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New episodes are released weekly, absolutely free, but you can binge the entire season now with iHeart True Crime plus, exclusively on Apple Podcasts. You'll also get ad free listening and exclusive bonus episodes, so head to Apple Podcasts, search iHeart True Crime plus and subscribe. Today. You're listening to Hunting the Long Island Serial Killer. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in the podcast and do not reflect those of Tenderfoot TV or iHeartMedia. This podcast contains subject matter which may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. I remember like it was yesterday. 6:45 in the Morning Dream July 13, 2023. I was at the gym when the text started coming in. So many I couldn't keep count. Rise and shine, buddy. It's happening. Hey, did you hear the news? Suffolk county is about to arrest Lisk. Holy shit. Not sure if it's legit, but hearing they got him, I started frantically texting, trying not to get my hopes up as word spread among reporters, true crime authors and filmmakers like me. You see, 11 years ago, my producing partner Rachel and I made a documentary series called the Killing Season, and it followed our hunt for Lisk, AKA the Long Island Serial Killer. Investigators on Long island say they found the remains of 10 people thought to be the victims of a serial killer. The body count is climbing as investigators grapple with a very elusive monster, the Gilgo beach serial killer case. This is a case where there are still, still so many questions. When Rachel and I started filming in 2014, the case was only four years old. But for some reason, the police wouldn't even talk about it. So we started our own investigation and spent two long years searching for Lisk. And no, we didn't find him. But I know we got close, closer than anybody had been before. Since then, I've been on 2020, Nancy Grace, Dateline, you name it. Josh Zieman is the director of the Killing Season. We have an expert joining us. Joshua Zieman has an interesting take and insight in this case. You have no idea how many suspects we'd looked at. From eccentric doctors to wealthy businessmen over the years, dozens of names had been batted about, and still we investigated them all. Because you just never know who may open up that door. And let's be honest, what filmmaker doesn't want their own jinx moment? But there was also something deeper, an overwhelming frustration with a police department that had fumbled in the dark for years, leaving victims and their families in limbo. And so for the next hour, I sat there as information Trickled in until I finally got a text that said, turn on the news. Turn on the news now. New York's number one news, Channel 7 Eyewitness News. Doc. Today, after an arrest in the infamous gilgo beach murders, 59 year old Rex Heuerman from Long island is now charged in the murders of three women. Rex Uhrman. At the time, it wasn't a name I'd recognized. It wasn't anybody we'd looked at before. But since then, we've come to realize we were far closer to catching Lisk than we first thought. And those same clues that led police to cracking the case were right there all along, buried in our footage. Is there anything that you can remember about him? He was just this beast of a man, like 6 foot 9, 300 fucking pounds, white, black, Hispanic, white dude, 50 years old. Monster. It was only like a couple weeks right before she disappeared that that guy was. On this podcast, we're going to reveal those clues as we sift through hundreds of hours of old footage from our show. Interviews, phone calls, doorstep confrontations. Were you at my house today? Yes. We're looking for you. Lisk is not a good thing to do. But we're also digging back in to confront an even harder question. Could Lisk have been caught sooner? And finally, what so many of us have been waiting for for over two decades, the upcoming trial of Rex Horman, the alleged Long island serial killer. And while we might think we know who Lisk is, there's still so many questions that this trial might answer. The theory of our case is this defendant meticulously and methodically hunted down and murdered seven women. Could this man have been caught as far back as 20, 2010? God forbid we find more victims that could still be alive if they had made the arrest back then. Which brings us back to those first few moments just after Rex Heuermann's arrest when someone sent me this interview that they'd found filmed with Rex in his office. I'm Rex Uhman. I'm an architect. I'm a troubleshooter. Born and raised on Long island, working in Manhattan. At the time, I didn't quite believe that this was actually him. We'd spent years tracking down dozens of leads, identifying persons of interest. But Rex Heuermann wasn't one of them. At least his name wasn't. But when the news said that he was a commuter, now that caught my attention. Leading a kind of double life where prosecutors say he was a professional, commuted into Manhattan for his job, but that he was also a serial killer. Evidence from early in, the investigation suggested that Lisk had commuted from Long island to Manhattan. But when the news went on to say where he lived in Long island now, that was huge. He was hiding in plain sight. Heuermann lives in the community of Massapequa park with his wife and two children. All the clues had pointed to that exact same town, Massapequa Park. And then there was that video somebody had sent. That strange interview with Rex in his office. Has this job taught you about yourself? I think it's taught me more about how to understand people. Rex was huge. 6 4, close to £300. With this smile that just. It didn't feel quite real, like it was a mask. And that's when I started debating, because I couldn't believe what I was thinking. Maybe it was true. Maybe the police had finally caught Lisk. Yet as I stared at the latest photo of Rex going around this awkward selfie he'd taken standing in front of a bathroom mirror, I felt something I didn't expect. Anger. Because I didn't see some evil genius or criminal mastermind. I only saw a man who was oafish, overweight, and aging badly. And this was the guy that I had spent years obsessing about. This was the man that had snuffed out the lies of 10 victims. The same man making headlines around the world as one of the most elusive serial killers in modern history. And if this was that man, then I couldn't help but ask why? Why didn't anyone catch him sooner? Why did it take so many years? Why did this man was made of nothing more than flesh and blood, get away with something so monstrous for so goddamn long? I'm Josh Zieman, and this is Monster Hunting the Long Island Serial Killer. Now, if you think you know the List case because you've watched the latest doc series or listened to a few podcasts, I'm going to tell you what detectives have always told me. That in any series of murders, you always go back to the first because that's where you find the clues. And that same logic applies here. You always go back to the first. That was our show, the Killing Season. When she first disappeared, I called all the precincts to find out if she had been arrested. Finally, someone called me. They said, kim, they just pulled up four bodies off Gilgo Beach. Right then, I knew one of those girls was Amber. Me and my sister never talked about serial killers, but we should have, because it's one of the most common amongst this type of work. It's just not brought to light because they're prostitutes. It's just the way it is. The hunt for the Long island serial killer and the story of his victims starts back in the winter of 2010, exactly 15 years ago, on a remote stretch of highway in Long island in an area known as Gilgo Beach. All right, you guys rolling? This is Gilgo beach breaking used. An off duty cop walking his dog stumbles on a woman's dead body. This tail started waving and I saw the skeletal remains of the body. On December 11, 2010, while searching for a missing woman named Shannon Gilbert, a cadaver dog finds the body of a different woman named Melissa Bartholomew. But Melissa was only the first bombshell tonight. Within 48 hours, three more sets of female remains discovered. Who is the serial killer? On March 29, 2011, the police would uncover another body. Body count along Ocean Parkway continues to climb. Then again on April 4, three more sets of human remains were discovered near Gilgo Beach. April 11, the first set of remains found in a plastic bag. And then a second set of remains, human skull. Nancy. 3:30pm what police uncovered on Ocean Parkway went far beyond anyone's worst nightmare. The remains of 10 innocent victims. Sex workers seemingly dumped like trash on a desolate highway. But it wasn't just the number of bodies that shocked investigators. It was that some were found intact and others dismembered. The only thing that was clear was that a serial killer was hunting on Long island. And a frenzy of fear had gripped the public. You know, we're not used to any of this. People are scared, all right? Right now, it could be anybody. Before this sick bastard is caught, they are gonna find more bodies out here in these woods. Like so many others, I was fascinated by the case. But after a few years, I started to notice something strange. No more updates to the community, no new leads, no progress on identifying so many nameless victims, which didn't make sense. This wasn't happening in some small town. Suffolk county was huge, and it was one of the most well funded police departments in the country. And all of this unfolding in the shadow of New York City. I mean, you've got women wrapped in burlap on the side of a desolate highway. You've got a community pointing fingers at one another, and you've got a police force with no suspects. And you've got grieving families wondering why nobody ever helped them. In 2013, we interviewed investigative reporter Robert Kolker, who had just come out with a new book called Lost Girls that not only profiled the Gilgo beach murders, but it shed light on at least one of the issues plaguing this case. These women's lives really needed to be written about in a way that would bring attention to them because we tend to write off the victims and glorify the killer. Everybody thought these women, they were just castaways, they were outcasts, that nobody cared about them. The fact of the matter is these families knew that these people were missing. They asked the police to go look for them. The police decided not to look for them because we stigmatize escort work. With Robert's interview in hand, we started calling the families. We wanted to give these victims a voice, but we also wanted to dig deeper to explore a growing web of theories that might explain why justice had been so elusive. Theories that began with the mysterious disappearance of Shannon Gilbert. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here wishing you a very happy half off holiday because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited. To be clear, that's half price, not half the service. Mint is still premium unlimited wireless for a great price. So that means a half day. Yeah. Give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch up front payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first three months only. Speed slow 135 gigabytes of networks busy taxes and fees extra. 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Your first year terms apply on covered repairs. Suffolk county police are focusing on 24 year old Shannon Gilbert of Jersey City. Gilbert's family says on that night sh Shannon met with a man she met on Craigslist at the beach in Long Island. To understand the list case, you first need to understand the mysterious death of Shannon Gilbert. Now, I've investigated crimes for decades and I've never seen a case like Shannon's. No one has. But whatever happened to Shannon became so polarizing that it literally hijacked the narrative. It fueled Internet trolls, smear campaigns and conspiracy threads. Tragically, you might even say the fight over Shannon is just one more reason the police didn't catch Lyss sooner. Because her disappearance defies logic. It defies everything we think we know about crime. And it flies in the face of one of the first rules of detective work, that there's no such thing as coincidence. Location of your emergency? I'm in Oak Beach. What's going on there? I have to file a missing person's report, actually. During the early morning hours of May 1, 2010, Shannon Gilbert, age 24, of Jersey City and her driver, a man by the name of Michael Pack, made the hour and a half trip to Oak Beach, Long Island. Oak beach is a dimly lit, gated beachfront community and it's known for its wealthy residents who value seclusion and privacy. Shannon Gilbert is a friend of yours, right? Well, I had just met her that night, to be honest with you. A little after 2am Shannon met with her client, Joseph Brewer, a 46 year old financial advisor who lived alone. Shannon's driver, Michael Pack, waited in his suv. According to a deposition from Pack, he saw the two leave to go buy party drugs before returning. Then at around 4:45am Brewer surprisingly knocked on Pack's SUV, asking for help in getting Shannon to leave. Inside, they found the young woman crouched behind a sofa dialing 911, acting, quote, irrationally. Shannon Gilbert made a 911 call that lasted more than 20 minutes. She reportedly claimed someone was trying to kill her. Now, whatever happened inside that house sent Shannon into a panic as she bolted out the front door. Running through Oak beach, she banged on the doors of at least two neighbors screaming for help as both residents dialed 911. Shannon, dazed and incoherent, refused to answer their questions. As Michael Pack drove up in his suv, Shannon took off again around quarter to five in the morning. Somebody was screaming and banging on the door. She says, help me, help me, they're after me. When I called 911, she got very upset and took right off. And then a car was coming down the road looking for somebody. I think she was either drunk or on drugs. She just stared at me like I wasn't there. For the next 30 minutes, Michael pack tried to convince Shannon to get into the SUV so he could take her home. After speaking with one of the neighbors, he lost sight of her. Eventually, Pack gave up, assuming she had run out the front gate and hitched a ride with a passing motorist. By the time Suffolk County PD arrived at 5:40am Shannon had vanished. Gilbert was reportedly last seen screaming and running into the brush and near here after meeting a client who found her on Craigslist. The responding officer took down reports of the screaming girl and the man in the suv, but that's as far as it went. He spent only 30 minutes at the scene before driving off. To make matters worse, Shannon mistakenly told operators that she was at Jones beach, not Oak Beach. So they transferred the call to the state police and not Suffolk county. Despite a 23 minute call, 911 operators had no idea about the commotion at Oak Beach. When my sister didn't come back home, I called Suffolk county to try to file a missing persons report. But they said because of where she lives that I would have to file it through New Jersey. And they said, well, no, because she wasn't missing here. You know, she was missing Long Island. You have to go there. In 2015, as part of the killing season, we sat down with Shannon's sister, Cherie Gilbert, and Shannon's mother Mary. We tried to go to Long Island. They said, no, you have to do it where she was living. I mean, we were ping pong back and forth with the confusion over Shannon's missing persons report. Mary, Shannon's boyfriend, and even Michael Pack went back to Oak beach to conduct their own search, but found nothing. It's also worth noting that Michael Pack and Shannon's client, Joseph Brewer, had also tried to file a missing persons report. Detectives would eventually clear Brewer and Pack of any wrongdoing, but no one could find Shannon, prompting many to assume that Suffolk County Police Department and the tight knit community of Oak beach wanted nothing to do with a sex worker who had gone missing in their midst. Did you tell them she was a sex worker? Yes. And do you think that that changed their perception? I don't think it changed their perception. I think they've always had that perception. We were told by the police, do not talk to the media. Why? Why did they tell you, don't speak to the media? Because. Because of their blatant incompetency. Our daughter was screaming and crying for 23 minutes for help. The police are doing nothing. They're doing Nothing. Despite a 911 call that suggested something far more nefarious, Suffolk county would theorize that Shannon, with a history of bipolar disorder and drug use that night, had some sort of paranoid mental health episode, leaving her to run from Brewer's house into the surrounding marsh. They assumed she was heading towards the bright lights of Ocean Parkway before succumbing to the elements. According to police officials, searching the marsh was nearly impossible. It was flooded with waist high water and the thick reeds were more than 12ft high. But soon as weeks turned to months, the police stopped giving updates altogether. And in the vacuum left by their silence, wild speculation grew as to what happened to Shannon. It's been almost exactly a year now since Shannon Gilbert vanished. The day after her disappearance, Gilbert's mother says she received a strange phone call from a doctor who lives nearby saying Shannon had been in his house the day she disappeared. An Oak beach physician named Dr. Peter Hackett, who had a reputation for for inserting himself into local drama, telephone Mary offering his help. Mary claimed that during one of these calls, Peter Hackett said he gave Shannon a sedative during her panicked run through a beach. He also said he ran a home for wayward girls. Later, under deposition, Hackett denied giving Shannon any drugs and that he was just trying to comfort an upset mother. Do you believe that Peter Hackett gave your daughter some kind of drug? I do believe that Peter Hackett gave Shannon something. Whether Hackett gave Shannon a sedative or not, it was a strange thing to say. So strange, in fact, that suddenly everyone was pointing the finger at Him. One theory had Hackett as the lone killer following Shannon into the marsh and murdering her. Another theory suggested that Hackett had killed Shannon because he was covering up for something even more terrifying. Here's Robert Kolker. I interviewed the people in Oak beach who believe the doctor is hiding something. Some of the things that they say are, you know, have to do with grand conspiracies of neighbors who, you know, have been doing supposedly horrible things for years. They come short of saying that it's a satanic cult, but it's close to that. It's like weird games where they prey on young women. And it makes you think of Eyes Wide Shut. Now for those of you who don't know, Eyes Wide Shut, a film directed by Stanley Kubrick, follows a Manhattan doctor who stumbles into a mysterious masquerade ball where occult like sex rituals occur, culminating in the murder of a sex worker and its cover up. Those were not just ordinary people there. If I told you their names, I don't think you'd sleep so well. You called it a fake charade. Do you mind telling me what kind of fucking charade ends with somebody turning up dead? She was a junkie. She OD'd. Now, let's stick with reality here. Could Dr. Hackett have given Shannon a sedative? Absolutely. But he also had a prosthetic leg which would have made it nearly impossible for him to run down and murder Shannon. As for the alleged weird games, rumors of men who were waiting for Shannon in Brewer's basement who then hunted her through the marsh. As outlandish as it sounds, people still bought into it. There is no other way to describe this except explosive. These high ranking government officials have ties choke beach with sex parties. What does the public need to put two and two together here? What do they think happened to these girls? And that's because of whispers that circled Oak beach for years. Claims that politicians and police had partied out in Oak beach parties that included drugs, sex workers and of course, power. And if you know anything about cops and politicians, well, that's not really a stretch, is it? But there's a darker reason. One that's far more difficult to wrap your head around. It's because of what those same officials were about to uncover. Seven months into the search for Shannon Gilbert, waiting less than a half mile away in a beach called Gilgo. Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Officer John Malia. This is my partner, K9 Blue. Working the shoulder of the road, this tail started waving. He started indicating to a spot off the parkway. At that point I saw the skeletal remains of a body. The second day we found the second body and we found the third body and then ultimately the fourth body. All within about 500ft of each other. It was almost an unbelievable coincidence. A cadaver dog on his way back from a training mission to find Shannon, finds instead, over nine miles away, the remains of a different sex worker. And then another, and then another, and then another. Eventually, Suffolk county would uncover 10 victims in all. Discovery so shocking, residents didn't know what to think. You have a serial killer dumping bodies along this stretch? Well, you know, certainly we're looking at that, that we could have a serial killer. After determining that Shannon wasn't among those 10 victims, detectives were now faced with two overwhelming mysteries. What happened to Shannon? Where was her body? And what terrifying tragedy led to these other 10 victims whose bodies they did have? And now there were even more families demanding answers. Do you think it's part of the Gilgo killings? I believe it's all connected. After finishing their grim task on Ocean port Parkway, detectives doubled down on their theory that Shannon was somewhere back in that Oak beach marsh. But they had to wait until late fall until they could drain nearly a square mile of waterlogged terrain. Only then could they bring in a giant amphibious excavator and a helicopter to perform a grid search. It's an area that is dense with brush. It's been very for the investigators themselves and even the cadaver dogs to get into it. After an exhaustive search, they found Shannon's jeans, then her purse, then her cell phone, and then finally, about a quarter mile away, her remains. After a massive search, we have located a set of skeletons, little remains we believe at this time to belong to Shannon Gilbert. There were no physical signs of abuse or trauma, adding credence to the original police theory that Shannon suffered a mental episode, ran into the marsh, and succumbed to the elements. Yet Mary believed differently. And now, backed by her attorney, John Ray, she sued the Suffolk county police department for access to the 911 tape as part of a wrongful death suit against Dr. Peter Hackett. Have you ever heard the 911 call? It was read to me by the coroner. I never heard it. Why did they never play it for you? They refused to. They tell you why they refused? They refused saying it is still a piece of evidence. They said she wasn't murdered. It was an accident. So evidence that what? It made no sense. It didn't make sense. But why were they holding back? Because it proved their incompetence. Opening the door for a multi million Dollar lawsuit. Was it something more? I believe they're not being honest about her 911 call is not a lot to go through to hide the police incompetence when a lot of the police, governors, businessmen, they're their johns. You know, Shannon said to me once, she said, mom, you don't know who my clients are. She says, I have cops, I have doctors, I have lawyers and judges. She says, mom is everywhere. While making the Killing Season, we were contacted by a former detective who we'll call Hawkshaw, who worked for the Manhattan District Attorney's office. As Hawkshaw explained, Suffolk county has had a long history of corruption, documented claims of coercive interrogations, retaliations against whistleblowers, and of course, sexual misconduct. He told us that in Suffolk county, the top cops, the bosses, were like kings. Kings who felt they were untouchable in bedded with politicians, business leaders, and as we are about to find out, everyone else. Why do you think that tape was unreleased? Well, there's something on it that they don't want somebody to hear. This is a very big political area. Then a lot of important people. She may have uttered some names. Then they don't want you to hear it. As much as Hawkshaw's theories sounded a bit conspiratorial, we also hadn't forgotten about those rumors in Oak Beach. The parties with police and politicians where there were drugs and most importantly, sex workers. They consistently recruit girls from these strip joints, and they have wild parties down here. Who is they? Police, politicians. So your allegation is that in due course of protecting certain people, we are not really getting to the heart of the serial killer case. That's my opinion, just based on my experience and my background. So had Shannon mention names on that 911 call? Names that were being deliberately omitted to protect people. People who could provide information that could potentially solve the murders of ten other sex workers. Yet how could that be? If Shannon wasn't connected to those other murders, and if she wasn't, then why not release the tapes? As much as it all didn't make sense, it also did. Because if you start to hear enough rumors about cops and parties and sex workers, then those rumors start to become something else. A thread. A thread that you keep pulling on over and over until eventually everything starts to slowly unravel. Hey, Ryan Reynolds here, wishing you a very happy half off holiday, because right now, Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of free 50% off, unlimited. To be clear, that's half price, not half the service. Mint is still premium unlimited wireless for a great price. So that means a half day. Yeah, give it a try@mintmobile.com switch up front payment $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required new customer offer for first 3 months only speed slower 35 gigabytes of networks busy taxes and fees extra. 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The theories put forth by Mary Gilbert and Hawkshaw claims of a cover up related to escorts and high profile johns would remain nothing more than that theories until we could find some shred of evidence or some sliver of corroboration, something that would add credibility to this alleged conspiracy. Though in the end the evidence found us. Just a month after our show aired, we were contacted by a woman who we'll call Leanne, a sex worker from Long island, claiming to have intimate details about those rumored wild parties In Oak Beach. And so we met Leanne in a car outside our office. Okay, let's do this. Fine. Rolling. All right, put your hand in here. All right, so when you were called to go to these parties at Oak beach, did you know that Shannon had disappeared from Oak beach at that time? I knew that something had happened, but I was young, 20. I wasn't paying attention. The police officers who are at these parties, are they still in law enforcement now? They're very much still in these soliciting escorts. So you hung out with them at parties in 2011? Yes. Drugs were there. Drugs were there. Prostitutes were there. Burke was there. Do you have any relations with Burke at those parties? Burke and I had had sex, yes. And was he violent at all? Burke was a very aggressive person, very narcissistic, godlike. Not only was Leanne claiming that she had attended these infamous parties, but while there, she had sex with a police official named James Burke. Now, Burke was one of those top cops we've mentioned before who treated Suffolk county like it was their own fiefdom. But what's important is that six months after this alleged party, James Burke would replace the former commissioner Richard Dormer, to become the new Suffolk County Chief of Police. We're dealing with one of the most corrupt departments in the country, and they just keep showing it left and right and left and right. I've seen Suffolk county at parties after, and it's completely shady behavior. They did it right after the whole thing unfolded April 2011, and they need to cover that up. Not surprised. That police officer's party with escorts. With escorts and with drugs, sure. The fact that they did it in Oak beach, which was so right around the corner, just right after these women, we don't matter. Right? We don't matter. The idea of Suffolk county police officials having sex with escorts in Oak beach while Shannon was still missing, just a few houses away from where she disappeared, and right after that same police department had just uncovered 10 bodies less than nine miles away. Was beyond arrogant. And while there was no way to corroborate Leanne's claims at the time, her story rang true. And that's because Burke wasn't just a bad guy. He was a really bad guy. A police chief who had just been arrested for crimes that would forever change the Gilgo beach murders. Former Suffolk County Chief of Police James Burke was put in handcuffs this morning. Jimmy Burke is the sociopath. Without question, the disgraced police official may have connections to 10 women who are believed to have been murdered by the serial killer on long Island Steve. He's still denying the accusations. Ready to keep listening? Remember, you can binge the rest of the season right now with an I Heart True Crime plus subscription available exclusively on Apple Podcasts plus. You get exclusive bonuses and ad free listening. So head to Apple Podcasts, search I Heart True Crime plus and subscribe today. Hunting the Long Island Serial Killer is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart podcasts. Hosted, written and executive produced by me, Josh Zieman produced and written by Kaitlin Culford. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot tv. Matt Frederick and Trevor Young are executive producers on behalf of iHeart podcasts. Original music by Alex Lacarenko, David Little and makeup and vanity set. Our supervising producer is John Street. Editing and writing by Daniel Lonsberry. Additional voiceover provided by Rachel Mills Additional production provided by Ghost Robot Sound design, mix and master by Dayton Cole Cover Design by Byron McCoy Interns Arnetta Fontenot, Shelby Hansen, Alec Walker and Fox Williams. A and e Television Networks, LLC. Audio from the Killing Season used under license. Copyright 2025 A&E Television Networks, LLC. All rights reserved. Special thanks to the team at United Talent Agency, the Nord Group, Brad Abramson, Todd Leibowitz, Rich Pirillo and Jigsaw Productions, Rachel Mills, Zachary Mortensen, Jen Beagle, David Baker, Joe Jacalone and Evan Krause, as well as the teams at iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV. Find us on social media at MonsterPod. For more podcasts like Monster Hunting the Long Island Serial Killer, search Tenderfoot TV in your podcast app or visit Tenderfoot tv. 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