The Gilgo Beach Murders: The Case Against Rex Heuermann

Rex Heuermann married Asa Ellerup in April 1996. According to the Suffolk County DA, he also strangled and dismembered Karen Vergata that same month. He admitted to it in open court during his guilty plea — an eighth killing he was never formally charged with. The confession was part of the deal: admit to Karen’s murder, never face prosecution for it. Seven indictments. One admission. Eight women dead. The final episode of “The Seven.” Karen Vergata was 34, living in Hell’s Kitchen, working as an escort, battling addiction. Her sons had been taken by child welfare services four years earlier. She called her father on Valentine’s Day 1996 — his birthday — from behind bars. That was the last time anyone in her family heard from her. Weeks after the alleged killing, her legs were found in a garbage bag on Fire Island by two brothers searching for driftwood. She became Fire Island Jane Doe. Her skull was found near Gilgo Beach in 2011. She was Jane Doe Number Seven until genetic genealogy identified her in 2022. Her father Dominic searched for decades. Hired a PI. Was turned away by the NYPD when he tried to report her missing. Filed to have her declared dead. Was told in October 2022 that his daughter had been identified. Died two months later at 87. Never saw accountability. Karen’s case fills the gap between Sandra Costilla (1993) and Valerie Mack (2000), and adds Fire Island as a new dump site — expanding the geography of Heuermann’s admitted crimes beyond Manorville, Ocean Parkway, and Southampton. As part of the plea, Heuermann agreed to cooperate with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. His attorney said the plea brought his client a “sense of relief.” Karen’s full story, the evidence trail, and what it means to be the uncharged name in an eight-victim confession — all covered here. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #KarenVergata #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #LISK #FireIsland #JaneDoe #GilgoBeachKiller #LongIslandSerialKiller #TheSeven #TrueCrime

Benjamin Torres was six years old when his mother disappeared. Valerie Mack vanished in 2000. Her dismembered remains were found in Manorville that same year — unidentified for twenty years. Rex Heuermann has now pleaded guilty to her murder. For Torres, the guilty plea wasn't the ending. It was permission to start. His wrongful death lawsuit names Heuermann, ex-wife Asa Ellerup, and their daughter Victoria. The complaint alleges the two women knew about or concealed the crimes, had access to a secured vault-like room in the basement of the Massapequa Park home, and collected over a million dollars from a Peacock documentary. Attorney John Ray has argued publicly that unawareness is implausible in a house of roughly 1,300 square feet. Hair evidence linked to both women was recovered from victims' remains. The defense has called the suit reckless. Victoria was approximately three when Mack was killed. Prosecutors maintain Heuermann acted alone and timed the killings for when the family was away. Neither woman has been charged. Asa called Heuermann her savior and maintained she would have known if something was wrong. Victoria sat in the courtroom during the plea and has publicly said she believes her father most likely committed the killings. One roof. Two women. Opposite conclusions about the man they both lived with. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott examines how denial functions when identity is anchored to a single person — how the mind builds walls to protect the framework, and what a guilty plea does when those walls can no longer hold. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta breaks down what Heuermann actually gained from pleading. Every pre-trial motion had been denied. Whole genome sequencing was admitted in a New York courtroom for the first time. A deleted planning document was pulled from his hard drive. The sentence was reportedly the same either way — life without parole. Karen Vergata's uncharged killing was folded into the deal without a separate prosecution or public evidence hearing. The FBI cooperation agreement reportedly carries no enforcement mechanism. Heuermann's attorney insists there are no additional victims. The DA's office is reviewing hundreds of Suffolk County cold cases. The criminal chapter is closed. The civil case — and the question of whether proximity to a serial killer can become its own form of liability — is just getting started. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #ValerieMack #AsaEllerup #VictoriaHeuermann #LISK #WrongfulDeath #ShavaunScott #BobMotta #HiddenKillers

One thousand days of maintaining his innocence. Tears on day one. Calm, controlled execution on day one thousand. Rex Heuermann didn't just plead guilty — he managed the terms. Every pre-trial ruling had gone against his defense. Whole genome sequencing was ruled admissible. All charges were consolidated. Trial was months away with no viable path to acquittal. So the man who spent decades planning how to avoid detection planned his exit from the courtroom the same way. During a confidential proffer session, Heuermann raised Karen Vergata himself — a woman he had never been charged with killing. Her death was absorbed into the deal. No separate prosecution. No public evidence hearing. The agreement bars further charges related to all eight victims and includes FBI Behavioral Analysis cooperation that reportedly has no enforcement teeth. His attorney insists there are no additional victims. The DA's office says it's reviewing hundreds of Suffolk County cold cases. Sentencing is set for June. The families packed that courtroom. They wept as Heuermann described strangling each woman. And for Benjamin Torres — Valerie Mack's son, six years old when she disappeared — the plea was a beginning. Torres filed a wrongful death lawsuit naming Heuermann, his ex-wife Asa Ellerup, and their daughter Victoria. The complaint alleges knowledge, concealment, and profit — over a million dollars from a Peacock documentary. Ellerup publicly called Heuermann her hero. Victoria later acknowledged she believes her father most likely committed the killings, but the complaint alleges she characterized the crimes in a way that declined to condemn them. The defense response is pointed. Victoria was approximately three when Mack was killed. Prosecutors have publicly stated the family was out of town during the murders. Neither woman has been charged. But hair linked to both was found on victims' remains. Prosecutors call it household transference. The plaintiff's attorney calls it something else entirely. This lawsuit asks whether a family can be held civilly liable for what they should have known, whether documentary money can be clawed back as unjust enrichment, and whether wrongful death claims survive decades past the statute of limitations. The criminal chapter may be closed. The civil one just opened. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #ValerieMack #AsaEllerup #VictoriaHeuermann #GuiltyPlea #WrongfulDeath #KarenVergata #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers

For five weeks after Melissa Barthelemy disappeared, someone used her phone to call her 15-year-old sister Amanda. The calls came from crowded Manhattan sidewalks. They lasted under three minutes. They described what had been done to Melissa. And they were aimed exclusively at the teenager — never the mother. A burner phone Melissa had connected with the day she vanished traveled from Massapequa Park to Midtown Manhattan, matching the route between Rex Heuermann's home and office. Hours later, Melissa's own phone traced that path in reverse. Melissa was 24. She'd earned her cosmetology license in Buffalo and moved to New York to build something. The salon work was slow. She ended up in a Bronx basement apartment working escort ads on Craigslist. On July 12, 2009, she told a friend she was going to meet a man. Nobody heard from her again. Prosecutors allege Heuermann searched online for images of the victims' families after the killings — their sisters, their children. The family Heuermann went home to is now caught in the wreckage. Asa Ellerup sat in the back of the courtroom as her ex-husband admitted to eight killings. The woman who once called him her hero walked out into a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the son of victim Valerie Mack, naming both Asa and their daughter Victoria as defendants. The suit alleges the family profited from a documentary and showed disregard for victims. Victoria has publicly stated she believes her father most likely committed the killings. Asa's attorney has called the claims reckless. One family, two completely different reckonings with the same unbearable truth. Robin Dreeke and Eric Faddis break down what the phone calls reveal about the psychology of control, the legal exposure the family now faces, and how people closest to a serial offender attempt to rebuild after a confession. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #MelissaBarthelemy #AsaEllerup #VictoriaHeuermann #LISK #TauntingCalls #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #WrongfulDeath

He ate pizza on a Manhattan sidewalk and threw the crust in a public trash can. Investigators were watching. That discarded crust — legally recovered as an abandonment sample — carried DNA that matched a male hair found in the burlap wrapping around Megan Waterman's body on Ocean Parkway. Months of surveillance, one piece of garbage, and the entire Gilgo Beach case broke open. Megan was 22. A mother from Scarborough, Maine, who called her three-year-old daughter every single day. When those daily calls stopped in June 2010, her family reported her missing within two days. Surveillance footage from the Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge captured her walking out the door at 1:15 a.m. to meet a client. She was found six months later alongside Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and Amber Lynn Costello — the Gilgo Four. Rex Heuermann stood in a Suffolk County courtroom and pleaded guilty to murdering all seven women he was charged with killing — Barthelemy, Brainard-Barnes, Costello, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, and Waterman. He also admitted to intentionally causing the death of Karen Vergata, an eighth victim. He confirmed all eight were killed by strangulation. Prosecutors allege his electronic devices held checklists, methodology notes, and instructions for destroying evidence — a digital blueprint stored in a home he shared with his family. Every killing allegedly took place when his wife and children were away. His attorney described the plea as "relief." The deal requires Heuermann to cooperate with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. This week's coverage walks through Megan's life before she became a case file, the DNA chain that made the prosecution's case, the mechanics of the plea deal, and expert analysis from Robin Dreeke and Eric Faddis on what the behavioral evidence tells us about who Heuermann actually is. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #MeganWaterman #GuiltyPlea #GilgoFour #LISK #DNAEvidence #BehavioralAnalysis #HiddenKillers #SerialKiller

Rex Heuermann said it himself. In a packed courtroom, he admitted to strangling eight women over seventeen years. He confirmed the murders. He confirmed the dismemberment. He showed no emotion. And Asa Ellerup was sitting in the back of the room while he did it. For years, she said she did not believe it. She called him her savior. She dismissed the planning document. She described the hair evidence — her own hair, found on multiple victims — as circumstantial. She said she would need to hear it from him directly. She heard it. Now a wrongful death lawsuit is asking whether she should have heard it decades earlier. The son of Valerie Mack — who was six years old when his mother disappeared and was allegedly murdered by Heuermann in 2000 — has filed suit against Heuermann, Ellerup, and their daughter Victoria. The complaint alleges they either knew, concealed the truth, or deliberately looked away. It also goes after the money: a reported million-dollar payment from a Peacock documentary about the case. Ellerup’s attorney says she had no knowledge and no involvement. Prosecutors have confirmed she was away each time a murder occurred. But the civil question is different from the criminal one. A jury will not need proof beyond reasonable doubt. They will weigh whether a woman who shared roughly 1,300 square feet with a man who killed eight people — a home with a secured basement room behind a metal door — could have lived there for nearly three decades and genuinely missed everything. Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis examines which side has the stronger argument and what tips the balance. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #AsaEllerup #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #CivilLawsuit #ValerieMack #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #GuiltyPlea #SerialKillerSpouse #EricFaddis

Rex Heuermann admitted to killing Valerie Mack in open court. He pleaded guilty to murdering seven women along the Gilgo Beach corridor and confessed to killing an eighth. For the families of the victims, the guilty plea brought a measure of closure that decades of investigation could not. But for Benjamin Torres — Valerie Mack’s son, who was six years old when she disappeared — the guilty plea became the foundation for a new legal fight. Torres has filed a civil lawsuit in Suffolk County Supreme Court naming Heuermann, his ex-wife Asa Ellerup, and their daughter Victoria Heuermann. The complaint alleges the two women knew of or deliberately avoided learning about the murders, had access to a secured vault-like room in the basement of the Massapequa Park home, and collected over a million dollars through documentary and media agreements with Peacock. It accuses them of unjust enrichment, civil conspiracy, and concealment — among other causes of action. The defense position is straightforward and aggressive. Ellerup’s attorney has called the filing reckless and unsupported by any evidence. He’s pointed to the fact that prosecutors themselves have said the family was away during the killings, that Victoria was approximately three years old when Mack was killed, and that law enforcement never charged either woman after an exhaustive investigation. The statute of limitations for wrongful death in New York is generally two years — and Mack was killed over two decades before this suit was filed. I go deep into the specific allegations, the legal defenses available, how the hair evidence is being interpreted by both sides, and where this case is likely headed. Whether this lawsuit survives its first legal challenge could determine whether other victims’ families follow with filings of their own. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #LISK #RexHeuermann #AsaEllerup #ValerieMack #GilgoBeach #VictoriaHeuermann #GilgoBeachKiller #LongIslandSerialKiller #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers

They packed the courtroom — the mothers, the sisters, the partners, the friends who spent years wondering and waiting and hoping that someone would be held accountable for the women they lost. Some had been waiting since the 2000s. Some since 2010, when the first four sets of remains were found wrapped in burlap along an isolated stretch of Ocean Parkway. And on April 8, in a hearing that lasted roughly thirty minutes, Rex Heuermann gave them the one thing he'd refused to give for nearly three years — the truth. Sandra Costilla. Valerie Mack. Jessica Taylor. Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Melissa Barthelemy. Megan Waterman. Amber Costello. Karen Vergata. Eight women. Eight lives ended by the same man over seventeen years. He described how he met them. How he strangled them. How he disposed of their remains across Long Island. Elizabeth Baczkiel, the mother of Jessica Taylor, said the plea took a weight off her family. Missy Cann, whose sister Maureen Brainard-Barnes was killed, said it brought solace after nineteen years of living between heartbreak and hope. The families were given a choice — accept the plea or push for trial. They chose the admission. They chose finality over the uncertainty of a courtroom proceeding. But finality comes with trade-offs. There will be no trial where every piece of evidence is laid out. No public cross-examination. No moment where a jury decides whether the prosecution's case held. The plea sealed the record on what happened in that proffer session. It protected Heuermann from further prosecution on any named victim. And it left the families of women who haven't been identified yet with the same unanswered questions they've carried for years. Heuermann's attorney says there are no other victims. The investigation hasn't stopped. And the question of whether eight is the real number belongs to the families who are still waiting. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #GilgoBeachKiller #GuiltyPlea #Justice #Victims #KarenVergata #SuffolkCounty #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers

Benjamin Torres never got to grow up with his mother. Valerie Mack disappeared when he was six years old. Her partial remains — dismembered, decapitated, hands severed — were found in Manorville that same year. Nobody knew who she was. For twenty years, she was listed as an unidentified woman. Torres spent his entire childhood, his adolescence, and most of his adult life without knowing what happened to her, without anyone being held accountable, and without a single person in the system telling him his mother's name had been attached to the remains found in those woods. Rex Heuermann has now pleaded guilty to killing her. That admission gives Torres something he never had — confirmation. But it doesn't give him everything. And that's why he filed a lawsuit that goes beyond the man who strangled his mother. The complaint names Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann. It accuses them of knowing about the murders, of concealing what was happening inside the home, and of collecting over a million dollars from a documentary about the killings while showing what the lawsuit calls callous disregard for the families left behind. The defense calls it baseless. They say the family cooperated with law enforcement from the beginning. They say Victoria was approximately three years old when Mack was killed. They say prosecutors have never pointed the finger at either woman. Those are facts worth weighing. But so is the fact that a six-year-old boy lost his mother to a man who dismembered her body and hid the pieces across Long Island — and the people closest to that man collected a documentary payday while the victims' families were still burying what was left. Torres wants accountability beyond the guilty plea. Whether the court gives him that is a question the legal system will answer. But the question of who profited and who suffered is one the public is already asking. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #GilgoBeach #RexHeuermann #ValerieMack #BenjaminTorres #AsaEllerup #VictoriaHeuermann #GilgoBeachKiller #WrongfulDeath #Justice #HiddenKillers

Sandra Costilla was 28 years old when her body was found in the woods of Southampton, Long Island, in 1993. For three decades, nobody connected her death to the Gilgo Beach case. Investigators looked at the wrong suspect for years. Meanwhile, according to prosecutors, the man whose DNA was allegedly on her body was living undisturbed — building a career, raising a family, and allegedly killing other women for nearly two more decades after Sandra was gone. Rex Heuermann pled guilty to her murder. He pled guilty to murdering six other women. He admitted to killing an eighth victim — Karen Vergata. Life without parole. No trial. After nearly three years of fighting every piece of evidence, challenging the DNA, filing motion after motion, and losing each one — he stood in Suffolk County Court and admitted to all of it. Sandra's case changed everything about the timeline. Before prosecutors linked her to Heuermann, the Gilgo Beach killings were understood to have begun in 2007. Sandra pushes it back by 14 years. The DNA evidence that connected Heuermann to her was matched through technology that didn't exist during her lifetime. The defense tried to get it thrown out. The judge ruled it admissible. That ruling may have been the moment the defense knew there was nowhere left to go. Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer examines what the plea means for the families — what it provides, what it takes away, and what remains unresolved along the Gilgo Beach corridor where additional remains were found beyond the victims Heuermann was charged with killing. Heuermann has agreed to cooperate with the FBI going forward. But cooperation doesn't answer every question. It doesn't replace the trial these families were preparing to sit through. And it doesn't give Sandra Costilla back the three decades she spent as an unconnected case file while the man who allegedly killed her lived freely on the same island where her body was found. This is Episode 1 of "The Seven." One victim per episode. Their story first. The evidence second. Sandra waited the longest. Her name goes first. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #SandraCostilla #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeachKiller #LISK #GuiltyPlea #TheSeven #GilgoBeachVictims #LongIslandSerialKiller #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers

She called him her savior. He stood in a Suffolk County courtroom and admitted to murdering seven women. He admitted to killing an eighth. Rex Heuermann pled guilty. Life without parole. No trial. No testimony. Just an admission — and a family left to reckon with what was real and what was never what it appeared to be. Asa Ellerup maintained she would have known. Their daughter Victoria sat in that courtroom and watched her father enter the plea. Victoria has publicly said she believes he most likely committed the killings. Asa stood outside afterward, asked for privacy, and expressed sympathy for the victims' families. Her attorney said she never claimed Rex wasn't guilty — she said the man she was married to for 27 years, the father of her daughter, she did not believe was capable of these acts. A mother and daughter. Same evidence. Same nightmare. Opposite conclusions. Prosecutors allege Heuermann engineered his crimes around his family's schedule — acting when Asa and the children were away. Investigators found violent content and checklists on his devices. A deleted planning document recovered from his hard drive allegedly detailed the methodology. A basement vault held 279 weapons. Asa's own hair was reportedly found on victims. For nearly three decades, she reportedly saw nothing. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott breaks down the psychology of "not knowing" — how the mind builds walls that allow a person to live beside evidence they cannot process, and what a guilty plea does to the architecture that sustained decades of reported unawareness. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta examines why the plea happened. Every defense motion failed. Whole genome sequencing was admitted for the first time in a New York courtroom. The sentence was the same either way. Motta walks through what Heuermann gained — including cooperation with the FBI — and what the families of Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Megan Waterman, and Karen Vergata lost when a plea replaced the trial that would have put every piece of evidence on the public record. For every person who followed this case from the discovery of the first remains to the plea hearing, this is the reckoning — legal, psychological, and human — that closes one chapter and leaves the hardest questions unanswered. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeachKiller #LISK #AsaEllerup #GuiltyPlea #GilgoBeachVictims #KarenVergata #ShavaunScott #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers

Rex Heuermann pled guilty. After nearly three years of maintaining his innocence, the accused Gilgo Beach Killer admitted in court to murdering seven women and killing an eighth — Karen Vergata. Life without parole. No trial. For the families who waited over a decade for answers — some who waited more than two decades — a guilty plea provides certainty. It provides a sentence. But it also takes something away. There is no cross-examination. No testimony laid bare in open court. No moment where the prosecution walks a jury through every piece of evidence while the families watch. Eric Faddis — defense attorney and former felony prosecutor — walks through what a plea provides and what it costs with the honesty these families deserve. We also break down the evidence that reportedly left Heuermann no path to acquittal. Prosecutors recovered a deleted planning document from his hard drive — allegedly a blueprint for the killings. Whole genome sequencing matched his DNA to hairs found on and near victims, admitted in a New York courtroom for the first time. The foundational connection started with a pizza crust collected during surveillance. Over 350 electronic devices were seized. Faddis explains what happens when a prosecutor holds both a planning document and DNA linkage across multiple crime scenes, why the defense challenged the science but not the document, and what the Frye hearing looked like from the inside. He identifies the single piece of evidence he believes sealed the outcome — and his answer goes to intent, not just forensic presence. For every person who has followed this case from the beginning, this is the legal and evidentiary reckoning that explains how it ended. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeachKiller #LISK #GuiltyPlea #GilgoBeachVictims #KarenVergata #LongIslandSerialKiller #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #TrueCrimePodcast

Rex Heuermann got hustled on September 1, 2010 — and it may be the reason he's in prison. Amber Costello's roommate Dave Schaller ran a scam on a client at their West Babylon house. The client — described by Schaller as massive, an "ogre" — left, got into a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche, and sent a text: "That was not nice, so do I get credit for next time." The next night, the same burner phone contacted Amber. She walked out to meet the man. Schaller saw the truck again. Amber never came back. Episode 7 of "The Seven" — the final installment. That Avalanche description sat in the case file until 2022, when the Gilgo Beach task force ran it through vehicle registration records. The name that came back: Rex Heuermann, architect, Massapequa Park. From there — surveillance, the pizza crust, the DNA match, the warrants, the house searches, the planning document, the arrest. Cell tower data tracked the burner phone from Massapequa Park to West Babylon on both nights. Amber was 27, four feet eleven, battling addiction. Her sister said she forgives Heuermann. The evidence trail that started with a roommate's description of a truck and ended with an arrest — all covered here. The last known victim became the case that broke everything open. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #AmberCostello #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #GilgoFour #LISK #ChevyAvalanche

The pizza crust changed everything. Investigators had Heuermann under surveillance for months before they collected the abandoned DNA sample that cracked the case. He discarded a pizza crust near his Manhattan office. The DNA on it matched a male hair found in the burlap wrapping around Megan Waterman's remains. That match gave prosecutors warrants for his house in Massapequa Park, where they seized more than 350 electronic devices, the planning document, and evidence connecting Heuermann to multiple victims. Episode 6 of "The Seven." Megan was 22, from Maine, a devoted mother who called her three-year-old daughter every single day. When the calls stopped on June 6, 2010, her family knew immediately. The Holiday Inn Express surveillance footage — the last known image of Megan alive — shows her walking out at 1:15 a.m. She was found six months later in burlap on Ocean Parkway. Prosecutors allege Heuermann's family was out of state during every murder he's charged with. His search history allegedly included images of the victims and their families — their sisters, their children. The DNA breakthrough, Megan's story, and every piece of evidence that flowed from a discarded pizza crust — all covered here. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #MeganWaterman #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #GilgoFour #LISK #PizzaCrustDNA #DNAEvidence #TheSeven #TrueCrime #GilgoBeachKiller

Asa Ellerup was in the courtroom. Last row. Watching the man she was married to for nearly thirty years admit to things she once said she would have known about if they were true. Rex Heuermann’s guilty plea is now the record. And Asa is navigating a world where the person she built her life around has admitted to being someone she says she never knew existed. Her daughter Victoria was there too. Victoria already said publicly that she believes her father most likely did it. She arrived at that conclusion before the plea. Her mother held on longer. After court, Asa told reporters her thoughts are with the victims. Her attorney blasted a wrongful death lawsuit that now names both of them — filed by the son of Valerie Mack, alleging the family profited from a documentary and showed disregard for the people harmed. This is where the case gets personal for the people who’ve been following it. The legal chapter is closing. The human chapter is just beginning — for every family connected to this story. On Hidden Killers Live With Tony Brueski & Robin Dreeke, Eric Faddis and Robin Dreeke continue the panel discussion on the aftermath. The lawsuit. The family fracture. The FBI cooperation that suggests this story may still have chapters no one has seen yet. And the question at the center of it: how do the people who loved him survive what he just admitted? Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #AsaEllerup #VictoriaHeuermann #GilgoBeachKiller #WrongfulDeath #SerialKillerFamily #HiddenKillersLive #GilgoBeachVictims #TrueCrime

He said it. After years of standing stone-faced in court, after denying everything, after forcing investigators and families through years of legal proceedings — Rex Heuermann stood in Suffolk County Court and pleaded guilty to killing seven women. He admitted to killing an eighth, Karen Vergata, whose case will not be separately charged under the plea deal. For the families of Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, and Megan Waterman — this is the formal legal confirmation of what they have been carrying for years. Some wept in the courtroom as Heuermann detailed his crimes. This is what resolution looks like when it comes too late and still isn’t enough. Heuermann’s ex-wife Asa Ellerup sat in the last row with their daughter Victoria. Asa told reporters her thoughts and prayers are with the victims. Victoria has previously stated publicly that she believes her father most likely committed the killings. A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against all three of them by the son of Valerie Mack. On Hidden Killers Live With Tony Brueski & Robin Dreeke, defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis and Robin Dreeke sit down for a panel discussion on what this plea means — legally, behaviorally, and for every family connected to this case. What the defense gained. What the prosecution traded. What the FBI cooperation opens up. And why his attorney chose the word “relief” to describe a man admitting to killing eight women. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #GilgoBeachKiller #GuiltyPlea #GilgoBeachVictims #KarenVergata #AsaEllerup #EricFaddis #HiddenKillersLive #Justice

The cellphone evidence in Melissa Barthelemy's case maps Rex Heuermann's alleged movements with precision. Prosecutors say the burner phone she'd connected with traveled from Massapequa Park to Midtown Manhattan on the day she disappeared — mirroring Heuermann's daily commute. Hours later, Melissa's own phone traveled the reverse route — from Manhattan back toward Long Island. And then, for five weeks, someone used Melissa's phone to call her 15-year-old sister, taunting her with details of the killing. Under three minutes per call. From crowded Manhattan locations. Emotionally flat. Calculated. Episode 5 of "The Seven." Melissa was 24, from Buffalo, living in the Bronx, working escort ads on Craigslist because the cosmetology career she'd trained for hadn't taken off yet. She was four feet ten, 95 pounds. She had eight cats. Her landlady described her as a sweet girl. Her remains were the first found in December 2010 — discovered by a cadaver dog during a training exercise along Ocean Parkway. Prosecutors allege Heuermann's internet searches included more than 200 queries about the Gilgo investigation and images of the victims' families. The phone trail, the taunting calls, the DNA, the search history, and Melissa's full story — all covered here. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #MelissaBarthelemy #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #GilgoFour #LISK #CellPhoneEvidence #TauntingCalls #TheSeven #TrueCrime #GilgoBeachKiller

Maureen Brainard-Barnes was the first of the Gilgo Four to disappear — July 2007. Three days later, her phone was used in Suffolk County along the Long Island Expressway. Prosecutors allege Rex Heuermann checked her voicemail after she was gone. Burner phone data from the phone that contacted Maureen traced back to "the box" — a tight cluster of cell towers surrounding Heuermann's Massapequa Park home. Every burner phone connected to the Gilgo Four pinged from that same area. Episode 4 of "The Seven." Maureen was 25, a mother of two, facing eviction, about to lose custody. She took the train from Connecticut to work as an escort in Midtown Manhattan because the money was the only thing standing between her and losing her children. At 11:43 p.m. on July 9, she called a friend and said she was going to meet a client. Nobody heard from her again for more than three years — until her remains were found in December 2010, wrapped in burlap on Ocean Parkway, alongside the other Gilgo Four victims. DNA on a leather belt used to bind her remains matched Heuermann's wife's profile. The belt also bore the initials "WH" — matching Heuermann's grandfather, William Heuermann. The cellphone evidence, the DNA, the family's fight for justice, and Maureen's full story — all covered here. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #MaureenBrainardBarnes #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #GilgoFour #LISK #BurnerPhone #DNAEvidence #TheSeven #TrueCrime #GilgoBeachKiller

She built her life around him. He allegedly built something else entirely. Rex Heuermann is charged with the murders of seven women along Long Island's Gilgo Beach corridor — killings that reportedly spanned from 1993 to 2010. He is expected to enter a guilty plea, according to multiple reports. If accepted, he faces life without parole. But for the people who lived inside that house, the legal outcome is only the beginning. Asa Ellerup shared nearly three decades with Heuermann. She has said she would have known if something was wrong. Prosecutors allege he was methodical — allegedly timing the crimes for when his family was away, maintaining violent content and detailed checklists on his devices. Her own hair was reportedly found on victims. And yet she has maintained he isn't capable of what he's accused of. Their daughter Victoria has publicly said the opposite — that she believes her father most likely committed the killings. That split is where this conversation lives. Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins me to unpack how a person's entire psychological identity can be anchored to someone who, according to prosecutors, was hiding a monstrous second life. How does the brain protect itself from a truth it cannot survive? How are partners allegedly selected for their vulnerability? What does it look like when the wall finally breaks? If you've been following this case and asking yourself how someone doesn't know — this is the episode that answers that question. The answer is more unsettling than most people are ready for. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #AsaEllerup #GilgoBeach #LISK #GilgoBeachKiller #VictoriaHeuermann #SerialKillerFamily #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #LongIslandMurders

They were bracing for a trial. The mothers, the sisters, the children of the women Rex Heuermann is charged with killing — they were preparing to sit in that courtroom and hear every piece of evidence laid out publicly. To watch the prosecution present the DNA, the cellphone records, the alleged murder blueprint recovered from his computer. To see a jury decide. Now, reportedly, that's gone. Heuermann is expected to plead guilty to seven murders after nearly three years of maintaining his innocence. His defense challenged the DNA twice. They fought to separate the cases. They filed a 178-page motion for every form of legal relief available. Every challenge was denied. Criminal defense attorney Bob Motta examines what those systematic denials mean for the attorney-client conversation that leads to a plea, and what this moment costs the families who wanted — and arguably deserved — a full public accounting. Melissa Barthelemy. Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Amber Lynn Costello. Sandra Costilla. Valerie Mack. Jessica Taylor. Megan Waterman. They disappeared between 1993 and 2010. A guilty plea gives their families an admission. It also takes away the trial. Motta breaks down whether that exchange is justice — or just an ending. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #GilgoBeachKiller #LISK #GuiltyPlea #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers #GilgoFour #SerialKiller #VictimJustice