Podcast
The Gilgo Beach Murders: The Case Against Rex Heuermann
Hosted by True Crime Today · EN
For nearly two decades, the remains of young women kept turning up along the desolate stretches of Long Island — in the scrub brush off Ocean Parkway, in wooded areas out east, in places no one was supposed to find them. And for most of that time, no one was held accountable. I'm Tony Brueski, and this podcast is my deep dive into one of the most chilling serial murder cases in modern American history — the Gilgo Beach murders and the case against Rex Heuermann, the New York architect now charged with the killing of seven women spanning from 1993 to 2010.
This isn't a case summary. It's the full picture — the women who were allegedly targeted and discarded, the investigative failures that let a suspected killer allegedly operate in plain sight for decades, and the forensic breakthroughs that finally led to an arrest in July 2023. I break down the evidence prosecutors have built — DNA analysis, cellphone data, digital files allegedly recovered from Heuermann's own computer — and the defense strategy aimed at dismantling it. I cover the courtroom battles, the rulings on evidence admissibility, and every development as this case moves toward its next chapter.
But more than anything, this podcast is about the women at the center of it all. Sandra Costilla. Valerie Mack. Jessica Taylor. Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Melissa Barthelemy. Megan Waterman. Amber Costello. They had names. They had people who loved them. And they deserve more than a headline.
New episodes drop regularly as the case develops. If you want to understand the Gilgo Beach murders — the facts, the failures, and what justice actually looks like when it finally shows up — you're in the right place.
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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.
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What Did Rex Heuermann Say When He Called His Victims Sister?!
2w ago00:19:00Tap to summarizeAmanda Funderburg stood in a Suffolk County courtroom and addressed the man who killed her sister, Melissa Barthelemy. She told the court about a phone call. A call Heuermann made to her after the murder. What he said on that call is not something you forget.Heuermann was sentenced to consecutive life terms. Judge Mazzei was visibly emotional. He asked Heuermann if he was sorry. Called him a disgusting, despicable small man and a coward. Ordered him removed from the courtroom as the families chanted ogre.That sentencing closed one chapter. The cooperation agreement opens another. Heuermann will sit with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit and describe everything — how he chose his victims, how he killed them, how he maintained a Manhattan career and a suburban family for seventeen years while the bodies accumulated near Gilgo Beach. His defense attorney says he is required to be truthful, accurate, and complete. Former FBI agents say the chances he stopped at eight are limited to none. Jennifer Coffindaffer, contributor to Hidden Killers, explains why Funderburg’s testimony matters to the BAU and what the cooperation sessions may reveal beyond the eight confirmed victims.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=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis 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 #AmandaFunderburg #MelissaBarthelemy #FBI #BAU #JudgeMazzei #Sentencing #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers
Transcribe →What Rex Heuermann Didn’t Answer For at Sentencing
2w ago00:50:31Tap to summarizeHe answered for eight murders. He did not answer for Karen Vergata’s — even though he confessed to it in the same courtroom. He did not answer for the civil conspiracy his ex-wife now faces. And he did not answer for the women who disappeared near his properties in states that can execute him.Rex Heuermann’s sentencing gave the Gilgo Beach families a moment they earned. Three consecutive life sentences. A hundred years. A judge who said he was disgusting and ordered officers to remove him. It was the ending the case needed. It was not the ending the case got.The plea deal contains an uncharged murder confession, an abandoned appeal, and an FBI interview labeled “academic.” Melissa Barthelemy’s sister put the phone call on the record — Heuermann calling from Melissa’s phone after killing her, describing what he had done. That testimony exists in the official transcript.Asa Ellerup is facing a wrongful death lawsuit. She reportedly made over a million dollars from a documentary. She said on camera she did what she had to do to protect herself. She lives in the house. She sleeps in the basement.And the map keeps expanding. Four lots in Chester, South Carolina. A timeshare in Las Vegas. Missing women near both. The judge chose his words: eight that we know of. South Carolina has the death penalty. Nevada has the death penalty. Heuermann’s New York plea deal provides no cover in either.Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis covers the full scope: sentencing mechanics, civil conspiracy against Asa, and multi-state exposure. Everything the plea deal resolved — and everything it did not.Eight murders. Three life sentences. And the case is still growing.END LINKS: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/TrueCrimePodDisclaimer: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 #RexHeuermanChannel #AsaEllerup #GilgoBeachMurders #TrueCrime #EricFaddis #KarenVergata #DeathPenalty #SerialKiller
Transcribe →Did Gilgo Beach Killer Rex Heuermann Really Ask About Butter?
2w ago00:14:32Tap to summarizeAccording to reporting, Rex Heuermann sat in his cell at the Riverhead Correctional Facility six weeks after his arrest and wrote a letter. Not to a friend. Not to family. To Keith Hunter Jesperson — the Happy Face Killer — a man convicted of killing at least eight women during the 1990s.And one of the things the Gilgo Beach killer reportedly wanted to know? Whether Jesperson had butter for his bread in prison.The LISK — the man who admitted to strangling eight women and scattering their remains across Long Island — settling into jail life by asking another serial killer about food. According to those who’ve seen the letter, Heuermann’s tone was calm. Settled. He wrote that he’d been doing “a lot” of thinking. He reportedly called Jesperson’s letters “a help and a comfort.”Jesperson had reportedly urged Heuermann to confess and take a plea. Heuermann ignored the advice for nearly three years — and then did exactly that when he pleaded guilty in April 2026 to seven murders and admitted killing an eighth.I break down the full content of that letter, the psychology of why Jesperson reached out, why he then forwarded Heuermann’s response to a podcaster, and what forensic research tells us about why killers seek each other out. I also cover Heuermann’s jail reading list — crime novel after crime novel about serial killers — and what Sheriff Toulon said after watching him for over a thousand days without seeing a single change in the man’s expression.The families’ attorney called them both what they are: losers and cowards who chose the most vulnerable people they could find.Links: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/TrueCrimePodDisclaimer: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 #LISK #GilgoBeachKiller #HappyFaceKiller #LongIslandSerialKiller #SerialKillerLetters #RexHeuermannsLetter #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers
Transcribe →What Investigators Found Near Rex Heuermann’s Properties
2w ago00:17:40Tap to summarizeMissing women. In more than one state. Near property Rex Heuermann purchased during the same years he was killing on Long Island.That is the piece of the Gilgo Beach case that did not end with the sentencing. Heuermann pleaded guilty to eight murders in Suffolk County. He received three consecutive life terms plus a hundred years. He waived his appeal. The New York case is legally finished. But the judge made a point of saying it out loud: eight that we know of.Four lots in Chester, South Carolina. A woman who disappeared twenty miles away. A timeshare in Las Vegas. An escort who vanished two weeks after the purchase. Heuermann’s property footprint traces across states that carry sentencing options New York does not have.South Carolina has the death penalty. Nevada has the death penalty. Heuermann’s plea deal provides no protection outside Suffolk County. If another jurisdiction develops probable cause, they prosecute independently — and they are not limited to life sentences.Investigators have been working through a hundred and twenty terabytes of data recovered from his devices. A planning document Heuermann thought he had deleted was recovered and has been central to the New York case. Seven thousand pages of supporting material. If evidence of crimes in other states exists in that archive, the legal questions are about access, jurisdiction, and cooperation between agencies that do not always share well.Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis assesses the realistic odds. What does it take to build a case from property records and timelines? Can the FBI interview produce usable leads for other states? And what reason does a man with no appeal and no possibility of release have to tell anyone the truth?Seventeen years. Multiple states. The same pattern. Eight is a floor, not a ceiling.END LINKS: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/TrueCrimePodDisclaimer: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 #RexHeuermanChannel #GilgoBeachMurders #TrueCrime #EricFaddis #DeathPenalty #SouthCarolina #SerialKiller #MissingWomen
Transcribe →What Rex Heuermann’s Ex-Wife Did While Families Sued Her
2w ago00:17:42Tap to summarizeShe did a documentary. She reportedly collected over a million dollars for it. And while she was talking to cameras about nightmares in the basement, the families of Rex Heuermann’s victims were preparing a lawsuit that calls her a co-conspirator.Asa Ellerup is named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Valerie Mack’s son. So is her daughter Victoria. So is Rex Heuermann. The allegation is civil conspiracy — that Asa knew or deliberately avoided knowing what was happening inside the house she shared with a serial killer for twenty-seven years, and that she helped conceal it.This is not a criminal charge. The DA’s office already cleared her. But a civil case does not need proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It needs a preponderance of evidence — more likely than not. And in that framework, the evidence prosecutors dismissed takes on different weight.Her hair was on the victims. Prosecutors said transference. She said on camera she did what she had to do to protect herself and her children. She renovated the basement where investigators say seven murders occurred and sleeps there. The lawsuit calls the documentary money unjust enrichment — profiting from the murders that destroyed the plaintiffs’ families.Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis breaks down whether civil conspiracy sticks when the criminal investigation already cleared her, what the documentary payout means legally, and whether the endgame is not a verdict but a deposition — Asa Ellerup, under oath, answering twenty-seven years of questions for the first time.The criminal case is finished. The civil case is asking the questions the criminal case never did.END LINKS: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/TrueCrimePodDisclaimer: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 #AsaEllerup #RexHeuermanChannel #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeachMurders #TrueCrime #EricFaddis #ValerieMack #CivilLawsuit #SerialKiller
Transcribe →What Rex Heuermann Did With Melissa’s Phone
2w ago00:15:48Tap to summarizeMelissa Barthelemy’s sister answered a call from Melissa’s phone. The voice on the other end was Rex Heuermann’s. He described what he had done to Melissa’s body.That testimony was delivered during Heuermann’s Gilgo Beach sentencing — and it may be the single most consequential moment from a proceeding that was supposed to close the case.The sentencing gave the families what they came for. The judge handed down three consecutive life sentences plus a hundred years. He called Heuermann disgusting, a coward, not a man at all. Officers removed him. Families chanted. It was the scene everyone needed to see.But the plea deal underneath that scene is a different document than the one most people understand. Heuermann confessed to killing Karen Vergata in open court — and no charge was filed. Her family watched him say her name. His defense team had spent three years fighting to suppress the DNA and challenge the search warrants before he signed away his appeal rights in the agreement. And the FBI interview negotiated as part of the plea carries a label — “academic, not investigative” — that defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis finds worth examining closely.Faddis breaks down the sentencing from the inside. What Heuermann traded for the deal. Why the Karen Vergata confession sits on the record without a charge. Whether the phone call testimony from Melissa’s sister opens a legal door that did not exist before the sentencing. And what it means that a man serving three life terms with no appeal still agreed to sit down with the FBI.The courtroom closed one chapter. The plea deal may have started another.END LINKS: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/TrueCrimePodDisclaimer: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 #RexHeuermanChannel #GilgoBeachMurders #TrueCrime #EricFaddis #KarenVergata #MelissaBarthelemy #SuffolkCounty #SerialKiller
Transcribe →Why Did Asa Ellerup Renovate Rex Heuermann's Basement and Move In After He Confessed?
2w ago00:50:19Tap to summarizeRex Heuermann told Asa Ellerup he killed eight women. Seven of them in the basement. She called him Mr. Heuermann during the conversation. Then she gutted that basement, rebuilt it from the studs, and moved into it. She sleeps there. She says the dreams follow her every night. She says they always will.She chose not to attend sentencing. Her daughter says she believes Rex most likely did it. A victim's son who was six years old when his mother was murdered has filed a lawsuit alleging the family knew or looked away. The community wants the house demolished. Asa will not go.This is the full three-part conversation between psychotherapist Shavaun Scott and Tony Brueski — covering the confession that ended twenty-seven years of marriage, the double life that sustained seventeen years of murder, and the impossible position Asa is in now. Every detail verified. Every question grounded in reporting from the Peacock documentary, the guilty plea, and the wrongful death lawsuit. If you have been following this case, this is the conversation that puts it all in one place.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/TrueCrimePodThis 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 #HiddenKillers #VictoriaHeuermann #GilgoBeach #GilgoBeachKiller #ShavaunScott #TrueCrime #PeacockDocumentary #Sentencing
Transcribe →Rex Heuermann's Family Made a Million Dollars Telling His Story to Peacock
2w ago00:17:36Tap to summarizeAsa Ellerup and her daughter Victoria reportedly received over a million dollars for their participation in the Peacock documentary The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets. They gave the cameras access to the Massapequa Park house. They walked through the basement. They talked about their memories and their doubts and their grief on a platform watched by millions of people — while Valerie Mack's son was preparing a lawsuit that would name them as defendants.Benjamin Torres was six when his mother was killed. His lawsuit alleges Asa and Victoria knew or deliberately avoided knowing what was happening inside that house. Asa's attorney has denied any involvement. Prosecutors have said the murders happened when the family was away.Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski to address the question that has followed the Ellerup family since the documentary aired — why a family in the worst crisis imaginable would invite cameras into their home. Whether that decision was about money, narrative control, processing, or some combination nobody on the outside can untangle. And what the clinical difference is between someone who genuinely did not know and someone whose mind chose not to look.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/TrueCrimePodThis 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 #HiddenKillers #VictoriaHeuermann #GilgoBeach #GilgoBeachKiller #PeacockDocumentary #ShavaunScott #TrueCrime #ValerieMack
Transcribe →Why Didn't Rex Heuermann Look at the Courtroom Once During His Guilty Plea?
2w ago00:15:47Tap to summarizeHe faced the DA and answered every question in one or two words. Strangulation. Yes. Eight. He did not turn around to look at the families of the women he killed. He did not look at his own daughter. He stood with his hands shackled behind his back in a dark suit and gave the courtroom nothing.Rex Heuermann maintained a double life for seventeen years — suburban architect and father on one side, serial murderer on the other. He planned each killing for when his wife and children were out of town. His attorney described the plea as a huge relief. A friend said he was always respectful to women.Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski for a conversation about what the courtroom presentation reveals about someone who has compartmentalized violence for that long. Whether the refusal to look at the gallery is control, indifference, or something the clinical literature has a name for. And whether a mind that walled itself off for two decades can provide useful information to the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, which Heuermann is now required to cooperate with as part of his plea deal.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/TrueCrimePodThis 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 #HiddenKillers #GilgoBeachKiller #ShavaunScott #TrueCrime #GuiltyPlea #SerialKillerPsychology #Compartmentalization #Sentencing
Transcribe →Victoria Heuermann Can't Forget What Her Family Was Doing While He Killed
2w ago00:17:35Tap to summarizeVictoria Heuermann said it on camera: while we were having fun on vacation, he was home murdering and dismembering women here. She has told documentary producers she now believes her father most likely committed the Gilgo Beach murders. She got to that conclusion after years of publicly standing beside her mother, walking into the house, going down into the basement, and trying to square the father she admired with the man prosecutors described.Her mother Asa has not arrived at the same place. After a jailhouse visit where Heuermann confessed to eight killings — seven in the family basement — Asa's attorney said he does not know if she will ever believe the man she knew was capable of this. The split between mother and daughter is the psychological center of this case now.Psychotherapist Shavaun Scott joins Tony Brueski to discuss what it does to a person when every family vacation, every holiday, every memory gets reprocessed through the knowledge that while you were gone, he was killing. And why Victoria's willingness to say it out loud may be the most important thing anyone in that family has done.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/TrueCrimePodThis 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 #VictoriaHeuermann #HiddenKillers #AsaEllerup #GilgoBeach #GilgoBeachKiller #ShavaunScott #TrueCrime #SerialKillerDaughter #PeacockDocumentary
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