Original subtitles

These young women went missing between

July of 2007 and September of 2010. For

the next 13 years, their

cases went

unsolved. Until today, Rex Yur Rex

Yerman Rex Yur Rex Yur Rex Yerman is now

in custody. Go Beach has been used to

discard human remains for some time.

This is the perfect place to dump a

body. I found another one. Three more

really scared me. Body count. Body

count. Body count. People in our area

are starting to get nervous. We're

anxious to have this over with. And

that's when I remember police

commissioner saying for the first time

the words serial killer. We could have a

serial killer.

Her last phone call was to 911. If not

for Shannon Gilbert, these women would

not have been found. Find this killer

before he strikes and hurts and murders

someone you love. He believes the killer

is likely still in the area. What has

Rex Herman been doing all this time?

Likely following the police department's

every move. He had over 200 searches

pertaining to the Gilgo investigation.

It really makes me wonder like was he

watching us? This guy made a mistake

somewhere. He said someday that they'll

figure out what that was.

I was the Long Island Reporter for about

four years. I had just gotten this job

in 2009, in the fall of

2009. I grew up in New York City and I

went to high school in the Bronx and I

knew all about the five burrows and I I

was familiar with New Jersey, but I'd

honestly never really been to Long

Island more than once or twice in my

life. And I got hired by Channel 7 and

they gave me the Long Island job. And so

it was interesting cuz I had to kind of

learn it and I was working every day

with photographer named Tony Satno who

was my partner and is still to this day

the Long Island photographer has worked

for this company for decades. Really

smart guy who knows every inch of that

bureau

area. It's important to talk about where

the discoveries happened. They happened

on this completely deserted stretch of I

think it's around 15 miles long. It's

the ocean parkway and it's just

basically a road and dunes on either

side. And here and there there are

little villages. Gilgo Beach is one of

them. Oak Beach is another. Tobay Beach

is another. And in between them it's

just nothing. There's the ocean on one

side and the bay on the other side. Some

of them are real surfers paradises and

and they and people do go to them and

they are beautiful in the summer. Every

other time of year it's basically

deserted. And you know it's beautiful

during the day. At night it, you know,

there are no street lights and if there

is traffic, you you could hear the

traffic coming from probably a couple

miles away and you could see the lights

because it's just a long stretch. You

know, it's an ideal place for a serial

killer to do

this. We were out in Suffach County on a

regular garden variety day. We were

doing, I think, a live shot at 5:00 in

Suffach County, maybe 5:30. We were on

our way back and we got a call from the

desk. There's a crime scene. There's a

maybe body discovered way down south on

Ocean Parkway. Go check it out.

Everything on that barrier island is a

solid 10° colder than it is anywhere

else. It's just cold and windy and

punishing and just just raw. It's pitch

black and there are four crime scenes

along the beach. you know, every, you

know, maybe 30 to 50 yards or so, there

was another crime scene vehicle and

spotlight set up and then another one

and another one. And it was clear at

that point that it was something. It was

maybe 6:15. The news still had 15

minutes left. They were going into

weather and sports and we wouldn't

usually do kind of come up with breaking

news, but the producers said they wanted

it and so we set up to do a live shot.

The producer of the 6:00 news here, who

is still the producer, told me he

remembers that live shot. I remember a

six o'clock newscast trying to get him

on. We went to the story and if you

notice the graphic wasn't even properly

set up when we went to it. It's just at

the very last second, okay, I see Josh

up there. Let's just do it.

We're following some breaking news right

now. A body has been found in Oak Beach.

Breaking news. Liz Cho says we're, you

know, following breaking news on Long

Island. A crime scene. and a body's been

discovered and police believe there may

be other bodies out there. Liz remembers

that. Everyone remembers that live shot

because it was really messy on the air.

The producer had gotten in my ear from

the control room to tell me that

breaking news was happening on Long

Island. So, there was this urgency to

get to Josh to establish that live shot.

We were having technical problems. We

have a signal. We don't have a signal.

We haven't signal. We don't have a

signal. Apparently, we've been just been

told that we have lost our live shot.

That happened several times. And then

finally, once we had signal, we tried it

and it failed. We're going to try to

reestablish our live show with

Eyewitness News reporter Josh Inger as

soon as we do, we will bring you much

more on this breaking news. And we'll

have much more coming up tonight on

Eyewitness News at 11:00 as well. The

signal dropped out and they didn't have

us. And then she had to kind of ad she

and Bill had to adlib their way into a

commercial break. Bodies buried at the

beach. Charming. Yes. Yes. This story

was not like a regular breaking news

story. It is not every day that you hear

about human remains, several bodies in

an area around here. Eyewitness News

reporter Josh Inger. He's following that

breaking news uh in Oak Beach. We want

to return to him right now. Josh, what's

up? They finally came to us and we did

this live shot. This is the barrier

island to the south of the town of

Babylon. A extensive search that goes on

for a good mile along the bay here,

south of the town of Babylon. You could

see crime scene investigators there. And

then Tony, if you want to come back out,

you could stay behind me and then clear

up the beach right here. As he's

describing what he sees, I am trying to

zoom in and show the public exactly

what's going on, the crime scene, the

officers, the detectives, and showing

the distance of the vehicles to show

that it's not just condensed into one

small area. It is covering a large area

of Ocean Parkway. We know right now that

they can confirm in the last couple of

days they have found two bodies. We

didn't know anything at the time. All we

knew is that there were, you know, human

remains found. We didn't really know

what. There had been the discovery of

human remains 2 days earlier on the

weekend that we'd gotten tape of the

crime scene, but we hadn't really

covered it all that extensively. We

believe skeletal remains, one on

Saturday, one today, and we're told

possibly more uh remains, the remains of

more bodies on the beach. We'll continue

to follow us throughout the night. A

full report on Eyewitness News tonight

at 11. Told me something fascinating. He

said he just knew he wanted to get it on

the air because to him it seemed like

something big and that he would regret

not jamming it into his newscast and not

figuring out how to do it. remember this

discussion during whether is it really

worth again trying to go after it. Me

being the sarcastic person I am, I said

with my luck, it's going to end up being

a serial killer. So, let's do it. But

for now, we're live on Gilgo Beach.

Josh, Channel 7 Eyewitness News. All

right, Josh, thank you. Keep us up to

date. It was kind of ironic when the

signal dropped out twice that this

mystery, this murder mystery, mass

murder mystery really, we knew so little

about it and we couldn't even get the

signal up. It was sort of like some

indices that says you don't know

anything about this. I've been covering

Long Island for quite a number of years,

but we never realized that when we

pulled up that night that over 10 years

it would still be an ongoing crime

scene. And it ended up being the first

report of this global story, this

unbelievable true crime mystery that

really persists to this day. Oak Beach

tonight looking more like a gruesome

cemetery. On Saturday, a canine unit on

a training exercise here uncovered the

first body. Investigators trying to

determine if the skeleton belonged to a

young person who was reported missing

earlier this year. When search teams

returned to the same location today to

look for more evidence, they found

instead three more bodies stuffed in

these brushes. I don't think I was ever

prepared for what it was going to look

like when I got to Gilgo. How truly

isolated and eerie it was going to look

like. Police discovered three more

bodies yesterday at Oak Beach, a remote

barrier island popular in the summer. I

was new to Channel 7. I was from Texas.

It was the most cold weather I've ever

experienced in my life. Like, it sliced

through me. All of the remains were

stuffed in the bushes along an isolated

strip of waterfront property. I think we

got there at 2:00 in the morning after

they found the first three bodies. And

even though there were a number of crews

out there, it still seemed very, very

isolated. You just could not make up the

story. You could not make up the

weather. Just the entire environment at

the time. It was It was just spooky. It

was really spooky. Whenever I think of

this story, I just think I'm cold

because it was so cold. We're here at

the scene of this very disturbing

discovery over the past couple of days.

The day after that first report, I

actually drove out and met Tony there

and it was really cold and there was

snow on the ground. Four bodies. Just in

the last couple of minutes, we have seen

just off in the distance a cadaavver dog

that was brought out here really in the

last 10 minutes to continue the search

because police do not know if there are

any more bodies out there. And that's

when I remember the police commissioner

saying for the first time the words

serial killer. We're looking at that.

We're looking at that that we could have

a serial killer.

one of the most significant things I've

ever heard any kind of public official

say, I think it was the first full day

after that first report that we did. And

there's a press conference with the man

who was then the police commissioner and

he said something that to this day I

remember everything about what he said

and how he said it. He said, "We're

looking at that. We're looking at that

that we could have a serial killer." And

it was something about the syntax and

the way he phrased it. It it it was in

response to somebody said, "Is this a

serial killer?" And to this day, so many

years later, symbolizes, you know, the

moment that it was clear that this was

something enormous. I don't think it's a

coincidence that four bodies ended up uh

in this area. When you're looking for

one person and then you find three other

remains, you know it's bigger than what

you're covering at the time. And then

we'd have these updates and they were

typically on anniversaries or whatever.

And I think it belies the dysfunction at

the top of the police department at the

time because they clearly didn't know

whether it was one person or two people

or three people. Anything is possible at

this point because there's so many

unanswered questions. There was a lot of

speculation because it's still a remote

area. Maybe more than one person use

this as a dumping ground because it was

that isolated. The weather conditions

were that extreme out there. I don't

want anybody to think that we have a

Jack the Ripper running around Suffach

County with blood dripping from a knife.

They told us all of those things over a

course of many months. They said this is

a serial killer. They say definitely the

work of a serial killer. Then they said

they think this is two serial killers.

The killings may be the work of more

than one person. This is not an episode

of CSI. This is an intensive, long-term

investigation that includes the use of

sophisticated technology as well as good

old-fashioned detective work. Then they

said they think this is three serial

killers. A short time ago, police said

the bodies found dumped at several

beaches are the work of at least three

killers, not one. And what is now very

clear is that the area in and around

Gilgo Beach has been used to discard

human remains for some period of time.

And then again, they came back to one.

But the theory is now that we're dealing

with one serial killer. It's sort of the

tragedy of this story is how

incompetently managed this investigation

was from the beginning. Suffach County

had never dealt with an investigation

like this and they were very clearly in

over their heads. It is an enormously

painstaking and a very protracted

process to really get all the right

information and be accurate about this.

We have no idea whatsoever that we're

dealing with the serial killer. My

initial feeling was, "Wow, this is going

to be a huge story." And, you know, I

had never found myself in the middle of

a serial killer case before and

certainly not one that was just

starting. I mean, you know, a lot of

times you see these cases that go on

forever and maybe you'll find yourself

covering a little bit of it. There are

these notorious killers or, you know,

that they think they they're on the hunt

for and it goes on forever. And on day

one, the very first time, the top cop at

the time uttered the words, "The serial

killer." And right there, I mean, you

knew this was a momentous story and this

was going to be one that we're going to

be dealing with for a very long

time. Gilgo Beach became like it became

the Gilgo serial killer, but Gilgo Beach

actually was only kind of near where

this happened. It was sort of the

closest small village, but it really

gave Gilgo Beach as a community a really

terrible, terrifying name. There are

people who do live there year round. And

now they're known around the world as

this like town of horrors. In a place

like this, people say, "Uh, hey, do you

have uh a dozen eggs because I can't get

to the store because it closed the Ocean

Parkway again." Such is life for the

handful of people who call Gilgo Beach

home. Many of them moved here decades

ago for the anonymity only to see their

village become an international symbol

of evil. I have to tell you, I thought

how astonishing that they brought up

Gilgo Beach. It used to be that no one

had any idea where I lived and now

everybody says, "Oh, I know Gilgo Beach.

It's that spot." It it really is. It's

the Long Island serial killer or the

Ocean Parkway serial killer case. Gilgo

Beach just sort of became the shorthand

for this. It's a little bit unnerving.

I'm hoping that they don't find anything

else and obviously I'm hoping that they

find whoever did this very quickly. It

was clear that there was nothing else

that anyone cared about on Long Island

for, I don't know, more than a year. It

was the story we came back to. It was

the location that we kept, you know,

standing in in the wind at all times of

the year. As there were new developments

with this story, you start to get

concerned about uh this wonderful area

that we live in. Maybe it is somebody

who could live in this area and that you

really have to be a little bit more

careful. The search continues for

Shannon Gilbert, the missing prostitute

whose disappearance led to all these

discoveries in the first place. No one

knew anything about Shannon Gilbert.

None of us had ever heard of her. As for

the missing woman they were looking for

in the first place, she is 24year-old

Shannon Gilbert. Gilbert was a

24year-old prostitute who investigators

say was last seen in May. Shannon

Gilbert's family tonight telling

Eyewitness News she was last seen in the

area where those bodies were discovered.

She was believed to have sold herself

for sex on Craigslist. Police say they

have no idea quite frankly if she might

be one of the bodies they found. It

could be weeks or months before we

identify uh the four people that were

were found over the last uh few days.

She had disappeared 6 months earlier and

the police didn't do much with it and it

sort of was festering in their missing

person's division or or wherever it was.

It was not something that they'd ever

told us about. We all became acquainted

with Shannon Gilbert very quickly when

the police explained how they found

these bodies that a a police officer and

his dog were looking in the area that

Shannon Gilbert was known to have

disappeared. A cadaavver dog searching

this nearby stretch of brush led

officers to the skeletal remains of a

woman's body. Two days later, cops

returned and found three more. All of

them dumped in the thick brush. So then

we met Mary Gilbert, Shannon's mom. The

griefstricken mother and sister of

Shannon Gilbert went through old photos

of the 24year-old in their Ellenville,

New York apartment today as detectives

try to determine if the missing woman is

one of the victims of what may be a

serial killer. Her last phone call was

23 minutes to

911. The police missed her by five

minutes. Shannon's mom became this

tireless advocate for her daughter and

for all the women in this case. I'm

worried

about if she suffered. Gilbert's family

says on that night, Shannon met with a

man she met on Craigslist at the beach

in Long Island. They say police have

talked to the man and he has taken a lie

detector test. Despite her lifestyle,

the family says the Shannon they

remember was filled with love and

promise. But there was this big

question. Is one of those four women

Shannon Gilbert? Police refused to

discuss leads in the case or if any of

the bodies might be those of Shannon

Gilbert or Megan Waterman. Two

prostitutes who disappeared in Suffach

County in May and June. Now, the efforts

continue to identify the women, but

officials caution progress will be very

slow. They tell us that it can take up

to 30 days to have that examination

complete. There was this momentous

occasion every now and then where they'd

gather all the press together and they'd

make some announcement and the

announcement was always a big deal. We

have a name on this person. We know more

about this victim or that victim. But

you always left feeling, you know, like

you wanted more like, okay, well that's

just a detail that they just told us

about, but what do they really know?

What really happened here? And that's

something I think that persisted

throughout this investigation that they

were very very tight with the

information and not just with the public

and that I think is to their detriment

in the end. They were tight with this

information with other agencies that

could have helped them solve it sooner

potentially. So it was about 3 or 4

weeks later that we got the names of

these poor women. That conclusion

tonight from the medical examiner in

Suffach County after identifying the

remains of all four bodies found last

month near each other on Gilgo Beach,

Long Island. All four were women. All

four were prostitutes. Those bodies now

have names and faces and a common cause

of death. We hear names. These poor

women were real people who had real

names and real families. What activities

these victims may have engaged in prior

to their murders does not matter. They

were young women whose lives were cut

tragically short. Moren Brainard Barnes

was from Norwich, Connecticut. Melissa

Bartholomew was from Buffalo, New York.

Megan Waterman from Scarboro, Maine. And

Amber Lynn Costello was from North

Babylon on Long Island. Investigators

say all four women were prostitutes who

advertised their services on Craigslist.

Each of them vanishing sometime in the

past four years. Police say the women,

all in their 20s, were murdered

elsewhere, dumped by their killer along

the side of Ocean Parkway on this

windswept section of Gilgo Beach. That

opened up all new kind of lines of

reporting and their families started

talking. I convinced myself it wasn't

after a week, you know, we didn't hear

back from the DNA. I just said it's not

her. They would have called us if it was

her. It's sad and I just wanted to get a

chance to see where my sister was.

Bartholomew vanished from the Bronx over

a year and a half ago. Back in Buffalo,

her family has endured a heartbreaking

weight. They talked to a local news

station in September of09. If anybody

has seen my daughter, please contact us.

We really need her to come home to us.

We all love her and miss her. Took my

sister's life from me and my families. I

just can't believe it. Just can't

believe it. And what became clear is

there were real similarities among all

these women. They had all come from

backgrounds where they had some degree

of trouble in their lives. They were all

sort of running from something and they

had found a home in the sex trade in New

York. Investigators told us at that

press conference that this was the

relationship among all four of these

women. They were in a line of work that

was extremely dangerous. The victims

were engaged in a high-risk business and

these homicides appear to us to be

directly related to that business. I'll

actually never forget the district

attorney of Suffach County used this as

a chance to warn women not to do this

because look what happened to these

four. We don't know who did it. We don't

know the details but they're in a very

very dangerous line of work. People who

are engaged in a similar business should

be on very very high alert. That was

really the big announcement 3 4 weeks

in. And what was stunning to everyone

covering this case that not one of those

four bodies was linked to Shannon

Gilbert. And so she was still missing.

Last night they definitively ruled out

Gilbert as a match for any of those

bodies. At the time everyone assumed, I

think probably the police as well that

her body was there somewhere. She had

been murdered like the others because

she also was a sex worker. It was hard

to imagine that it wasn't linked, that

she hadn't met the same fate as the

other four. And so they kept searching.

When I get the phone call from the

police, every time my heart stopped, you

know, I'm always thinking, is this the

call? Is this the call? I'm frustrated

because it's been such a long search.

And then a few months later, they found

a fifth body. Also not Shannon.

Investigators now confirm that a fifth

body recovered this week is someone

else. And then they found a sixth, a

seventh, an eighth, a ninth. Still not

Shannon. But while those first four

women were identified as missing

prostitutes, Gilbert was not one of

them. And she's been ruled out as a

match to the four additional bodies

discovered in the past week. My daughter

is still

missing. Don't know where she

is. It's connected. And I wish they

would

just do their job faster. before any

more girls get hurt.

[Music]

2011 is the most active period of this

investigation. That's when it seems like

every few months there's more remains

being found. Uh-oh, we have another one

again. It's disturbing. You have to go

back to that time period, March, April

of 2011. Long Island and this area is

really all over the news. Gilgo Beach

serial killer. Serial killer

investigation. We're back out on Long

Island today looking for more clues and

remains. Constant bodies being found.

More human remains on Long Island.

Another body. The remains found

yesterday are human and parts of bodies.

Nine sets of bones found so far. They

discovered something that appears to be

a human skull. I remember that time

period just thinking how crazy this was.

Investigators believe the women were

murdered elsewhere and dumped on this

desolate stretch of Ocean Parkway where

their bodies went undiscovered for up to

three and a half years. They had found

the four bodies that were wrapped in

burlap. Police have neither confirmed

nor denied claimed the bodies were

wrapped in burlap. They were the first

set that were discovered and then enough

time had passed they decided they wanted

to to do a more extensive search of the

area. It's very tough terrain. There's a

lot of sticker bushes in there. There's

a lot of thorns. There's ticks. There's

poison ivy. The brush is so thick

homicide detectives with binoculars are

standing in the top of these tower

ladder trucks that belong to local fire

department so they could peer down and

try to find anything that looked

suspicious. They started finding even

more human remains. Another set of

skeletal remains found dumped on this

deserted stretch of Ocean Parkway in Oak

Beach Tuesday evening. But in this case,

they had been dumped in a totally

different method. We look at it as an

opportunity that there may be clues

available now with this uh body that

will help the homicide investigation

will help it move forward. 3 months

after finding the Gilgo 4, they find

remains belonging to Jessica Taylor. The

remains have been there for some time,

but I can't I don't want to speculate on

that. That's why we have the medical

examiner do their forensics. Jessica

Taylor's other parts of her had been

found previously in July of 2003. Always

thought that when they didn't find the

original girl from Oak Beach that most

likely she was there and it was just

because of the weather back in December

that they couldn't do a more thorough

search and they said they would be back

in the spring and unfortunately they

found another one. I just hope they

don't find any more. People in our area

are starting to get nervous. We're

anxious to have this over with and and

certainly the people put away. They

wanted to know who are these people and

why are they here and how did they get

here? This newest discovery is making

some families who live along this

stretch very anxious. Is there somebody

local that lives along one of these

beach communities that happens to know

that's a very deserted area at a certain

time of night and it would be easy to

dump bodies. So, it makes you a little

concerned that this predator could

possibly be living amongst us in one of

the beach communities. But it was very

clear, you have to know that area. He

has a place to dump the bodies. It's

very ritualistic, repetitive behavior.

These locations, Dr. Kovalinsky

believes, were carefully chosen. He

suspects the killer lives or works

nearby and is comfortable here. The

thrill of of the power and the kill is

everything to this person. Only about a

week after that, they find even more

remains. It has become a nightmarish

graveyard and a massive crime scene.

This after three more bodies were

discovered today near Oak Beach,

bringing the total number of victims to

eight. We found human remains, three

human remains so far in the area between

Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach. When I heard

today three more, it really, really

scared me because I just want somebody

to find out who's doing this and end it

all. And we've now learned one of the

victims is a child. They find the

remains of a toddler. At least one set

belongs to a toddler, complicating

police theories. Once we got beyond the

initial shock of a toddler, I think we

still kind of made the assumption that

they were all tied to some type of sex

worker. Body number seven was that of a

toddler, a girl between 18 and 24 months

when she died. She was wrapped in a

blanket when someone dropped her body in

the brush. Investigators have not

determined a cause of death, and while

they don't know if she was murdered,

they haven't ruled it out. The first

thing you thought about when you heard

about the toddler was that it had to

have been a child of one of the sex

workers who unfortunately had to bring

the child with her. And then what

happened to the child? Did the child see

their mother

die? These are the kind of cases that

you can't shake at night when you go

home. Like you can't shake it when you

hear things like a baby who was killed

with her mother who was a sex worker.

You just don't shake that.

Victim number eight, described as an

Asian male in his late teens or early

20s when he was murdered. The victim of

obvious trauma, this body, too, has no

ID and is unrelated to the others. And

it became that much more of a mystery.

The cause of death is radically

different from all the other remains

that we have found. I think it's in

everybody's best interest to do the best

search we possibly can and to find

everything out here that we possibly

can, whether they're connected or

they're not connected. I remember

finding bodies all over the place on

this stretch of highway. Everybody was

even confused like, "Wait, what part of

the beach was this? Let me look at the

map again." Like, we couldn't even get a

grasp on just the logistics and where

all the bodies were found. But I I

remember being out there, I remember the

roads being closed. I remember law

enforcement fanning out, the dogs

fanning out, and every time I went out

there and I saw any piece of brush,

wondering if there was a body there that

someone did not see. Conditions are

rough, too, even without the dense

foliage that grows in during the summer.

The brush is as difficult as they

described it. First of all, it was

thick. It was like tumble weeds. Like I

remember in Texas, there was a lot of

sand. It was prickly. It was almost like

rose thorns. Like you couldn't really

even put your hand in there. This is

what police are up against. Miles of the

densest brush you can imagine. And

today, officers, cadaavver dogs, even

police recruits braved the raw wind to

hunt for more bodies on a desolate

stretch of barrier island that's become

a serial killer's graveyard. And so

that's why we always thought they are

going to find more bodies because this

brush is so thick, it's so deep, there's

all kind of sand. Like they could find

100 bodies out here. We have no idea.

And with new spring growth making the

dense foliage even more impossible to

navigate, authorities have called in the

FBI to fly overhead with sophisticated

cameras that could see right through the

brush. We're hoping the technology will

help

identify skeletal remains that may still

be out there. That was, I think, the

reason that at first the investigators

believed, well, wait a minute, this

really is just a popular place for

people to dump bodies. It's a tough

area. It's very easy to miss something.

Uh but that's why we're doing it again.

You can barely see this officer search

through the thick bramble. Difficult to

walk through now, especially for the K9

cadaabver teams. It will be impossible

to see or find anything in a couple of

months. If there are any more bodies out

there, we want to find them. They

searched for 4 days straight and then

when they called the search off, you

still kind of had this empty feeling

like there was a stone that was not

turned. The Suffach police have moved on

from this location. They have found no

extra bodies here. That's the good news.

The death toll still stands at eight.

But the bad news, they say they're no

closer to catching a serial killer. So,

at this point, we have eight bodies and

no suspects. It was really difficult to

believe that they had no suspects at the

time. It's not uh like a TV uh uh movie

where it's solved in a in an hour. Uh

this is tedious work which will take

time but that's uh that's what uh

detectives do what homicide does. You

know we as the press only hear what the

police want us to hear. Quite possible

that the police have more information

but they're holding back. I mean it's

even possible that they have a suspect

in mind. We weren't clear if they were

withholding that information or if they

really just did not know. But the

reality was they were as stumped as we

were. You know, this terrain that's

behind me, that rugged terrain, very

difficult. It is possible that we missed

something. And as I said, we're going to

be back here again. And then there was

this big bombshell. A stunning twist in

the Long Island serial killings. The

remains of a ninth victim and possibly a

tenth found today as investigators

expanded their search from Oak and Gilgo

beaches to Jones Beach in Nassau County.

The whole Ocean Parkway spans Nassau and

Suffach counties. And so Jones Beach is

in the west and that's Nassau County.

And then you drive east and you cross to

Suffk and then you get all the way east

to Robert Moses State Park. That's the

end of this barrier island. And all this

time as they've found human remains

scattered on the Suffach County side of

the line. It's not like there's a wall.

It's just, you know, an area where the

pavement changes and you're in Nessa

County. At some point, NASA decided they

had to start searching. And on April

11th of 2011, they found sets of remains

that they believe belonged to two more

people. So that was victims 9 and 10.

This is a path police bushwacked their

way through yesterday as they made their

searches and found their evidence. It is

very dense and very thick, very hard to

navigate. And it was way back here,

almost a hundred feet in from the road,

that they made one of their grizzly

finds. What they believed to be a human

skull in this hole. The areas that were

could be reached by uh foot, we searched

already yesterday. That was about 90% of

the areas were passable, you know, by

foot. This is around the time that it

got really complicated to tell this

story. Of course, the real concern here

is, are there more? Law enforcement

veteran Michael Baloney says the

discovery of a ninth and possibly tenth

body makes the case much more

complicated. These are the first outside

of Suffach County whose police

department has led the case so far. Now

he says the investigation will likely

expand to include a variety of agencies

working together to solve this mystery.

What you want to do now is to bring as

many resources as possible, but do it in

a coordinated way so that you you don't

muck up the good work of the Suffach

County Police, but at the same time

bring further enhancements to their

capability. There were multiple causes

of death potentially. There were

multiple methods. Some were dismembered,

some were wrapped in burlap, some were

partial sets of remains, and the rest of

them had been found years earlier

somewhere else. And so it became really

complicated. We want to catch the

criminal that did this, okay? We want to

find out who these people are. We want

to identify them and we want to catch

them. And I think that the public also,

they just saw this as this

sensational, terrifying case where there

was someone in their backyard doing

these horrible things. In the meantime,

the people who live here wonder how much

longer their little slice of heaven will

be known to all the world as a serial

killer's graveyard. In Gilgo Beach, Long

Island, Josh Anger, Channel 7 Eyewitness

News.

It's been almost exactly a year now

since Shannon Gilbert vanished in the

reeds of Oak Beach, Long Island. Since

then, police have spoken to people in

Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach. Anyone they

think might know anything about this

case. There was a man who lived in that

community who became an armchair

investigator's suspect. Like, this is a

person who had history working in like

the medical field and vaguely in law

enforcement. And there were profile

workups that the suspect would be

somebody in those fields because they'd

understand how to dispose of a body and

all that. And I remember interviewing

him tonight for the first time. One of

those men talked to me. He said, "No, it

wasn't me. I don't know what you're

talking about." But so you didn't tell

them that you had her in your house,

that you were Of course not. That's

ridiculous. That man is Peter Hackett, a

former head of Suffach County Emergency

Medical Services and a former police

surgeon who lives near where Gilbert was

last seen. Hackett says he never even

met Shannon Gilbert. But while he says

police have interviewed him about the

case two or three times, he would not

say what about. And as for the grizzly

discoveries miles from his home, I can't

imagine who would do such a horrible you

know mean thing. It's just it's beyond

it's beyond the you know the level of

you know my belief and or I can't even

imagine it happening. And I saved his

business card and his phone number

because uh just in the off chance that

it was

him. When they said there was an arrest,

the very first thing I I wanted to know

is was this this guy? And it

wasn't. As her painful pilgrimage

continued, Mary Gilbert stopped by the

home of Dr. Peter Hackett, a former

Suffach County police surgeon. The

Gilbert's claim called them the day

after Shannon disappeared. A man

identified himself as Hackett, said she

was there.

So, wearing her daughter's sneakers and

joined by other family members, Mary

came to visit one of the last places

anyone saw Shannon alive. Last year, the

24-year-old prostitute visited this

house to meet with a client, but was

seen running down the front stairs and

up the street, screaming that someone

was trying to kill her. Police have said

the client, Joseph Brewer, is not a

suspect. Brewer has not been named a

suspect and is said to be cooperating in

the investigation. This is what he told

us today. My prayers go out to the

families. I hope they get her indicator.

Do you know what happened to Shannon

Gilbert? Mr. Brewer. Between Brewer's

house

and the gate she disappeared. It seemed

ridiculous at the time that they had

found 10 victims and still had not found

Shannon Gilbert. And you really felt for

her family. Somebody had to have heard,

you know, or seen something that night.

And for nobody to say anything after a

year is just kind of ridiculous to me.

Called me on the phone. He told me he

ran out of house and was there. He went

to off the street. was trying to help

her. Mary Gilbert is somebody who I

actually came to know quite well. I have

her I still have her in my phone. Every

now and then I run into her. I pass her

name looking for somebody else. Uh and

I'll never take it out of my phone

because she's a part of my own career

story. She was there. Mary was very

active in seeking out attention for her

daughter and for this investigation. I

remember the anniversary of her

disappearance. It was a trip no parent

should have to take. a visit to the last

place your child was believed to have

been seen alive. She came back with a

lot of family members and so family

members of some of the other women also

who they became kind of this mothers of

of these victims became kind of a

sisterhood. At one point the arrival of

Gilbert's mother, Mary, prompted an

emotional group embrace. All bonded by

their shared loss. Every time I think of

my sister, I will think of Shannon

Gilbert regardless. And every time I lay

flowers out for my sister, I'll be

laying them out for Shannon. It's, you

know, heart-wrenching to us cuz we are

the families of the Gilg beach victims.

We are also bonded with Shannon's

family. So, it's like Shannon's like our

sister and we've been every step of the

way with this family since a year and

we're going to continue to do it. And

they supported each other and they they

came to the site often. um and and spoke

openly and freely about their losses and

about their frustration with the

investigation or the lack of progress in

the investigation. And we keep these

girls out there, the public becomes

interested in it. And the public

interest is what fuels this

investigation. This is not her ending,

it's her beginning. This is her legacy.

And I remember her looking around and I

remember asking her what she thought

looking around and it was a bright,

brilliant, I think late spring day. It

was a really beautiful day actually, but

I remember her thinking or saying that

it was a really dark place to her. What

is it like being here?

Creepy. It's really creepy. It's not

pretty. It's not beautiful. This place

is really evil.

Oak Beach is this little gated community

and there are a few people who live

there year round and that is where

Shannon had her last engagement when

someone, you know, hired her off of

Craigslist. And so she had a driver who

took her to Oak Beach to this little

community. She met with this man. That

was the last time anyone saw her alive.

This afternoon, News Copter 7 was

overhead as investigators searched the

house in Oak Beach, the very spot from

which neighbors say Shannon Gilbert was

running for her life this past spring.

She knocked on the door of a of a man

named Gus Kleti. He was a really nice

older man who called 911, but then did

not invite her into his house and she

just kept running. She said, "Help me

again." And she just looked like she was

spaced out. He called 911, but she would

not wait around, tumbling down his front

steps and vanishing into the weeds. That

was May 1st. She hasn't been seen since.

I haven't slept in two

nights. I could have saved that girl if

I had known something was going to

happen. New developments today in that

string of killings on Long Island that

have stumped investigators for nearly a

year. We've got new information that

police hope will help them identify the

victims. The police, they were pretty

clear that they did not believe all of

the victims were the the victims of the

same person. Well, certainly the

investigation hasn't stalled as you can

see from today's press conference. We're

making progress. I remember being at

press conferences and asking like

obvious questions like who, what, when,

where, why, or how. And I remember it

was a struggle to answer just the basic

questions. We don't have everything back

from the forensics yet. And once we do,

then we will sit in a room without any

reporters and we will speculate a lot

cuz that's what we do. But it's

definitely bigger than law enforcement

could handle at the time because they

could not answer the basic questions.

But you knew that there was more that

they probably could have told us at the

time that they didn't tell us at the

time. And who knows if that could have

made an impact sooner in the case.

Investigators say they still can't

figure out who killed them or even how

many killers they're dealing with.

The goalpost kept changing. The story

kept changing. The theories kept

changing. And what they were telling us,

it changed every press conference. There

was different information. It was very

inconsistent. This takes painstaking

hours of detective work, forensic work.

You do this for long enough, you know,

you understand how the police work. But

the New York Police Department, who we

deal with primarily, they release

information only when they feel like

they have to. They don't want to release

partial information because then when it

changes, they look like they don't know

what they're doing. And so they're very

disciplined in terms of what they allow

to get to the public. And this speaks, I

think, to the inexperience at this level

of the Suffach County Police Department,

which has a lot of really, really great

police officers and detectives. A lot of

them came from the NYPD, but they don't

have the experience covering major cases

like this. And and it showed in terms of

how they communicated information. At

first, it seemed like there might be two

killers, one relatively recent, one in

the much more distant past. One who

dumped the bodies whole, the other who

dismembered them. But now, police

commissioner Richard Dormer says that

theory is out the window. So, there were

common denominators that point to one

person involved in the killings. Serial

killers evolve. They change the remos.

November of 2011, I had a chance to sit

down for an exclusive interview at the

time with the police commissioner in

Suffach County, Richard Dormer. And the

real question was, was it one serial

killer or two serial killers? I mean,

how many people were out there? But the

theory is now that we're dealing with

one serial killer. We have a killer

walking free today. Even the wild cards

make sense now to detectives like this

victim, an Asian male who'd been dressed

as a woman when his head was bashed in.

He may have been a sex worker. And a

2-year-old girl eventually matched

through DNA as the likely daughter of

another victim. It's not unusual for a

sex worker to have a child accompany

them while they uh visit a client.

This investigation started because

Shannon Gilbert disappeared. These sex

workers that were later found had

disappeared prior to that. Their

families had been looking for them.

Their families had been going to police.

And it wasn't until Shannon Gilbert

disappeared and her family really

started to hold police accountable and

say, "You have to get out there and try

to find Shannon Gilbert." Our theory is

that this is a coincidence that she went

missing in Oak

Beach and has nothing to do with the uh

the serial killer. Gilbert's loved ones

aren't surprised. I've been saying that

from the very beginning. Her sister told

me on Facebook. I told police that

Shannon has nothing to do with the

serial killer. They should start

treating her case differently from the

other girls. So where is Shannon? The

commissioner admits he's stumped. 10

bodies and no Shannon Gilbert and it's a

mystery. Suffet County police tonight

gearing up for another search in

connection with the serial murders on

Long Island. I was on vacation and the

company, the station activated my cell

phone with international service because

we believed there'd be some other

bombshell in this case. I needed to be

able to make phone calls on it. And I

remember hearing that they had found

what they thought might be Shannon's

personal effects. Jeans, shoes, a cell

phone, and a pocketbook with her

identification. and I spent like the

rest of the vacation on the phone. This

is not a result of a new tip. This is

just a result of us wanting to research

an area that within which she was last

seen. We have searched this area before,

but again, today's conditions are more

favorable to when we searched it in the

past because some of the areas are not

underwater today. What we found uh

yesterday is very indicative and very

supportive of the fact that she just

wandered and ran aimlessly into this

marshy area. There is something strange

about how all of these developments

happen on anniversaries on on

significant dates or around significant

dates in this in this investigation.

It's something that, you know, I can't

chalk up to anything other than pure

coincidence, but it's definitely

strange. One year to the day since the

realization a serial killer was at work

here on Ocean Parkway, victim's family

members are making a devastating

pilgrimage of their own. I'm so saddened

by it.

just reminds me so much of what I lost.

To Melissa K, this hole in the thick

underbrush is hallowed ground. It's

where one year ago tomorrow, police

found the remains of her sister, Moren

Brainer Barnes. Her body had been lying

there just feet from the road for nearly

2 years. It doesn't seem real, like real

real until you're here and you see it

for

yourself and it's just like you're like

inside this like nightmare. Today, as

family members hold a vigil to remember

their lost loved ones, their thoughts

are also with investigators who they

hope can stop the killer and bring

justice to his victims. They're going to

find the killer. He's going to slip up

or somebody's going to finally not be

afraid anymore and come forward. It was

on the anniversary of the discovery. It

was on the anniversary of the time when

they realized they had a serial killer

in the first place. One year to the day

since this became a major story of

global importance, they found Shannon.

After a yearong search, police on Long

Island believe they have found the

remains of Shannon Gilbert. In December

of 2011, they finally find Shannon

Gilbert. In the thick brush and bramble

of Oak Beach, police believe they have

found Gilbert's remains. Shannon Gilbert

is sort of the sacrificial lamb of this

entire tragedy. We went in with the idea

that we were going to do this one last

time to see if we could find anything.

And we did. If not for Shannon Gilbert,

these women would not have been found.

It's exactly one year to the day since

we first started covering this case when

the first sets of bodies were found

along Ocean Parkway. One year later, the

woman they've been looking for all

along, Shannon Gilbert. Police believe

they have finally found her remains. And

then finally they found Shannon. And

what was the ultimate stunner in all of

this is that they believed and still do

believe that Shannon Gilbert was not

murdered. That Shannon Gilbert died in

an accidental drowning. This may be just

a young lady ran into the uh brush uh in

a hysterical state and uh fell down and

you know expired. That's something that

I think Shannon's family has always

found hard to believe. Until I heard

positive confirmation that it is my

daughter,

I'm going to believe it's not until I

know for sure. I think a lot of armchair

investigators who've been kind of

watching this from a distance find hard

to believe. We believe that Shannon

Gilbert ran into that area the night

that she disappeared. And it, you know,

looking at the terrain, uh, it's very

easy to get, uh, engulfed with water,

uh, muck and, uh, you know, fall down

and not be able to get out of there.

Whatever happened to Shannon, she is the

reason all these other families have

closure. Because if there is no Shannon

Gilbert disappearing in Oak Beach, then

there would have been never any closure

for these other families. Mary Gilbert

made a tearful pilgrimage back to Oak

Beach after detectives told her the news

she'd been dreading. This is too hard. I

I can't even talk. I know. I don't even

have words to say how I'm feeling right

now. Forever and ever. Amen.

Ready? Let's go.

[Music]

Shannon's death is controversial in this

entire story. The police department

stands firmly behind that they have done

all of their investigative work and that

they believe she died of an accidental

drowning and they are going to maintain

that. Police found what they believe

were the remains of 24year-old Shannon

Gilbert buried along Oak Beach in

Suffach County. The medical examiner

confirmed that grim find today. I don't

know what to

believe. I I think no one knows what to

believe. I think it's logical that it's

a coincidence. The one thing that has

stayed constant is they say Shannon

Gilbert was not a victim of a crime and

our condolences to that family on the

death of their daughter. Her family as

well as her family's attorney feel that

Shannon may have been killed. The

investigation that's taken place so far

is is comparable to something you find

in Podong County. find this killer

before he strikes and hurts and murders

someone that you love. There was two

autopsies. One that was done privately

that says that there was an injury to

the bone in her neck which is associated

with strangulation. Shannon Gilbert had

a hyoid bone that was that is a

horn-shaped bone in your throat that if

you break it, you suffocate. The horns

were broken. The official autopsy from

law enforcement is that it was

undetermined how she died. Autopsy

results obtained by Eyewitness News

tonight revealed that Shannon Gilbert, a

prostitute missing for 18 months, did

not have drugs in her system. Some

people would say it's a coincidence,

while others would say maybe there is a

relationship. We just don't know it yet.

Forensic scientist Dr. Lawrence

Kopalinsky says it's likely it's just an

outrageous coincidence. Though, she was

missing parts of her fingers and toes

and a small bone in her neck. her to

talk screen negative for drugs. She was

a known cocaine user. Uh and the fact

that we find no evidence of cocaine

again suggests that this tissue is

highly compromised. The theory that she

was known to have emotional

difficulties. She was known to take

drugs and the idea that she had some

sort of an episode in that moment. It's

all incredibly coincidental and it's,

you know, you couldn't write it in a

book. I mean, you couldn't make it up.

Shannon was running. She was in fear for

her life. Someone was chasing her.

Shannon was found without her clothes. I

just don't believe she would run in a

drug induced paranoia and just strip her

clothes all the way off running naked

into the marsh. I've had people say to

me and really challenge me on why are we

not continuing to hold law enforcement

accountable for their investigation into

Shannon Gilbert. My argument is at this

point if they felt that she was part of

the pattern, I believe that they would

have connected it at this point. There's

no reason for them not to. Maybe some

will say, well, they don't want to admit

that they didn't include her for so

long. The Suffach County Police

Department is grossly derelct in its

duty, not only to have investigated

these murders

properly, but also because they failed

to protect the lives of these people who

are now gone. Doing what we do, I mean,

you want to believe officials. You want

to believe that the investigators are

doing a professional job and have come

up with a conclusion that makes sense.

And when it comes to Shannon Gilbert,

even with all the dysfunction in this

investigation going back for more than a

decade, it would be really hard for me

to believe that so many people have been

wrong about this. The mother of Shannon

Gilbert is demanding action tonight.

Gilbert's body was found last week near

Oak Beach. Her mother says local police

have done a terrible job and she wants

the FBI to take over the investigation.

We are tired of

theories. Now we need the truth. This is

a woman who had basically devoted her

whole life to finding what happened to

her

daughter. But in the middle of that, she

had another daughter. And life at home

was not good.

And whatever

happened, she was stabbed by her other

daughter and died.

She claimed she was hearing voices and

she asked her mother to come over and

her mother dutifully went to her

daughter's apartment and was there

stabbed to death. Police say her

daughter, 27-year-old Sarah Gilbert, is

charged with seconddegree murder and

criminal possession of a weapon. Mary

Gilbert was bludgeoned uh with a knife

to death by her daughter, her own

daughter Sarah. She's a schizophrenic.

You have families who are hurting,

families who have all kinds of troubled

pasts and history together and mental

illness

and, you know, in some cases poverty and

desperation.

Shannon had an origin story and whatever

it was, it it led to her advertising

herself for sex on Craigslist and it led

to her dying in a marsh on Long Island.

And so the family she left behind wasn't

any better off for it. In fact, it just

exacerbated the stress that they no

doubt had, whatever the stressors were.

And in the end, one of Shannon's

sisters, who we had gotten to know also,

murdered their mom.

This is shocking. You know, it's very

upsetting. Friends of Mari Gilbert

cannot believe she is dead. Miss Gilbert

had blood on her clothing and she was

detained by police at the scene. It's

crazy that, you know, you would kill

your mom. The family attorney uh said

that Shannon's sister Sarah never got

over the loss of her sister, never got

over the trauma of this whole

experience. Sarah had been acting in

irrational ways and she had actually

been hearing voices and these voices

were telling her what to do. Probably

never got over losing her mom too to

this whole investigation and to her own

obsession about what happened to

Shannon. We are going to continue to

fight as long as we need

to

until justice is done for our

daughter. Now that Mary is dead, we do

not intend to give up. Instead, to the

contrary, we're going to double our

efforts. life does go on in the face of

of these these cases that that take

forever to resolve and it's not always

pretty. So many people in Shannon's

profession are largely ignored and

disrespected and disregarded even by

most often their own families. Mary was

the singular and beautiful exception and

she pursued the death of her daughter

and attempted and still attempted right

up until her death to find the killer. I

remember there was a big debate. The

debate was that the police say these

looked to be prostitutes. All four

bodies found last month near each other

on Gilgo Beach, Long Island. All four

were women. All four were prostitutes.

And there were people who didn't want to

say that because why do we have to say

that? There were women who were found.

Well, I made the argument that, hey,

this is an indication of who's at risk

here. If that's what's happening, the

majority are prostitutes and they are

just found who know who knew where they

lived. They were found buried in the

beaches. You know, we should say that.

We should let people know. I think

there's certainly a bias in life against

people who work in the sex trade. You

know, it's also clear that a lot of them

are victims too in every way. I mean,

and not just these four women who were

the victims of murder. Obviously, they

were victims of a violent crime, but

even people who sell their bodies for

for sex are they're being trafficked by

others. I think law enforcement and us

as a society have to do better of saying

it doesn't matter what you do, what

you're involved in. If you have

disappeared or if we find that you've

been killed, you deserve justice just as

much as anybody else because your family

is left with that pain. And so it

shouldn't matter what you're doing. It's

a demand issue as much as it's a supply

issue. And so, you know, I think law

enforcement is rightly starting to crack

down on the people who are buying the

services and the people who are

employing the

women much more than the women

themselves.

The real perplexing kind of tragedy here

in all this is that the FBI does this. I

mean, they have whole units devoted to

serial killers and they were kind of

kept at bay.

After Shannon Gilbert is found, that's

when things kind of start to go a little

quiet in the investigation. We're here

today because we think it's important uh

to let the public know that we are doing

everything we can uh to solve these

murders. Here we have another

anniversary, December 10th, 2015. So 5

years later, we have another

announcement, the first in a while, that

the FBI is is now joining the

investigation. 5 years later, Cameron

says it's now time to call in the FBI.

The FBI has a lot more experience

nationwide investing serial killer cases

than we do. So, you know, as we look

through the evidence with them, maybe

just bouncing things off each other will

be useful. So, I mean, I really am

excited about the new partnership with

them. Bringing the FBI to the table with

all of its expertise and resources is a

step in the right direction, which has

been going on for 5 years with no FBI

involvement. They provided some kind of

support early on when they were

searching with a device they had in a

helicopter. But the FBI was kept at bay

all this time, and only now are they

getting involved. Timothy Seini, a

former federal prosecutor now awaiting

confirmation as police commissioner,

would not address why the FBI wasn't

asked for more help sooner. But he did

say this. It's not about uh you know who

makes the arrest. It's not about who

gets the credit. Uh that's not helpful.

What's helpful is making sure that

there's a that there's a climate and a

culture where people are working

together to solve serious crimes. Why

did that collaboration not happen for so

many years? It happened because of

politics. because we had a police chief

in Suffach County as well as a DA that

did not seem open to FBI involvement.

The announcement comes just one day

after the arrest of SuffK's former

police chief James Burke. We know for a

fact that Suffach County Police Chief

James Burke single-handedly kept the FBI

out of this investigation. He still

denying the accusations.

What is Chief Burke hiding? I did a

one-on-one with Burke when he was

promoted to chief of department of the

Suffach County Police Department. And I

remember sitting in his office talking

to him about why this case was so

dysfunctional. I remember he looked at

me and he said, "We're going to take

charge of this case and we're going to

solve it. It's time for us to do our

jobs." There were all these questions

about why they didn't involve the FBI.

And it turned out it was because the FBI

was looking at him. The FBI arrested

51-year-old James Burke at his mother's

home this morning and then brought him

to the FBI office in Melville for

processing. James Burke's tenure as

police chief was a questionable time, an

ethical freefall. From the moment he

started, he spent the time that he was

there doing everything possible to cover

up his own misdeeds. And that's where

the focus of Suffach County police was

at the time, not on solving the Gilgal

case. And Burke accused of assaulting a

handcuffed suspect and trying to cover

it up. He pleaded not guilty to the

charges, one count of deprivation of

civil rights and one count of conspiracy

to commit obstruction of justice. He was

cocky till the end. He believed his own

hype. He believed he could cover up his

own misdeeds, and he spent the entire

time doing that. Prosecutors painted a

miserable picture of a man who thought

he had the power to beat up Loe in front

of at least three officers, then

allegedly suggest they give Lobe, a

heroin addict, a so-called hot shot, a

deadly mix of heroin. Christopher Loe

broke into James Burke's vehicle. I

believe he found his firearm. He found

sex toys. James Burke had a questionable

history before this and so the judge

denied bail altogether saying he thinks

the corruption of an entire department

by Burke is shocking. The district

attorney Thomas Spot and James Burke had

a decadesl long relationship. They were

very close and both of them ended up

facing criminal charges. Thomas Spotta

learned his fate in a corruption case

today in court. Spott helped orchestrate

an elaborate plot to cover up a 2012

police beating of a suspect. No one is

above the law. We know from officers who

and detectives who worked during that

time that Burke made it very clear to

the department that he did not want the

FBI involved. Chief James Burke is

stepping down and resigning from the

department and he ended up getting

indicted in federal court on corruption

charges. James Burke will now spend

nearly 3 years behind bars. He spent 46

months in prison and he got back out and

was picked up again for soliciting a sex

worker in a public park. Burke is now

charged with public lwdness, offering a

sex act, criminal solicitation, and

indecent exposure. What does that tell

you? Not someone you would want

investigating a serial killer. Your

crime has affected the entire county and

the entire police organization and

institution. Being a local reporter

here, the way it would work with Gilgo

Beach is we something would happen and

then it would go quiet for years. That

was just the way it worked. Get a little

something quiet for years. So, in

January of 2020, we get another little

bit of information. A new piece of

evidence in the case. Cops releasing

this picture of a belt. The Suffach

County Police Commissioner at the time,

Geraldine Hart, brings out this picture

of this belt. A black leather belt

embossed with the letters HM or WH was

recovered during the initial stages of

this investigation. And we thought, oh,

this must be some sort of smoking gun.

They call this evidence significant.

Yet, police held on to it for nearly a

decade. It was the first time the needle

was moving again, and she was trying to

make something happen. I think she was

also viewed as an outsider because she

came from the FBI and she was trying to

further the case. She was trying her

best. We have decided now to leverage uh

social media. Here's this police

commissioner just standing up saying,

you know, we're going to have a website.

We're going to get outside labs now.

First time they're starting to think

about DNA. They realize that this is a

small piece of evidence, but they're

hoping that it will generate some

interest. Police were hoping that when

they put this belt out there that they

would get some leads, but nothing.

Again, it went quiet again. Police in

Suffach County today released the

identity of a victim in the infamous

Gilgo Beach murders. And then 5 months

later in May of 2020, in the middle of

CO, police come out with more news.

Today, we are announcing that Jane Doe

number six has been positively

identified as Valerie Mack. Mac was

ultimately identified when investigators

used data from DNA websites to track her

family down. Interviews were conducted

with potential relatives who provided

investigators with additional DNA

samples which were processed and

analyzed leading us to determine the

deceased woman's

identity. So I stopped being the Long

Island reporter in around 2012 2013 and

I was still actively interested in this

case. I still covered it from time to

time but there were Long Island

reporters who came in after me. Kristen

Thorne replaced me on Long Island.

Shante Lens replaced her on Long Island.

And there's a continuum of people who've

been covering this case. So, I cover the

NYPD a lot. Basically, every major story

involving the New York City Police

Department, which is the biggest and

perhaps most professional police agency

in the country, if not the world. Rodney

Harrison was a rising star of the New

York Police Department. He had been

chief of detectives. He had been chief

of patrol. He had been chief of

department. And then he left to go be

the police commissioner in Suffach

County. And when Suffach County made

that announcement that Rodney Harrison

was coming to run their department, I

knew they were going to solve this case.

And I am honored and

proud to welcome uh Rodney Harrison to

be the next commissioner of this

policing family. And it comes just one

day after the 10-year mark of the

discovery of the remains of Shannon

Gilbert. Of course, our two top

priorities right now, solving the Gilgo

Beach serial murder case and

implementing the police reform plan.

Suffach County Police Commissioner

Rodney Harrison has always said that

these homicides are solvable and that he

is going to solve them. So, he creates a

task force, Gilgo Beach Task Force.

Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison

today announcing a new task force made

up of investigators from the FBI, the

New York State Police, as well as the

Suffach County Police, Sheriff's Office,

and the DA's office. people who really

know what they're doing in investigating

a major case like this. When I first

came into this position, uh there was a

commitment. The commitment is I'm going

to make sure that we use all of our

resources to be able to identify the

individuals or individual that was

involved uh in this case and make sure

we hold them accountable and bring them

to justice. It was kind of

like confetti going off because I was

like, finally, he's bringing that

institutional knowledge that we see

every day with the NYPD. That small town

police department needed a big town, big

city approach to this case. Working with

our our federal partners, I think uh

that's going to be something that's

going to definitely get us over that

hurdle going into the future of this

case. I hope that what the Gilgo Beach

task force has proved is that

collaboration, true collaboration, not

just saying that you're collaborating,

but actually doing it works. And that's

what led to a break in this

case. New video tonight that shows a

Gilgo Beach homicide victim just before

she disappeared. Within 2 months of the

Gilgo Beach Task Force being

established, we get an alert that

Suffach County police are going to

release video of Megan Waterman leaving

a hotel in Hotog. It was the last time

she was seen. Police believe after she

left the hotel, she went to meet with

her killer. Whoever killed her picked

her up that night. So, we see her exit

the hotel and that's the last time she's

seen. And as reporters were thinking

again, why do this now? They've had this

video for so many years. Why now? They

basically said they just want to keep

the case going again. We get this

another just like a little a little

bone. And then they released these 911

calls.

Even just hearing the news that they

were going to release these 911 calls

was so monumental. You have to remember

things had gone very quiet for like a

decade. Suffach County police will

release 911 calls linked to the unsolved

murder of Shannon Gilbert. Gilbert was

at the house of a man named Joseph

Brewer in Ocean Beach. At some point

during the meeting with Brewer, Shannon

reportedly began acting irrational. This

prompted Brewer to contact Michael Pack,

who was outside in his driveway. Pac was

Gilbert's bodyguard. These calls Shannon

Gilbert's attorney, John Ray, had been

fighting for for years. If they don't

release the tapes when they claim

they're engaging in a new initiative to

share information regarding Long Island

serial killer, they have to give up the

tapes. What else is there? He had them.

He wasn't allowed to give them to us.

For years, nine years, the Suffach

County Police Department has covered up

the facts in this investigation. They

need to be challenged about why they hid

this for for and fought me in court all

these years to keep this secret. The 911

tape was sort of as advertised. No, stop

it. Please stop it. Please, please stop

it. Please stop it. No. It was Shannon

Gilbert sounding terrified, running for

her life. They're coming after me.

They're out to get state police. Yeah,

there's somebody after me. I'm sorry.

There's somebody after me. My first

reaction

was, she certainly sounds upset. No.

Stop. No. There's something wrong. Stop

it, please.

Please stop. But when you hear the male

voices on the call, how are you upset?

Okay, dude. Please.

Are you What's the matter? Are you okay?

They seem genuine that there is nothing

wrong. He's freaking mad. Come on. No,

no. Nowhere. Let's go back to Let's go

back to Manhattan.

We're in Long Island. We're out near the

water.

Please stop.

Me, Mike.

No. Stop it. Please. You hear her

security guard as well as the man who

had retained her to as a client for that

night. And they're telling her to calm

down. No. Please.

Please, please.

And she is frantic that someone is going

to kill her.

You going to kill me?

You hear this interaction of them trying

to get her to calm down and eventually

she

leaves. You can hear her feet on the

gravel because she's running through the

gravel of this development.

[Applause]

And you hear her go up to somebody

else's door and she knocks on the door.

[Music]

Shannon. Shannon.

And the gentleman says, "You know what's

wrong? Are you okay? Be careful."

[Music]

Don't keep yourself. What are you doing?

Wait a minute. What are you doing?

And she just keeps running. I mean, you

hear her run and that's it.

I could have saved that girl if I had

known something was going to happen. And

then eventually the call ends and now we

know she ran into this marsh in the

dark. She didn't know where she was. She

may or may not have been on some

substance. She may or may not have been

having some sort of emotional episode.

We'll never know. But she ran into this

marsh which was described really as like

quicksand to us. It's muddy at the

bottom. You can get stuck and mired in

it in areas. I think it was six feet

deep with water. And really they think

she just drowned. The prevailing opinion

in Shannon's death, while tragic, was

not a murder and was most likely

noncriminal. I do believe that Shannon

Gilbert's death was accidental. I think

that

she drowned. The police decided that the

man who had hired her was not a suspect.

They decided that the old man, she

knocked on the door who called 911, he

was not a suspect. They said they ruled

out that other guy in the community who

everyone thought was the the serial

killer. He wasn't. But the police, you

know, rightly or wrongly, had lost a lot

of credibility with the families and

with a lot of the public. And so it was

really hard to to know what you could or

couldn't believe. It doesn't matter if

people think that she's a victim of the

Long Island serial killer or not.

Something happened to her that night.

She ran for her life. I think initially

the families felt that they were being

judged because of the work that their

loved ones were involved in. These women

were sisters and in the case of Megan

Waterman, she had a three-year-old

daughter. That daughter is now growing

up without her mother. And I think that

these families have a really important

story to tell and could really emphasize

the importance of law enforcement and us

as a society taking these cases

seriously when people disappear. And

when the families tell law enforcement,

I'm telling you there's something wrong.

I'm telling you this is not her

behavior. That that is listened to more

attentively.

This is breaking news from Channel 7

Eyewitness News. And we are following

breaking news. A major break in a cold

case that left residents shaken for more

than 12 years. A suspect now under

arrest in connection to the unsolved

murders on Long Island known as the

Gilgo Beach murders. 2 months later,

July 13th, 2023, police finally make an

arrest. Oh my god, I didn't know who it

is. For years, didn't know who it was

and he was living right next to me. A

predator that ruined families. If not

for the members of this task force, he

would still be on the streets today.

This case is not over. It's only

beginning. This is a major step forward.

Finally, a touch of justice has come to

Suffach County.

I got a call from Kim Dylan, our

assistant news director. I think she

woke me up and said, "There's an arrest

in Gilgo." I was in bed sleeping. My

phone went off, got up, and it was my

manager, and she said, "You need to get

to Masipeka Park right now."

My first reaction was there's no way. I

immediately went out to Masipal Park. I

couldn't believe it was finally

happening. So, as you're driving, you

know, your your texts are coming in, the

calls are coming. When are you going to

get there? When can you get there? As

soon as I got there, they were like, "We

want you on live right away." We're here

at the corner of First Avenue and

Michigan Avenue in Masipa Park. I want

to show you this red house. This is the

house that police have been swarming

this morning. 105 First Avenue in

Masipiqua Park. We know that one suspect

is in custody in at least some of the

Gilgo Beach deaths. So then we watch

them take things out. The investigation

here at the house is certainly picking

up. Just about maybe 30 minutes ago, we

saw officers in hazmat suits going into

the house. So clearly they're in there

to do some sort of forensic activity.

I'll tell you, looking at Rex Hume's

house, my first reaction was if there

was any house that I would think he

would live in, it would be this one. The

rest of the street is beautifully

manicured. These houses are picturesque.

Perfect lawns, flowers, American flags.

Rex Herman's house is literally falling

apart. This one just you always looked

at and it looked a little creepy or

weird. The man that lives at that house,

his description is consistent with what

police have said previously about who

they believe this suspect is. We do know

that he is listed as the president and

owner of an architecture firm in

Manhattan. He is 59 years old and he is

a white male. This guy Rex Herman is

everything we've been led to believe

would be the guy. He's kind of a loner.

He's kind of antisocial. His house is

clearly different from every other house

on that block. It's sort of a mess. He

works in the city. He has a job where

he's very technical where he's an

architect and engineer. And it's

everything that we've been told to

expect from the killer.

I just couldn't wait to talk to the

neighbors. Like, how were these people

going to react to this happening next

door to them? What do you think about

all of this? The whole world has been

watching this case since 2010. And here

it is in your little neighborhood. It's

a shocker. I mean, it's a real eye

opener.

And like I said, 29 years, this is the

worst case I've ever seen. You never saw

anybody coming in and out of that house?

No. Never would say who lives here.

never seeing anybody. The fact that it's

in the exact town is uh kind of

alarming. It's just really unsettling

knowing that something like this

literally hits so close to home. It was

kind of amazing. It was sort of a

carnivallike atmosphere. Yeah. People

were standing around taking pictures,

taking selfies. Just makes no sense to

me how someone could like this close to

me. It was a huge media spectacle. All

the network came. All the cable networks

came. I live in Manhattan now. I had to

come back out here to see this. What can

you say? It's scary. True Crime

Documentaries showed up, started

filming. This is a big case, you know,

and it's like I knew it was going to be

a strong presence out here cuz a lot of

people are interested. There's a lot of

unanswered questions. This was an

earthquake in Masipa Park. This was a

storm like they had never expected this.

Rex is just a strange guy. And we said

hello in the mornings, you know, talked

every once in a while. Nobody would

speak to the guy. People would literally

cross the streets when they came to the

guy's house. The next door neighbor did

tell us that Pureman would look over the

fence at his wife's sunbathing, put a

little lounge chair out there and try to

get a little sun every once in a while.

And every time she dig it, there he was,

you know, popping his head over, "Hi,

how you doing?" and trying to start a

conversation with her. It was really

like a surreal experience. It's rare in

a reporter's life that you start a story

like this and see it all the way

through. As someone who has covered this

story since its inception, since 2010,

this is a day, in fact, I never quite

frankly thought I would see. The moment

wasn't lost on any of us, from the

producer in the control room to Bill to

myself to Josh, it was the same people

on that very first day that we reported

on the story that we had continued to

cover over the course of a decade. And

there we were with an arrest, standing

outside Rex Huerman's house in Masipa

Park. you know, 12 and a half years

later and having Liz Cho toss to me

about this story was so surreal and it

was such a full circle crazy moment. I

just felt we had to remark on it. Josh

is in Masipeka Park tonight with much

more on today's arrest and on the latest

on the three murders. Josh, first time

investigation. Yeah, Liz, it's just

inconceivable that 12 and 1/2 years have

gone by now since that bitterly cold

night when you and I were on the air

talking about this for the very first

time. 12 and 1/2 years later on a thick

and hazy and humid afternoon. Rex Herman

is now in custody. We have brand new and

exclusive video that Eyewitness News

just obtained of him being taken into

custody. My mission that day was finding

the surveillance video and I found the

only surveillance video that exists of

his arrest. Rex Shuran was arrested on

this sidewalk behind me between 36th and

35th here on Fifth Avenue around 8:30

last night. And that's also where you

see a line of police vehicles behind me

executing a search warrant. They have

been inside for hours. It was just that

moment. It was that moment that happens

as journalists that doesn't happen that

only happens on TV cuz it does not

happen in real life. But we did have one

of those TV moments. I ultimately got

the surveillance video from a business

owner who did not want to be identified.

And when he showed me the surveillance

video, I did not know it was going to be

what we ended up seeing, like him

walking down the street, them converging

on him, you know, his satchel bag on. He

he like has he has on jeans and like a

like just casual business wear and he's

just kind of walking nice and casually

down the street and he has his work bag

and we're like, "That's him. That's

him." cuz you're all we're all watching

this in real time like crazy looking at

it at the time because you know there is

a camera there but you don't know what

you're about to see. Surveillance video

shows an accused serial killer's last

moments of freedom before police move

in. It was cash money. It was so

compelling. He did not see that coming.

I'm standing here with uh my law

enforcement partners in the Gilgo task

force to announce uh the indictment of

defendant Rex Andrew Herman, 59 years of

age. He's been arrested by the Suffach

County Police Department's homicide

detectives and he's been indicted in a

grand jury presentation by the Suffach

County District Attorney's Office for

the murders of Melissa Bartholomew,

Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. The

investigation of Morin Brainer Barnes is

ongoing. To hear it all come out

officially at a press conference. And

oh, by the way, the suspect lives as the

crow flies. It's probably just a couple

miles due north. I mean, exactly due

north from where the bodies were found.

After years of searching and fear, years

of true crime hobbyists and their

theories, Rex, did you do it? Turned out

the suspected Gilgo Beach killer was

hiding in plain sight the whole time.

59-year-old Rex Hurerman, a suburban

husband, father of two. Do we know if

Rex Hurman killed these women? No, we

don't know. But to have a suspect is a

huge feat in this investigation. A first

court appearance happening just moments

ago for the man now charged with being

the killer behind some of the Gilgo

Beach murders. We raced over to the

court in Riverhead. We lined up to get

in and I know I'm going to have multiple

live shots after this thing wraps up.

So, I want to be as prepared as I can.

So, I'm one of a few people who have a

hard copy, the old school, of the

indictment, and I'm in line to get into

the courtroom. I'm on the phone with our

assignment editor, Mark. He's much

faster at going through it. I'm reading

for the first time about the burner

phones, about how he threatened the

families of his victims, about how he

was obsessed with the investigation, and

we still don't know. How did they get

them? How did they get them? Our

assignment editor says, "Stacy, oh, go

to page 30." And there it was, a pizza

crust. It was a pizza crust dozens of

pages in on this indictment that they

got his DNA and matched it to a hair on

some tape. It was brilliant. It was easy

as pie, as we say. It was brilliant.

It's a chilling indictment. And each

count carries with it the potential for

life in prison without parole. My most

powerful memory of that day is just that

poor family member sitting 6 in from me

sobbing. It was a real crime and no one

should think that it wasn't because they

were sex workers. They were sex workers

and they were murdered and they have

family who are still grieving and

there's other families who want answers.

And if this man is responsible, we

should know soon enough.

I don't think I'll sleep until I catch

this guy. The person who murdered Lynn

Bartholomew's daughter, Melissa, and

continues to haunt her youngest child.

I'm scared of my own protection. Fact

that he was calling my phone. I have to

be worried about is that going to happen

to me one day. They had been taunted by

this guy and that had come out in the

course of reporting out this story that

he had called their families, taunted

them and talked about what he had done

to their loved one. Over the next 5

weeks or so, he would call the then

15year-old five more times eerily each

time from Melissa's cell. At one point

saying he had killed Melissa. They're

very taunting and angry words. my heart

would stop and like just didn't even

know what to do mostly. He had a system.

He had a clear system. Burner phones. He

stalked people on social media. He

stalked the families on social media.

The SuffK DA describing to the judge how

Herman used seven different burner

phones. He would take selfies on them

like these and use them to search for

victims and violent pornography. He even

searched obsessively for the relatives

of his victims. And he was doing it from

Midtown Manhattan. There was sounds of

traffic in the background and we'd been

hearing all of this and the families and

their representatives had been telling

us this for for years and the police had

not the police had been very careful not

to reveal this information to us

publicly throughout various iterations

of the leadership in the police

department when we talked about you know

not going before the media. If you see

Rodney did go before the media but it

was always in a very controlled manner

and it was always with a controlled

purpose. Again, we did that because we

knew we were playing before a an

audience of one person. I'd want to know

actually what he was doing during that

time and we know he was going to work.

He had a family. We know that he is 59

years old, lived in Masipua Park and

worked in Manhattan. He was married and

had two children. He was functioning in

New York City as a building engineer.

Rex Yurman, I'm an architect. I'm an

architectural consultant. I'm a

troubleshooter. Born and raised on Long

Island. Okay. been working in Manhattan

since 1987. But with respect to the four

women that we'd covered that have been

attributed to him, I mean, how aware was

he of every step of the search and how

was he consuming that information?

Searching on the internet at one point,

why hasn't the Long Island serial killer

been found? He was googling about

himself. In a 14-month period, he had

over 200 searches pertaining to the

Gilgo investigation. Even through this,

I never became like an expert on the

psychology of a serial killer. I mean,

there are people who focus on this, but

what little I know is that they are, you

know, incessantly narcissistic, right?

They want credit for what they've done.

They want people to know about what

they've done. He was searching,

compulsively searching pictures of the

victims, but not only pictures of the

victims, pictures of their relatives,

their sisters, their children. and he

was trying to locate those individuals.

He asked me if I knew about the Gilgo

Beach murders and back then I was like,

"Oh, you know, he's just from that

area." But now I just see it as a serial

killer. Um, kind of just putting it in

somebody's face. There's some kind of

thrill of the the hunt of being the

hunted and staying a step ahead of

investigators. We knew that this one

person would be watching and we didn't

want to give him any insight into what

we were doing and we also didn't want

him to know just how close we were

getting. It was such a close call that I

almost don't even know if I can carry on

in my industry. Following Rex Herman's

arrest, I ended up speaking with a woman

who was a sex worker in this area around

that time. Once I had the name, I ran

him through the screening tools that we

have to keep us safe. one of the phone

numbers was saved as do not answer. If I

get a vibe from somebody that this

person is scary or that they might try

and contact me from like another number,

that's when I'll save them as do not

answer. So, it's really scary to find

out that the person was actually only

less than a mile from me. Were you

working in on Long Island during the

time of these disappearances? Yes, I

was. And I was

avoiding Sorry. take your time. I was

avoiding calls to the Hamptons because I

thought that's where the person was and

so I started working in the city and

then to find out that the person's

actually working in the city and living

right next to me is just really scary.

There were several sex workers that

spoke out after his arrest. It was

chilling to hear what they had to say. I

had a really really bad feeling like my

gut was like telling me I needed to get

away from him. former escort Nikki Brass

who says Herman solicited her

approximately 8 years ago. He actually

mentioned the Gilgo case. When he talked

about it, he would like speak in a they

and

hypothetical, but he had this like smile

on his face that made me really uneasy.

It sent shivers up the back of my neck

as we're listening to what she's

describing and you think of what could

have happened and what she managed to

avoid. One thing I struggle with as a

investigative reporter is that we know

that this tip about the Chevy Avalanche

belonging to this gentleman who was last

seen with Amber Costello. That tip came

in in 2010. He was driving a dark

colored or black first generation

Chevrolet Avalanche with a unique

feature that was between the the it was

a pickup truck, so it was between the

cab and the bed. And that was

identified. Again, that was back in

2010. For law enforcement to not take

that tip seriously until 12 years later

is something that is highly

questionable. It wasn't until March of

2022 that that database was searched by

the task force and this individual was

identified. That tip was called in by

Amber Castello's roommate and friend

because he knew that Amber had

disappeared. She wouldn't just leave

with anybody, you know. She wasn't

stupid, you know. And even though it was

money like that, you know, it it kind of

makes me believe that she was

comfortable enough with this person.

Amber Costello, the day before her

disappearance on September 1st, 2010,

she met with an an individual for the

purposes of having him pay her money for

her services. But she involved herself

in a ruse where once the the individual

gave her her money, other individuals

came into the the house, pretended to be

his significant others, confronted the

individual uh with the purpose of of

making that individual uncomfortable,

having him leave without retrieving his

money, and that's exactly what happened.

He knew that Amber had probably been

harmed, and he knew the last person who

was with her, this gentleman that had

come into the house, she wound up

leaving with, you know, that night. That

individual was identified as as a person

who was between 6'4 and 66, a large man,

thickly built and and dark hair. So why

12 years later is this the first time

that police are really looking at that

tip? Police have not been able to

provide a good answer to that question.

Honestly, what has Rex Herman been doing

all this time? He's only a suspect. He

hasn't been convicted. But if in fact he

did this, why would he have stopped in

2010?

And so for all the time that went by and

you know they caught him on a tip that

they got way back when the thing about

the truck. So what I want to know is is

has he theoretically killed anybody

else? And could that have been prevented

if they ran this case more

professionally from the start?

We still don't know where these women

were murdered. Their bodies were found

at Gilgo, but that doesn't mean that's

where they were killed. And so that is

something that is still part of this

investigation. Suffach County District

Attorney Ray Tierney visits the site

answering the burning question if he

thinks anyone might have been killed in

Hurman's house. Evidence does not point

either one way or the other. Could Rex

Herman be linked to some of these other

victims? Absolutely. That's what

investigators are going to have to

figure out. Bodies. The demographics

were a little different, but it doesn't

mean that we're not going to take a

closer look and see if Rex Herman is

attached to them or other bodies that

might have been discovered throughout

the state. Do the killings of the other

victims resemble the Gilgo 4? They do

not. They are not just looking at Rex

Herman for these other killings. We'll

continue to go after those that

committed these crimes and hold them

accountable. This is an extended period

of time for these homicides to happen.

That means there's that many more

potential suspects because the amount of

time that has gone by. The case now

expanding across the country with

investigators searching Huerman's

property in Las Vegas and in South

Carolina where they retrieved this

pickup truck believed to be connected to

the killing. Suffach County Police and

the Gilgage task force and the FBI will

tell you they are investigating working

with all the police departments. The

investigators were never discouraged.

They continued and uncovered evidence

and followed the leads. They never

stopped working and will continue to

work tirelessly until we bring justice

to all the families involved.

We know so much about the Gilgo 4 and we

know so little about everybody else.

Those people were

murdered and those killers need to be

found, too. I can't imagine what it must

feel like so many years later to to hear

that there's finally an arrest in this

case. I also can't imagine what it feels

like to be a family member of one of the

other

victims. There's all this hoopla around

this arrest, but there are six other

victims whose cases have never been

solved and may never be solved.

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