LONG ISLAND, New York (WABC) — The Gilgo Seaside story started with a single stay shot — plagued with technical difficulties — from a barren and frozen seashore off Lengthy Island’s South Shore.
Little did anybody know the way necessary that report could be. Nobody may have predicted the worldwide spectacle that will comply with.
Our first report was on an impossibly chilly December evening in 2011. They’d discovered our bodies on a distant Lengthy Island seashore. And shortly, extra bones turned up within the sand.
Associated: Watch the ‘Eyewitness to Gilgo Seaside’ Trailer
It was a serial killer’s graveyard by the ocean.
The story of the Gilgo Seaside murders – and the hunt for the suspect — is as convoluted as it’s creepy, and Eyewitness Information tells it like no person else.
Associated: Full timeline of occasions main as much as Rex Heuermann’s arrest
From the primary ugly discoveries to an arrest greater than 12 years later, our reporters describe the twists and turns of overlaying a real crime thriller in real-time.
Watch the brand new true crime sequence ‘Eyewitness to Gilgo Seaside’ above or wherever you stream ABC 7 New York.
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CHAPTER 1: BODIES FOUND ON GILGO BEACH
It was an everyday backyard selection day in December, when Eyewitness Information reporter Josh Einiger and his photographer, Tony Saturno, had been taking pictures in Suffolk County.
“We had been on our method again and we bought a name from the desk – saying ‘there is a crime scene, there is a possibly physique found’, method down south on Ocean Parkway. Go test it out,” Einiger recalled.
After they arrived on the scene, it was chilly and pitch black. There have been 4 crime scenes alongside the seashore and spotlights arrange.
“It was clear at that time that it was one thing,” recalled Einiger.
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Go behind the scenes with New York’s primary information workforce as Eyewitness Information tells the convoluted and downright creepy story of the seek for a serial killer close to Gilgo Seaside.
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CHAPTER 2: WE HAVE A SERIAL KILLER
Shannan Gilbert’s disappearance in 2010 sparked the invention of 11 our bodies on and close to Gilgo Seaside on Lengthy Island.
“One of the vital issues I’ve ever heard at any form of public official say, I believe it was the primary full day after that first report that we did,” recalled Einiger. “There was a press convention with the person who was then the police commissioner. And he stated one thing that to at the present time, I bear in mind the whole lot about what he stated and the way he stated it.”
“We’re taking a look at that. We’re taking a look at that. That we may have a serial killer,” stated Richard Dormer, the Suffolk County Police Commissioner.
“To at the present time, so a few years later, it symbolized the second that it was clear that this was one thing monumental,” Einiger recalled.
“There was a variety of hypothesis, as a result of it is nonetheless a distant space, possibly a couple of particular person use this as a dumping floor as a result of it was that remoted the climate circumstances had been that excessive on the market,” recalled Eyewitness Information reporter, Darla Miles, who was additionally there reporting the subsequent morning after the our bodies had been first found.
“The tragedy of this story is how incompetently managed this investigation was from the start,” stated Einiger.
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Go behind the scenes with New York’s primary information workforce as Eyewitness Information tells the convoluted and downright creepy story of the seek for a serial killer close to Gilgo Seaside.
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CHAPTER 3: BODY COUNT RISES
“2011 was essentially the most lively interval of this investigation. That is when it looks as if each few months, extra stays is being discovered,” recalled Eyewitness Information investigative reporter, Kristin Thorne, who took over Gilgo protection when she was stationed on Lengthy Island.
Investigators continued to seek out extra our bodies, however the stays differed from these of the “Gilgo 4”.
Police discovered three extra victims within the space between Oak Seaside and Gilgo Seaside, bringing the full depend of victims to eight.
Investigators recognized the victims as Jane Doe Quantity 6, a child lady and an Asian man.
Investigators then say they imagine they’re in search of three, if not 4, killers. One killer who they imagine is chargeable for the “Gilgo 4,” one chargeable for Jane Doe 5 and Jane Doe 6, and one or two separate killers chargeable for the 4 different our bodies discovered.
“That is across the time that it bought difficult to inform this story,” Einiger recalled.
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Go behind the scenes with New York’s primary information workforce as Eyewitness Information tells the convoluted and downright creepy story of the seek for a serial killer close to Gilgo Seaside.
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CHAPTER 4: INVESTIGATORS STUMPED
Investigators have discovered 10 our bodies and recognized 5 of them, however they’re nonetheless looking for Gilbert.
“This investigation began as a result of Shannan Gilbert disappeared,” stated Kristin Thorne. “These intercourse staff that had been later discovered had disappeared, earlier than that. Their households had been in search of them. Their households had been going to the police, and it wasn’t till Shannan Gilbert disappeared that her household began to carry police accountable and say — you must get on the market and attempt to discover Shannan Gilbert.”
Investigators discover a cellular phone, lip gloss, sneakers, and a pocketbook they are saying belonged to Shannan Gilbert on Gilgo Seaside.
They stated don’t imagine her loss of life is said to the ten our bodies they discovered within the space during the last a number of months.
Watch Chapter 4 Now
Go behind the scenes with New York’s primary information workforce as Eyewitness Information tells the convoluted and downright creepy story of the seek for a serial killer close to Gilgo Seaside.
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CHAPTER 5: FINDING SHANNAN
After a yr and a half of looking, investigators discover Shannan Gilbert.
Nineteen months after she vanished, Suffolk County Police discovered the skeletal stays of Shannan Gilbert on Gilgo Seaside.
“What was the final word stunner in all of that is that they believed — and nonetheless do imagine — that Shannan Gilbert was not murdered. That Shannan Gilbert died in an unintended drowning,” recalled Einiger.
“Shannan’s loss of life is controversial on this complete story. The police division stands firmly behind the truth that they’ve carried out all of their investigative work and that they imagine she died of an unintended drowning. And they’ll preserve that,” stated Kristin Thorne.
A number of years later, Shannan Gilbert’s mom, Mari Gilbert, who’s credited for the invention of the Gilgo our bodies due to how she pushed for her daughter’s search, is discovered stabbed to loss of life in her condominium.
Mari Gilbert was 52 years previous. Her daughter, Sarra Elizabeth Gilbert, was charged along with her loss of life.
Watch Chapter 5 Now
Go behind the scenes with New York’s primary information workforce as Eyewitness Information tells the convoluted and downright creepy story of the seek for a serial killer close to Gilgo Seaside.
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CHAPTER 6: FBI JOINS THE INVESTIGATION
In December 2015, the FBI joined the investigation.
“The FBI has much more expertise, nationwide, investigating serial killer instances than we do, so as we glance by the proof with them, possibly simply bouncing issues off one another shall be helpful,” stated Suffolk County Chief of Division Stuart Cameron. “I am excited in regards to the new partnership with them.”
Why did that collaboration not occur for thus a few years?
“It did not occur due to politics. We had a police chief in Suffolk County, in addition to a DA, that didn’t appear open to FBI involvement,” recalled Kristin Thorne.
Then, on January 16, 2020, police launched pictures of a belt imprinted with the letters “H-M” or “M-H” to the general public.
The belt was discovered at one of many crime scenes close to Gilgo Seaside. Police say they imagine the belt was dealt with by the suspect.
Then on February 15, 2022 — after lower than a yr on the job — Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison introduced a brand new job drive to analyze the Gilgo Seaside murders, bringing investigators from the state, county, and FBI collectively for the primary time, the Gilgo Seaside Process Pressure.
Watch Chapter 6 Now
Go behind the scenes with New York’s primary information workforce as Eyewitness Information tells the convoluted and downright creepy story of the seek for a serial killer close to Gilgo Seaside.
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CHAPTER 7: 911 CALLS RELEASED
Inside two months of the Gilgo Seaside Process Pressure being established, Eyewitness Information bought an alert that Suffolk County police had been going to launch surveillance video of Megan Waterman leaving a resort in Hauppauge — the final place she was seen.
“As reporters had been pondering, once more, why do that now?” recalled Kristin Thorne. “They’ve had this video for thus a few years — why now? They usually stated they need to hold the case going.”
Then on Could 9, 2022, Suffolk County Police launched a 22-minute 911 cellphone name from Shannan Gilbert the evening she disappeared in 2010.
“The 911 tape was kind of as marketed,” stated Einiger. “It was Shannan Gilbert sounding terrified operating for her life.”
Watch Chapter 7 Now
Go behind the scenes with New York’s primary information workforce as Eyewitness Information tells the convoluted and downright creepy story of the seek for a serial killer close to Gilgo Seaside.
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CHAPTER 8: FINALLY, AN ARREST
Two months later, on July thirteenth, 2023, police lastly made an arrest.
“This was an earthquake in Massapequa Park. This was a storm like they’d by no means anticipated this,” recalled Eyewitness Information reporter Stacey Sager.
Rex Heuermann was arrested in Midtown, Manhattan. He was initially charged within the deaths of Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Melissa Barthelemy.
Investigators additionally named him because the prime suspect within the loss of life of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
“My mission that day was discovering the surveillance video when I discovered the one surveillance video that exists of his arrest,” recalled Darla Miles. “It was simply that second. It was that second that occurred as a journalist, that does not occur. That solely occurs on TV as a result of it doesn’t occur in actual life.”
Watch Chapter 8 Now
Go behind the scenes with New York’s primary information workforce as Eyewitness Information tells the convoluted and downright creepy story of the seek for a serial killer close to Gilgo Seaside.
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CHAPTER 9: WHO IS REX HEUERMANN?
“Rex Heuermann is the whole lot we have been led to imagine could be the man,” stated Einiger. “He is form of a loner. He is form of delinquent. His home is completely different from each different home on that block. It is kind of a large number. He works within the metropolis. He has a job, the place he is very technical, the place he is an architect and engineer.”
Heuermann lived at 105 First Ave. in Massapequa Park and is an architect and a married father of two grownup youngsters.
Heuermann used one in every of his burner telephones “to conduct hundreds of searches associated to intercourse staff, sadistic, torture-related pornography and little one pornography,” court docket data stated.
DNA from a pizza crust thrown out by Heuermann was linked to a male hair discovered on one of many victims. The evaluation discovered that “mitochondrial DNA profile(s) are the identical” between each samples.
On January 16, 2024, Rex Heuermann was moreover charged with the homicide of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Heuermann has pleaded not responsible.
The six different Gilgo Seaside instances stay unsolved.
Watch Chapter 9 Now
Go behind the scenes with New York’s primary information workforce as Eyewitness Information tells the convoluted and downright creepy story of the seek for a serial killer close to Gilgo Seaside.
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