True-crime investigations with murderous elements

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I think she’s a killer.

>> I’m Peter Vans.

Tonight on 48 hours, a vision of murder.

It’s hard to imagine this picturesque seashore marks landing on Florida’s space coast as a beachside grave.

>> Is this the spot where Kelly Brennan was lying on the ground? >> He noticed her legs sticking out from the bushes a little bit and kind of the lower part of her torso.

It was on the morning of February 16th, 2010 that chopper pilot John Copala of the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department spotted a body.

>> We landed.

I got out of the helicopter, ran over to her.

I saw a lot of trauma to her head.

It’s It’s a very sad moment to see somebody dead like that.

It was 46-year-old Kelly Brennan who had vanished from her home in Indie Atlantic less than 24 hours earlier.

>> There was no saving Kelly Brennan.

>> No, unfortunately, no.

There was no saving her.

>> She was so alive.

She was always, you know, running around doing things and then to know that she was dead.

It was just a total shock.

>> Lou Ervy and Kelly were close friends and nurses at a local hospital.

They often kayaked together.

>> When you think about Kelly Brennan, what do you miss the most? >> Her friendship.

Working with her was good because she is a good nurse.

She knew her stuff and but also just as a friend.

>> Kelly was committed to her patients.

Even after she was diagnosed with an incurable disease, multiple sclerosis, >> it would flare up at times and she would just keep working and and work right through it, which was another thing I admired about her.

Sheila Trot, the woman at the center of this murder, says Kelly Brennan was her friend as well.

What is it about her that you liked? >> We had the type of friendship where we wouldn’t see each other for four or five years and then something would bring us together.

She hosted parties.

She liked to be the center of attention.

Kelly was a great girl.

There was nothing that she did to deserve that at all.

>> So, how did it come to this? Sheila Trot, suspected of brutally murdering her friend and dumping her body right here among these bushes.

Well, it’s a complicated tale of secrets, lies, and intrigue.

A story that begins with an eerie dream and ends like a Shakespearean tragedy.

Does this case have an affair? >> Yes.

>> Sex? >> Sure.

>> Jealousy >> on both sides.

Major Todd Goodyear is the lead investigator >> and a nightmare and visions and who knows what.

Clairvoyance.

>> Of course, that’s our our suspect saying that she’s clairvoyant for us.

That’s somebody that’s trying to live with what they’ve done.

>> I woke up and it just startled me and I said, “I’m worried about Kelly.

I think Kelly’s hurt.

” >> In this dream, was Kelly Brennan dead? >> Did you see her bloodied? >> No.

Mm-m.

>> Did you see her body at Mark’s Landing? >> Uh-uh.

No.

>> You did not kill Kelly.

>> No.

>> No.

I would never have hurt Kelly.

No, I never would have hurt Kelly.

>> But to truly understand just how strange this story is, you have to go back in time 20 years.

Kelly Brennan, a nursing student, and Sheila Trot were friends.

Sheila was working three jobs to put her husband Daniel through flight school.

>> Dan was an upwardly mobile kind of guy.

Liked limelight a little bit.

Some of the things we heard was he a little narcissistic.

One of those people that liked to believe he had a little more power than a little more status.

>> She was head over heels.

>> Allison Bartlett remembers when her best friend Sheila fell for the tall, handsome, aspiring pilot.

I never heard or saw that spark in her that I did when she talked about Dan and sent photos of Dan and I could see that they were going to be getting married.

>> And what did she tell you about his personality? >> Fun.

Like the same things that she did.

I think in a lot of ways she found a soulmate.

>> At least she thought she did.

>> At least she thought she did.

Sheila and Dan were married on August 26th, 1989.

The couple had two sons, Kraton and Graham.

Sheila became a real estate agent and Daniel Trot achieved his dream of becoming an airline pilot.

In 2002, his political career also took off when he was elected mayor of their small town in the Atlantic.

Based on your investigation, were Dan and Sheila Trot considered a power couple in Indantic? >> I think within town because of his status as being, you know, formerly in the political circles there and her being a real estate agent and being fairly wellto-d do, I think they were in that social circle to where they would be well known throughout the community.

From the outside, Sheila and Dan seemed to have the perfect life, but images can be deceiving.

What did you see in his behavior? What happened? >> He began having affairs.

I would notice his ring was on the counter.

He wasn’t wearing his ring.

And then when I would say, “Look at we need to talk.

What’s going on?” He would swear and cuss at me.

>> That’s Sheila’s story.

48 hours reached out to Dan Trot about these allegations, but he refused to comment.

By January 2009, Sheila had had enough.

>> So, you asked for the divorce.

Oh, absolutely.

Yes.

I said, “I’m done.

” >> While her marriage was crumbling, Sheila and Kelly met for a girl’s night out.

And it wasn’t long before Sheila realized that Kelly’s six-year marriage to restaurant manager Gino Row was on the rocks, too.

>> She had made a point of saying that she wouldn’t care if Gino had an affair, which I thought was a really strange thing to say.

Dan Trot moved out and joined a cycling group where Kelly Brennan was a member.

And soon they were going out on more than long bike rides.

>> Dan and Kelly were both lying to everybody, saying that they weren’t having an affair.

And while this whole thing was going on, I was having my problems with Dan.

He was just being very belligerent.

>> Sheila’s mother repeated to investigators her daughter’s claims of other affairs.

But Major Goodyear says it was Dan’s admitted relationship with Kelly that led to murder.

>> She’s going to lose Dan.

I’m going to kill the thing that he now loves.

Or I’m going to take that away and I’m going to hurt him as bad as he’s hurt me.

And then you get the third thing.

If I can’t have him, nobody’s going to have him.

>> You’ve been portrayed as being obsessed with Dan.

You laugh.

You You That You’re saying that’s not true.

>> Oh, no.

He would I’m sure he wishes I was obsessed with him.

No, absolutely not.

You couldn’t bear the thought of losing him.

You couldn’t bear the thought of him with another woman.

>> Oh, D.

No.

Well, the fact that I set him up with Kelly would, you know, that would be a little different.

But, uh, >> with Kelly Brennan? >> Yes, absolutely.

>> You set them up? >> Yes, absolutely.

>> Wait a second.

>> Yeah.

She was my ticket out of a bad marriage.

>> But police aren’t buying one word of Sheila’s story, and they want to question her about Kelly Brennan’s murder.

God’s honest truth.

If I was going to kill anybody for any reason, it would have been him.

That’s the place.

That’s the place that she loves.

That’s where her heart is right there.

Sheila Trot had a lifelong love affair with the water.

>> Yeah, I should have been born with gills, I suppose.

>> Long before she was accused of murder, she spent carefree summers on this picturesque Canadian island.

>> This is where she learned to swim, and this was her favorite place in the whole world.

>> Margaret Buyers says her daughter doesn’t belong at the center of this murder investigation.

But back with her family in Canada, used to just love to run through these rocks.

If she could see this right now, she would just be in tears.

This is where she belongs.

>> It was Sheila’s love of the water that drew her to live on the Florida coast, where she was a diving instructor and went to college.

Now she swims in a sea of suspicion.

>> I did not kill Kelly Brennan.

She was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.

In fact, Sheila says she orchestrated the relationship between Dan and Kelly one night over dinner to speed up her own divorce.

>> I said to her, I said, “You know something, Kelly?” I said, “You and Dan would be great for each other.

” And she just perked up.

And she said, “Really?” And I said, “Yeah.

” I said, “But Kelly, you’re going to have to lose weight.

” >> But prosecutor Samantha Barrett says Sheila is making up the matchmaker story.

Barrett says that Sheila was simmering with anger and jealousy over the relationship.

anger that finally boiled over when she savagely killed Kelly on this lawn right behind me.

>> It was horrific.

She was lying in wait for Kelly when Kelly came out of her house.

I believe once she started the attack and she knew Kelly wasn’t going to be able to fight back, that that’s when the the rage came to the surface.

Authorities begin building a timeline that prosecutor Jim McMaster says started on the night of February 15th, 2010 when Kelly misses an appointment with her personal trainer >> and they couldn’t find her or couldn’t contact her and couldn’t find her.

>> Kelly’s roommate files a missing person’s report two hours later.

>> They checked every police department, every hospital, fire, rescue, highway patrol.

They went to her residence and were clueless as to where Kelly Brennan was.

>> Meanwhile, according to her sons, Graham andraton, Sheila arrives home after a 4-hour trip to Walmart.

She was dizzy, shaking, and acting strangely.

>> So, I rescue address emergency.

>> So, her son’s girlfriend calls 911.

>> The paramedics arrived.

They couldn’t find anything physically wrong with her, so they left.

An hour later, another call to 911.

>> My boyfriend’s mom just had a seizure about an hour ago, and they said to call back if she’s been acting weird or anything, and she’s acting very strange.

>> She was then transported to the hospital, and they ran routine tests, and nothing of medical significance was identified.

She was released from the hospital and came home.

>> When they returned from the hospital in the wee hours of the morning, Sheila begins talking about the dream.

She called her younger son, Graham, into the bedroom.

She told him she had a bad dream.

She kept seeing Kelly’s face in the dark and that she believed that she hurt Kelly.

>> Worried, Sheila’s sons telephone their grandmother.

>> Graham just said to me, “Margaret, we need you.

We need you.

” She drives from her Florida condo to Sheila’s house where she finds her daughter curled up in a fetal position on her bed.

>> She was shaking from head to toe.

And she said, “Call the police.

” I said, “What happened?” She said, “Mom, everything’s black.

Everything’s black and all I can see is Kelly’s face.

” It was Graham that said to me, “Margaret, I think mom’s killed Kelly.

” Fearing her daughter was having a nervous breakdown, Margaret Buyers makes yet another 911 call.

>> Um, we just need a policeman, please.

>> What’s the problem there, please? >> This call would change Sheila’s life forever.

>> I think there’s been a murder.

My daughter I has had a nervous breakdown and she’s saying she’s killed somebody.

>> Your daughter’s telling you she killed somebody? >> Yes.

>> All right.

She Did she didn’t tell you who she’s saying she killed? >> She’s saying she I don’t know.

Kelly.

>> Kelly? Do you did she tell you where this happened? >> Well, she’s it’s down Mark’s Landing.

>> Mark’s Landing.

>> It’s sort of the defendant’s own words through her mother and and through her sons.

I mean, she’s basically confessing to the crime in the 911 call.

>> After that explosive call, officers rush to Sheila Trot’s home and she continues rambling about the dream.

>> She’s making some statements.

I believe I hurt someone.

I keep seeing Kelly’s face to the point that the Indian Atlantic police believe we may have a homicide on our hands.

>> Then detectives put two and two together.

>> Wait a minute.

We had a missing person report last night of Kelly Brennan.

>> And when you make that connection, what are you thinking? >> You’re talking to the killer.

>> That’s when Kelly’s body is spotted from the air and cops on the ground rush to Mark’s Landing.

Detectives have been at this Indie Atlantic home for some time.

All after the body of 46-year-old Kelly Brennan was found 10 miles away in this sandune area.

>> Kelly’s body was found exactly where Sheila dreamt it would be.

And so less than 2 days after Kelly Brennan disappeared, Sheila Trot is arrested for murder.

>> I’m going to be in jail for a very long time.

Okay.

>> Sheila Trot calls her son Kraton.

They’re charging me with first-degree murder, >> she says.

But it’s not true.

I didn’t do it.

>> Sheila hires defense attorney Todd Deritany.

And even though that dream led to Kelly’s body, Deritany insists the prosecution’s case isn’t so ironclad.

>> The police didn’t have DNA.

They didn’t have fingerprints, witnesses, and they didn’t have any blood that matched the Sheila Trot.

Looks like you’ve got at a minimum a case of reasonable doubt.

Absolutely reasonable doubt.

It’s a dream case.

>> So little physical evidence, prosecutors say because Sheila Trot planned it that way.

>> It’s not like she all of a sudden found out that Kelly was having an affair with Dan Trot and then confronted her immediately and beat her to death.

She’d known this had been going on for months and months and months and she planned it down to the last detail.

She’s a murderer.

My daughter I has had a nervous breakdown and she’s saying she’s killed somebody.

>> Did you kill Kelly Brennan? >> No, I didn’t kill Kelly Brennan.

Absolutely not.

Sheila Trot remains behind bars for 4 and a half years awaiting trial for the brutal murder of her friend Kelly Brennan.

>> She said, “All I want to do is hug my boys.

” And I understand that cuz all I want to do is hug my girl.

>> Today, you absolutely believe in your daughter’s innocence.

Correct.

>> Absolutely, 110%.

>> As the trial finally begins in September of 2014, >> remain seated.

Come to order, please.

Investigators believe they’ve built a strong but admittedly circumstantial case beginning with that bizarre dream.

>> The defendant began saying that she’d had a dream that she may have hurt Kelly and that it happened at Mark’s Landing.

>> Do you have an eyewitness to this murder? >> No.

>> Do you have a murder weapon? >> No.

>> Do you have Sheila Trot’s DNA on Kelly Brennan? >> No.

No, I don’t believe so.

But Major Todd Goodyear does have a theory of the murder based on blood stains and divots in the grass in front of Kelly’s home.

>> Peter, this is the house where we believe that Sheila Trot laid in wait, waited for Kelly Brennan to come out to her vehicle, snuck up behind her at nightfall, hit her in the back of the head, and then continued to hit her in the head multiple multiple times with some type of object.

We believe a hammer.

Goodyear believes Sheila then put Kelly’s body inside Kelly’s own SUV where CSIs found her blood on the passenger side floor.

He says Sheila then drove Kelly’s SUV to Mark’s Landing where she dumped the body.

Then she abandoned the SUV at a nearby condo.

>> What kind of a murderer could I have been that I didn’t leave fingerprints? I didn’t leave hair.

I had no bruises.

I had no broken nails.

No cuts on me or anything like this.

Nothing connects me to this crime whatsoever.

>> This was not a physical fight.

This was an ambush where she bashed in this woman’s brains with a hammer.

Um, she probably didn’t have to break a nail to do that.

What the lack of physical evidence means to me is how premeditated the crime actually was.

Defense attorney Todd Deritany couldn’t wait to bring this case to trial.

>> I was absolutely certain that this was 80% chance I could have won this case working at half speed.

It was that good of a case.

>> But as the trial begins, Dariteni won’t be able to show how good a case he thought he had.

He’s nowhere near the courtroom.

>> Are you looking for 4×4 or two wheel drive? He’s selling used cars across town at a dealership he now owns, Big Boy Motors.

>> He has had his own legal troubles.

Florida State Supreme Court has permanently disbarred him for harming clients by taking their money and then failing to represent them.

So, while Dared Teni is counting the cash from his car business, Sheila is fighting for her freedom.

The prosecution plays that damning 911 call from Sheila’s mother.

>> She did.

She didn’t tell you who she’s saying she killed.

>> I don’t know.

>> Did she tell you where this happened? >> Mark Landy.

>> The man at the center of this alleged love triangle takes the stand.

>> My name is Daniel Trot.

Last name is spelled T R O TT.

>> It’s Sheila’s husband and Kelly’s boyfriend at the time of the murder.

Clearly annoyed, Dan Trot wishes he could be anywhere but here.

>> Do you recall the date of February 15th of 2010? >> Yeah.

>> You have specific memory about that, Dave? >> I’ve been spending nearly the last 5 years trying to forget it.

But yes, I suppose I remember a few things.

>> Prosecutors need to establish Dan’s affair with Kelly as the motive which pushed Sheila to kill.

You’re looking forward to seeing her that evening? >> Absolutely.

Very much so.

>> Sheila’s new attorneys, public defenders, see an opening.

They used Dan Trot to point the finger at a man they believe had the strongest motive to kill Kelly.

Her jealous husband, Gino Row, who reacted with violence when he learned of the affair.

>> He physically shows up at your house and confronts you.

He physically broke through the door and came up and essentially assaulted me.

Yes.

>> Did he have a weapon in his hand when he barged through the door? >> Yes, he did.

>> Describe that weapon.

>> Uh, it was some sort of jack.

>> Dan suffered injuries to his face and neck.

He says moments later, Kelly followed Gino home where Gino turned his rage on her.

>> He uh attacked her in the garage, essentially was choking her.

It was a rather rather violent encounter.

>> Less than two months later, Kelly was murdered.

>> State calls Gino Row.

>> Gino Row testifies Sheila Trot was the master manipulator who taunted him into attacking Dan.

>> She would call me from time to time and say, “Hey, this is going on that they were having an affair.

” >> How many times was the defendant calling you about this? >> A lot.

Did you believe it at the time? I did not.

>> Prosecutors say Sheila used emails to light Gino’s fuse as well.

But they also revealed her own deep-seated anger.

In one email, she wrote, “He was sitting in front of you lying to your face.

” Were you hoping that Gina was going to go over and attack his wife or attack your husband, putting an end to this affair so you could have Dan back? >> Oh, no.

Oh, no.

I wasn’t upset that Dan was having an affair with Kelly.

I was upset that he was spending the money that he was.

>> Still trying to prove no one was more upset than Gino.

Sheila’s attorneys want the jury to hear a voicemail that he left Dan 2 months before Kelly’s murder.

>> You mother come on.

You want to up this marriage, sucker.

I’m going to catch your mother.

>> But the judge refuses, declaring it irrelevant.

Gino’s the only person who knew where Kelly specifically was that evening.

>> It sounds like you think Gino’s the killer.

>> I’m not going to say who I think it is.

Gino could absolutely do it and Kelly wanted out of that marriage.

>> Prosecutors say Gino has a strong alibi.

They say this security video from a drugstore in another town proves Gino couldn’t have been at the murder scene.

And Kelly’s next door neighbor, Scott Vickers, testifies that he saw a blonde woman, not a man, on Kelly’s lawn that night.

>> Um, it was a light colored a light colored outfit, which, you know, that’s or else I wouldn’t have been able to to really see, but it was uh some type of light outfit.

>> That light colored outfit, detectives theorize, could be a reason why none of Kelly’s blood was found on Sheila.

What do you think about their contention that you were wearing some sort of hazmat? Like >> that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.

We’re next to Disney World.

Why didn’t they just put me in a Mickey Mouse suit? >> Are you serious? >> Things are about to get very serious at Sheila Trot’s trial.

Her two sons are about to take the stand against her, and what they have to say is another nightmare for their mother.

In a tragedy that seems to know no bounds, Sheila Trot’s two sons are about to testify at her murder trial for the prosecution.

>> How are you related to her? >> She’s my mother.

>> And do you see her in the courtroom here today? >> Yes.

>> Can you? his mother watching and listening just 15 ft away.

Graham Trot first describes helping her when she seemed to be having a seizure the night Kelly Brennan was killed.

>> I picked her up and put her on the couch cuz she was hitting her head against the wall.

And >> prosecutor Samantha Barrett quickly cuts to the chase, asking him what happened after his mother came home from the hospital a few hours later.

>> She was telling me she was seeing things.

>> What did she say she saw? She saw Kelly’s face and she said she thinks she’s hurt and a beach.

>> Despite the prosecutor’s efforts, >> did you ever hear her say, “I think I hurt Kelly.

” >> No.

>> Graham won’t repeat what he initially told investigators in a recorded interview.

>> She said, “I think I hurt Kelly.

” And I keep seeing her face and then I hurt her.

And I was like, “Well, that’s not good.

” But what he does reveal next is a bombshell.

And it’s something he did not tell law enforcement until shortly before the trial.

>> I said, “Do you want to drive down to this beach that you’re seeing and we can see there’s nothing there and then we can call it a night and go to sleep.

” >> Sheila agreed, taking her sons Graham and Kraton and Graham’s girlfriend on a Macob field trip to Mark’s Landing.

And there with Sheila leading the way, the boys 16 and 18 years old at the time saw Kelly’s bludgeon body.

>> You could see I mean it was just a lifeless body just lying there.

>> Was your mother with you when you saw that? >> Yes.

>> Um what did she say? >> I don’t nothing really.

She just in shock.

Why would you take your two teenage sons out to Mark’s Landing and show them where the body was? >> The kids took me.

>> You led them to that place.

>> I didn’t take them right to the body.

We walked around and we were just on our way out when we saw her feed.

>> Why is it when your mother came over to the house, you didn’t tell her? We just got back from Mark’s Landing where we saw a dead body.

>> Uh, you’d have to ask the kids that.

I don’t know.

It just never really came up.

When my mother first came in there, didn’t come up, Sheila didn’t come up.

You’d just been to see a dead body, a woman whose whose skull was crushed.

>> Well, when my mom came in, I was in bed and she woke me up.

I don’t remember the conversation very well.

>> As inexplicable as that seems, the horror of the night didn’t end there for Sheila’s sons.

She told them she also had visions of a nearby vacant lot.

And that’s where Kraton Trot tells the court they made a second damning discovery.

A bag.

>> Mom opened it up, went into the purse and saw opened up the wallet and we saw Kelly’s driver’s license.

>> What did you do next after you saw the bag with uh Kelly Brennan’s driver’s license in the wallet? um told her that we didn’t want to have anything to do with it, that me and Graham were going to go to sleep and that she had to deal with it on her own.

>> How important are these boys to your case? >> Their testimony is absolutely critical.

It seemed that they were determined to do what was really the right thing and tell the truth.

>> Sir, you’re free to go.

After her son’s scathing testimony, Sheila’s defense team faces a huge uphill battle.

They try to poke holes in the forensic evidence gathered at Mark’s Landing.

>> Well, we know that Kelly’s body comes out of the car and comes down this way.

And we know that because there’s blood transfer found on this pole right here.

>> Kelly’s blood was on this very post.

>> Right.

>> The defense says not so fast.

the spots on the fence post.

And did you forward them for forensic testing? >> They were not.

>> So, as to whether those items are blood or a kid’s red slurpee, we’re left to guess.

Right.

>> If you would like to put it that way.

>> And the defense tries to tear apart the alleged motive that Sheila was jealous and murderously angry over her husband’s affair with Kelly.

Elizabeth McHugh was Sheila’s divorce attorney.

She says Sheila seemed fine with the affair.

>> She really didn’t have a problem with Kelly because she knew her and so she knew she would be very good with the children and wouldn’t really be a problem in the divorce.

>> Okay.

>> Motive aside, Sheila’s dream about Kelly lying hurt here at Mark’s Landing and that field trip with her two sons here are among the strongest evidence against her.

But there is a new twist to this tale.

Sheila says that dream was actually a memory of witnessing Kelly being killed by a strange man.

>> She was arguing with him and I heard him say, “But Kelly,” and she said, “Enough.

” And then she went and bent into the car to do something and I saw him hit her.

>> While behind bars awaiting trial, Sheila says that her memory has come back to her and she’s written a detailed account of what happened.

Then you write he dragged her into the grass and kept hitting her.

>> Mhm.

>> Is that what you saw? >> Yes.

Yes.

And I didn’t do anything.

>> You didn’t call police.

Why not? >> I don’t know.

>> Sheila shared this memory in a letter to a friend.

She claims that she had decided to stop at Kelly’s house that night to ask Kelly to stop driving by her house looking for Dan.

And at the exact moment she arrived, Sheila saw a strange man attack Kelly.

>> How would you describe this man who was with Kelly? >> It was too dark.

It was too dark.

>> This letter, prosecutors say this is a confession.

No, >> it’s not a confession letter.

That’s my account of what happened that evening.

>> But Sheila’s new account becomes even more bizarre.

Instead of running for her life or to the nearest police station, she followed the stranger’s car all the way to Mark’s Landing and watched him dispose of Kelly’s body and belongings.

>> Do you understand as you sit across from me right now that your story is a fantastic story? You follow the killer, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to anyone.

>> And then you don’t tell cops what happened, what unfolded.

You don’t even tell your own mother.

All these things are consciousness of guilt, are they not? >> Well, if they’re consciousness of guilt, why would we call the police? If I committed this crime and I had killed her, I would have taken off.

I’m not stupid enough to stick around.

>> Come to order, please.

>> And Sheila believes this new memory could set her free.

But the question is, will the jury get to hear Sheila’s version of what happened the night Kelly Brennan was killed? Is Sheila clairvoyant? Has she had visions throughout her life? Dreams that have come true? >> I don’t think so, Peter.

>> With her daughter’s dream now being described as an eyewitness account of Kelly’s murder, 48 hours has brought Margaret a copy of that document Sheila wrote.

>> Do you recognize the handwriting on this letter? >> Yes.

>> Whose is it? >> Sheila’s.

She reads for the first time from its 22 pages.

>> He dragged her into the grass and kept hitting her.

I felt the blood rush out of my arms and legs and I started to shake.

>> Are these the writings of an eyewitness to a murder or the writings of a murderer describing what she has done? >> I think she must have seen it.

She couldn’t have done it.

Peter, >> I did not murder Kelly.

I witnessed it.

Now came the moment in court where Sheila Trot could take the stand and persuade the jury her new story is true.

But on the advice of her attorneys, >> first of all, have you made a decision about whether you wish to testify in your case or not? >> Yes, sir.

>> What is your decision >> not to? Sir, >> that you’ve chosen not to testify? >> Yes, sir.

Sheila’s first lawyer thinks he knows why Sheila didn’t testify and explain that letter.

>> Obviously, this was just her confessing to the crime.

She needed to get it off her chest.

>> Todd Deratani.

Todd Deritani is a liar.

>> So, the case goes straight to closing arguments with prosecutors zeroing in on what Sheila did say after Kelly disappeared.

The smoking gun in this case are the defendant’s own words, telling the police where the dead body is.

>> They play Margaret’s damning 911 call one last time.

>> And my daughter, I has had a nervous breakdown and she’s saying she’s killed somebody.

>> Your daughter’s telling you she killed somebody? >> Yes.

Defense attorneys make no mention of Sheila’s new claim she saw Kelly’s killer.

Instead, they try to pick apart the state’s case.

>> You’re being asked to believe a 115 lb person is going to be able to pick up a 146-lb person, probably deceased at this point, and no pun intended, but there’s dead weight.

But she’s gonna pick her up from the floor, lift her up, and place her in the seat of not of a Honda Civic, but of an SUV.

Place her in there with no neighbors hearing a thing.

No neighbors hearing blow after blow after blow.

Does that make any logical sense? They end by pointing the finger at Kelly’s jealous husband.

>> She had no ill will, no spite, no evil intent, no premeditation.

You saw the person.

You heard from the person that had all those things and how he acted on those feelings.

And ladies and gentlemen, the decision that you need to speak is that Sheila Gran Trot is not guilty.

Thank you.

>> Less than 3 hours after beginning their deliberations, jurors reach a verdict.

Margaret can’t wait to hear the good news.

>> I was dancing.

I was dancing in the elevator.

I was so excited cuz I knew I knew and I kept saying we’re going to bring our girl home.

>> Instead, >> the defendant, Sheila Graham Trot, is guilty of firstdegree premeditated murder.

>> Guilty of firstdegree murder.

>> Sheila Trot was immediately sentenced.

>> It’s the sentence of the court that you serve um life in prison as a minimum mandatory sentence.

For Margaret Buyers, who wishes she never made that 911 call, the embers of blame burned deep within her heart.

>> You are a loving mother and grandmother and you love Sheila dearly.

>> Yes.

>> Does it tear you up at night to think >> that I put my own daughter in jail? >> Yes, it sure does.

It just tears me up to think I put my kid in jail for the rest of her life.

>> Absolutely.

>> Isn’t it time for you to stop telling these stories and tell the truth? >> Don’t let your loved ones suffer thinking that you’re innocent when you did this.

>> I told the truth and I’m continuing to tell the truth and I’m going to keep telling the truth.

>> She killed Kelly Brennan.

She’s a murderer.

She’s finished as well as she should be.

For Kelly Brennan’s mother, the taste of justice is bittersweet.

>> That’s a tragedy for the family as well.

>> Almost 5 years after her death, Kelly’s friend Lou says her kind spirit lives on.

>> When she did come to work, she was always happy and she had her little corner.

It was called Kelly’s Corner, a place in the hospital where Kelly gave extra care and attention to her patients.

>> And even after she died, it was a an area of reverence if you went there.

Um, it was it was comforting.

>> Why shouldn’t this audience believe you’re just a clever sociopath? That you are a killer? You know the difference between right and wrong.

Yeah.

>> But in the case of Kelly Brennan, you don’t care.

>> I do care.

I do care.

When would her body have been discovered? You said yourself.

Who led them to the body? It was us saying that it was at Mark’s Landing.

They would never have checked at Mark’s Landing.

>> But despite leading her sons to Kelly’s battered body and being found guilty by a jury of six, Sheila Trot is unrepentant.

The real killer, she insists, still walks free.

>> I have to live with a lot of guilt for not stopping the attack.

Um, now I’m paying the price.

Kelly’s family has closure, but they don’t have justice cuz I didn’t kill Kelly.

48 hours.

Don’t miss an episode.

Heat.

Hey, Heat.

It is a case that has haunted the public for more than 13 years, and many feared that the Gilgo Beach murders may never be solved.

The officer located a body.

>> It seemed to be wrapped in burlap, which didn’t make any sense.

The crime scene gets expanded.

I’m called and chief, we found another set of remains.

They find another one and another one.

We were dealing with a serial killer.

They’re available.

They’re vulnerable and very petite.

This killer has a type, >> right? Does he want the petite uh body because he wants to feel more empowered and more in control? >> I want the world to know like my sister mattered.

>> I want answers.

I just want answers.

>> An arrest more than a decade in the making in a serial killer case that’s baffled law enforcement and the public.

59-year-old Rex Huerman plead not guilty.

>> I dropped my phone.

I couldn’t believe it.

>> So, just who is Rex Herman? An architect who ran a company called RH Consultants and Associates.

>> Rex, hello.

>> How you doing? Good to see you.

>> When a job that should have been routine suddenly becomes not routine.

>> Yeah.

>> I get the phone call.

>> Rex Herman is a mystery man.

Rex is capable of presenting himself one way to one person, one way to another person.

My first memory of Rex was that he was very big, imposing, scary, angry.

He was bullied.

He was bigger than everyone else.

The kids would gang up on him.

And Rex was very smart, too.

>> He’s a smart person, very smart.

>> He liked to shock people.

He was interested in power games.

Rex loved hunting and he loved guns.

Going out, shooting, hunting.

That was his passion.

>> All petite, all bound in burlap bags.

>> The burlap on the bodies that points right at a hunter.

>> It was DNA collected from a pizza slice he tossed in a Manhattan trash can that came back as a match with hair found on the victims.

>> That’s where we obtained, you know, his full profile from from the pizza crust left in the box.

In terms of speaking to my client, the only thing I can tell you that he did say as he was in tears was, “I didn’t do this.

” >> Everyone’s just trying to put the pieces together.

I want to know what I missed.

I think we all want to know what we missed.

Not far from this quiet stretch of Gilgo Beach on Long Island, New York, investigators uncovered the hidden remains of four young women.

The mystery of who they were and how they got here might have stayed a secret if not for a woman named Shannon Gilbert.

In the early morning hours of May 1st, 2010, 23-year-old Shannon working as an escort called 911.

>> State police.

>> Yeah, there’s somebody after me.

>> The call came from a neighborhood not far from Gilgo Beach.

>> These people are fing for killing me.

Shannon starts running, knocking on doors.

>> Where are you, Shannon? >> She screams >> and then nothing.

Shannon was gone.

>> Hello.

Hello.

K9 searched the area exhaustively for Shawn and Gilbert.

>> Dominic Veron was chief of detectives at the Suffach County Police Department.

Months passed without a sign of the missing woman.

And then in December of 2010 near Gilgo Beach, a police officer and his canine named Blue found human remains.

Everyone assumed it was Shannon Gilbert, >> but it wasn’t Shannon.

Stunned searchers would go on to discover the remains of four other women.

The women were identified as Moren Brainer Barnes, Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello.

Like Shannon, all were in their 20s.

All were online escorts.

All petite.

Three of the four were wrapped in burlap, the kind you can find in hunting stores.

They became known as the Gilgo 4.

It’s really, really hard cuz I miss her so much.

>> 48 Hours has reported on this case since 2010.

Over the years, we’ve secured exclusive interviews with the family and friends of the Gilgo 4.

Missy K will never forget the wintry day when she got the devastating news.

>> The detectives came to my house and just said that Moren has been positively identified as one of the victims on the Ocean Parkway.

>> Her sister, Maren Brainer Barnes, a mother of two, was the first to disappear on July 9th, 2007.

>> She was very smart and very creative.

She liked being a mom.

>> She loved being a mom.

>> But life as a single mom living in Norwich, Connecticut was difficult.

Missy didn’t know it.

But Moren had turned to escort work and that July went to New York City for a weekend to make money.

On her way home, she called Missy from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan.

>> Attention, please.

I could hear the commotions from the train station.

From the time that she called me, it was poof, she was gone.

>> She reported Moren missing.

Eventually, officers would tell Missy that after her sister’s disappearance, someone had used Morin’s cell phone to make a call from Long Island.

It wasn’t known then, but those two locations, Long Island and Midtown Manhattan, would become important clues in the hunt for a serial killer.

Nearly 2 years to the day that Meen vanished, 24year-old Melissa Bartholomew went missing in July of 2009, also from Midtown Manhattan.

Lynn Bartholomew is Melissa’s mother.

>> How often do you think about Melissa? >> Every single minute of the day.

It just didn’t happen to the girls.

I mean, it destroyed all of our families.

>> Melissa moved from Buffalo to New York City to work as a hairdresser.

At some point, she also began working as an escort and then disappeared.

About a week after she went missing, Melissa’s then 15-year-old sister, Amanda, started getting calls from Melissa’s phone.

We agreed not to show Amanda’s face.

And >> she answers, you know, Melissa, where have you been? And this voice is saying, “Oh, this isn’t Melissa.

” >> Steven Cohen was the family’s lawyer at the time.

He was taunting Amanda and he said, “Do you know what I did to your sister? I killed Melissa.

” >> All I can say is he’s sick and he’s going to make a mistake and we’re going to catch him.

>> Those calls from Melissa’s own phone may very well have been that mistake.

When police traced them, the calls placed the person they believed to be Melissa’s killer in Midtown Manhattan.

The following year, Megan Waterman, the mother of a three-year-old girl, disappeared from a hotel on Long Island.

>> Part of you is like missing or it’s just like something’s always off.

We spoke with Megan’s daughter, Liliana, in 2020.

>> I would do anything to bring her back, but I can’t, and it just like frustrates me so bad.

>> Megan’s family says the 22-year-old was a creative but troubled young woman who loved fashion and was devoted to her daughter.

>> What would you say to your mom if you could? >> I would just want to tell her that like I love her.

I just want her to know like she has a special place in my heart.

No one can ever replace her.

>> Like the other two women, Megan disappeared in the summer on June 6th, 2010.

She was working as an escort on Long Island.

>> No matter what her job was, she was a person and she needs justice.

>> This haunting video from a Holiday in Express is the last time she was seen alive moments before she went to meet a client.

Cell phone records later placed her phone in a Long Island neighborhood called Masipeka Park.

Amber Costella was the last of the Gilgo fort to disappear.

She lived here just 7 and 12 miles from Masipiqua Park.

>> She used to say she was 411, but she wasn’t.

She was like 49, you know? I mean, she was small.

Amber’s friend and former roommate Dave Showler spoke with us in 2011.

>> She was an amazing person.

She really was.

>> He says Amber was addicted to drugs and used sex work to support her habit.

>> But as amazing as she was was as tormented as she was.

>> After Amber disappeared, police say Shaller told them about her clients.

He described one of them as looking like an ogre and having a first generation Chevrolet Avalanche.

On the night she went missing.

Shaller says a client offered Amber $1,500 for the night, six times her hourly rate.

>> This guy was so relentless.

He called several times.

He was on the phone with her for quite a while each time.

He says the client got Amber, an experienced escort, to do something she never did, leave without her purse or cell phone and meet him in his car.

>> I walked out the front door with her.

She She gave me a hug.

She’s like, “I love you.

” And she left.

>> It was nearly midnight.

Shaller says that when Amber left this house, she walked down the street and he never saw her again.

Shaller told us that he didn’t see the client’s face that night, but suspects he had seen him before.

>> So, this is a guy you might have seen.

>> Yeah, this is somebody that I seen.

I might be the one of the only people who knows who he is.

>> It would be more than a decade before Shaller’s description would lead to a break in the case and a prime suspect.

To see a timeline of how the case unfolded, go to 48 hours.

com.

>> The shocking developments in a murder case gone cold.

>> My coworker called me and she said, “Did you hear what happened to Rex?” And I’m like, “No.

” A husband, a father, an architect stood before a judge charged as a serial killer.

>> She says, “It’s Rex.

” I said, “No way.

” >> This house was a main focus and they brought out a lot of evidence.

>> I just didn’t think it was real.

>> A Long Island community is still a crime scene tonight.

>> I even thought to myself, it’s crazy that there’s two Rex Hermans out there.

Mary Shell and Muriel Henriquez worked with Rex Huerman and couldn’t wrap their heads around the news.

>> We never thought he would be that kind of person.

>> It’s shocking.

>> In July of 2023, nearly 13 years after the Gilgo for were discovered, Suffach County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison made the announcement.

Authorities believe Rex Herman is the Long Island serial killer.

Rex Sherman is a demon that walks among us, a predator that ruined families.

>> The man he calls a demon is a 6’4 architect.

He’s charged with killing Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, and is the prime suspect in the death of Moren Brainer Barnes.

>> What has my client told me? He told me he didn’t do this.

Huerman was living about 20 minutes from Gilgo Beach in Masipeka Park, the very same town where Megan’s phone last connected with the cell tower.

And Huerman worked here at his architectural firm in Midtown Manhattan, just blocks from where Moren disappeared, the same area where several of the threatening calls to Melissa’s little sister were made.

The cause of death with regard to the three victims is homicidal violence.

>> A married man, Huerman, lived in this rundown house and has a daughter and stepson with his second wife, Assa.

Assa, who was born in Iceland, would take the children to see her family there in the summers.

It was during these trips and others police believe that Huerman killed the women.

>> You never got any kind of hint of another life.

>> No.

>> Uriel Henriquez worked at Huerman’s company RH Consultants and Associates and spoke exclusively to 48 hours.

She says she saw nothing alarming about the Rex Huerman she saw daily.

>> A little bit of a nerd in a way.

He liked to talk about himself, what he knew.

I mean, not a narcissist, but a little bit of a, you know, I know everything kind of guy.

>> Pompus.

>> Pompus.

She remembers him running to and from job sites, eating fast food on the run.

>> Pizza.

That was his number one thing.

>> Police say they found nearly 300 guns in a basement vault.

When she heard that police had recovered almost 300 firearms from a vault in Herman’s basement, she was surprised only by the number.

She knew him as an avid hunter.

Going out, shooting, hunting.

That was his passion.

>> What was it about hunting he liked? >> I don’t know.

I guess he liked the idea of having a prize.

>> Stalking prey.

>> Stalking prey and winning.

He liked to win, you know.

And while she says it never occurred to her that humor could be dangerous, she does remember a time when his tracking skills unnerved her.

It was her 40th birthday and she had booked a cruise vacation.

>> Where are you going? He said, “I’m going to, you know, I’m going to be in the middle of the ocean.

You’re not going to find me in the middle of the ocean.

” He said, “Oh, yes, I can.

” >> Muriel didn’t think much of the comment until the second day of her trip.

There was a white envelope under my door.

It was a note from him.

The note said, “I told you I could find you anywhere.

” >> He had photos from hunting trips.

>> Mary Shell worked with Huerman in the summer of 2010.

It was the same summer that both Amber Costello and Megan Waterman vanished.

He would talk about, you know, the meat in particular that bear meat could keep in the freezer for months.

>> Hearing authorities now say that some of the victims were wrapped in a burlap that hunters often use was chilling.

>> The burlap really got to me.

>> Since Herman’s arrest, Mary has written about her experience with him.

She’s also talked to other former female employees who said they weren’t always treated with respect.

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