Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to killing 7 women, admits to killing eighth

Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to killing 7 women, admits to killing eighth

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 calling 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 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.

Lyn 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 Masipiqua Park.

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

She lived here just 7 and a half 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 use 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, “Do 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 forward 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 Masipiqua 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 run-down 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.

>> Muriel 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, 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.

>> He would have one of them uh clean the toilet if he thought the cleaning person hadn’t done a good enough job.

>> A woman in the office.

>> Yes.

He more than once commented on women’s bodies if someone perhaps had gained some weight.

You know, that kind of kind of thing.

John Perezy grew up with Humen.

He says Herman was bullied as a child.

>> I remember meeting Rex when I was in first or second grade.

He was a loner, not many friends.

The children were super mean to him, made fun of him and teased him.

>> But John says he never saw Humen fight back.

He was big enough that if he got upset and started swinging, he would hurt somebody.

But he never did.

>> As Humeman got older, John points out things didn’t get much better.

>> He was rejected by many girls.

We all go through that awkward stage growing up, and it seemed like that awkward stage stayed with him longer than usual.

Still, he says many in the community find it hard to believe that Huerman is the notorious serial killer, living a double life for more than a decade.

>> People were saying, “Oh my god, I can’t believe we have a serial killer in our town and we grew up with and we walked amongst the killer.

” Another classmate of humors, actor Billy Baldwin, took to social media when the news broke, tweeting, “It was mindboggling.

” >> Rex, hello.

How you doing? >> The awkward Long Island teenager grew up to be a confident and seemingly successful architect.

Antoine Amira met and interviewed him in 2022.

>> Born and raised on Long Island.

>> Okay.

been working in Manhattan since 1987.

>> There’s nothing in my interview that made me think that this person in front of me uh is a dangerous person.

>> Anwine is a hotel food and beverage manager in New York who loves real estate.

He has a YouTube interview show where he handpicks guests whom he thinks are interesting and accomplished.

>> I’m an architect.

I’m an architectural consultant.

I’m a troubleshooter.

>> Antoine says Huerman was well known for his skill at helping companies and individuals get building permits.

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

>> I get the phone call.

>> Gotcha.

>> Correct.

>> What really stood out for me was he was very, very, very smart >> and known, says Antoine, for his ability to find loopholes in the rules.

He was pleased when he was doing it >> that he could >> that he that he could outwit the the system.

>> That’s it, folks.

That was Rex.

>> But Antoine says he remembers it was hard to get Huerman to crack a smile.

>> It’s selfie time.

>> Selfie time.

>> Not even during the signature sunglasses selfies he takes with every guest.

>> Two.

Three.

>> Can you smile? That is >> if police are right, Rex Herman was able to hide a life as a serial killer.

And if he did, his habit of eating pizza on the go would turn out to be his undoing.

For more than a decade after the discovery of the Gilgo 4, Rex Herman’s name never appeared on a suspect list until a new task force was formed with Suffach County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison and Suffach County DA Ray Tierney.

In February of 2022, we formed the task force and then a mere 6 weeks later, Rex Herman was identified for the first time.

>> A suspect in six weeks.

So, how did they do it? It turns out that buried in the original case files were a number of critical clues that the new task force was finally able to connect.

Remember Amber’s roommate, Dave Shaller? She’s like, “I love you.

” You know, she gave me a hug and she left.

>> He had told police about one of Amber’s clients and his vehicle.

>> Just a large built man and that he was driving this this first generation Chevy Avalanche.

>> A first generation Chevy Avalanche with a description of an ogrelike man and the make and model of his truck.

Police took a closer look at Amber’s phone records from 2010.

Shaler had told them that before Amber disappeared, there was one particular client calling incessantly.

>> He called several times.

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

>> Police back then knew the client was using a burner phone.

That’s a prepaid phone that anyone can buy and use anonymously.

and they knew that Moren, Melissa, and Megan had all been in contact with burner numbers right before they disappeared.

In 2012, with the help of the FBI, they determined that most of those calls connected to cell towers inside a small area of Masipiqua Park.

They called it the box.

So, how large an area is that box? >> It’s, you know, a couple of blocks within within Masipiqua Park.

The new task force began the search for a large built man who also lived in that small area and owned a Chevy Avalanche at the time of the disappearances.

Was there a aha moment when all of a sudden his name came up? >> Once we were able to attach the avalanche inside of that massipa box which then attached to Rex Herman, that was a moment where we said, “Okay, there’s something here.

” The task force now had a prime suspect.

And when they looked at Humeman’s personal cell phone records, they found that his phone was in the same area as those burner phones when they were used to contact a victim in Masipa Park or in Midtown Manhattan.

>> It was always consistent.

Tyranny says this was also true for those awful calls Melissa’s family got from that man using her phone back in 2009.

>> He said, “Do you know what I did to your sister?” And he said, “Well, I killed Melissa.

” >> The task force says that it confirmed that Humeman does in fact use burner phones.

Investigators say he had two different burner numbers in 2022.

and they say they watched and put money on one of those accounts here.

And according to court papers, the team also documented three email accounts using fake names, including John Springfield, Thomas Hawk, and Hunter 1903.

And all linked to those burner numbers.

And prosecutors say that Huerman was using a burner phone to send these selfies to solicit and arrange for sexual activity.

One of those accounts linked to Huerman, prosecutors wrote, was used to conduct quote thousands of searches related to sex workers, sadistic torture related pornography, and child pornography.

There was a lot of uh torture uh porn and depictions of women uh being abused uh being raped and being killed.

>> Investigators also say that while they were busy watching Humen, Huerman was trying to watch them conducting searches on the task force and the Gilgo victims.

not only pictures of the victims, pictures of their relatives, their their their sisters, their children.

Uh and he was trying to locate those individuals.

>> The circumstantial evidence was building, but investigators also had physical evidence from the Gilgo 4, including one male hair that was found in the burlap used to quote restrain and transport Megan Waterman’s body.

and they wanted to see if they could link it to Huerman.

Police tailed Huerman and when he threw out this pizza box in this trash can here in Midtown Manhattan, they pounced >> the pizza, which was, you know, obviously very significant.

>> Tierney says that Huerman’s DNA that was found on that pizza crust was consistent with a DNA profile from the hair found with Megan Waterman’s body.

And that DNA profile is only found in 0.

04% of the population.

>> That was a remarkable day.

It was, you know, the weekend and you know, you read, you get the report and you read it and then you read it again and then you read it a third time and then you read it a fourth time.

Uh, and then you start making calls.

>> With the DNA, the search histories and the burner phone evidence, the team felt it was time.

When we decided to take down the case, we, you know, it was a sudden decision.

We did see him contacting a number of sex workers using a burner phone, which obviously is concerning.

>> Playing clothes, officers arrested him around the corner from his office.

>> I don’t think he had any clue.

I don’t think he had any clue that we were on to him.

Police spent 12 days looking through Herman’s home, pulling those guns out of the basement and digging in the backyard.

They say it will take some time to comb through what they have now.

And they were tight lipped about what they found.

>> Has the search been fruitful? >> Great question.

And answer is yes.

>> Can you elaborate on fruitful? You said yes, it’s fruitful.

There have been items that we have taken into our possession.

That makes it fruitful.

>> And one more big piece of evidence taken into possession.

A first generation Chevy Avalanche Huerman once used and it was sitting on property he owns in South Carolina when they recovered it.

>> We were able to seize that Chevy Avalanche pursuant to a search warrant and we’re certainly going to analyze that.

But there were female hairs found on some of the victim’s bodies that don’t belong to the victims.

So who do they belong to? What do you make of the evidence against Rex Herman? Join the conversation now on social media.

After Rex Herman’s arrest, his quiet neighborhood in Masipeka Park was overrun by investigators and media, focusing intense scrutiny on the ramshackle home and its remaining residents.

his stepson Christopher Sheridan, daughter Victoria Huerman, and his wife of more than 25 years, Assaerup.

>> Their life going forward is always going to be the wife or the children of suspected serial killer.

That’s what it’s going to be from now on.

>> Attorney Bob Macedonio represents Assa Erup, who has since filed for divorce from Hurman.

He says she was as stunned as anyone by the accusations.

>> She had no idea this was going on.

The allegations are shocking.

Nobody wants to think that they’ve been living with sleeping next to a serial killer for the past 25 years.

>> As it turns out, Assa may have inadvertently helped focus the investigation on her husband.

Investigators say they’ve identified strands of female hair that were found on two of the victims.

One hair on Waterman comes back to his wife or the DNA profiles are consistent and then the DNA profile from Costello is consistent with the wife.

>> Although prosecutors have evidence that Osa was out of town when those murders occurred, they will have to explain how those hairs got on the victims.

Suffach County DA Ray Tierney says it could be as simple as transfer.

You live at home with a spouse.

A little bit of your hair falls on your shoulder as well as as your spouse’s.

Then you go out and you interact with a third party and that hair gets on them.

>> Assa Ellerup has not been charged or named a suspect in any of the murders.

You don’t believe that Rex Humeman’s wife was involved in this in any way? >> There’s no evidence to indicate that.

No.

Along with the public scrutiny of Assa, there’s also been support from people that perhaps know all too well what she’s going through.

Carrie Rosson, the daughter of serial killer Dennis Raider, who named himself BTK, tweeted, “Asa and her kids are also victims.

>> I can tell that they are going through hell.

” And from Melissa Moore, the daughter of Keith Jesperson, a serial killer known as the Happyface Killer, for taunting authorities with letters signed with a happy face.

>> She reached out immediately to myself and we put her in contact with Assa.

>> At a press conference, Macedonia announced Moore set up a GoFundMe page for Assa, which raised over $50,000.

Money he says will largely go to medical bills.

Assa is battling breast and skin cancer and because Rex Huerman was a sole provider for the family, Macedonia says she will soon lose her health insurance.

>> Assa would like me to express her thanks for the support she’s received.

Um she’s going through a very difficult time.

>> Assa’s children have also paid a heavy price.

Her daughter Victoria, who worked for her father at the architectural consulting firm, and her son Christopher are both now unemployed.

Assa struggles to support them, says Macedonio, while she’s also trying to figure out how to start over.

>> How is she getting through every day, >> honestly? >> Yeah.

>> Minute by minute.

She has no one else to turn to at this time.

Family and friends have been hesitant to have her come over because they don’t want the media attention.

She gets followed wherever she goes.

>> For the moment, she and her children continue to live in the house in Masipiqua Park, which the family says was excessively damaged during the police search, seen in these photos provided by Osa’s attorney.

It’s a daily reminder of the unimaginable crimes her estranged husband is charged with and the investigation that continues into what else he may have done.

Rex Huerman awaiting trial is locked inside a Suffach County jail in a 60s square ft cell.

He denies killing Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello.

Their voices now silent as the sand where they have been ruthlessly discarded.

>> How sure are you, as you’re sitting here now, that Rexerman is the Long Island serial killer? So, we’re just at the beginning stages of this case, but we would not have brought this indictment if we weren’t confident in our case.

>> He took away somebody’s mother, somebody’s daughter, somebody’s sister, and not just one person, multiple individuals.

>> Huerman is currently the prime suspect for the murder of Moren Brainer Barnes.

And for investigators, an obvious question still hangs heavy.

If Huerman is a killer, are there other victims? >> I mean, isn’t there a real concern that there may be other victims out there? >> Always.

Who’s to say that there’s not more bodies out there that we need to investigate? >> In 2011, police did find other bodies along Ocean Parkway.

After finding the Gilgo 4, there is victim number five, Jessica Taylor.

an escort who went missing in 2003.

Another set of remains police called Jane do number six is now identified as Valerie Mack also working as an escort.

Number seven, to investigators surprise, they found a toddler girl.

Number eight, an Asian male dressed in women’s clothing.

Number nine, a female skull belonging to Karen Vada, an escort who disappeared in 1996.

Number 10, female remains from a victim cops nicknamed Peaches because of a tattoo on her torso.

Although her remains were found six miles away, police say DNA confirms Peaches is the mother of that toddler.

None of those victims has been linked to Huermen.

Is it that you can’t connect him yet or you believe he probably isn’t the person who killed these other other individuals? >> I don’t know.

>> Investigations also spread to Las Vegas in South Carolina where Huerman owns property with detectives there taking a fresh look at cases of missing women.

And then there’s Nikki Brass.

>> I remembered him because one, he’s massive and how many massive like 6’5 architects work in Manhattan, live in Massique.

>> You’re going from brown and blonde.

>> Now a hairdresser, Nikki claims she may be one that got away.

She told us she used to work as an escort.

And while we cannot substantiate her story, Nikki claims she can’t shake her memory of the night she says she was solicited for sex by Rex Yerman and says she fled the restaurant where they met.

>> I had never gone anywhere and like felt fear.

My gut was telling me I needed to get away and I’ve never had that before.

Nikki says what she found most disturbing is that Huerman himself brought up those bodies bound in burlap by Gilgo Beach.

>> He wanted to like really get into it.

Like he asked me how I thought they could get rid of the bodies without being caught in that area.

And I said, “I’ve never been over there.

I’ve never even seen Gilgo Beach.

” And his response was, “Well, it’s really dark and desolate.

I’m John Ray and I’m the lawyer.

>> Nikki is now represented by John Ray, an attorney who is also representing Shannon Gilbert’s family.

In December of 2011, investigators finally found Shannon here in the marsh, not far from Gilgo Beach.

But they don’t believe she was murdered.

It’s an unfortunate incident, but right now we believe that she just ran into the marsh and unfortunately drowned.

>> A former investigator told us that he believes Shannon was high on drugs that night and says her death was an accident, something John Ray just can’t believe.

While he doesn’t think Shannon was a victim of humor, he does believe she was murdered and points to that 911 call.

It absolutely makes no sense that she’s found where she is except that someone else put her there or killed her there.

>> While questions remain about Shannon’s last hours, there’s no question she’s the reason so many families may finally be getting answers they have long waited for.

We spoke to her sister Sheree in 2011.

If my sister, you know, didn’t make that 911 call, I don’t think that these other women would have been recovered either.

>> Now, investigators hope that with an arrest, they can give the victim’s families who stood with them a sense of justice and of peace.

I’ve gotten to know the families and I’m inspired by them and I’m impressed by their patience.

A local legend has it that this place, Gilgo Beach, was named for a skilled fisherman called Gil.

These silver gray waters, once his secret hunting ground.

Today, this beach area is better known for a relentless hunter of human prey, a serial killer whose chilling presence can still be felt in the ocean air.

CBS next Saturday.

48 Hours brings you backtoback episodes all summer long.

Next week, Secrets and Lies.

>> He said, “If anybody talks to anybody about this, I’ll kill them.

” >> Did you want your stepfather dead? >> No.

>> The plan was murder.