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Hi listeners, it's Vanessa Richardson. Real quick, before today's episode, I want to tell you about another show from Crime House that I know you'll love. America's Most Infamous Crimes. Hosted by Katie Ring. Each week, Katie takes on one of the most notorious criminal cases in American history. Serial killers who terrorized cities, unsolved mysteries that keep detectives up at night, and investigations that change the way we think about justice. Listen to and follow America's Most Infamous crimes Tuesday through Thursday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts.
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This is Crime House.
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Good morning everyone. We have multiple breaking true crime cases this morning that you need to know about. And we're starting with the biggest one, a Long island architect who lived a double life for three decades, killing women, going home to his family and doing it all over again. Just said yes to all of it in open court. Rex Heuerman pleaded guilty to the Gilgo beach murders this morning and we have everything from inside that courtroom. This is crime house 24 7, your non stop source for the biggest crime cases developing right now. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Vanessa Richardson and we have quite a lineup for you today. Here's what you need to know on this show. We dig deeper, we look closer, because understanding comes from paying attention. And when you travel solo, you're doing the same thing, choosing to see the world for yourself. You're stepping out outside your routine, following your curiosity and experiencing places on your own terms. 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For travel that gets the Details right, visit goette.com podcast and use offer code SOLO26 to get $1,000 off select Colette Explorations tours on April 8, Rex Heuerman, the 62 year old former Long island architect charged in the Gilgo beach murders, stood before a judge in Riverhead, New York with his hands shackled behind his back and pleaded guilty. The hearing lasted 30 minutes. When Judge Timothy Mati asked whether he felt it was in his best interest to plead guilty rather than go to trial, Heman answered simply, yes, your honor. And with that, one of the most watched criminal cases in the country came to a close, at least in terms of a trial. A trial had been originally set for this coming September, but of course it will not happen now. We covered the breaking news on this yesterday, but now we have the full picture from inside that courtroom. And it's worth slowing down and really getting into it because what came out on April 8 goes well beyond a simple guilty plea. The room itself told you everything about the weight of the moment. Victims, family members wept in the gallery. Investigators who'd worked this case for years lined the walls and windows more than could fit in the available seats in the back row. Hurman's ex wife, 62 year old Assa Elup, sat beside their daughter. 27 year old Victoria Elup leaned forward and gripped the back of the chair in front of her. Hurman pleaded guil to the murders of seven women. 28 year old Sandra Castilla, 24 year old Valerie Mack, 20 year old Jessica Taylor, 25 year old Maureen Brainard Barnes, 24 year old Melissa Bartalami, 22 year old Megan Waterman, and 27 year old Amber Costello. He also admitted to intentionally causing the death of an eighth woman, 34 year old Karen Vergada, though he was not formally charged with her murder. Under the terms of the plea agreement, he will not be charged with it, but his admission is now on the record. District Attorney Raymond Tierney told the court that prosecutors had built a case with 120 terabytes of data and more than 7,000 pages of evidence. He walked through each victim one by one, and as he did, Hurman confirmed each killing. Under questioning from Tierney, Heman admitted that he strangled all eight victims, dismembered some of them, used burner phones to contact them, and wrapped their bodies in burlap before dumping them. Tierney also revealed that Heman operated under the alias Thomas Hawk when communicating with victims, and that investigators found on his computer what they described as a written blueprint for the killings, complete with supply lists, locations of dump sites and notes reminding himself to burn gloves. After his arrest in July 2023, detectives spent more than 12 days searching his home and yard, where they found a basement vault containing 279 weap. Much of the forensic case was cracked with the help of DNA, including genetic material lifted from a discarded pizza crust. So let's talk about who Rex Heuerman is and how long this actually went on. He lived for decades in Massapequa park, about a 25 minute drive across a causeway from the very stretch of beach where he dumped his victims bodies. He was married, had a family, ran his own architecture firm out of midtown Manhattan. To everyone around him, he was ordinary. And what was happening happening behind that facade stretched across nearly two decades. Sandra Castillo was the first confirmed victim. She was strangled and her body dumped in Southampton, New York, where she was found by hunters on November 20, 1993. Karen Vergada was next. She was killed in April 1996. Her body was dismembered and discarded across multiple locations. Her legs and feet were found on Fire island later that year. And her skull wasn't discovered until 2009, 2011, near Tobay beach in Nassau County. She wasn't formally identified until 2023. Valerie Mack was killed sometime between September 1 and November 19, 2000. Like Vergada, Mack was dismembered and her remains split across two locations along Gilgo Beach. Three years later, in July 2003, Jessica Taylor was killed in a similar fashion, dismembered and discarded in the same general area. Then came a gap before heuerman continue. In 2007, he used a burner phone to arrange a meeting with Maureen Brainard Barnes and killed her on July 9th. He found Melissa Bartalami through an online advertisement and killed her on July 10, 2009, binding her remains in tape and burlap before dumping her at Gilgo Beach. Megan Waterman was similarly wrapped and left nearby after she was strangled on June 6, 2010. And Amber Costello, the final victim, was killed on September 3, 2010 10, one day after a previous encounter between the two was disrupted before he could carry it out. Back in that riverhead courtroom on April 8, when the hearing ended and Huerman was led away, the weight of what had just transpired followed everyone outside. Huerman's ex wife, Assa Elup, briefly addressed reporters. She kept her statement short. Her thoughts and prayers were with the victims and their families. Her attorney, Robert macedonio, spoke on her behalf at greater length, making clear that Elup and her daughter Victoria had no knowledge of and no involvement in the killings. When a reporter then asked Ellerup directly how she could have not seen who her husband truly was, Macedonio stepped to the microphone and cut the question off. He said, quote, we've answered this a thousand times, end quote. Brown confirmed Heuerman will address the court on June 17, the date set for sentencing. Under the terms of his agreement, Heuerman will serve three consecutive life sentences, followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 years to life. He must also cooperate fully with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit going forward. No charges have been filed in the deaths of several other women whose remains were found in the same area. Meaning even after June 17, this case may not be entirely closed. Coming up, we're heading across the Atlantic where a 22 year old cold case just got a major break. On April 8, West Yorkshire Police announced a breakthrough in one of the most brutal unsolved murder cases in the Leeds area in recent memory. An arrest more than 22 years after the killing of millionaire businessman John Looper, made possible by advances in forensic science. On the night of February 16, 2004, 57 year old John Looper stepped outside his home in the affluent Leeds suburb of Alwoodleigh to do something as ordinary as walking his dog. He lived on Sandmore Drive, a quiet residential street in one of the most prosperous parts of North Leads. But what happened in his driveway that night was anything but quiet. A group of masked men ambushed Looper outside his home, attacked him and then dragged him back inside his own house. While the intruders ransacked the property, Looper's wife, his daughter and the family's au pair were tied up with duct tape and left confined to an upstairs bedroom. When they finally managed to free themselves and make their way downstairs, they found Looper unconscious. Police were called at 1:45 in the morning. He was pronounced dead at the scene. A post mortem examination confirmed he died from asphyxia. He'd been choked to death during the assault. The robbers took jewelry, clothing and cash totaling around £100,000. Among the stolen items was something particularly distinctive. A rare platinum and diamond Cartier watch, described as one of only four of its kind ever sold in the United Kingdom. That watch has never been recovered and as of this recording, police are still specifically asking the public for information about it. Looper was a well known and well connected figure in the Leeds business community. He was a director of a clothing firm and a property leasing company and also served as a non executive director of a sports and media group. Despite the high profile nature of both the man and the crime, the case has gone cold. Until April 8, West Yorkshire Police announced that a man from Bradford had been arrested on suspicion of murder. Following what the force described as an analysis of forensic materials. The suspect was taken into custody for questioning. No details about his identity have been released at this stage. Senior Investigating Officer Detective Superintendent Damien Roebuck confirmed it was the forensic analysis that drove the arrest, and while he emphasized that no immediate further developments are expected, he made clear the investigation remains very much active. He issued a direct appeal to the public urging anyone who may have been aware of people making inquiries into Looper or his business dealings around the time of the murder in 2004 to come forward. He also specifically asked whether anyone had been approached by unknown individuals looking to sell jewelry around that period. It has been more than two decades since John Luper was killed in his own home, and a family has spent all those years without answers. This arrest is the first sign that those answers may finally be within reach. Next up, we go to Florida, where jury selection is underway in the death penalty case against four men charged in the ambush killing of rapper Julio Fulio.
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Debt Relief.com On April 8, jury selection kicked off in Tampa, Florida in the murder trial of four men charged in the June 2024 killing of Charles Jones, the 26 year old Jacksonville rapper known as Julio Fulio. All four defendants are facing first degree murder charges, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. The four men Sean Gathrite, Rashad Murphy, Davion Murphy and Isaiah chance, who were 18, 30, 27 and 21, respectively, at the time of their arrests, are being tried together after a judge ruled in March against defense attorneys who'd requested separate proceedings. The defense had argued that certain evidence, including statements at alleged gang connections, could unfairly influence jurors when presented in a single joint trial. The court rejected those arguments, finding no legal basis to divide the case, though prosecutors agreed to set aside certain pieces of evidence that didn't apply equally to all four defendants. One jury will hear the case against all four men at the same time. Roughly 250 potential jurors were expected to report to a downtown Tampa courthouse on the morning of April 8. In a capital case of this complexity, the pool is expected to shrink quickly once attorneys begin questioning prospective jurors about their views on the death penalty in Florida, anyone who says they cannot consider capital punishment can be dismissed outright. At that stage. The court is aiming to seat 14 jurors total, including alternates, and the selection process alone could stretch across several days. Here's what the case centers on. Investigators say the four defendants traveled from Jacksonville to Tampa in June 2024 and carried out a targeted, premeditated Amb. Outside a hotel where Charles Jones was celebrating his 26th birthday. On June 23, Jones was shot and killed. Three other people were wounded in the attack. Jones had built a following as a rapper in Jacksonville and was known for music that reflected the tensions and rivalries of street life in the city. His death at just 26 on his own birthday sent shock waves through the Florida rap community and drew immediate attention from law enforcement. Given the targeted, organized nature of the attack, this is not the first legal proceeding connected to his death. Alicia Andrews, a 22 year old accused of acting as a lookout during the ambush, was tried separately last October and convicted of manslaughter on a lesser charge than the first degree murder prosecutors sought, making Wednesday's jury selection the next major step forward of the broader prosecution. Opening statements have not yet been scheduled, and it remains unclear exactly how long jury selection will take. But as of the morning of April 8, the wheels are officially in motion. Heading from Tampa, we move to Los Angeles, where the woman prosecutors called the Ketamine Queen is in federal court today for her role in the death of Friends Star Matthew Perry. On April 8, the last major sentencing in Friends star Matthew Perry's overdose death case was underway in a Los Angeles federal courtroom. Jasveen sanga, the 42 year old North Hollywood drug dealer known to her clients as the Ketamine Queen, appeared before the US District Judge Sherilyn P. Scarnett to learn her fate. 54 year old actor Matthew Perry was found dead in the hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home on October 28, 2023. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine was the primary cause of death. Prosecutors say the chain that led to his death ran directly through Sanga's drug operation. Four days before he died, Sanga sold 25 vials of ketamine for $6,000 in cash to a middleman named Eric Fleming, who passed them to Perry's live in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa. Iwamasa, according to prosecutors, injected Perry with the drug multiple times on the day he died. At least three shots. Sanga pleaded guilty in September 2025 to five federal counts, including one count of distribution of ketamine. Result death. She's the only one of the five defendants in this case whose plea agreement explicitly acknowledges that her drugs caused Perry's death, making her, in the eyes of prosecutors, the most culpable of the group. Prosecutors are asking for 15 years in prison. Her defense is asking for time served, citing her clean record, her behavior as a model inmate and the time she has already spent in custody since her August 2024 indictment. The maximum she could receive is 65 years. The two other defendants, Iwamasa and Fleming, are awaiting their own sentencing hearings later this month. For the family of Matthew Perry, today's sentencing marks the most significant moment of accountability yet. But with two defendants still awaiting their own hearings later this month, the legal chapter of this case isn't quite finished.
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When a birthday party in suburban San Jose turns deadly, 18 year old identical twins are arrested for suspected murder. One of them spends nearly two years in jail before the truth comes out. Authorities locked up the wrong twin. How could one brain let his twin take the fall? And why would the other give up his freedom for a crime he didn't commit? Blood Will Tell is a modern day Shakespearean saga about what we're willing to sacrifice for the people we love and whether our most tragic mistakes are worthy of redemption. Listen to Blood Will Tell, a new series from Audible and Campus side Media, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Lastly, let me tell you about what else is happening at Crime House this week. America's Most Infamous Crimes is concluding its three part series on the Idaho student murders, the case that began with four young people returning home from a night out in November 2022 and ended with Brian Coburger's guilty plea and multiple life sentences. One of the most unsettling threads running through the Gabby Petito case, which America's most infamous crimes covered earlier, was the text sent from Gabby's phone after her death. Her mother received messages that appeared to be from her daughter. They weren't. The digital record that should have pointed investigators toward the truth was being used deliberately to point them somewhere else. It's a tactic older than the smartphone. Before texts, there were letters. Before letters, there were phone calls. Before phone calls, there were neighbors who told a story, colleagues given an explanation, family members reassured that everything was fine. The tools have changed. The impulse behind them hasn't. Here are five cases where a killer assumed their victim's identity and what eventually gave them away. Number one, Lacy Peterson. Lacy Peterson was eight months pregnant when she disappeared from her modesto home on December 23, 2002. Her husband Scott reported her missing that evening, telling police she'd gone to a nearby park to walk the family dog and had hadn't returned. What followed was one of the most extensively covered missing persons cases in American history, a months long search that ended in April 2003 when Lacy's remains and those of her unborn son were recovered from San Francisco Bay near where Scott had told investigators he'd been fishing on the day she disappeared. In the weeks after Lacy's disappearance, her mother, Sharon Rocha, received a phone call. The caller identified herself as Lacy. The call was brief and disorienting. The voice didn't sound quite right. The conversation was strange, and Sharon was left more unsettled than reassured. Investigators later examined the call as part of the broader pattern of behavior surrounding Scott Peterson in the days after his wife's death. Scott Peterson was convicted of first degree murder for Lacy's death and second degree murder for the death of their unborn son. He was sentenced to death, later commuted to life without parole. Among the elements that shape the prosecution's portrait of his behavior in the critical early period was the pattern of communications designed to sustain the fiction that Lacy might still be alive. A fiction that bought him time and complicated the investigation at its most critical. Early stage. Number two, Carrie Farver. Carrie Farver was a 37 year old IT professional and mother who disappeared in November 2012 after a brief romantic involvement with a man named Dave Krupa in the Omaha area. When investigations initially faced was not a missing person case in any conventional sense because Carrie appeared by all digital evidence to still be very much present. For two years after her disappearance, Carrie's phone and social media accounts generated a constant stream of messages. She texted Dave Krupa. She texted his other girlfriend, Shauna Goliar. She sent threatening messages, affectionate messages, erratic messages. She appeared digitally to be alive, volatile and obsessively engaged with the people in her life. She was not. She'd been murdered almost immediately after her disappearance. The person generating all of those messages was Shanna Goyer, who had killed Carrie and then spent two years inhabiting her digital identity, texting from her accounts, maintaining her apparent presence and in doing so, preventing anyone from seriously investigating her death. Golyer was convicted of first degree murder in 2017. The case is one of the most sustained and elaborate examples of post mortem digital impertinent impersonation ever documented. Two full years of manufactured presence maintained by the person responsible for the absence. Number three, Anna Walsh. Anna Walsh was reported missing from her Cohasset, Massachusetts home in early January 2023. Her husband Brian told investigators he didn't know where she was. In the days that followed, investigators retraced his movements and discovered purchases at a Home Depot, cleaning supplies, tarps, contractor bags made the morning after Anna was last seen. They also obtained his search history. Among the searches Brian Walsh had conducted in the period surrounding Anna's death were queries about how to dispose of a body, how long it takes for blood to dry, and whether a dismembered body could be identified. He'd also searched for news coverage of his wife's disappearance while it was actively unfolding, monitoring from the inside the story he had set in motion. What made the impersonation element of this case particularly stark was the performance Brian Walsh gave publicly in the days after Anna's disappearance. He participated in interviews, he expressed concern, he maintained the posture of a worried husband while investigators were simultaneously pulling apart a trash transfer station where Anna's remains had been disposed of in pieces. The public facing version of Brian Walsh cooperative, devastated, present was as much a constructed fiction as any text sent from a victim's phone. He was convicted of first degree murder in 2024. Number 4 Kelsey Barreth Kelsey Barreth was a 29 year old flight instructor and mother of a one year old daughter who was last seen alive on Thanksgiving Day 2018 leaving a grocery store in Woodland Park, Colorado with her baby. Her fiance, Patrick Frazee was the last known person to see her. She was reported missing by her mother when she failed to respond to messages over the following days. In the days after Kelsey's disappearance, her phone generated a text message to her employer sent from Gooding, Idaho, over 800 miles from her home in Colorado. The message informed her employer that she would not be returning to work. It appeared to place Kelsey alive and mobile in another state entirely at a moment when Patrick Frazee was in Colorado. The text had been sent by Crystal Lee, a woman Frazee had enlisted to travel to Idaho with Kelsey's phone for the specific purpose of creating a false geographic record. Lee later cooperated with prosecutors. F.R. was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life without parole. Kelsey's body has never been found. The Barth case is a precise illustration of how impersonation has adapted to the age of location data. The phone wasn't just used to send a message. It was used to place a body in a specific location at a specific time, manufacturing an alibi through geography as much as through words. Words number five Shannan Watts on the morning of August 13, 2018, Shanann Watts's friend Nicole Atkinson became concerned when Shannan, who was 15 weeks pregnant, failed to respond to messages and missed a doctor's appointment. Nicole went to the Watts family home and after receiving no answer, called police for a welfare check. When officers arrived, Shanann's husband Chris met them at the door. He said he didn't know where his wife was, was he seemed calm. Later that same day, Chris Watts gave a televised interview outside the family home, appealing for his wife's return and asking whoever had taken her to bring her back. He stood on the lawn of the house where he had killed her the previous night. He looked directly into the camera. In the days preceding Shanann's disappearance, Chris had been monitoring her social media activity and was aware of what she'd posted and what when. After her death, the family's social media presence, the carefully curated image of a happy household that Shannan had spent years building, continued to exist online as a kind of accidental monument, her last posts visible to followers who had no idea she was already gone. Chris did not post as her, but he stood in front of cameras and performed grief, performed confusion, performed the role of a husband whose family had been taken from him by a stranger. He was charged. Within days, investigators had obtained his phone records, his GPS data and surveillance footage from a neighbor's camera. He had driven to a work site the morning of August 13, the same site where Shanann and their two daughters, Bella and Celeste, were later found. He eventually confessed. He's currently serving multiple consecutive life sentences. The Watts case is a reminder that impersonation doesn't always require a phone. Sometimes it requires only a camera. Camera, a lawn, and the willingness to look a reporter in the eye. For the full story behind the Idaho student murders and the investigation that identified Bryan Kohberger, head over to our Crime House feed for the latest episode of America's most infamous crimes. You've been listening to Crime House 24. 7 bringing you breaking crime news. I'm Vanessa Richardson. We'll be back tomorrow morning morning with more developing stories. Stay safe and thanks for listening.
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thanks for listening to today's episode. Not sure what to listen to next. Check out America's most Infamous crimes hosted by Katie Ring. From serial killers to unsolved mysteries and game changing investigations, each week Katie takes on a notorious criminal case in American history. Listen to and follow America's most infamous crimes now. Wherever you listen to podcasts.