues that the
00:22:36
new task force was finally able to connect. Remember Amber's roommate, Dave Schaller?
00:22:42
>> She's like, "I love you." You know, she gave me a hug. And she left. >> He had told police about one of Amber's
00:22:50
clients and his vehicle. >> Just a large-built man and that he was driving this this
00:22:58
first-generation Chevy Avalanche. >> A first-generation Chevy Avalanche with a description of an
00:23:06
ogre-like man and the make and model of his truck. Police took a closer look at Amber's phone records from 2010.
00:23:15
Schaller had told them that before Amber disappeared, there was one particular client calling incessantly.
00:23:22
>> He called several times. He was on the phone with her quite a while each time.
00:23:26
>> Police back then knew the client was using a burner phone. That's a prepaid phone that anyone can
00:23:33
buy and use anonymously. And they knew that Maureen, Melissa, and Megan had all been in contact with
00:23:40
burner numbers right before they disappeared. In 2012, with the help of the FBI, they
00:23:48
determined that most of those calls connected to cell towers inside a small area of Massapequa Park. They called it
00:23:58
the box. >> So, how large an area is that box? >> It's, you know, a couple of blocks
00:24:03
within within Massapequa Park. >> The new task force began the search for a large-built man who also lived in that
00:24:11
small area and owned a Chevy Avalanche at the time of the disappearances. >> Was there a
00:24:19
aha moment when all of a sudden his name came up? >> Once we were able to attach the
00:24:25
Avalanche inside of that Massapequa box, which then attached to Rex Heuermann, that was the moment we said, "Okay,
00:24:32
there's something here." >> The task force now had a prime suspect, and when they looked at Heuermann's
00:24:38
personal cell phone records, they found that his phone was in the same area as those burner phones when they were used
00:24:46
to contact a victim in Massapequa Park or in Midtown Manhattan. >> It was always consistent.
00:24:55
>> Tierney says this was also true for those awful calls Melissa's family got from that man using her phone back in
00:25:03
2009. >> He said, "Do you know what I did to your sister?" And he said, "Well, I killed Melissa."
00:25:12
>> The task force says that it confirmed that Huermann does in fact use burner phones. Investigators say he had two
00:25:21
different burner numbers in 2022, and they say they watched him put money on one of those accounts here. And
00:25:29
according to court papers, the team also documented three email accounts using fake names, including John Springfield,
00:25:38
Thomas Hawk, and Hunter 1903. And all linked to those burner numbers. And prosecutors say that Huermann was
00:25:48
using a burner phone to send these selfies to solicit and arrange for sexual activity.
00:25:56
One of those accounts linked to Huermann, prosecutors wrote, was used to conduct, quote, "thousands of searches
00:26:04
related to sex workers, sadistic torture-related pornography, and child pornography."
00:26:12
>> There was a lot of torture porn, and depictions of women being abused, being raped, and being killed.
00:26:23
>> Investigators also say that while they were busy watching Huermann, Huermann was trying to watch them, conducting
00:26:30
searches on the task force and the Gilgo victims. >> Not only pictures of the victims,
00:26:37
pictures of their relatives, their their their sisters, their children, and he was trying to locate those
00:26:44
individuals. >> The circumstantial evidence was building, but investigators also had
00:26:50
physical evidence from the Gilgo four, including one male hair that was found in the burlap used to quote "restrain
00:26:59
and transport Megan Waterman's body." And they wanted to see if they could link it to Heuermann.
00:27:08
Police tailed Heuermann, and when he threw out this pizza box in this trash can here in Midtown Manhattan, they
00:27:16
pounced. >> The pizza, which was you know, obviously very significant. >> Tierney says that Heuermann's DNA that
00:27:24
was found on that pizza crust was consistent with a DNA profile from the hair found with Megan Waterman's body.
00:27:32
And that DNA profile is only found in 0.04% of the population. >> That was a remarkable day. It was, you
00:27:42
know, the weekend and you know, you read you get the report and you read it and then you read it again and then you read
00:27:47
it a third time and then you read it a fourth time. Uh and then you start making calls.
00:27:52
>> With the DNA, the search histories, and the burner phone evidence, the team felt
00:27:58
it was time. >> When we decided to take down the case, we you know, it was a sudden decision.
00:28:03
We did see him contacting a number of sex workers using a burner phone, which obviously is concerning.
00:28:15
>> Plainclothes officers arrested him around the corner from his office. >> I don't think he had any clue.
00:28:24
I don't think he had any clue that we were onto him. >> Police spent 12 days looking through
00:28:30
Heuermann's home, pulling those guns out of the basement, and digging in the backyard. They say it will take some
00:28:38
time to comb through what they have now, and they were tight-lipped about what they found.
00:28:45
>> Has the search been fruitful? >> Great question and the answer is yes. >> Can you elaborate on fruitful? You said
00:28:53
yes, it's fruitful. >> There have been items that we have taken into our possession. That makes it
00:28:58
fruitful. >> And one more big piece of evidence taken into possession, a first generation
00:29:05
Chevy Avalanche Heuermann once used. And it was sitting on property he owns in South Carolina when they recovered
00:29:14
it. >> We were able to seize that Chevy Avalanche pursuant to a search warrant and we're certainly going to analyze
00:29:19
that. >> But there were female hairs found on some of the victims' bodies that don't
00:29:25
belong to the victims. So who do they belong to? >> What do you make of the evidence against
00:29:39
Rex Heuermann? Join the conversation now on social media. >> After Rex Heuermann's arrest, his quiet
00:30:00
neighborhood in Massapequa Park was overrun by investigators and media, focusing intense scrutiny on the
00:30:08
ramshackle home and its remaining residents, his stepson Christopher Sheridan, daughter Victoria Heuermann,
00:30:16
and his wife of more than 25 years, Asa Ellerup. >> Their life going forward is always going
00:30:23
to be the wife or the children of suspected serial killer. That's what's going to be from now on.
00:30:29
>> Attorney Bob Macedonia represents Asa Ellerup, who has since filed for divorce
00:30:35
from Heuermann. He says she was as stunned as anyone by the accusations. >> She had no idea any of this going on.
00:30:44
The allegations are shocking. Nobody wants to think that they've been living with sleeping next to a serial killer
00:30:49
for the past 25 years. >> As it turns out, Asa may have inadvertently helped focus the
00:30:54
investigation on her husband. Investigators say they've identified strands of female hair that were found
00:31:01
on two of the victims. >> One hair on Waterman comes back to his wife or the DNA profiles are consistent.
00:31:09
And then the DNA profile from Costello is consistent with the wife. >> Although prosecutors have evidence that
00:31:16
Asa was out of town when those murders occurred, they will have to explain how those hairs got on the victims. Suffolk
00:31:24
County DA Ray Tierney says it could be as simple as transfer. >> You live at home with a spouse,
00:31:31
a little bit of your hair falls on your shoulder as well as your spouse's. Then you go out and you interact with a third
00:31:38
party and that hair gets on them. >> Asa Ellerup has not been charged or named a suspect in any of the murders.
00:31:46
>> You don't believe that Rex Heuermann's wife was involved in this in any way. >> There's no evidence to indicate that,
00:31:53
no. >> Along with the public scrutiny of Asa, there's also been support from people
00:31:58
that perhaps know all too well what she's going through. Kerri Rawson, the daughter of serial
00:32:05
killer Dennis Rader, who named himself BTK, tweeted, "Asa and her kids are also victims."
00:32:14
>> I can tell that they are going through hell. >> And from Melissa Moore, the daughter of
00:32:20
Keith Jesperson, a serial killer known as the Happy Face Killer for taunting authorities with letters signed with a
00:32:28
happy face. >> She reached out immediately to myself and we put her in contact with Asa.
00:32:34
>> At a press conference, Macedonio announced Moore set up a GoFundMe page for Asa, which raised over $50,000.
00:32:43
Money he says will largely go to medical bills. Asa is battling breast and skin cancer. And because Rex Heuermann was a
00:32:51
sole provider for the family, Macedonia says she will soon lose her health insurance.
00:32:58
>> Asa would like me to express her thanks for the support she's received. Um she's
00:33:02
going through a very difficult time. >> Asa's children have also paid a heavy price. Her daughter, Victoria, who
00:33:10
worked for her father at the architectural consulting firm, and her son, Christopher, are both now
00:33:16
unemployed. Asa struggles to support them, says Macedonia, while she's also trying to figure out how to start over.
00:33:24
>> How is she getting through every day? >> Honestly? >> Yeah. >> Minute by minute. Um she has no one else
00:33:30
to turn to at this time. Family and friends have been hesitant to have her come over because they don't
00:33:36
want the media attention. She gets followed wherever she goes. >> For the moment, she and her children
00:33:43
continue to live in the house in Massapequa Park, which the family says was excessively damaged during the
00:33:49
police search, seen in these photos provided by Asa's attorney. It's a daily reminder of the unimaginable crimes her
00:33:59
estranged husband is charged with, and the investigation that continues into what else he may have done.
00:34:24
Rex Heuermann, awaiting trial, is locked inside a Suffolk County Jail in a 60-square-foot cell.
00:34:34
He denies killing Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. Their voices now silent as the sand
00:34:49
where they have been ruthlessly discarded. >> How sure are you as you're sitting here
00:34:56
now that Rex Heuermann is the Long Island serial killer? >> So, we're just at the beginning stages
00:35:02
of this case, but we would not have brought this indictment if we weren't confident in our case.
00:35:08
>> He took away somebody's mother, somebody's daughter, somebody's sister, and not just one person, multiple
00:35:17
individuals. >> Heuermann is currently the prime suspect for the murder of Maureen
00:35:24
Brainard-Barnes, and for investigators, an obvious question still hangs heavy. If Heuermann is a killer, are there
00:35:33
other victims? I mean, isn't there a real concern that there may be other victims out there?
00:35:40
>> Always. Who's to say that there's not more bodies out there that we need to investigate?
00:35:47
>> In 2011, police did find other bodies along Ocean Parkway after finding the Gilgo 4.
00:35:56
There is victim number five, Jessica Taylor, an escort who went missing in 2003.
00:36:03
Another set of remains, police called Jane Doe number six, is now identified as Valerie Mack, also working as an
00:36:12
escort. Number seven, to investigators' surprise, they found a toddler girl. Number eight, an Asian male dressed in
00:36:24
women's clothing. Number nine, a female skull belonging to Karen Vergata, an escort who disappeared
00:36:33
in 1996. Number 10, female remains from a victim cops nicknamed Peaches because of a
00:36:43
tattoo on her torso. Although her remains were found 6 miles away, police say DNA confirms Peaches is the mother
00:36:52
of that toddler. None of those victims has been linked to Huermann. Is it that you can't connect
00:37:02
him yet or you believe he probably isn't the person who killed these other other
00:37:09
individuals. >> I don't know. >> Investigations also spread to Las Vegas and South Carolina where Huermann owns
00:37:17
property with detectives there taking a fresh look at cases of missing women. And then, there's Nikki Brass.
00:37:28
>> I remembered him because one, he's massive. And how many massive like 6'5" architects work in Manhattan with
00:37:36
Massapequa? >> You're going from brown and blonde. >> Now a hairdresser, Nikki claims she may
00:37:43
be one that got away. She told us she used to work as an escort and while we cannot substantiate her story, Nikki
00:37:52
claims she can't shake her memory of the night she says she was solicited for sex
00:37:58
by Rex Huermann and says she fled the restaurant where they met. >> I had never gone anywhere and like felt
00:38:06
fear. My gut was telling me I needed to get away and I've never had that before.
00:38:12
>> Nikki says what she found most disturbing is that Huermann himself brought up those bodies bound in burlap
00:38:19
by Gilgo Beach. >> He wanted like really get into it. Like he asked me how I thought they could get
00:38:25
rid of the bodies without being caught in that area. And I said I've never been over there.
00:38:30
I've never even seen Gilgo Beach. And his response was, well, it's really dark and desolate.
00:38:41
>> I'm John Ray and I'm the lawyer >> Nikki is now represented by John Ray, an attorney who is also representing
00:38:48
Shannon Gilbert's family. In December of 2011, investigators finally found Shannon here in the marsh,
00:39:03
not far from Gilgo Beach, but they don't believe she was murdered. >> It's an unfortunate incident, but right
00:39:10
now we believe that she just ran into the marsh and unfortunately drowned. >> A former investigator told us that he
00:39:16
believes Shannon was high on drugs that night and says her death was an accident. Something John Ray just can't
00:39:24
believe. While he doesn't think Shannon was a victim of Huermann, he does believe she was murdered and points to
00:39:31
that 911 call. >> It absolutely makes no sense that she's found where she is except that someone
00:39:41
else put her there or killed her there. >> While questions remain about Shannon's
00:39:49
last hours, there's no question she's the reason so many families may finally be getting answers they have long waited
00:39:58
for. We spoke to her sister Sherre in 2011. >> If my sister, you know, didn't make that 911 call, I
00:40:06
don't think that these other women would have been recovered either. >> Now investigators hope that with an
00:40:12
arrest, they can give the victims' families, who stood with them, a sense of justice
00:40:23
and of peace. >> I've gotten to know the families and I'm inspired by them and I'm impressed by
00:40:31
their patience. >> A local legend has it that this place, Gilgo Beach, was named for a skilled
00:40:41
fisherman called Gil. These silver-gray waters once his secret hunting ground. Today, this beach area is better known
00:40:53
for a relentless hunter of human prey, a serial killer whose chilling presence can still be felt in the ocean air.
00:41:29
>> CBS next Saturday, 48 Hours brings you back-to-back episodes all summer long.
00:41:35
Next week, secrets and lies. >> He said if anybody talks to anybody about this, I'll kill them.
00:41:40
>> And did you want your stepfather dead? >> No. >> Plan was murder. >> 48 Hours crime time double feature next
00:41:45
Saturday on CBS and streaming on Paramount Plus.