Blue Print for Murder /// Part 1 /// 810

Summary

True Crime Garage: "Blue Print for Murder /// Part 1 /// 810"

Release Date: December 31, 2024

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Introduction and Case Overview

In the "Blue Print for Murder /// Part 1 /// 810" episode of True Crime Garage, hosts Nic and the Captain delve deep into the chilling case of the Long Island Serial Killer (LISK), also known as the Gilgo Beach Killer, Rex Heuermann. The episode sets the stage by recounting Heuermann's arrest in July 2023 and the subsequent charges related to seven murders on Long Island, New York.

Expert Interview and Evidence Details

At [03:42], Stephanie introduces Rex Heuermann's latest charge in the death of Valerie Mack, with remains identified through DNA evidence. ABC News legal contributor, Brian Buckmire, provides an in-depth analysis of the prosecution's findings:

• Articles and Relics: Prosecutors discovered articles about the LISK case at Heuermann's residence, indicating his obsession with the murders ([04:33]).

• DNA Evidence: Hair matching Heuermann's family members was found on some victims, though the defense questions the reliability of DNA techniques used ([04:33] – [05:33]).

• Violent Pornography: Among the 350 electronic devices seized, a significant amount of violent bondage pornography was uncovered, which mirrored the mutilation patterns of the victims ([04:33]).

• Planning Document: A Microsoft Word document titled "HK 2002.04" was found, outlining methods for selecting, killing, and disposing of victims, suggesting premeditation and meticulous planning ([04:33] – [05:24]).

Investigation Process and Arrest

The hosts highlight the rapid progress made by the Gilgo Beach Task Force, established in January 2022, which ultimately led to Heuermann's arrest within just 60 days—a stark contrast to the 12-year stagnation prior to the task force's formation ([07:03] – [11:45]).

Nick remarks, "This is a case that we have covered many times before, but never in the way that we are about to hear today," emphasizing the newfound momentum in the investigation.

Forensic Techniques and Planning Document

A focal point of the episode is the discovery of Heuermann's planning document. The hosts explain the forensic technique of file carving used to recover the deleted Word document from Heuermann's computer ([35:12] – [36:25]).

Captain adds, "file carving is a technique used to recover or reconstruct files that have been deleted or formatted on a computer," underscoring its significance in uncovering crucial evidence.

Analysis of Planning Document

Diving into the contents of "HK 2002.04," Nick and the Captain dissect the document's sections:

• Problems: Lists obstacles like DNA evidence, tire marks, blood stains, and fingerprints that could link the killer to the crimes ([51:08] – [55:16]). Captain muses, "It's strange that it's almost laid out that it's not just a text document. It almost looks like a worksheet you get at Sunday school."

• Supplies: Details the tools and materials needed for his modus operandi.

• DS and TRG: While not extensively covered in this episode, these categories hint at deeper layers of planning.

Nick posits, "The author of this document listed these things in this manner to be kind of a quick reference tool," suggesting Heuermann's methodical approach to avoiding detection.

Conclusion and Future Implications

As the episode concludes, Nic and the Captain reflect on the extensive evidence against Heuermann, including digital forensics linking him to the crimes and the chilling nature of his planning document. They ponder the psychological aspects of Heuermann's actions, noting, "If this dude has done the things that the Suffolk County District Attorney, the Gilgo Beach Task Force, and the State of New York believe that he has done, well, this ogre does not just have skeletons in the closet."

The hosts tease further exploration of Heuermann's planning document in subsequent episodes, promising listeners a deeper dive into the sinister blueprint that may have orchestrated multiple gruesome murders over more than a decade.

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Notable Quotes:

• "File carving is a technique used to recover or reconstruct files that have been deleted or formatted on a computer." — Nick [35:17]

• "The author of this document listed these things in this manner to be kind of a quick reference tool." — Nick [55:41]

• "If this dude has done the things that the Suffolk County District Attorney... believe that he has done, well, this ogre does not just have skeletons in the closet." — Nick [49:57]

• "It's strange that it's almost laid out that it's not just a text document. It almost looks like a worksheet you get at Sunday school." — Captain [55:28]

Additional Insights

The episode also touches on Heuermann's personal life, portraying him as a seemingly ordinary man with a complex double life:

• Personal Background: Heuermann, a 61-year-old architect living in Massapequa Park, had a seemingly stable family life, which contrasts sharply with his alleged heinous crimes ([14:43] – [18:35]).

• Neighborhood Dynamics: Discussions reveal that Heuermann's residence was in a first-responder neighborhood, raising questions about how he maintained his facade amidst neighbors who were police officers and firefighters ([18:38] – [19:40]).

• Technology and Privacy Concerns: Nick expresses concerns about the use of Chinese software in forensic investigations, highlighting potential privacy and security implications ([36:42] – [38:54]).

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True Crime Garage continues to unravel the complex layers of the Rex Heuermann case, offering listeners a comprehensive analysis of the evidence and investigative breakthroughs that have brought this long-standing mystery closer to resolution.

Transcript

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[Nick]

Foreign. Welcome to True Crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Thanks for listening. I'm your host Nick. And with me as always is a man with a reminder that karma will hunt you down. Here is the cap.

[Captain]

That's right, karma is a batch. It's good to be seen and good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.

[Nick]

This week we are featuring the Ogre by the Fine brewing crew over at the Guardian Brewing Company. The Ogre is a sweet milk stout. It's a dark, creamy toasty beer with a healthy dose of chocolate and caramel. Garage grade three and three quarter bottle caps out of five. And let's give some thanks and praise to some of our sweet garage friends. First up, a big cheers to Carly Fulham from Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

[Captain]

And a big we like you Jib to Christina and St. Angelo, Texas.

[Nick]

Next up, here's a cheers to Rocky from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. And last but certainly not least, we have a triple cheers. I don't even have enough hands and arms for this triple cheers here. Triple cheers to Sedena, Caitlin and Bri and Callaway, North Carolina. Everyone we mentioned went to truecrimegarage.com they clicked on the pint glass and helped us out with this week's beer fund for this week's shows. And for that we thank you.

[Captain]

Yeah, BWR you and beer run. Make sure you go to truecrimegarage.com sign up on the mailing list and forever and ever we will love you. And that's enough of the business.

[Nick]

All right everybody gather round, grab a chair, grab a beer. Lets talk some true crime.

[Stephanie]

Long island serial killer Rex Heuermann is being charged with a seventh murder. Prosecutors say Heuerman is responsible for the November 2000 death of Valerie Mack. Mack's remains were found in Manorville and Gilgo beach right here in New York and identified through DNA. In today's court filing, prosecutors laid out that they found articles about the search for the Long island serial killer at Heuerman's home. Heuerman has pleaded not guilty to this charge and to the murder charges of six other women on Long Island. We do want to warn everyone the details in this story are pretty disturbing. I want to bring in ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire, who's joining me now in the studio. Brian, thank you so much. Good to see you. What did prosecutors reveal about their findings today now that they're moving forward with this seventh charge?

[Brian Buckmire]

So, Stephanie, they found a number of things. You've already listed some of those articles that seem to be somewhat of souvenirs for the alleged suspect in this case. They also found a hair matching the wife and daughter of Rex Uman, something that we've seen of another victim as well. How they connect the suspect to the murders. Also, of those 350 electronics that were seized, they found very a significant amount of violent bondage pornography that showed also the mutilation of the body that is similar to that of the victim in the case. But of course, they also have this document that was created in 2000 around the time of Valerie Mack's death, where they said he used it as a way of planning out these murders, talking about ropes and cords and saws and that in one part of it that said ds, which they believe is dump site, was one of the sites where they actually found some of Valerie Mack's remains. And so they're connecting it all together to say that Rex Heuermann is the Gilgo beach murder and that Valerie Mack is one of his alleged victims.

[Stephanie]

Investigators over the course of just a few months have really been able to put some pieces together. So what evidence does the defense have to push back on this case, if at all?

[Brian Buckmire]

So if at all is definitely the key in this case. If anything, they're pushing back on the DNA. They're saying that the DNA techniques that have been used in this case are not the greatest of techniques that can be used to evaluate or connect an individual to a suspect. And if you can remove that hair follicle that does take away from the case in some way, shape or form. And then of course, just trying to reasonable doubt that perhaps this is someone who is interested in the Gilgo beach murders, as many people in that community were and might have collected items not necessarily as souvenirs, but just had a true crime aficionado or curious about the case.

[Stephanie]

But then there's the DNA.

[Brian Buckmire]

Yeah. So the DNA is not necessarily his directly, but that of his wife. And they can try to say that the technique in which was used is not the most efficient one and try to raise doubt in how it was collected rather than the actual results.

[Stephanie]

So, Brian, the defense is considering whether or not to separate these charges. How would that work? How would that play out?

[Brian Buckmire]

Yeah, so there are different reasons why Rex Heuermann is connected to one alleged victim or another. And to try to separate them so an individual isn't facing charges for all seven murder victims. The defense is trying to make it seem like if you can do a few at a time and raise reasonable doubt for some cases rather than throwing all of them at once. And someone may be convicting Rex Heuermann just because of the sheer volume of victims that he's facing. They're hoping that separating victims based on either the evidence that was collected where they were found, the timeframe in which they were murdered to say this was Rex Heuermann's first case, second case, and maybe third, maybe a stronger goal for theirs or a stronger argument than doing all cases at once.

[Stephanie]

Brian Buckmayer for us here in studio. Thank you so much, Brian. There's so much to unwrap with this case and so much more probably coming forward. Thank you so much.

[Nick]

This is a case that we have covered many times before, but never in the way that we are about to here today. Today we wheel in this giant old jalopy that is push, pull or drag it into the garage so we can take it apart and try to make some more sense of things in this crazy case that has gone on for over well over a decade now. This is a case with no shortage of names and titles. We have the Long Island Serial Killer, or LISK for short. Also the Gilgo Beach Killer or the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer. And as many of you already know, the good women and men in blue over there in New York have someone in custody after many years of investigating this case. The man in custody is 61 year old Rex Heuerman. This case involves multiple murders, many cases that went cold over the years, many homicide cases that were simply missing persons cases from several jurisdictions before bodies were found off of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach, New York. Our coverage of this case here in the garage consists of us checking on this case with news, opinions of the news at the time and updates. We covered this case many years ago before the arrest of Rex Heuerman. And we covered periodically this investigation as it seemed to drag on for years with a lot of speculation, some news, but no real movement or direction for quite some time. But things really started to change with a new police chief in Suffolk County. Many of you will Remember when, on January 16, 2020, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart. I like the cut of her jib because for the first time in a long time, this investigation seemed to have some real direction. Her team released images of a belt found at the crime scene with letters embossed in the black leather. The belt had been found during the initial investigation near Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach. This would be the same general area where four sets of remains were found, all murdered victims. Police would not comment on exactly where the belt had been found. However, Chief Hart said that they had every reason to believe that the belt was handled by the perpetrator of these murders and that it had not belonged to any of the victims. The significance and really what the police wanted was some help. They wanted help identifying those letters found on the belt. And depending on which way you're looking at this belt, the letters could be either HM or WH. Then the investigation really ramped up in January of 2022 with the assembly of the Gilgo Beach Task Force. This, captain, is pure insanity to me when you look back on it and you start to think about the investigation and really how the. The maturation of the investigation and the people investigating this case. So think about it like this. Shannon Gilbert, age 24, vanishes after fleeing from a client's home in the Oak beach slash, Gilgo beach area. This is in May of 2010. This leads to human remains discovered by the side of Ocean Parkway in oak beach on December 11, 2010. Shannon Gilbert was not among the remains found in December 2010, but instead, it's the bodies of four victims. Maureen Baynard Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. All were found in short succession, all approximately 500ft from each other. This will trigger the findings of additional remains. Now, these four victims will become known as the Gilgo Four. So pardon my garage math here, Captain, but they located the remains of these victims 14 years ago this month.

[Captain]

Wow.

[Nick]

So from the public's perspective, this investigation is rather quite quiet for 10 years. Then we hear about and are shown photos of this mysterious belt that might belong to the actual killer, a serial killer. But this task force is in full operation in early 2022, and then currently we have reports coming out that within the first month or two of the task force's investigation, they are actively investigating a man named Rex Heuermann as having a connection to several of the victims. Please, let's all ruminate for a moment here, let that sink in. It's practically radio silence for 12 years of the investigation. And then this task force burst onto the scene and kicks in the damn door of this investigation and does in 60 days time, seemingly what several jurisdictions could not do in 12 years time, in 144 months time. They did this in 60 days. They found this guy. So they tailed this Rex Hurman to get a better idea of what he is, what he's up to, and is he responsible for some or all of these murders. Now, for the sake of this exercise, we cannot go into every detail of this case here today, but we want to spend this time today honing in on some of what has been learned about Rex Heuerman. Because if this dude has done the things that the Suffolk County District Attorney, the Gilgo beach task force and the State of New York believe that he has done, well, this ogre does not just have skeletons in the closet, so to speak, he's left skeletons in multiple jurisdictions all over Long Island, New York. Many of you will remember, and the captain certainly does. In July of 2023, this was big news, big headlines. People had waited for very long for this. Rex Eurman was arrested. They took him down in the streets of Midtown Manhattan. He was charged with the murder for the deaths of three of what people were calling the Gilgo 4. Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. Rex at the time, is a hulking 59 year old architect. He's living with his wife Asa and his two adult children in Massapequa park on the south shore of Long island and working in Manhattan. These locations will line up nicely with some of the cell phone evidence authorities have in this case. So Hawking. Captain, I have never stood next to the ogre myself, but I have read that he is 6 foot 4, 6 foot 5, and even 6 foot 6 inches tall in stock.

[Captain]

Well, don't they believe from his neighborhood you could see a part of Gilgo Beach. And some people assuming that one of the reasons maybe he put his victims where he did was that he could in a way look out onto that area and know what he did and almost relive what he did.

[Nick]

Well, and yeah, and we talked about the cell phone evidence just a second ago. And one thing that is really disturbing, I mean, there's so many disturbing points and details in this case, and unfortunately, we're gonna have to start crawling through those. But one thing that. That I'll never forget about this case is that who. When he was still unidentified. And now let's be clear. He. He's been charged but not convicted. So innocent until proven guilty in the court of law. But for the sake of argument here today, and for the purpose of our examination here today, we're going to be looking at it through the eyes of the Suffolk County District Attorney, the Go Go Beach Task Force in the state of New York, who are all telling us this guy that we arrested is guilty of some of these murders. And so the thing I'll never forget, Captain, is before anybody knew who the Long island serial killer was, somebody was using one of the victim's cell phones to call the victim's sister and taunt the family and say horrible, nasty things to the sister about the sister and about the. The dead woman. One of the horrible things that he says in one of those calls is, I'm going to watch your sister rot. Which is certainly implying that he has the ability to do so. I remember when that detail came out, I thought, holy hell.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

This guy, this monster is. Is. Has put one or two or four of the victims in his backyard at some point and just waiting for him to. To decompose the breaking down of the cells and the skin and the tissue to make a package easier to transport in those burlap sacks that are later found hidden in the brush along Ocean Parkway Drive. So the arrest of this behemoth will lead naturally to searches of his home, Rex Heuerman's home vehicle, and presumably his office as well.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

This will all take place. The first searches are very shortly after his arrest. So he's arrested in July of 2023. Another thing that's really fascinating, and we don't have the details of this yet, but those reports that I referenced just a second ago, that they were onto this guy in the first quarter of 2022. So that means they're watching him, they're collecting evidence, they're probably tailing him for quite some time. Now, we'll get into some of the specifics of this first search. And anybody that's been following this case has seen the abundance of news coverage that took place in 2023 regarding the search of his home. It's a. It's a red home. It's often referred to as dilapidated or kind of run down. What I, What. What I can say, having never Stood in front of the, the home or inside of the home from what my eyeballs tell me when I viewed the the news footage is this is a nice neighborhood, this Massapequa Park. And he there are some reports out there, and I was looking to triple down on the sources to confirm this, but there are reports out there that Rex Heuerman may have grown up in that house that he's been there so.

[Captain]

Long he inherited from his family members.

[Nick]

He may have inherited it also.

[Captain]

This, this neighborhood, isn't it known as kind of a first responders neighborhood? A lot of police officers, firefighters, EMTs that live in this neighborhood?

[Nick]

Yeah. And I think that is true for a good handful of neighborhoods in and around this area. Because right as we know, many, many people work in the great. One of my favorite cities, nyc, baby. I love the Big Apple. A lot of people work there, but it's very expensive to live there. So everybody kind of drives home at the end of the day to their different neighborhoods. And as said, this was a nice neighborhood. And it seems like after the arrest and when they're searching this home, there are neighbors that kind of come out and they're like, oh yeah, that house. Like, it's kind of like a house that's kind of discussed, right? Like, yeah, that's the house and that's the one house on the street that they don't seem to take care of it or they don't. They're not manicuring the yard.

[Captain]

Well, in fairness to Rex, he was really busy with his job and his side hustle as a serial killer.

[Nick]

Yeah, it ain't easy being greasy, my friend. And if this dude's guilty and it looks that way, he's greasy as hell. Now what we're going to talk about is some of the planning and all of the work. Captain hit the nail on the head there. His side hustle. There's a lot that goes into what he was doing. And anybody that studied Dennis Raider, btk will know that he too was spending a lot of his free time trolling for victims and, and working on his PJs, as Dennis Raider called him, which stood for projects for him now.

[Captain]

Yeah, well, and Dennis Raider was interesting and I guess you could say, in a sense, kind of clever because sometimes he would pick jobs that would allow him to work and work on his projects at the same time.

[Nick]

Now, I don't know that Rex's architect job that he went into that with the mindset of it's going to play into some things that he wants to do in his free time, let's say. But what I do think happened is I think there's some proof and some evidence that he used his job to facilitate some of his actions and movements and things of that nature. Because we do know that some of his activity takes place in and around. In and around Manhattan. And then some of his actions take place out on Long island and actually even further east than Massapequa Park.

[Captain]

Well, I believe the new reports are they're looking. And. And probably once they had this guy on their radar, they probably started looking into other cases in other states as well, because he did have residents, I believe, in North Carolina. Or was it South Carolina?

[Nick]

It's South Carolina, yeah. And from my understanding, that property is quite large.

[Captain]

Go King Cox.

[Nick]

What. What we learn here, and this part is fascinating to me that we have a second search that takes place in. On May 20th. It starts May 20th of 2024. This is when investigators launched a new search of Heuerman's home. And it last nearly a week. And everybody was wondering why. Why are they going back there? What did they miss? Maybe they did. It didn't do a very good job the first time. We'll get into that in a moment. Now, on the first search of his home shortly after his arrest in July of 2023.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Police found the following. And we're talking about electronic devices here seized from the home. This is from the Suffolk County D A Raymond Tierney's press conference, which was held earlier this year, June 6, 2024. He's stating, We've recovered 15 different types of cameras. We've recovered 27 computers. We've recovered 58 internal hard drives, 22 external hard drives or solid hard drive. He refers to it as solid drives. Goes on to say, we recovered 46 cell phones, nine Wi Fi routers, 44 SD micro cards, 17 tablets, 42 USB devices, eight lap cards, four GPS devices, 36 SIM cards, and 647 CD floppy disks.

[Captain]

That's a lot of technology, my friend.

[Nick]

He's got a lot going on there. Now, we can't. There's four people living in the home. As we already said, his wife lives there, his two grown children live there. So some of these items very likely are not rexes and may belong to other people that live in that dwelling. But I think the. I was shocked at the sheer number of this. But also the 647 floppy disk. I didn't. I don't know. That's got to be from ancient times, my friends, because I don't. I. I Don't know anybody that's used a floppy disk in. And we were using those when I was a little boy.

[Captain]

Well, just to play devil's advocate, it's possible that he was trying to open up a vintage computer store and call it Mr. Computer.

[Nick]

The thing we want to focus in on here for people that are. Don't have great knowledge of this case is or these searches. The area of concern for the investigators really seems to be the basement of this home.

[Captain]

And those were creepy pictures just to see. I don't believe we ever got to see inside of the basement. But just like you said it was. The house was a little disheveled. And then you. There was a door from the outside in the backyard that led to the basement, I believe. And just seeing the pictures from the outside, it was like, that's not a basement I would want to go in, my friend.

[Nick]

And unfortunately, I believe, and I think that many will agree with us here after we review some of this stuff, that that was probably a basement that several people were taken to.

[Captain]

Oh, God.

[Nick]

Lured to or moved there against their will, that that basement would be better described as a dungeon, in my opinion. And it appears like it's the workshop of a serial killer. In fact, I don't have the district attorney saying this, but there are several news outlets that have said that the information that we're going to dive into here today came from a. Either a hard drive or a laptop that was found in that basement. And keep in mind, also found in that basement were a bevy of guns and a stockpile of ammunition.

[Captain]

Can you answer a question for me? Because this is something I'm. I'm not for sure because. And I'm sure you're going to get into this later, but Rex's house is now up for sale. And I believe there were some blueprints that were released online. But it seems like there's access to the basement from inside the house. But during the searches, it seemed like they were just going through the access to the basement from the outside. Do you know if there was still access from the inside?

[Nick]

That I don't know. I've. I've been out to Long island many times, and one thing that I'm not used to here in Ohio that I saw on more than one occasion in Long island or on Long island was like cellar doors on the outside. On the outside of the home. In fact, I stayed in a. For work. They put me up in this house with several other employees, and we had been there multiple nights before I realized that There were these cellar doors. And then I was like. I was checking. I was like, oh, these cellar doors are not even locked. Like, just any old person could walk up to the outside, to the side of the house and open up these doors and walk right down into the basement. And then this. This house did have stairs, too, that led to the main level so you could access the basement from the outside or from the main home. And that concerned me greatly because I thought, you know, me being the true crime guy, the only one, of course, of those people that were on that work trip. And I'm going, oh, great. Meanwhile, this. The first time I stayed there was before the discovery of these bodies. But then they put me up in this house one more time after the discovery of these bodies. So I'm going, yeah. Not only am I out here on Long island near where these four remains have been found, and there's still a missing young woman, but there's. There's access to the basement. Anybody could just walk in here while we're sleeping, and we're never waking up, my friends. One thing that they discover, and this is amongst other things, of course, but this is the thing we really want to hone in here today. It's the discovery of a Microsoft Word document that was entitled HK 2002. 04. Many people, ourselves included, are referring to this as a blueprint for murder. So what is this blueprint for murder? And we will get into the details here in a sec. But this is a great description of this document, and this is from the folks at cnn, and they say an architect by trade. Gilgo beach killings suspect Rex Heuerman allegedly kept a chilling planning document to methodically blueprint, in the words of prosecutors, how to select, kill, and dispose of his victims. Investigators recovered the word document Heuerman allegedly created in 2000 and modified over several years on a hard drive in the basement of his suburban New York home where he lived with his wife and children. In capital letters, the file outlined the packaging of bodies for transportation, steps to avoid apprehension, and the removal of trace DNA evidence. According to a bail application, Long island prosecutors brought charges against Gearman. Quote, his being an architect is totally consistent with the hyper attention to detail that is manifested in his murders. And quote, said criminologist and author Scott Bond, who is a renowned criminologist and author and also one time guest of True Crime Garage, they had Scott Bond review this document and give his opinions on what he was seeing and reading. When we get back from this beer break, we're gonna dig into it. And give you ours. If you ever worry about the safety of your home and family, there's no better time to act right now. SimpliSafe is extending its massive Black Friday deal for our listeners. Get 50% off a new Simply Safe security system Simply Safe's Active Guard outdoor Protection changes the game by preventing crime before it even happens. If someone's lurking around those agents, see them in real time, talk to them directly, set off your spotlights, and even call the police before they've had a chance to break in. Simplisafe is the only security system that is stopping crime before it happens, stopping break ins before they happen. Get peace of mind. Do what I did. I love SimpliSafe. This is the best security system that I have had and it was one of the easiest things that I have ever installed. SimpliSafe is extending its massive Black Friday deal for my listeners this week only you can get 50% off any new system with a select professional monitoring plan. This is your last chance to claim their best offer of the year. Head to simplisafe.com garage that's simplisafe.com garage there's no safe like Simplisafe.

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[Captain]

All right, we are back. Cheers, mates. Tall cans in the air. Cheers. With your full glasses of eggnog, dust off your floppy disk. Let's get into it. Cheers to you, Colonel.

[Nick]

Cheers to you, Captain. I. I hear floppy disk, and I immediately think of the Oregon Trail dying of dysentery. Yes. Which. Which my wife, my computer wife died of dysentery many times. I was not responsible. She was in charge of the cooking. It also reminds me of where in the world is Carmen? San Diego.

[Captain]

Yeah. Where in the world is Carden? San Diego?

[Nick]

This document here, Captain. So it's titled H K 2002 04.

[Captain]

Oh, I thought it was titled H to the izzo, B to the is A.

[Nick]

Well, and it's really kind of fascinating how they discovered this document. And this, this is my opinion here. I believe that they. We know that they confiscated all of those electronic devices. To sum it up, all those things together, let's sum it up with one term, electronic devices. They confiscated all those devices on their first search. I personally believe that it is the finding of this deleted document that led them to want to go back and search the property again. And this is something that's not easily done, right? It's. It's a deleted document. They had a lot, as we just went over the inventory there of those electronic devices and such. There's a lot to pour over. There's a lot to tear through for these investigators. And.

[Captain]

But they do have the MFF FBI on. On this case, right?

[Nick]

Yes. Yes, they do. What they. The way that they found this document, this deleted document is using a technique called file carving. So file carving is a technique used to recover or reconstruct files that have been deleted or formatted on a computer. It's a key tool in digital forensics, and it's used most times in cybercrimes, but it's also used in investigations like this. Now, how it works is file carving searches for files based on their content rather than metadata. It identifies unique headers and footers associated with a file type and then carves them out. And it's useful, as said, for recovering files when directory entries are missing or corrupt, such as analyzing damaged Media or old deleted files. Now, how do they do this file carving? Well, there are tools out there available to do this type of technique. There are several software tools available for file carving.

[Captain]

Is file carving something that you studied at the school of computer?

[Nick]

No, but it, so I want to be completely clear here because sometimes people hear certain words and they think that somebody's making a political statement. And you can talk about a lot of things and never have to address politics at all.

[Captain]

Politics.

[Nick]

I, I went to that CSI course. I've referenced this a couple times. I went to that in 2023. And one part of that course which was really fascinating was they were talking about teaching officers. When you respond to a scene and you find a cell phone, whether it be a victims, could be a perpetrators, what have you.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

How, how do you secure that phone? Because if it's, if it's the perpetrator's cell phone and the perpetrator is not there at the crime scene, they could still scrub and delete that information on that phone without having the phone in their hands. And so they, they taught us how to lock and secure a cell phone so that somebody without direct access to the phone, they may be limited in their ability to what they could remove from the phone. And we've all seen, we're living in the, what I love to refer to as the golden age of solving these cases where we're using DNA, we're using cell phone technology and computer technology to solve a lot of cases.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

The one thing I will point out here, and again this is, I'm not, I don't say this to be political. I say this as a person who comes from a security background and cares about the security of others. That one thing they pointed out in that the class, which is unfortunate, is almost all of the software available currently. And this is what I don't understand because we have so many brilliant minds in this great country, but nearly all the software that's being used by law enforcement comes from China. And so when you're using that software to tear through people's cell phones, computers and what have you, you are also very likely sending all that information to, to some end to some entity that we don't know about in China, which, which could have its own implications. That, so that aside, but I wanted to make sure we bring that up because there's just certain things that the general population, the gen pop, doesn't know about that I think it would be concerning to most had they had more information.

[Captain]

Well, and back to your point on cell Phone data, which is. It's basically our digital DNA. Right. And so in this case, we have DNA linking Rex to these crimes, but we also have digital and. Yeah, digital forensics that link him. And like you said, these phone calls that were happening to taunt victims, family members, we have coming from that area as well.

[Nick]

Yeah. And we, we went through a lot of that burner phone and cell phone evidence, which involved a lot of times it showed burner phones being in the same location at the same time as victim cell phones. Furthermore, it also showed somebody using, accessing and using victim cell phones to after. After they had already gone missing.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

And presumably were dead, using victim A cell phone to contact and set up a meet and greet, if you will, with victim B and so on and so forth. And I believe we went through that on, off the record in great detail, but we got a lot to get through. So this, this is from the state's filing. This is the people of the state of New York v. Rex Herman, the bail application document. This is indictment number 716-3524. And it's approximately a 30. Let's see. It's a 37 page document that was filed with the state. And this was used in its simplest form, Captain. It's used to prevent the judge from granting bail to this person, saying, look, this, this man is far too dangerous for you to give them bail and let them back out. And here is why. Here, here's the evidence and the proof that we've collected that this guy is so bad that you shouldn't even give him bail while we build our state's case against him and take him to trial. Right now, I'm going to go straight to page 20 of the document, Captain, and we'll sink our teeth in, as they say. And parts of this, forgive me, it reads like a textbook at sometimes, but I want to read directly from the document so that we don't.

[Captain]

And some of it looks like a format somebody would use to teach a class.

[Nick]

Yes. On page 20, that's where they are referencing the seizure of over 350 electronic devices from Rex Heuerman's home. The task force attempts to extract and analyze data from each of these devices. It also goes into some of the pornography searches and pornography that was viewed on some of these devices as well. So let me read this part for you. And again, this is a true crime show. There's no nice way of saying some of these things, so you've been warned. And it reads, an analysis of these devices has revealed Heuerman's significant collection of violent bondage and torture pornography currently dating back to 1994. Pornographic images accessed by Heuerman include, but are not limited to breast mutilation, vaginal torture, sex substitution. That's the penetration with an object, the sexualization of decapitated women, which is one of the grossest things and most disturbing things I've words that I've ever seen put together in one sentence. Also bondage and whipping. Now, what the state is telling the judge here is that some of this largely coincides with remains of victims that we found that he hasn't been charged with yet. It says. Moreover, during the analysis of a hard drive recovered from the basement of Heuerman's residence, the task force discovered a Microsoft word document entitled HK 2002. 04. The document was discovered in an unallocated space. Allocated space refers to stored data that a computer is using. So these are files that are viewable and that the person operating the computer, they're able to open them and modify them them. Unallocated space refers to available or unstructured data which is not readily viewable and you're not able to open it by the user. Unallocated space frequently contains room for new data or old data that has been deleted, sent to the recycling bin or overwritten. This is an unallocated space, which means that whoever created this document. The state is saying that Rex Hereman created this document and that at some point he decided to get rid of it off of the computer and probably believe that he had successfully done so. However, their file carving software found and was able to retrieve. And I want to say this clearly because I don't. I'm not, you know, I went to school for computer, but don't have a great understanding of this whole business right here. I. Until we get to trial, we won't know any better here, Captain, but I, I don't believe they recovered all of the document. I think they recovered pieces of. Right, yeah, yeah. So they recovered this document. And what they're telling us is that they. While the. The title is 2002 04, one could very, very easily make the educated assumption that that means that this document is created in 2002 and modified throughout 2004, or it's referencing things for those years. However, they're saying that what, what they've learned is that the. This original document was created in 2000 and the original title was different. It was HK 2000 03, the year 2000. And then later it was updated and the name was changed to HK2002.04. And the state is saying that the document was created in 2000, but had been modified several times between 2001 and 2002.

[Captain]

Yeah, because that would be in the. The data. But is he the one labeling these files or are these just the file names that the computer is giving the file?

[Nick]

So this title, the title given to this document was created by a user. Now, when this gets to trial, of course, any defense team worth. Worth its salt is going to try to tell you, well, three other people lived in this home. You can't say that my ogre defendant here is the absolute creator of this document.

[Captain]

It's probably the wife.

[Nick]

The news has referenced a secret room in this basement area. And again, to me, this basement, I believe it to be the laboratory, if you will, of a serial killer.

[Captain]

Well, let me just expound on this a little bit. Right. If he inherited the house, then he would have an understanding of the layout. And there's a possibility. We had some friends growing up that they had, you know, some secret rooms or secret storage spots and in their basement. And instead of having like a typical door, it was more of like a hidden door. And it was fun. But we all knew about the secret.

[Nick]

Room, a false wall, I think some of that.

[Captain]

And, and so it's possible that he knew of this and decided to keep that a secret from his family. And maybe that's the reason why there's now these blueprints of his house being put out online.

[Nick]

Well, and the beautiful listeners out there are probably sick of hearing me say these years over and over again, but this is important. And the state is repeating these years as well because some of these years are going to coincide with some of the missing persons and later what ends up being homicide cases.

[Captain]

But this is also because there was just news that was put out the other day. Every time there's a piece, a new piece of information put out and you start down the rabbit hole again. This is a very fascinating case. This is a very fascinating. Like you said, if he's guilty, and it seems that way, this is a very fascinating serial killer.

[Nick]

Well, and what's fascinating about him is, you know, I don't want to put any of these creeps on a pedestal. And I know that's not what you're doing here, Captain, but what's. What's fascinating about him is that he's not some unraveling maniac that is just, you know, pulling people off the streets. There's a lot of planning and a lot of work that goes into this for him. We saw that with btk, and that's. That's always intriguing because we always wonder about the, you know, you always have the who. Who done it for, you know. And then once you get past that, once you solve it and you. You apprehend the monster and put that monster in a cage, you're left with the. The why and the how of it. And this gives us some clear insights into the how of it. And then you can analyze some of this to try to come up with the why, which is probably the most difficult question to answer with these types.

[Captain]

Well, I think it's difficult, too, because I think in our mind's eye, we're thinking of Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees or Mike Meyer. For years, when we have these victims being discovered in these dumping grounds, your mind is racing. What does this monster look like? And then when information comes out or they catch a break and then they have an arrest in a case, normally the first couple pictures you see of this individual, you don't see the monster that you had in your mind.

[Nick]

No.

[Captain]

Like, this guy just looks like a bunch of my friends dads growing up. You know, I see.

[Nick]

I see something different. And I think that's all perception. Yeah, it's. It's really just a matter of opinion.

[Captain]

It depends on the. The pictures, too, because when you look at his initial rest, arrest pictures and his booking pictures, I guess you'd call them to me, I see something darker. Darker in his eyes. But some of these recent pictures of him being in the courtroom, he's in a suit and tie. So I think that changes your perception of things.

[Nick]

Yes. Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. He wants to be innocent of these charges.

[Captain]

Yeah. Dress for the verdict you want, not the verdict you're going to get.

[Nick]

Yeah. So this Microsoft Word document the state says is a planning document and utilized by Heuerman, that's in their filing. That's interesting to me because we talked about what the defense team may try to do once it gets to trial. The prosecution is going to try to tell us this, and I. If they have this information, we don't know. But if I'm the prosecutor, what I want to know about this document and where we found it, the device that we found it on is, you know, a lot of the times, like on your computer or laptop, you can name it, you can name that device, you can say who it belongs to.

[Captain]

Yeah.

[Nick]

Where they recovered this. Was it. Did somebody tell that device that it belonged to Rex rather than Any of the other three people in the home. And then you take it a step further. We saw this with the Keegan Klein stuff. Kegan Klein. I'm sorry, I always go Keegan. And I think it's Ken, whatever the.

[Captain]

Hell his name is.

[Nick]

Whatever the hell his name is. Pudgy.

[Captain]

Piece of. Yeah.

[Nick]

So Pudgy was victimizing little girls with his electronic devices. And one thing that the police were saying is that these devices, you can claim that they belong to somebody else, but they, they're named. You named them and you said that they belong to you when, when you filled out information within these devices. These devices are password protected. So if I say this computer belongs to Nick from True Crime Garage and it's password protected now, that starts to really suggest that it gets it more difficult. It creates more hurdles for the defense team to clear that someone else with inside this home created this document.

[Captain]

My main computer that I use, the password is my fingerprint. I have to touch a little sensor on my computer to open up anything. So in that case, there's, there's no arguing and I don't want to jump ahead, but I don't think this is something we're going to discuss too much. But it seems like with the mountain of evidence that they're building, they're not just building a pile of evidence, they also have some nails in his coffin type evidence. So I question if this will even go to trial because at some point the defense team has to reason with their client to say, you know, we have to do what's in your best interest to protect their client.

[Nick]

Yeah. The information here says Microsoft document to be a planning document utilized by Rex here, meant to methodically blueprint and plan out his kills. The planning document begins with a four category section with the underlying headings of problems, supplies, DS and trg. So we get to review these different headers here. And the first header that they referenced and listed was problems. And under the header somebody has listed the DNA. Tire marks, blood stains, fingerprints, plastic bag, cat litter, witness trace, source of supplies, foot, shoe prints, photos, misleaders, police stop truck, stuck fingerprints in gloves, plastic bags matched to box. And then finally we have hair and fiber. So of course, problems for a killer. We can go through these quickly. I think one at a time. DNA is an obvious problem. For killer to leave their DNA at a crime scene or on a victim is going to be a problem. So problems here seem to mean ways that they, that authorities could detect that he is responsible for the murder in the crime scene that they have found he's reminding himself, don't leave any DNA. Don't leave tire marks, blood stains. We've talked about this plenty of times, too. The stabbing of another victim, oftentimes the perpetrator will cut themselves in that process. But you could also have victims, blood stains that are left on your clothing or in your vehicle if you had the victim in there, or if, as I suspect, in his basement. Fingerprints. And this works the same way as bloodstains. DNA.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

You're not going to want the victim's fingerprints found on anything you own, any of your possessions. And you're not going to want to leave your fingerprints at the crime scene or on the victim or on any of the victim's belongings.

[Captain]

Is it strange that I think it's weirder that it's almost laid out that it's not just a text document. It almost looks like a worksheet you get at Sunday school.

[Nick]

Yeah. And I think it's. I think that the, the author of this document listed these things in this manner to be kind of a quick reference tool. Right, right. Like, here's the things. Like I, like I know the author of this document. I know my thoughts and opinions and detailed information about each one of these items. But here's a quick way of me to give myself a quick rundown before game time, before I go out there and try to do this. And things that I need to remind myself of beforehand so I don't get caught. And, and the other thing too is keep in mind a lot of these types, these killers, yeah, they work themselves up into this heightened sense of excitement where they might not be thinking so clearly in the moment they might be doing rather than thinking. This might be kind of. It's not a pep talk, I don't think is the best way to describe it, but it's, it's, it, it is. It's like, here's some reminders of things I need to be concerned with before I go out and troll for a victim. Before. Before I have a hookup with a victim. Because what the state is saying is that the victims here, in this case, the victims that he's been charged with, are sex workers. And there is communication between Rex Herman and these now deceased women. And so you have to wonder how many times did he have interaction with the victims before they were. No. Before they vanished?

[Captain]

No, I think that's a very good question. And, and then also he's creating this list of things to do, almost like a guideline, but he's not following his own guidelines.

[Nick]

Well, yeah, he didn't do a great job of covering his tracks with as far as the cell phone information goes.

[Captain]

Yeah. Or this one says destroy book and computer files. Didn't, obviously. Or maybe, I guess maybe he destroyed it in the best way he knew possible. And like you said, it was just uncovered by the FBI.

[Nick]

Yeah, I believe he. As stated by the task force.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

They're saying we recovered this document in an unallocated space of the hard drive, so it can't be accessed by the user. Meaning that it was deleted, removed. And the user, for all they know, unless they're a computer genius, would believe that nobody else could access it. Either that it's. That it's just gone.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

When in fact it's not. You can almost think about this, think of this document like a fossil. Right. Like where the item may be gone. The actual item is gone, but there's an imprint left of it. So DNA, tire marks, blood stains, fingerprints. That's all pretty normal stuff that we would expect criminals to be concerned of. Plastic bag. Cat litter is a surprising line item there. The plastic bag. So we've seen in many cases where they're able to trace a trash bag back to a manufacturer, back to where it may have been purchased from, and in some cases even back to the role of trash bags that it was torn off of. Cat litter, I think is going to have a different use. Cat litter would be. I'm trying to think of what a killer would use cat litter for. So we already know that he's concerned about tire marks.

[Captain]

Well, well, my thought was that if he got stuck in the snow that you. One of the ways to get out of that is to put cat litter by your tires to create traction.

[Nick]

Exactly. Because later on down the list in problems he lists truck stuck. So cat litter would be. You don't want the cat litter to be traced. The other thing you could use cat litter for is it's quite absorbent. You will see sometimes people will use cat litter like in garages or repair shops. They'll put it down on the. The floor space to absorb grease or any fluids that might drip from a vehicle. What he might be trying to absorb would be blood. Obviously witnesses would be a problem. Trace, source of supplies. So this is kind of reiterating things that we talked about like tracing. The tracing of a trash bag. So the trace source of the supplies that he's using when committing these murders. Shoe pins, footprints, that's pretty obvious stuff. Photos. He doesn't want to be photographed. The other thing though too, you talked about the destruction of computer information or cell phone information with heedless photos here with a question mark next to it. I'm wondering if he's also saying, like, not. Not just I don't want to be photographed, but I think he's photographing some of his activities and wants to remind himself. I. You can't hold on to those that memorabilia forever.

[Captain]

Well, he could be photographing the crime scene. He could be photographing the dump site.

[Nick]

He.

[Captain]

It could also just be the picture of these females that he gets off the Internet or because some of these victims he was connecting through, what is it called, back page. So is it, is it possible that their picture was in back page and he. He kept that before he met them or kept that after as a souvenir?

[Nick]

Yeah, I think he's photographing the victims during some of these acts that he's committing. Some of the torture process. I think they are being photographed and he's reminding himself, hey, hey, monster brain. As much as. As much as you want to and as much as you think you've earned it because you've did the work to keep these photographs that you love so much, that you enjoy so much, you can't keep them because if you do, that's your smoking gun.

[Captain]

Thanks for joining us. Here in the garage, dusting off your floppy disk, tossing out your cat litter to suck up that grease. So much more to get to. And these blueprints of murder.

[Nick]

Until tomorrow, be good, be kind, and don't litter.

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