The Sunday Read: ‘The Botched Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Killer’

[Music]. I first heard about this case 13 years. ago in. 2010 four sets of human remains were. found on the side of a highway on Long. Island just an hour's drive from New. York. City at the time I'd been reporting. about crime and murder so this case. seemed like a natural fit for me but I. resisted writing about it at first. because I thought that the case would be. solved basically by the time I got into. my car.

there had been The Craigslist Killer. case up in New England 18 months earlier. and that person had been caught in just. two days but that's not what happened. here what started out as the discovery. of four women's remains ballooned to. include as many as 10 or 11 possible. victims these became known as the Gilgo. Beach killings or the Long Island serial. killer. case and what made it especially strange. to me at least was that they took place.

so close to New York City the idea that. a killer or Killers could operate. unnoticed for years and perhaps decades. in the same general area so close to New. York it's just shocking that it went. unsolved my name's Robert kker and I'm a. contributing writer for the New York. Times. magazine the Gilgo Beach case defied. expectations in other ways the first. four women had something in common that. they all particip ated in sex.

work back then I probably would have. believed in the cruel stereotype our. culture has about murder victims like. this that they're Off the Grid or. outcasts from their families that no one. knows who they are or that the bodies. would never be. identified but it turned out that not. only were the victims identified right. away but their families had been. searching for them and they wanted. attention for the. cases and so that led to a magazine. story and then a a book called Lost.

Girls which came out in. 2013 Lost Girls focused on the victims. and their families but the case was. still. unsolved the police had no suspects or. Persons of Interest and it seemed like. it would be like that for some. time after the book was published years. went by and I remained frustrated by the. lack of progress in this. case then on a Friday morning last July. I was out in the park taking my dog for. walk when I got a text from my wife.

there had been an arrest in the case I. was. stunned the suspect was Rex hurman a. 59-year-old married father of two he. worked as an architect in Manhattan some. people might have suspected a loner. would be the suspect here but he was. anything but a loner he was a family man. in a densely populated town masipa park. and he commuted into Manhattan where he. ran a pretty high-profile architecture. business he seemed to be hiding in plain.

sight but more than that based on the. police investigations into him he was. patronizing escorts he was on Tinder he. had 97 gun permits he was not exactly. hiding and all of that led to the. question of what about the 12 years. before that what took so long to. consider this guy a. suspect this week's Sunday read is my. year-by-year example mination of the.

failures and shortcomings of the suff. County police and District Attorney's. office's investigation into the Gilgo. Beach. murders unlike the first time I reported. on this case people returned my phone. calls I spoke on and off the record with. people who had very close views of what. was going on in the investigation over. the years and they were saying things. that really surprised. me the truth was that it wasn't just. apathy and it wasn't just indifference. it also was actively turning a blind eye. to things that could be helpful I.

learned about how they had information. almost on day one that could have helped. them find this suspect including the. description of Rex hman and the car he. drove I learned that they weren't. interested in modern investigative. techniques like analyzing cell phone. data I learned that they didn't even. digitize the Case Files they never. missed an opportunity to miss an. opportunity so here's my article the. botched hunt for the Gilgo Beach killer.

read by Robert. [Music]. petoff the beginning of the story was. strangely familiar like the opening. scene in a shopworn police procedural a. woman runs screaming down a Street in. Oak Beach a secluded gated community on. Long Island's Southshore only to vanish. it seems Into Thin Air it was almost. Dawn on May 1st. 2010 hours earlier Shannon Gilbert.

traveled from New Jersey to see a man. who had hired her as an escort from a. Craigslist ad by the time the police. arrived she was gone they talked to the. neighbors the John and her driver and. came up with nothing a few days later. they ordered a fly over of the area and. again saw no sign of her then they. essentially threw up their hands she. went into the ocean they decided either. hysterical or on drugs none of this made. the news not at first a missing sex.

worker rarely does not even when another. woman advertising on Craig's List Megan. Waterman was reported missing a month. [Music]. later as spring turned to Summer each of. those missing persons cases grew cold no. one else was brought in for questioning. and no more searches were conducted but. by November the Bramble bordering the. beaches on the South Shore was less. thick and so the police ordered a. detective with a cadaver sniffing dog as.

part of the dog's regular training. exercises to explore the area near where. Gilbert disappeared up and down the. shoulder of Ocean Parkway the main. artery of the South Shore on December. 11th the detective and the dog found. something at Gilgo Beach a skeleton. found in. burlap 2 days later the police found. three more four skeletons in all secured. with burlap and positioned just a tenth. of mile away from one another in the.

Bramble off the side of a deserted. stretch of Seaside Highway the police. were shocked who were these women after. a series of DNA tests they learned that. two had been missing for years Moren. brainer Barnes last heard from at Penn. Station in 2007 and Melissa bartholomy. who vanished from the Bronx in. 2009 their families had begged the. police to look for them the third was. water man whom a lead investigator told.

me recently they never imagined they. would find there the fourth Amber. Costello disappeared in September 2010 a. few months after Gilbert and Waterman. she was last seen darting out of her. house in nearby Babylon a short drive. from Gilgo Beach to meet a man in his. car all these women fit a certain. profile they were petite and in their. 20s and had come to New York to make. money as escort on.

Craigslist this was quite obviously a. serial killer case the only person not. saying as much was the suffk County. Police Commissioner Richard Dormer I. don't want anyone to think we have a. Jack the Ripper running around suffk. County with blood dripping from a knife. he said in a frenzied news conference in. fact they had something almost exactly. like that all eyes were on the suffk. police now wondering who killed these. women if they would ever find Gilbert.

and what it would take to solve the. mystery the police brought no one in for. questioning they declared no Persons of. Interest conspiracy theories filled the. vacuum with Gilbert still missing they. resumed the search in. Spring incredibly they found more human. remains 10 in all including a man and a. toddler this was when the Long Island. serial killer case lost all recogn iable. shape bodies on the beach more of them.

each day cable networks the 1-hour True. Crime shows and the documentary Crews. descending on the South. Shore the images from this time became. indelible platoons of uniformed. Personnel in the Mist combing through. the Bramble fire trucks with long. ladders extended out and over the beach. brush officers peering down with. binoculars from elevated. buckets.

the only thing missing was a strong lead. in lie of results the police tried to. manage. expectations this Dormer said. plaintively at another news conference. is not an episode of. CSI the media's tone changed from alarm. to. confusion these women used their phones. to meet the killer certainly something. must be traceable the original. Craigslist Killer Philip maroff who left. a digital Trail after responding to an.

ad in the erotic services page of. Craigslist in Boston was found in a. matter of days he murdered one woman how. hard could it be to find a killer with. four digital Trails or. more as the spring of 2011 wore on the. police seemed grieved at times they. subtly blamed the victims in a meeting. meant to calm the public the chief of. detectives said these women went out to. meet this killer because they were.

willing to get into a car with a. stranger and that it was a consolation. that the killer was not selecting. citizens at large he's selecting from a. pool there was a growing feeling on the. part of some police officers that all. this was happening to them that it. seemed almost arbitrary that 10 cold. cases 11 including Gilbert crash landed. in the middle of their. jurisdiction and then as time wore on. the the police updates stopped to.

observers the investigation seemed to. stall. entirely this summer after 13 years the. police finally made an arrest in the. Gilgo Beach murders Rex hman is a. 59-year-old architect and married father. of two who commuted to Manhattan from. his home in masipa park a bustling. bedroom community in central Long Island. hman had been in plain sight the whole. time in any any number of ways according.

to prosecutors he had 97 gun permits an. astonishing number by any standard that. you think would raise a few eyebrows in. any cursory search he patronized escorts. causing some to wonder who else. potentially he might have harmed while. the families of the victims who had been. waiting for this moment were overwhelmed. by the news of the arrest they also. wondered why it took so long since the. case's early days law enforcement.

officers have rarely spoken to the media. when I was reporting Lost Girls my 2013. book about the case and victims the. police were largely silent but after. huberman's arrest some have been willing. to discuss the investigation with a. greater degree of detail and cander. since July I've conducted interviews. with people close to the Gilgo case. during every chapter of its bizarre. 133-year. timeline several sources asked for. anonymity concerned that public.

statements by insiders might undercut. the case against hman before the. trial the story they tell at times. self-serving and at other times soul. searching demonstrates inadvertently and. otherwise how institutional rot helped. contribute to the delays and paralysis. of the. investigation what started out as. indifference and apathy soon curdled. into obstinance willful ignorance and.

Corruption from the moment these women. were found at Gilgo Beach the law. enforcement culture of suffk County. seemed so preternaturally ill suited to. handle this case that a killer was. allowed to roam free which was all the. more ging given what we know now that. everything the police needed to solve. the case they had almost on day. one to understand what went wrong Ong. with the Gilgo case it helps to have a.

passing familiarity with the dark. contradictory nature of suffk County. encompassing some of the most rarified. communities in the world including the. Hamptons and Fire Island as well as. struggling towns like Brentwood wanch. and Central icelet it's a place full of. sophisticated powerful people where time. and again law enforcement has closed. ranks and done things their way often. with little. oversight in the 1970s to take one. notable example the suffk County Police.

Department's homicide unit was known for. an impossibly high confession rate of. 97% which almost certainly meant they. engaged in coercion when that statistic. made the news officers in that unit. proudly took to wearing t-shirts with. the Insignia. 97% prosecutors have at times ignored. and even enabled those excesses in 1988. a teenager named Martin tank Cliffe was. driven to confess falsely to the murder.

of his father it would take almost 18. years for him to be exonerated and. released and a year later in 1989 New. York's Commission of Investigation. issued a report lamb basting the suffk. police and the District Attorney's. office and citing evidence of more. coerced confessions plus illegal. wiretaps preferential treatment for. people close to public officials and the. practice of sweeping law enforcement. misconduct under the.

rug the police often went unchecked. because in suffk County their Union is a. powerful source of campaign. contributions with its own super pack. the Union's political clout helps. explain why the suff police department. is one of the nation's largest with. about 2,500 sworn officers and their. salaries are among the highest a. politician who supports the police can. earn the Union's backing and ensure a. Swift Rise to the top and for many.

decades any district attorney with. ambition would not look too closely at. police indiscretions and even indulge. them or better still use them to. consolidate political power when Thomas. spota first became district attorney in. 2002 he was perceived as a white knight. largely expected to clean house after an. era of corruption but spota it became. clear later found ways to install his. own allies in police leadership.

positions which in turn would secure the. Union's support when the Gilgo case. emerged 8 years into spot's tenure he. was actively reshaping the police. department even as the body count around. Gilgo Beach Rose the media took up. residents on the South Shore and. investigators struggled to handle an. unprecedented case involving at least. one serial killer the suffk detectives. had more than enough to deal with in. those first few months months 10. possible victims meant 10 different sets.

of evidence not just bodies but also. physical evidence and phone records the. police knew the killer targeted women. who posted ads on Craigslist they knew. he used camouflaged burlap straps to. bind them the kind of Hunter uses they. knew he used hard to trace burner phones. to contact each woman a different phone. for each victim 16 calls or texts to. Marine brainer Barnes before she. vanished in 2009 and four before Melissa.

bartholomy disappeared at the time the. burner phones made him seem clever a. loyal Watcher of certain police. procedurals. perhaps but the killer made mistakes too. police knew he used tape to wrap the. victims and found at least a few hairs. with the right technology furnished by. the FBI or an outside lab with expertise. they might be able to extract DNA and. find a match provided they had a. suspect's DNA to compare it with they.

also recovered a belt on the scene with. initials either hm or. wh the police started to understand. where this killer might operate where he. lived and maybe where he. worked they learned how in the summer of. 2009 the killer made taunting phone. calls from Midtown Manhattan to Melissa. Bartholomew's younger sister using. Melissa's phone. Brainard barnes's phone also connected.

to a cell tower in Midtown Manhattan. near the Queensboro Bridge the bridge a. person might take if they were heading. to Long Island before she vanished in. 2007 Waterman's phone last registered at. a cell tower in central Long Island near. masipa Park so did. bartholomy here was a pattern a killer. who potentially commuted between central. Long Island and Midtown Manhattan. these were densely populated areas where.

it might seem impossible that he could. ever be traced and yet during the first. year of the Gilgo case in 2011 the FBI. started to provide help on that front. technology that might track those burner. phones by seeing if their numbers. appeared in the records of certain cell. towers on Long Island cell tower data is. voluminous a haystack full of needles. think of all the signals from all the. phones that ping at various cell towers.

every second but if any of the killer. burner phones pinged at the same Towers. they would have a sense of where perhaps. he spent most of his. time if this seemed promising suffix. investigation for most of 2011 was. essentially at a standstill in part. because the district attorney spota was. stepping up his efforts to orchestrate a. soft takeover of the police he went. public with his Fury at the existing. police leadership in May after senior.

officials suggested that a single killer. might be responsible for all the murders. spota was so incensed by the one killer. Theory a former senior police officer. told me recently because he believed it. encouraged Panic that heightens the. alarm to everyone that we have an active. killer that it could happen. again Days Later spota held a news. conference of his own he made sure. Richard Dormer the police commissioner.

was standing there as he spoke a public. defenestration Dormer has no idea what. spot is going to say the former senior. officer recalled and spota runs the. whole. show he's got the clipboards up and he. shows where all the bodies are laid out. it's very. telling spota announced that there could. be as many as three killers at work on. Long Island that the South Shore might. have been a Dumping Ground it is clear. that the area in and around Gilgo Beach.

has been used to discard human remains. for some period of time spota declared. as distasteful and disturbing as that is. there is no evidence that all of these. remains are the work of a single. killer among the police and the media. those watching the case were baffled. isn't an open disagreement between the. police commissioner and the district. attorney a gift to any future defense. lawyer handling the case at trial. but insiders understood that this wasn't.

so much about solving this case as it. was about spot's larger Ambitions they. knew that Dormer was an appointee of. Steve Levy the county executive and. spot's political Foe and that spota was. going after them both publicly he. excoriated Dormer while privately he had. Levy investigated for campaign Finance. improprieties in March 2 months before. this news conference spota pressured Ley. to drop his bid for reelection in return.

for not being prosecuted Dormer was out. as commissioner before the end of the. year the public would never learn. exactly what Levy supposedly did a. classic suffk County backro deal and his. successor Steve balone was happy to sign. off on a new chief of the police. department who happened to be a longtime. Protegé of spas and who to the Eternal. detriment of the Gilgo investigation. would go on to become widely known as. the most corrupt police official in.

modern suffk. [Music]. history shortly after the bodies were. identified by DNA in early 2011 the. police visited the home of Amber. Costello the most recent victim in a. rented house in Babylon all summer. before her Disappearance in September. she shared the home with her boyfriend.

Bjorn broadsky and a friend Dave schaer. the place was a drug pit well known to. neighbors who had been watching cars. coming and going for months all three. housemates spent most of their days. doing heroin with Costello's sister. popping by for visits the money for the. heroin came from Costello's escort work. starting at $250 a call schaer at the. time said that during Costello's last. night at the house. she was on the phone with a potential.

client and arrived at an unusually high. fee $1,500 for the whole night she asked. to meet him outside the house schaer. walked Castello out the door but he. didn't see castello's client he wrote in. a 2012 Facebook post that he was too. high to remember him but the police had. access to Costello's phone records and. they saw that the same man she was. talking with had also been texting her. the night before. they even saw a text message suggesting.

he had met with her in person that first. night the client seemed mad that. something had gone wrong and he wanted. to see her. again the police learned that on the. first night the client wanted to hire. Castello but as soon as he paid schaer. jumped out of the shadows and chased him. away this was a scam schaer and broadsky. pulled whenever they could that summer. ACC costing castello's clients and. taking their money before she had to. follow through with the job but this. time the client seemed to want another.

chance police started looking for anyone. who could remember seeing the client on. that first night they found a witness. who saw a large white male 6'4 or taller. resembling an ogre in his mid-40s with. dark bushy hair and big glasses the. witness also spotted the car this man. drove a Green Chevrolet Avalanche with a. distinctive rear door like a trucks at. that moment with the description of a.

man and a make model and color of a car. the police were closer to targeting a. suspect than they had ever. been and then the lead withered. away the initial database search for the. car went nowhere a source close to the. Gilgo investigators told me that the. detectives were using a program known as. law man a product of 1990s database. technology access ing millions of New. York State's paper DMV records when it.

first became available the law Man's. Search seemed like a godsend pretty much. everything that sat in the DMV archives. was instantly searchable but over the. years as databases age their data. becomes harder to navigate new cars like. Avalanches which are a blend of a truck. and a car could be misfiled by the DMV. and what gets mangled by the DMV can. disappear entirely irely in the law man. searches in retrospect the source told.

me the K must have been. miscategorized it's hard to imagine that. the police would not at least have tried. to continue pursuing eyewitness. information about the last man to see. Costello alive but that did not happen. just like that the police seemed to stop. talking about the ogre and the Avalanche. not with their superiors in the. department and not with an outside. agency like the state police or the FBI. a senior police official with close.

knowledge of the investigation's first. year told me that he had no recollection. of the avalanch tip the chief of. detectives at the time Dominic Veron has. also said he heard nothing about it for. a decade the lead sat at the bottom of a. growing case File with no sign that it. might ever be discovered again around. the same time the department was a drift. waiting for spot's handpicked police. chief to arrive James Burke was a former. suffect narcotics detective whose.

alliance with spota spanned decades. almost like a blood tie in a 1979 case. that brought him recognition as a young. prosecutor spota secured the convictions. of two teenage defendants for the murder. of a 13-year-old boy named John Pas a. key witness was Burke who at the time. was just 14 a decade later participants. in the case claimed that Witnesses had. been coached to lie on the stand Spoto. was never charged with and has denied.

any wrongdoing and his bond with Burke. never wavered even years later when. Burke ran into. trouble as a police officer Burke lost. track of his firearm more than once and. in 1993 an internal affairs. investigation accused him of patronizing. and smoking crack with a sex worker. spota who was in private practice at the. time offered to represent Burke Burke is. eventually was punished with the loss of. 15 vacation days once spota became.

district attorney in 2002 he gave Burke. a senior role overseeing a group of. detectives in his office it was clear. back then to spot's staff that one day. when spota had the chance he would put. Burke in charge of the police. department with Burke arriving as Chief. in 2012 spota managed to do what even in. suffk County once seemed impossible. consolidate political power between the.

police and the District Attorney's. office there was nothing to hold back. the impulse to close ranks and remove. all outside. scrutiny it was hey we run our own shop. stay out bone the county executive. during much of spot's tenure told. me when in early 2012 staff members from. the FBI's celebrated behavioral analysis. unit arrived in New York from Quantico. Virginia to help with the case at the. invitation of the previous leaders of.

the police department spot had them turn. around and fly back home declaring their. work. unnecessary the loss of the FBI's help. was a severe blow to the Gilgo. investigation impeding any meaningful. progress in the case before being shut. out the FBI handed the police a raft of. cell tower information that they had. collected over the past several months. their analysis traced the signals from. the Killer's burner phones to two.

regions on a map Geographic boxes they. called them one in central Long Island. including masipa Park and one in Midtown. Manhattan as a Next Step the FBI was. willing to help search cell tower data. in central Long Island for other cell. phone numbers that registered with those. Towers at the same time as the Killer's. burner phones in theory whoever used. those burner phones also carried a. regular phone that pinged the same. Towers at the same time that number.

unlike the burners would be. tracable spota abandoned this entire. approach he refused to petition the. courts to search any more cell tower. data on Long Island spot's staff members. who would have had to request the. warrants for that data waved off the. idea as a fishing. Expedition they didn't understand it and. they didn't want to litigate something. that they didn't understand the source. close to the Gilgo investigators told me.

in truth sell Tower data was hardly. novel in 2004 it helped disprove The. Alibi of the accused California wife. killer Scott Peterson a different. district attorney might have seen where. the data. LED there were other ways for spota to. rationalize not squandering time and. resources on cell tower data just. because the killer made some calls from. Central Long Island Island didn't mean. he had to be living there clearly the.

killer was good at avoiding detection he. seemed too smart to continue living a. few miles from where the bodies were. found by now he had to be a. ghost the problem with that argument was. that every lead they had upon. examination could be written off as a. long shot a police Source who was part. of the early investigation told me that. they had been pulling hunting licenses. in the area because the burlap found on. the bodies suggested the killer was a. hunter they appeared to drop that.

strategy but Rex hman it turns out was. an enthusiastic. Hunter I find it hard to believe his. name isn't somewhere the source told. me despite that initial interest in. hunting licenses the team hadn't. concentrated on gun permits the victims. weren't shot the source close to the. Gilgo investigators told me this was. technically true the bodies had no signs. of gun trauma causing many to speculate.

that they were strangled but a different. set of investigators one that closely. partnered with other agencies like the. FBI or the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco. firearms and explosives might have. looked at gun permits and noticed the. man in masipa park with. 97 in the four years that Burke ran the. police department from 2012 to 2015 the. Gilgo room at suffk police head quarters. became a place for part-time work with.

little urgency dictated from above under. Burke the police were in what would. later be characterized by federal. prosecutors as a complete ethical. freefall his staff served drinks in his. office every night he ordered officers. to spy on his girlfriend her exes and. her son and follow his perceived. adversaries including Steve balone the. county executive he turned the police. force for into his own Empire punishing. anyone he deemed disloyal and then.

celebrating with friends after their. demotion instead of prioritizing the. search for an atlarge serial killer. spota too seemed more interested in. investigating his Rivals including. balone who recalled being approached. more than once by spot's staff. apparently just to let him know they. were. watching da is the most powerful officer. that we have bone told me if you're. willing to Target people and go after.

people that is an awesome power you. don't even have to indict somebody to. ruin their life just starting to. investigate someone can cause people to. lose. jobs for about a year things went. smoothly for spota and Burke until Burke. spoiled everything with an unchecked. explosion of violence inside a suffk. police precinct house in December 2012 a. witness in a drug case who also happened. to be pilfering from police vehicles.

grabbed a duffel bag from Burke's car. that contained pornography sex toys. cigars a gun belt and ammunition Federal. prosecutors would later call this duffel. Burke's party bag when Burke found out. he attacked the witness in full view of. several other detectives some of whom. took part in the beating and even. bragged about it later federal agents. started investigating Burke in April and. Burke spent the next year or so.

pressuring witnesses to take part in a. coverup he had help from spota staff who. used wir Taps and car tracking devices. to monitor police detectives he. distrusted searching for blackmail. material instead of filing subpoenas for. more cell tower data in the Gilgo case. spot's staff were wiretapping a police. detective they suspected of leaking. information about a gang case to Newsday. the Long Island newspaper paper the. tapes included calls between the. detectives and FBI agents as well as the.

federal prosecutors involved in the. investigation into. Burke by law spota needed to notify. Loretta Lynch then the US attorney for. the eastern district of New York when. federal agents appeared on police. wiretaps when he did one source told the. times in 2016 Federal officials. immediately saw how far a field those. wire went and how perhaps the whole.

point may have been to learn how close. the FBI might be to taking down Burke. the problem for them balone told me was. that they didn't know that President. Obama was going to nominate Loretta. Lynch to be the Attorney General of the. United. States once that happened the federal. investigation into Burke expanded into. an inquiry of all of suffk County Law. Enforcement Lynch's office issued. immunity orders or a requirement to.

testify to Witnesses in the department. who had seen Burke in action Burke was. indicted and pleaded guilty in 2016 to. conspiring to obstruct Justice and. violating the civil rights of the. witness he had beaten he served a. sentence of 46 months back home on Long. Island he still receives a pension in a. bleak but strangely resonant moment. Burke was arrest Ed this August for. soliciting sex in a public park he has.

pleaded not guilty and the case is still. proceeding spot resigned in 2017 the day. after he was indicted on charges of. conspiracy obstruction of justice. witness tampering and other crimes bone. finally free of spot's surveillance and. intimidation said during a news. conference that spota and Burke had been. running a criminal. Enterprise in December 2019 Spoto was. convicted in federal court and later.

sentenced to 5 years he's still in. [Music]. prison spota and Burke were gone but the. bunker mentality remained no one. collided with that culture more directly. than Tim cinii who became Police. Commissioner in 2015 just after burk's. indict. CI a senior prosecutor in Manhattan.

under the US attorney prit barara was. hired to clean up the mess Burke Left. Behind the problem was that those very. credentials made CI suspect to many in. the department never mind that he was. Commissioner of a police force without. ever having been a police officer. himself CI sensed push back from the. start there's this culture of you know. this is our town and we do it our way he. told. me seni wanted to modernize the Gilgo. investigation he brought the FBI back in.

asking for help with the cell phone. piece of the case he invested in new. equipment including the Gladiator. autonomous receiver or gar a burner. phone's signal from a tower suggests a. huge geographical area but the gar can. make that area smaller so essentially. what that did was reduce your number of. Persons of Interest he said but these. efforts were met with resistance from. the detectives handling.

Gilgo that disagreement came to a head. in 2018 when ceni was elected as the. district attorney and started pushing. the police to find two specific suspects. in those Geographic areas one of them a. former police officer a source with. knowledge of the investigation told me. that CI was treated as if he had somehow. broken protocol and failed to understand. that the police department decided who. did and didn't receive. subpoenas both of C's suggested targets.

were ruled out as suspects The Source. close to the Gilgo investigators told me. that they felt that ceni an outsider. using suffk County as a step on his. political ladder to hire office was more. interested in looking busy than getting. results we made them look foolish by. knocking out their potential suspects. The Source. said some police were also upset that. ceni was diving into suffk County's. history of botched murder cases as soon.

as he became district attorney he opened. the County's first conviction Integrity. unit an office that reviewed past cases. in which police malfant led to gross. injustices in 2019 that unit. successfully exposed wrongdoing in a. legendary case from suffix past the. beating and confession of Keith Bush who. was convicted in 1977. and spent 33 years in prison for a. murder he didn't.

commit the bush case now stands as the. longest wrongful incarceration in New. York State history but the past is never. past in suffk County at least one senior. Gilgo detective knew some of the players. in the case personally officers. discredited by the. exoneration ceni said that he may not. have appreciated at the time that. reopening the bush cave. was a declaration of war on the.

establishment the conflict between the. police and cinii seemed to have a direct. effect on the Gilgo case C's office kept. narrowing the data that police needed to. investigate and the police kept not. doing anything with that data by the. summer of 2021 the source with knowledge. of the investigation told me the. geographic areas had been reduced to the. smallest yet on Long Island and did in. Midtown. Manhattan this Source suggested that.

fewer than 1,000 men lived in the Long. Island area all that was left was to see. which of them worked in that tiny sliver. of. Manhattan it was eminently doable The. Source said but it just didn't. happen C's team reached out to. neighboring Nassau County where masaa. Park is to help create a list of homes. within the geographic area nasau. isolated several hundred houses. including on First Avenue where heuerman.

and his family lived they provided short. dosses of each home hman the source told. me was on that list again the police. seemed to do. nothing the FBI was as frustrated with. the police as C was and threatened to. leave the. investigation police leadership. responded by pulling a longtime lead. detective off the Gilgo case it was. taking time but in certain ways the law. enforcement culture was changing cinii.

had some help from the police. commissioner who succeeded him Geraldine. Hart another Outsider who spent more. than 20 years with the. FBI inspired by the Breakthrough in the. Golden State killer case in California. Hart commissioned an outside lab that. could use genetic genealogy matching DNA. evidence to genetic material collected. by private companies like 23 and me to. successfully identify a victim found. during the Gilgo Beach search in 2011 as.

Valerie Mack she disappeared in 2000 and. like the other four women worked as an. escort har also made public an. intriguing piece of evidence that the. police had not disclosed the leather. belt with imprinted initials Hart said. the police believed the killer had. handled the belt police are still trying. to extract DNA from a hair ha that was. found near the belt buckle there's. always a risk when revealing sensitive.

information about a case it could tip. their hand to the killer for example but. enough time had passed the case was now. convincingly alive. again it took until 2022 for the Gilgo. case to get what it needed all along an. inter agency task force with full-time. investigators sharing information. resources and. ideas there's a certain poetry in the.

fact that the suffk district attorney. who helped make it happen Ray Tierney. had been pressured out of spot's office. in 2008 then a junior prosecutor Tierney. ran into trouble when he started. questioning some Corner cutting in. spot's political corruption unit quite. abruptly tyranny was transferred to. rackets throwing his future into. Jeopardy they took my car they took the. phone tney told me recently I certainly. got the message I said my career in the.

DA's office is effectively over I was. way outside the circle of trust Tierney. left that office but he never stopped. working as a prosecutor first in the US. attorney's office on Long Island and. then under Eric Gonzalez the Brooklyn. district attorney in both jobs tyranny. mounted cases against violent gangs that. relied heavily on cell tower data like. TIY understood that when Witnesses. aren't helpful the data is essential.

during the 13 years that he was outside. suffix closed Universe he heard plenty. about the troubles in the Burke era and. he never stopped watching to see if. there was a break in the Gilgo case in. 2021 when he ran for suffi County. district attorney Tierney made cracking. the Gilgo case part of his. platform while campaigning Tierney met. with some of the Gilgo victims family. members face to face watching their. expressions Harden as they talked about.

the decade of. frustration at that moment Tierney found. himself trying not to make promises he. was not sure he could. keep I didn't know if it would be. possible to solve he told me after all. this time it still seemed like a needle. in a hay stack even if the killer was. from Long Island and commuted to New. York did that really narrow things down. I grew up in comac tyy told me everybody. who lived in comac you either owned your.

own business or you were a cop or. fireman or your dad or your mom or both. of them got on the train went into the. City and came home how many other people. do. that soon after Tierney won the election. Rodney Harrison became the new police. commissioner he had spent 12 years in. investigations for the NYPD and worked a. number of gang cases with tyranny. Harrison told Ty JY that he wanted a. task force this time not just with the. FBI but with everyone Nassau County.

police officers state police officers. and the local sheriff's office all in a. room working daily and talking. constantly Tierney had been saying the. same thing on the campaign Trail it. seemed strange to each of them that. nothing quite like this had happened. before in his first days as commissioner. Harrison visited the site on Ocean Park. way met with the detectives and held a. news conference saying he liked his.

chances privately though Harrison was. shocked to see that after 10 years the. mountains of witness statements. interview transcripts and investigation. notes had never been digitized all the. work suffi detectives had done on the. case was unsearchable accessible only to. a few detectives who were relying on. their own limited memories of the case. we had to collect everything thing and. send it down to Quantico Harrison told. me so that was big they didn't even know.

what they had the task force was. announced on February 15th. 2022 on March 14th they learned about. the Chevy. Avalanche it was simply a matter of. which Search tool they used in the early. days of the investigation the DMV record. search used by suffk detectives to find. the Avalanche came up short but in 2022. a member of the new task force from the.

state police used a service called T XP. a private subscription-based database. that accesses more records in more. places all around the country the. database was available in 2011 when the. police first learned about the. Avalanche this search had none of the. filing issues of the previous search a. car turned up right away an a Avalanche. owned by hman at the time the bodies. were first found since then the.

ownership had transferred to huan's. brother Craig in South. Carolina the state police were the game. changers Harrison told me they had never. been part of the. investigation once we brought them to. the table they made the. difference as soon as they saw a car. record linked to Rex hman a man the size. of an ogre living and working in the. exact geographic area that the data had. been suggesting and res sugesting for 10.

years the team locked in on him as a. potential suspect there was even an. archived Google Map photo from November. 2011 showing a Chevy Avalanche parked. outside huan's house in masipa. [Music]. park for much of 2022 the task force. used cell tower data furnished by the. FBI and defined by ceni to match. Herman's movements to the movements of. the victims and the killer Tierney's.

office filed about 300 subpoenas and. search warrants sure enough wherever. huan's personal cell phone went the. burner phones attributed to the killer. seemed to follow none of this explained. how a married father of two in a densely. populated neighborhood might operate. unnoticed but then they used more. conventional web searches to piece. together huberman's life and the life of. his family when Megan Waterman.

disappeared huan's wife ASA ELP was away. in the middle of a 4-day trip to. Maryland when Amber Costello vanished. erup was spending a week away from home. in New. Jersey and in the summer of 2009 2 days. before Melissa bartholomy disappeared. Herman's wife left the United States on. a trip to Iceland she was not in town. when bartholomy vanished nor was she in. town a few days later when Bartholomew's. sister Amanda started getting harassing.

calls from a man using Melissa's phone. hman did appear to be in town then but. he left for Iceland several days later. and for the length of his time out of. the country Amanda received no calls. from her sister's phone those calls. resumed the day after heuerman came home. scouring hamman's email the police found. accounts for burner phones. none were the ones connected to the. women's disappearances but with one of.

those burners they found something. significant an email account he used to. conduct Google searches the content of. these searches was everything the police. had hoped and dreaded it to be he was. interested in violent porn he was. interested in child porn he wanted to. know what this new Gilgo task force was. up to and from other record searches. they learned he was using Tinder and. contacting. escorts and he had guns lots and lots of.

guns with this new insight into hman. Harrison knew the Clock Was ticking. who's to say if he'd already hurt other. people or was about to from there. Harrison said his thoughts turned even. darker all those gun permits 97 of them. how would someone with that many guns. react if he knew he was being. investigated what would a person like.

that do if someone tried to arrest him. honestly I was nervous Harrison told me. what's his mindset is he somebody. unstable that can do a mass shooting. incident or something like that you know. your mind starts racing all. over they needed DNA to confirm. everything else they had found including. the hairs on the tape used to bind the. bodies tailing hman they picked their. sample from a pizza box he tossed into a. garbage can on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

one more indelible image to make this. case notorious like the burlap and the. Bramble the hair follicles from the tape. contained Trace genetic samples. requiring a special process called. mitochondrial. analysis the FBI matched huan's DNA to. One Hair two other hairs matched huan's. wife whose DNA the police found on two. bottles left outside their home the. theory is that hman used a roll of tape.

that had been lying around the house on. Thursday July 15th a group of officers. approached hman as he was walking along. Fifth Avenue near his office as one. stopped him the others formed a circle. tightening around him there was not a. hint of violence an arrest so smooth. that pedestrians kept on walking past. them after all this time the police had. a win they built their case found a. plausible suspect and apprehended him.

without Bloodshed Tierney and Harrison. held a news conference with the victim's. families squarely behind them another. change from the old days when the. families were told to keep their. distance but this is suffk County and so. that same day Steve balone whose term as. County Executive ends this year and. whose Legacy will be forever entangled. with the Burke spota era held his own. news. conference the governor Kathy hokel made.

her remarks separately too during an. unrelated media event at Jones Beach. they weren't invited to tyy and. Harrison's news conference tney said. later because this wasn't about. politics hman has been charged in the. murders of three of the Four Women. Waterman bartholomy and Costello and. remains a prime suspect in the murder of. brainer Barnes he has pleaded not guilty. there are six more sets of remains with.

no suspects attached not counting. Shannon Gilbert whose body was found at. the end of 2011 and whose death police. continued to maintain was unrelated a. cruel coincidental tragedy that set this. case in. motion while Joel riffkin a prolific. Long Island serial killer of an earlier. era confessed right away to 17 murders. hman is Main maining his innocence and. for the time being his. silence during the 13 years this case.

went without an arrest what chance would. there be that the killer never tried. something else like it would someone. like him just stop at 4: tney has seen. all the suspect's web searches and has. his own assessment of the. man I would say that the interest and. the obsession never left he said Tierney. has announced he will try the case. against hman personally a district. attorney going into court to argue.

before a jury the most notorious serial. killer trial in a. generation all eyes will be on suffk. County again what happens next is a. chance to make up at least partly for. the years when this case was in such. disarray and suffk County's law. enforcement culture seemed all too. willing to forget it ever happened.

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