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Pickup fees may apply. 1:27 Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. 1:31 If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. 1:36 For suggested phone numbers for confidential support and for a more detailed list of content warnings, 1:43 Please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. 1:53 On the night of Thursday, December 13, 2012, 26-year-old Christopher Loeb left his mother's 2:00 residence in Smithtown, Suffolk County, and made his way to the neighbouring hamlet 2:04 of St. James. 2:06 Christopher was someone who was well known to the county's police. 2:10 He struggled with heroin addiction and was on probation for theft-related felony 2:15 convictions. 2:16 He'd begun committing thefts to support his substance use and continued to do so after his 2:22 release. Christopher would drive around Long Island, then park somewhere and walk up to parked cars, 2:28 jiggling their door handles in the hopes of finding them unlocked. Sometimes he found electronics, 2:35 wallets or spare change that he could pocket. That was what he was doing that Thursday night. 2:42 In the early hours of Friday morning, he attempted to open the door of a GMC Yukon. 2:48 Upon gaining access to the vehicle, Christopher grabbed a canvas duffel bag he saw lying on 2:54 the back seat. When he got back home, he took the bag down to the basement. 3:00 Inside were a number of items. There was a box of cigars, a humidor, 3:05 toiletries including lubricants, some sex toys and several pornographic DVDs. There 3:12 was also a gun belt with two Glock 9mm magazines, handcuffs and a whistle. Later 3:20 that same morning, Christopher's parole officer showed up unannounced at the 3:24 Smithtown home where Christopher lived with his mother. He was promptly 3:28 followed by several Suffolk County police officers. Seeing their vehicles 3:33 from his upstairs bedroom window, Christopher bolted. He ran out the back door and made it about 3:40 half a mile from his home to a wooded area. The police, in hot pursuit, chased Christopher down 3:47 and roughly cuffed his hands behind his back before dragging him back to his house and placing 3:52 him on the couch in the den. Other officers who'd remained at the property were undertaking a search. 3:58 search. One of those present was Suffolk County's then chief of police, James Burke. The canvas 4:06 bag that Christopher had stolen the night before was given to Burke before it had been 4:11 processed according to normal evidentiary procedures. According to Christopher Loeb, 4:17 after he was subsequently taken into custody, James Burke confronted him in an interrogation 4:23 room that had no video cameras and demanded, you want to fucking steal from me. 4:54 When the remains of 10 different people were recovered along Ocean Parkway in the spring 4:59 of 2011, Suffolk County Police Department was facing a case of mammoth proportions. 5:06 However, the victims' families were hopeful that it would be solved soon. 5:10 The department was well-funded and resourced, with a homicide clearance rate of 74%, placing 5:16 at well above the national average. But internal politics had been getting in the 5:22 way of the investigation from the very start. It began with the then-Police Chief Richard 5:28 Dorma arguing publicly with District Attorney Thomas Spota over whether one killer was behind 5:34 the murders or more. According to journalist Robert Kolker, author of the book Lost Girls, 5:41 this was partly due to Dorma being affiliated with a political rival of Spota's. 5:47 As Dorma was scheduled to retire at the end of 2011, Spota was eager for the next police chief 5:54 to be someone he could more easily sway. And he already had someone in mind. 6:01 Thomas Spota first met James Burke more than 30 years earlier, 6:06 when Spota was prosecuting the April 1979 murder of a 13-year-old boy named Johnny Pius. 6:14 Johnny had gone missing in Smithtown while riding his bicycle and was found the following 6:19 morning dead in the grounds of a local elementary school. 6:23 Stones had been forced down his throat asphyxiating him. 6:28 He had been beaten and stomped on and his face was marked with the imprint of a sneaker. 6:34 The community was horrified by the brutal and senseless murder and the pressure was 6:38 on to find the killer. 6:41 Detectives were hopeful of obtaining a confession quickly. At that time, the Suffolk County Police 6:48 Department's homicide unit was renowned for having a confession rate of 97%, 6:53 three or four times that of most homicide units in the United States. As author Robert Kolker 7:00 explains, this extremely high figure is so improbable that it indicates coercion was being 7:06 used to force confessions, the result of an unchecked police force. 7:12 Because Suffolk County's police union was wealthy, it was able to donate large sums 7:17 of money to political campaigns. 7:20 This resulted in politicians being reluctant to challenge them, in turn allowing the 7:25 department to get away with more than it should. 7:29 The sneaker imprint on Johnny's face convinced detectives that Johnny had most likely 7:34 been murdered by another teenager. They began speaking to local youths, hoping somebody might 7:41 know something and named those responsible. Four teenage boys were soon implicated in 7:47 the murder, with one confessing in the back of a police car. His confession featured some 7:53 inconsistent elements, however, and probably wouldn't be effective in a courtroom. 7:58 Thomas Spota began seeking out other adolescents who might be able to act as witnesses, 8:03 and landed on then-16-year-old James Burke, a juvenile delinquent involved in low-level 8:10 burglaries and drug dealing. Burke willingly provided a story against the suspects, which 8:17 some have deemed very convenient, and became a star witness in the case. All four teenagers 8:24 were convicted, though many held doubts about their guilt. And from that time on, 8:30 Thomas Spota became something of a mentor to James Burke. Burke stopped 8:39 dealing drugs and became a cop. In 1986 when he was 21 he joined the Suffolk County 8:46 Police Department and began rising through the ranks, being promoted to 8:50 sergeant at age 26. Burke had a natural intelligence and a strong knack for 8:56 being a street cop, but his record was always spotty. He lost his department 9:02 and issued firearm on more than one occasion. 9:05 In 1993, when Burke was 28, 9:08 he was accused of smoking crack cocaine 9:10 and having sex with a sex worker in his patrol car. 9:15 This led to an investigation by internal affairs, 9:18 and Thomas Spota, who was by then working 9:20 in a private practice, offered to represent Burke. 9:25 Burke's punishment for his transgressions 9:27 was the loss of 15 vacation days. 9:31 Former officers from the department who spoke to journalist Michael Edison Hayden for vice 9:36 described Burke as a sex-obsessed narcissist. There were rumors that he would shake down drug 9:42 dealers for their contraband and then pocket them for his personal use. Throughout every scandal, 9:50 Thomas Spota had his back. In 2002, Thomas Spota became Suffolk County's district attorney 9:58 and hired Burke to work in his office overseeing investigations. It seemed obvious to the rest 10:05 of Spoda's staff that Spoda was grooming Burke till one day become the department's 10:09 police chief as soon as he could exert influence over the appointment. That opportunity arrived 10:16 a decade later in 2012, Wright, as Suffolk County, was facing its biggest crime in 10:22 generation, the Gilgo Beach serial killings. It was a huge case that required expertise on 10:30 subjects such as cell phone data analysis and serial killer profiling. But instead of welcoming 10:37 assistance from other law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, who'd already started working 10:42 the case, James Burke and Thomas Spota sent them away. Before leaving, FBI agents handed over 10:50 all of the work they'd done on the phone evidence. It was well known that the killer had used 10:55 burner phones to contact his victims, aware that he could be less easily traced this way. 11:02 But it was likely that he still had a regular cell phone that he carried with him at the same time. 11:09 FBI agents had been checking all of the towers that the killer's burner phones had been pinging 11:14 off and had plans to search cell tower data in Long Island for other phones that had been 11:19 hitting the same towers at the same time. 11:23 By doing so, they hoped to come up with a list of possible suspects. 11:29 The Suffolk County Police Department didn't continue this work, with Burke reportedly 11:34 deeming it too invasive. 11:37 They had other leads they could pursue. 11:40 There was some physical evidence from the burial sites, including a distinctive leather 11:45 belt embossed with two initials and several hair strands that had been caught in duct tape or burlap 11:52 that was used to bind the women. And at least two of the victims' loved ones had received 11:58 taunting calls from the killer. But overall, the investigation into the serial killings 12:05 didn't appear to be a priority, as Robert Kolker described in his book Lost Girls, 12:11 In the years that Burke ran the police department, the Gilgo Room at Suffolk Police Headquarters 12:18 became a place for part-time work, with little urgency dictated from above. 12:24 Under Burke, the police were in what would later be characterized as a complete ethical 12:29 freefall. 12:32 In Kolker's words, Burke turned the department into his own personal empire. 12:38 He ordered officers to follow and watch his girlfriend, 12:41 her ex-partners, and her son. He also punished colleagues he considered disloyal. 12:48 Every night, drinks were served in his office. Burke's mentor and a number one ally, Thomas 12:55 Spota, also prioritized investigating perceived adversaries over the Gilgo investigation. 13:02 With the police department operating in such close concert with the district attorney's 13:06 office, there was even less scrutiny from the outside than there had been before. 13:12 Until that suddenly changed, about a year into James Burke's term. 13:20 When Christopher Loeb went out looking for cars to steal from on the night of Thursday 13:24 December 13, 2012, he had no idea that one SUV he stole a duffel bag from was the department 13:31 issued vehicle of Suffolk County's chief of police. 13:35 It is unclear how police identified Christopher as the culprit, but by the following morning, 13:42 they were at his mother's home, searching the property for the stolen items and placing 13:46 Christopher under arrest. 13:48 After Christopher Loeb was transferred to a nearby precinct for questioning, the police 13:53 aggression towards him only increased. 13:56 He was handcuffed and chained to the floor of an interrogation room without cameras 14:01 for 10 hours. 14:03 Over that period, James Burke and some detectives repeatedly beat and kicked Christopher. 14:10 One detective threatened to rape his mother while Burke said he'd murder him with a hot 14:14 shot, an overdose of heroin that would look like an accident. 14:19 Understanding that Burke was the owner of the duffel bag that contained various sex 14:24 toys and pornographic DVDs, Christopher called the police chief a pervert. 14:30 In response, James Burke punched him in the face. 14:34 Several days after the beating, James Burke bragged that the incident had reminded him of his 14:39 old days as a younger cop. He referred to the other officers who'd helped him as his palace guard. 14:48 But this was the beginning of the end for James Burke. The FBI had caught wind of the 14:54 assault against Christopher Loeb almost immediately and opened an investigation into the matter 14:59 alongside the US Attorney's Office. 15:03 They found evidence that Burke had pressured detectives to lie about the assault and instructed 15:08 them to agree to a false version of events. 15:11 One of those detectives later lied under oath that Christopher Loeb had not been assaulted. 15:18 The case finally broke open when an informant admitted the truth. 15:23 In December 2015, James Burke was arrested and charged with the assault of Christopher Loeb, 15:29 as well as civil rights violations and conspiracy to obstruct a federal investigation. 15:36 Burke later pleaded guilty to reduced charges and was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison. 15:44 Thomas Spota, whose staff had helped Burke in his attempted cover-up, 15:48 was subsequently indicted for witness tampering, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. 15:54 He too was convicted in a federal court and subsequently sentenced to five years. 16:00 The entire fiasco had left Suffolk County in complete disarray, and still there was more 16:07 that would emerge about James Burke. After another year dragged on with no developments in the 16:21 Marie held a bombshell press conference on Thursday, December 15, 2016. 16:27 Sitting beside him was a woman named Leanne. 16:32 She was a sex worker based in Long Island who was alleging that James Burke had engaged 16:37 her services several times between April and August in 2011, the months after the 16:43 bodies had been discovered on Gilgo Beach but before Shannon was found at the end 16:47 of that year. 16:49 A former confidential informant, Leigh Ann said that she'd met James Burke at a party 16:55 in Oak Beach, the same gated community where Shannon Gilbert had gone missing. 17:00 She claimed that when Burke had been unable to perform sexually, he became angry and 17:06 aggressive, telling Leigh Ann that she was not a, quote, good whore. 17:11 When a journalist asked whether Burke ever mentioned the Gilgo case to Leigh Ann, 17:16 Then, she replied, no, but he seemed to like to choke me. 17:22 Leanne added that she also had several other Suffolk County cops as clients, despite sex 17:27 work being illegal in New York State, and she'd seen James Burke grab a woman by her 17:32 hair and push her to the ground. 17:36 Attorney John Ray pointed out that now a direct correlation had been made between 17:41 Burke, violence against sex workers and the Gilgo case via his attendance at an Oak Beach 17:47 party where sex workers were present. 17:51 Following this press conference, speculation by armchair detectives and others who'd been 17:56 watching the Gilgo case went into overdrive. 18:00 Some believed that James Burke was the serial killer himself or knew who the killer was 18:05 and that was why he deliberately thwarted the investigation. 18:09 He was covering up for himself for a friend. Burke's attorneys called this theory preposterous, 18:17 stating, there is absolutely not one shred of evidence linking him to the Gilgo Beach case. 18:24 There was no evidence suggesting that James Burke was a killer, but his relationships with sex 18:30 workers and habit of using illegal drugs had played a part in his lacklustre leadership 18:36 regarding the Gilgo investigation. Burke's corrupt behavior was most likely why he hadn't 18:42 wanted the FBI involved in the case, to prevent them from discovering what he'd been up to. 18:49 It was also indicative of his attitude towards the Gilgo victims. 18:54 In the Netflix documentary series Gone Girls, former Suffolk County detective Rob Trotter 19:02 So you have a serial murderer killing prostitutes on Long Island, and your police chief is a 19:08 guy who patronizes prostitutes. 19:10 You know, all the cops amongst ourselves would say, it's a joke. 19:15 He doesn't care about that. 19:17 He would call them misdemeanor murders, where they really weren't important. 19:22 They're not a high priority. 19:24 They're just prostitutes. 19:29 After James Burke was indicted and left the Suffolk County Police Department in disgrace, 19:35 an outsider was brought in to be the new chief. Tim Cini was a senior prosecutor from the U.S. 19:41 Attorney's Office in Manhattan. He brought the FBI back into the investigation and they resumed 19:47 their work on the burner phone data. Soltauer triangulation had allowed them to create rough 19:54 maps of where the killer had likely been using his burner phones from in midtown Manhattan 19:59 and Long Island. It had long been thought that the killer probably worked in the former 20:05 and lived in the latter. Using specialized equipment, they were able to refine this 20:11 data even further, localizing to more precise areas. 20:16 Ultimately, they came up with a radius that had the Nassau County suburb of Massapequa 20:21 Park at its center, as the burner and victim's phone had pinged a cell tower in that area. 20:28 Massapequa Park also sat directly across the bay from Gilgo Beach, giving someone who lived 20:33 their greater familiarity with the dump site. There were roughly 500 residents included in 20:40 this tight geographic zone, and the area was home to less than 1,000 men. 20:46 If the police could identify which of these men worked in New York City, 20:50 they might have a short list of suspects. 20:53 However, the Suffolk County force had butted heads with Tim Sene since his arrival, seeing 20:59 him as an outsider and resisted many of his investigative efforts. 21:04 He left the job of police chief in 2018 after being elected as district attorney. 21:12 Sene was replaced as police chief by Geraldine Hart, the first woman to hold the position 21:17 and the former head of the FBI's Long Island Bureau. She had already worked on 21:23 the investigation but had been removed from it by James Burke when he decided 21:27 to exclude all other agencies. Now as police chief herself, Hart decided to 21:34 utilize genetic genealogy to try to identify the unknown victims found along 21:39 Ocean Parkway. Genetic genealogy was being touted as a powerful new 21:44 investigative tool after it led to the identification of the Golden State Killer in California, 21:49 covered in Case 53 of case file. Geraldine Hart commissioned an outside lab to go over 21:57 the DNA evidence in the Gilgo case, and in 2020, this led to the identification of Jane Doe Number 6. 22:07 She was one of two victims who'd had some remains discarded along Ocean Parkway, 22:11 and the rest of her body left in a wooded area of Manneville, about 45 miles east of Gilgo Beach. 22:19 Jane Doe, number six, was identified as Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old from Philadelphia who'd 22:25 gone missing in late 2000. Like all of the other victims, Valerie had been petite, 22:32 standing five feet tall and weighing 110 pounds. She had lived in a number of foster homes 22:38 as a child before being adopted by the Mack family. 22:43 Valerie Mack became a mother to a son when she was 17 and lived for a time with her child's 22:49 father in New Jersey. 22:51 She got a tattoo of her son's name on her right ankle. 22:55 Between 1996 when she was 19 and 2000, Valerie was arrested several times in Philadelphia 23:02 for sex work related offenses. 23:04 officers. She was also thought to sometimes work in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Now investigators 23:12 believed she had somehow fallen victim to the Long Island serial killer. 23:19 In the hopes of generating a lead from someone close to the killer, Geraldine Hart went 23:24 public with a piece of evidence that had been kept under wraps, a leather belt that 23:29 had been used to bind marine brainite barns. It was a distinctive belt due to the fact 23:36 that one end had been embossed with the owner's initials, HM or WH, depending on the angle 23:42 you looked at it. Chief Hart shared photos of the belt with the public in the hopes 23:48 somebody would recognise it. Unfortunately, no leads resulted and the case continued 23:55 to stagnate. The tired finally turned in 2021 when a new district attorney was elected in Suffolk 24:04 County. Ray Teeny campaigned heavily on the platform that he wanted the Gilgo case solved 24:10 and met with some of the victim's family members. After he took office at the beginning of 2022, 24:17 he was joined by yet another new police chief, a veteran investigator named Rodney Harrison, 24:23 who'd spent years with the New York Police Department and was the first African American 24:28 to be appointed as Suffolk County's police chief. 24:32 On Harrison's very first day in the role, he visited the site at Gilgo Beach where 24:37 the bodies had been found. 24:40 He was stunned to learn that the case file for the Long Island serial killer case hadn't 24:45 been digitized. 24:47 This meant that all of the notes, interview transcripts and witness statements relating 24:52 to the crime were available in paper form only and couldn't be easily searched. 24:59 Chief Harrison arranged for everything to be sent to the FBI's headquarters in Quantico, 25:04 Virginia for digitisation. He and D18E also wanted a special task force to be dedicated entirely 25:12 to the investigation. Chief Harrison's experience in New York City had taught him that collaborating 25:18 operating with other agencies could be the key to solving a case. 25:23 The task force would comprise investigators from numerous agencies, from the State Police 25:28 and Nassar County, as well as Suffolk County Police and the Sheriff's Departments and 25:33 the FBI. 25:35 It was announced on Tuesday, February 15, 2022. 25:41 Within a month, they had a massive lead. 25:52 Case file will be back shortly. 25:53 Thank you for supporting us by listening to this episode's sponsors. 26:00 This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. 26:03 There are plenty of reasons we put off getting support, and for a lot of people, cost is 26:08 one of them. 26:09 With BetterHelp, insurance options may now be available nationwide, with an average 26:14 copay for eligible members of just $23 per session. 26:19 And while we're reconsidering old assumptions, maybe there are a few others worth questioning 26:24 too. 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At the time of her murder, Amber had been living in 30:49 West Babylon, a town in Suffolk County, in Dave Schaller's residence. 30:54 detectives visited the house and interviewed Dave. He told them about the days leading up to 31:01 Amber's disappearance and how, just one day before she went missing, the two of them had carried out 31:06 a scam that they employed from time to time. A client that Amber had been communicating with 31:13 showed up to collect her and after he paid, Dave jumped out pretending to be her angry 31:19 spouse. This enabled Amber to take the client's money without having to have sex with him. 31:26 Dave and Amber had done this a few times. Sex work clients were easy to scam because they 31:31 weren't likely to go to the authorities to report the crime. One thing that struck Dave 31:37 about the man he and Amber stole from that night was how big he was. The word Dave used 31:44 to describe him was Oga. He was between 6'4 and 6'6 with a broad build, looming over both of them. 31:53 A white man in his mid-40s, he also had dark bushy hair and big 1970s style overlay glasses. 32:02 Dave also told police that he'd seen the man's SUV parked in the driveway. 32:07 It was a dark green first-generation Chevy Avalanche. 32:12 The following night, Dave had seen the car again. 32:17 Amber had made plans to see the same client after he texted her to say, that was not nice, 32:23 so do I credit for next time? 32:27 Amber agreed to meet the client down the street, possibly because he told her he didn't 32:32 want to see her angry boyfriend again. 32:35 Dave had escorted Amber as far as the letter box, then turned to see the same dark-colored SUV 32:41 drive past the house a minute later. Dave never saw Amber again. The description of 32:50 the client and his car were a decent lead, and detectives in 2011 set about searching 32:56 for his vehicle registration via New York State Department of Motor Vehicles, or DMV, 33:02 records. But they found nothing, and the lead went nowhere. 33:08 Journalist Robert Kolker reported that a source told him the Chevy Avalanche had 33:12 likely been miscategorized by the DMV as it was a kind of hybrid of a car and a truck. 33:19 Despite having a description of an ogre-like person of interest in his vehicle, 33:24 the Suffolk County detectives hadn't passed this tip-on to higher-ups at the department 33:29 or any outside agencies, such as the FBI. For more than a decade, Dave Shaller's information 33:36 was buried in a file filled with hundreds of documents. Until Monday, March 14, 2022, 33:44 when the new task force dedicated to the Gilgo Beach case discovered it in their new digital case 33:50 file. A member of the state police who was working with the task force searched for first 33:59 generation dark green Chevrolet avalanches in a private subscription-based vehicle database 34:04 that was more comprehensive than New York's DMV records. He got a hit immediately. 34:12 At the time of the murders, a green Chevrolet avalanche had been registered to a man living 34:17 in Massapequa Park in Nassau County. Two of the victim's phones had pinged cell towers in 34:24 same suburban neighbourhood after they'd gone missing, and the man's home was at the centre 34:29 of the geographic area where investigators had suspected the killer lived. The owner of 34:36 the avalanche had purchased it from a Long Island dealership in 2002. A Google map photograph 34:42 of the man's house taken in November of 2011 showed the Chevy parked on the street 34:48 out the front. In 2012, more than a year into the Gilgo Beach investigation, the man had transferred 34:56 the vehicle's ownership and registration to his brother, who lived several states away in South 35:01 Carolina. Looking into the man who had originally owned the Avalanche, investigators saw that he 35:09 was a perfect match to the physical description Dave Schaller had given. He had the same tall 35:15 whole hulking build was white with a dark mop of hair, wore large eyeglasses, and would 35:20 have been in his mid-40s 12 years earlier when Amber went missing. 35:26 Moreover, he resided in Long Island and worked in Midtown Manhattan, just as investigators 35:32 had suspected based on the cellphone data. 35:36 The man's name was Rex Hulman. 35:39 Born on September 13, 1963, Rex Hulman was born and raised in Massapequa Park, a leafy 35:50 middle-class neighbourhood on Long Island's south shore. 35:54 His father Theodore was an aerospace engineer who served in the United States Air Force 35:58 during World War II. 36:01 Hulman was one of five children. 36:03 He had three older sisters and a younger brother. 36:06 father. He clashed with his father, who could be domineering and critical of his son. 36:13 Hulman desperately wanted to follow in his father's footsteps by joining the Air Force, 36:18 but he had dyslexia, which presented an obstacle. Theodore was disappointed by this. 36:26 Hulman's relationship with his mother Dolores wasn't much better. He felt as though 36:32 she was emotionally unavailable and self-absorbed. He began to act out by doing things like shoplifting. 36:41 In 1975, when Hulman was 12 years old, his father died. His mother continued to raise her 36:49 children in the same Mesapecua Park home on First Avenue, a modest wood-paneled ranch-style house. 36:58 Rex Hulman's school life was even worse than the struggles he'd faced at home. 37:02 A loner and an outsider who stood out due to his exceptional height and awkward demeanour, 37:08 he was often picked on by other children. A group of them set upon him in the sixth grade, 37:15 trying to beat him up, but were stopped by a teacher. In addition to facing physical attacks, 37:21 Hulman was on the receiving end of verbal insults, with one classmate telling The New York 37:26 times. He got picked on a lot. He would take it and take it and walk away. I seen him pushed 37:34 to his limit. As he grew older, Hulman's physical stature became more imposing, 37:42 but he remained quiet and insecure. When classmates did try to talk to him, 37:47 he had difficulty holding a conversation. He avoided school sports and other extracurricular 37:54 activities, but did join the drama club where he worked as a stage hand. He didn't socialize, 38:00 and amongst some of his peers, he developed a reputation for having a mean streak. 38:09 One thing at school that Hewerman did seem to like was architectural drawing class. 38:15 After he graduated, he studied architecture at the New York Institute of Technology. 38:20 He became an architect and then an architectural consultant, and in 1994, 38:25 before, he opened his own firm on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, calling it R.H. Consultants 38:32 and Associates. His job was to oversee renovations to ensure they followed the proper building 38:38 codes. That same year, Hulman purchased his childhood 38:43 home from his mother for $170,000, taking over the single-family residence on First 38:50 Avenue. He caught the train every day from Massapiqua Park to his office near Penn Station. 38:57 Two years later, in April 1996, he married Arthur Elrub, who was one month his junior. 39:05 Arthur had been born in Iceland but was put up for adoption along with her little brother. 39:11 Her brother stayed in Iceland while Arthur was adopted by a family in Long Island and raised 39:15 in the United States. She maintained a connection with Iceland, however, and traveled there regularly 39:22 with her family to visit relatives. It was a difficult upbringing. Asa struggled with having 39:29 been adopted, feeling unloved, unwanted, and like a perpetual outsider. When she was 16 years old, 39:37 she was sexually assaulted by a boy in her neighborhood. Struggling in the aftermath 39:41 of the assault, Asa attempted suicide. She later left high school and began working at a 7-11. 39:50 Her life would change when she met Rex Hulman. Their paths first crossed when they were both 18 39:58 and Hulman was at college. Asa was attracted to Hulman's six-foot-four height and thought he 40:05 was handsome. As she would later tell filmmakers for the documentary series House of Secrets, 40:11 moments, she fell madly in love with him. But then she met another man who became her 40:16 first husband. The marriage deteriorated after Arsha gave birth to a son named Christopher 40:22 who had developmental disabilities. Arsha wanted to leave her husband, and when he 40:29 made it clear he wasn't going to make it that easy for her, she reached out to 40:33 Hyormann for support. The two became romantically involved and in November of 1995, 40:41 Arsha and Christopher moved in to the Massapequa Park residence with Hyormann. 40:46 A few months later, Arsha became pregnant and the couple decided to get married. 40:53 Their wedding was held in Sweden on April 13, 1996. Later that year, their daughter Victoria 41:01 was born. To Arsha, Heelman was a saviour who rescued her and her son in their greatest 41:08 hour of need. Marrying him was the beginning of the life she had always wanted. 41:15 As the years passed, Arsha still travelled back to Iceland on occasion, typically in 41:20 the summer months. Her children went with her, but her husband didn't. Construction 41:27 Construction in New York was often at its busiest over the summer, so he needed to remain at 41:32 home to work. 41:34 He would also take advantage of the house being empty to make internal improvements here 41:39 and there. 41:40 Rex Hureman enjoyed woodworking which he'd learned from his father and put this skill 41:45 to good use. 41:47 Once he crafted an intricate dollhouse as a gift for his daughter. 41:53 But despite his career as an architect and his carpentry skills, he didn't maintain 41:58 the exterior of the home at all. While other houses in the upscale neighborhood were typically 42:04 well maintained, from the outside the human residents looked increasingly shabby and ramshackle 42:10 as years passed. Paint faded and peeled from the exterior wood siding and the shingles on the roof 42:18 looked worn. The yard was overgrown with weeds in contrast to the more manicured gardens of 42:25 neighbouring properties. It became the sort of house parents told their children to avoid 42:30 while trick-or-treating at Halloween. Sometimes human could be seen chopping wood in the front 42:37 yard while scowling. Once he threatened to slash a neighbour's tyres because he didn't 42:43 like the way they parked their truck. He wasn't someone who invited neighbourly conversations. 42:52 When the task force responsible for the Gilgo Beach investigation identified Rex Hulman as 42:58 a person of interest in March of 2022, they set about obtaining search warrants and subpoenas 43:03 for cell phone records and other evidence to verify their suspicions. 43:09 The fact that he'd owned the same distinctive vehicle as the individual who'd alas been 43:13 seen with Amberlyn Costello gave them strong grounds to go off, as did the location 43:19 of his home and office. One thing that the task force quickly established via travel records 43:26 was that Rex Hulman's wife had been out of the country on some significant dates. 43:32 On Wednesday, July 8, 2009, Arthur Ellrip and her children flew to Iceland for a five-week 43:39 vacation. Two days after they left, 24-year-old Melissa Bartholome went missing after meeting 43:46 up with a client. Arsha's cell phone billing records also placed her out of state in June 2010 43:54 when Meghan Waterman went missing and in early September that same year when Amber went missing. 44:02 Arsha had purchased seasoned tickets for the Six Flags amusement park and taken her 44:06 children to ride the roller coasters there. Hughman suffered from motion sickness so had 44:16 that Arthur had been away when three of the victims were killed, giving Hureman the house 44:20 to himself, bolstered the detective's suspicions. 44:25 They also obtained cell phone and credit card billing records for Hureman, which gave them 44:30 general information about his locations on the same date. 44:35 Again and again, they saw that Rex Hureman's phone had been peeing off the same cell 44:40 towers as the burner phones used in the crimes, at the same time. 44:46 Not once was there an incident where the burner phones were found to be in a different area 44:51 from Hyurman's phone. 44:53 His cell also corresponded to the locations of the phones belonging to Maureen Brainard 44:58 Barnes and Melissa Bartholomew, which the killer had used to check the victim's voicemail 45:03 and make taunting calls to their loved ones. 45:08 On July 10, 2009, the last day that Melissa Bartholomew was seen alive, both her phone 45:14 and Hureman's phone were in Massapequa, then travelled together towards New York City. 45:21 Later, they travelled back to Long Island again. A week later, Melissa's phone was used to call 45:28 her 15-year-old sister Amanda. The caller had been in Midtown Manhattan at the time, 45:34 with Melissa's phone attaching to a cell tower located at 4 Penn Plaza, 45:40 less than half a mile from Hureman's office. 45:43 Hureman's phone placed him in the same location. 45:48 In every subsequent call to Amanda from Melissa's phone, 45:52 both that phone and Hureman's were always in the same place in New York City, 45:57 at times when Hureman was in his office there. 46:01 Amanda had received a total of seven calls from her sister's killer. One of the later ones was 46:08 made on Thursday, August 5. After that, she'd heard nothing for two weeks. Travel records revealed 46:17 that Rex Hulman had flown to Iceland on Tuesday, August 10 to join his family on their holiday. 46:22 There was no activity on Melissa Bartholomew's phone while Hewman was overseas. He returned 46:30 home on Wednesday, August 18. The very next day, activity for Melissa's phone 46:36 resumed and Amanda received another call. Investigators also discovered that Rex Hewman 46:45 held a number of fictitious identities, including Andrew Roberts, John Springfield, 46:50 and Thomas Hawke. These names were linked to email accounts, a paid 46:56 subscription to the online dating app Tinder and multiple burner phones. 47:01 Humans verified phone had been used to log into these accounts on occasion. When 47:08 investigators obtained the call records for the burner phones, they found that 47:12 they had been used extensively and recently to set up appointments with 47:17 sex workers. A search warrant for one account turned up selfies Rex Hulman had taken of himself, 47:24 posing in front of a bathroom mirror, then sent to his prospective dates. 47:29 A search warrant for one particular email account revealed that Hulman had made thousands of 47:34 online searches relating to sex workers, rape, the torture of women, violent sadistic pornography, 47:41 biography, and even child sexual abuse material. 47:46 Over a 16-month period, Huleman had also made more than 200 searches about active and known 47:53 serial killers, the specific disappearances of the women known as the Guilgo Four, and 47:58 the investigation into their murders. 48:01 He looked up podcasts and documentaries that had covered the now notorious case, 48:06 and googled Melissa Bartholomew's sister, referring to Amanda whom he tormented via 48:12 phone calls years earlier. He read articles about the recently formed task force that 48:18 was devoted to solving the Gilgo murders and researched how cell site analysis was used 48:24 to solve crimes. In addition to looking into humans online and burner phone activities, 48:33 investigators were eager to test his DNA. 48:36 5 hares had been found on the remains of 3 of the Guilgo 4, Maureen Braynard Barnes, 48:42 Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello. 3 hares, including one recovered from a belt used to bind 48:50 Maureen, belonged to one unknown female. One hair belonged to another unknown female, 48:57 and the fifth hair belonged to an unidentified male. 49:02 On Thursday, July 21, 2022, an undercover Suffolk County detective went to Rex Huerman's home 49:09 and rummaged through a recycling bin that had been put out for collection. They took 11 bottles 49:16 from the bin, which were later swabbed and sent to a forensic laboratory for mitochondrial 49:21 DNA profiling. Almost one year later, on Tuesday May 23, 2023, investigators followed 49:30 Victoria Hulman home from work one day. She was employed as a receptionist at her 49:36 father's office. Victoria boarded a train at Penn Station that was headed to Long 49:41 Island and drank an energy drink throughout the journey. When she disembarked 49:47 at Massapequa Park, she threw the empty can in a bin at the station. The 49:51 investigators collected the can, which was also sent away for testing. It was 49:57 found that three of the hares found at the Gilgo crime scene were consistent with Arthur 50:03 Elderup's mitochondrial DNA profile. Two were left on Megan Waterman's body, the third was on 50:10 Marine Braynard Barnes. A fourth hair stuck to duct tape around Amberlyn Costello's head was 50:16 consistent with Victoria's. Investigators believed the hairs had been inadvertently 50:23 transferred by Hulman from the family home onto the women's remains. 50:29 The lone male hare had been recovered from the bottom of the burlap that had been used to 50:34 wrap Meghan Waterman's body. Shortly after launching the investigation into Rex Hulman, 50:40 the task force had placed him under field and video surveillance, keeping tabs on all of his 50:45 activities. One day, while following him throughout Manhattan, undercover detectives 50:51 watched Hulman throw a used pizza box into a bin on Fifth Avenue, right outside his office building. 50:58 They retrieved the box, which was then sent to a forensic laboratory for testing. 51:04 A swab was taken from a piece of leftover pizza crust, 51:08 then compared to the result from the hair found on Megan Waterman. 51:13 On Monday, June 12, 2023, it was found that the two samples had the same mitochondrial 51:19 DNA profiles at a rate that would exclude 99.96% of the North American population. 51:28 By the time this result came through, the task force had been investigating and 51:33 surveilling Rex Hulman for 16 months. He was now 59 years old but was still actively pursuing 51:40 sex workers via burner phones and fake online identities. He also visited massage parlours. 51:48 In late May 2023, the task force captured footage of him purchasing more prepaid minutes for his 51:55 burner devices. This was concerning. Although the last known murder had been committed more than a 52:03 decade earlier in 2010, there was always a chance that he might be biting his time before killing 52:09 again. By July, the team was ready to make an arrest. 52:19 Just before 8.30pm on Thursday, July 13, 2023, Rex Hulman exited his office building on Fifth 52:26 Avenue in Manhattan and turned left. He wore a pair of beige trousers with a leather belt 52:32 and a short-sleeved blue shirt and was carrying a satchel over his left shoulder. 52:37 all. As he walked towards East 35th Street, he didn't notice the undercover agents following him 52:44 from behind. Nor did he see the trio of law enforcement officers dressed in suits approaching 52:50 him, until they abruptly cornered him next to some rubbish bins and placed him under arrest. 52:56 Surrounded from all sides, Heelman was trapped. His office would be subject to 53:03 extensive searches over the ensuing days. Amongst the items discovered there was an issue of People 53:10 Magazine from 2016 with the front page headlines, bodies on the beach, hunt for the Long Island 53:16 serial killer. A little over two hours later in Massapequa Park, Rex Hulman's family heard 53:24 a loud banging on the front door of their house. FBI, open up, called a loud voice. 53:32 The late intrusion was a shock to Asa and her daughter Victoria, who was still waiting 53:37 for Hulman to return home. 53:40 Asa let the agents inside, and they asked her, 53:44 Do you know why we're here? 53:47 My husband's guns, Asa asked. 53:51 Hulman was a keen hunter and legally owned 92 handguns. 53:55 A female investigator asked, 53:59 Have you heard about the murders on Gilgo Beach? 54:03 Asa said she had, but knew nothing about them. 54:07 Your husband. 54:09 He knows all about it, the investigator said. 54:14 Asa and Victoria were informed that the agents had evidence their husband and father had 54:19 murdered multiple women, and their home was now considered a crime scene. 54:24 The two women were stunned and disbelieving. 54:30 Victoria was asked whether her father had ever sexually abused her or shown any sexual 54:35 interest in her. 54:37 She said that he hadn't. 54:40 Officers drove Hulman's family to a hotel and got them a room where they had to stay 54:44 under police guard. 54:46 Meanwhile, a search of their property got underway. 54:51 It was a mammoth raid that would involve officers from Suffolk and Nassar counties, 54:56 the FBI and the state police. In the days that followed, police in hazmat suits, 55:03 gloves and face masks combed through the house and its yard, while forensic canine 55:07 officers were sent in to sniff for evidence. Construction equipment was used to dismantle 55:13 parts of the property, tearing apart the deck and excavating the yard. Tents were set up outside, 55:21 and there was a steady stream of officers removing belongings from the home. 55:26 Tools such as swords were removed from the garage. 55:30 Inside the basement, investigators found several rooms and closets. 55:36 Behind a solid iron door with a combination lock, they discovered a walk-in vault that 55:42 held a huge arsenal of firearms, far beyond the 92 handguns Hureman had permits for. 55:49 He had started building the collection when he was 18 years old. 55:54 A total of 279 firearms were removed from the property, including antique weapons, long 56:00 guns, 15 unregistered assault rifles, and at least 26 unregistered handguns. 56:08 Investigators didn't believe Hulman had used the firearms against any of his victims, but 56:13 the vault he had specially designed and built for their storage was another matter. 56:19 It sat directly under the basement stairs and was soundproofed. 56:25 Hulman kept the vault locked at all times and his family members were only allowed in 56:29 there under his supervision. 56:33 Investigator suspected that he had taken his victims back to his home and held them there 56:37 for a time before murdering them and disposing of their remains. 56:42 The vault appeared to be a likely place where he would have carried out these crimes as 56:47 it was soundproofed and secure. 56:50 In another part of the basement was a room that had been Hughman's childhood bedroom 56:55 which still had a bed set up but was very cluttered. 57:00 It also had a set of stairs leading up to the yard outside. Adjoining the rear of that room was 57:07 a small hidden compartment. It also appeared that while the exterior of the Hulman house had been 57:15 left to slowly fall into disrepair, several renovations had been completed inside the home. 57:22 Investigators learnt that while his family was away in Iceland in July of 2009, Rex Hulman 57:28 had remodeled one of the bathrooms. This renovation also coincided with the murder of Melissa Bartholomew. 57:37 Hureman had torn out everything from the old bathroom, then re-tiled it and installed all new 57:43 plumbing. There were receipts from his purchases dated July 12, 2009, two days after Melissa went 57:52 missing. Investigators suspected the renovation had been done to conceal evidence of her murder. 58:00 They'd cut up parts of the vinyl bathtub and the floor tiles looking for traces of blood. 58:06 It has not been publicly confirmed whether any was found. A press conference was held the day 58:15 after Rex Hulman's arrest to announce that a suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders had finally 58:20 been apprehended. Huleman had only been charged with three of the murders at this stage, those 58:26 of Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, and Amberlyn Costello. Investigators were seeking 58:32 more evidence relating to the murder of Maureen Brainard Barnes and the other victims who had 58:37 been killed during the 1990s and early 2000s. For that, they needed to work on the timelines 58:45 crimes when each crime was committed. It would ultimately emerge that Arthur Elrub and her 58:51 children had also been away during the period in July 2007 when Marine Brainard Barnes had 58:58 gone missing. In addition to searching Hulman's home and office, investigators had obtained 59:04 warrants to search some storage units he leased. They'd recovered thousands of documents 59:10 from those units, and amongst those records was a credit card statement that featured transactions 59:16 made in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in July 2007. Asa had taken the kids there for a holiday from 59:24 July 6 to July 20. Hulman had joined them for the second week of the vacation, arriving on July 13. 59:33 Marine had gone missing on July 9. 59:38 Investigators now had evidence that on each occasion that one of the Gilgo 4 had been 59:43 murdered, Rex Hulman had his home entirely to himself. 59:49 Marine's last known location was Penn Station, which was just a few blocks away from Rex 59:55 Hulman's office. 59:56 She had been found with a leather belt that was used to bind her ankles, and the belt 60:01 was embossed with the initials H.M. or W.H. The initials W.H. would be a match for Hureman's 60:10 grandfather William, who died in 1964. Tired in the buckle of the belt was a hair, 60:17 which was 7.9 trillion times more likely to have come from Arthur Elrub than from a random, 60:23 unrelated person. About six months after Rex Hureman's initial arrest, 60:30 he was officially charged with the murder of Maureen Braynard Barnes on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. 60:38 But investigators believed he was responsible for more murders than those of the Gilgoy Four. 60:45 There were still six other victims they suspected he was responsible for. 60:52 During the raids of humans home and office, more than 400 electronic devices had been seized, including phones, laptops and hard drives. 61:01 Stored on the devices were photos and videos of extreme pornography and violent content 61:07 dating back to 1994. 61:11 Hureman had saved images he'd found of decapitated bodies, women bound with rope, mutilated 61:17 breasts and child sexual abuse material. 61:20 There was also evidence that he had viewed Amberlyn Costello's back page ad mere hours 61:26 before he's first encounter with her on September 1, 2010. 61:31 But not all of Heelman's online and tech activities were accessible. 61:37 He'd searched online for directions to wipe data from a computer, 61:41 and had purchased software that enabled him to shred digital files. 61:45 There was evidence that he'd used this software on July 9, 2009, 61:50 right before he met up with Melissa Bartholome. 61:52 me. Investigators believed he'd used the software to remove any evidence that he'd 61:58 viewed her online advertisement. Hureman's devices were handed over to forensic experts 62:05 who might be able to recover some of the deleted information. During the analysis of a hard 62:12 drive taken from Hureman's basement, investigators recovered a Microsoft Word document that 62:17 had been deleted titled HK2002-04. 62:24 The original document was created in the year 2000 and had been named HK2000-03. 62:33 Investigators suspected that Huleman had renamed and updated the document over time to refer 62:38 to impending years. 62:41 As investigators read the file, they realised it referred to the planning and carrying 62:46 out of murder. HK stood for the words hunt and kill. There were four columns on the first 62:56 page with the headings, problems, supplies, DS and TRG. Beneath the word problems was a long list 63:05 that included DNA, tire marks, blood stains, fingerprints, witness, hair and fiber, 63:12 rubber, and other items that could result in a killer being identified. 63:17 The list for supplies mentioned things like rope, hairnets, police scanner, and medical 63:23 gloves. 63:25 Investigators believed the column titled DS referred to dump sites. 63:31 TRG appeared to be a reference to targets. 63:35 Featuring on that list were the words, small is good. 63:41 Beneath this first page were more lists that related to planning and preparing for a murder, 63:47 and what to do afterwards. 63:50 Hulman mentioned doing reconnaissance, looking out for surveillance cameras, 63:54 and checking the weather well in advance of a murder. Then, closer to the event, 64:00 he would set up a stage and a holding area where a victim would be suspended from the 64:04 ceiling or bound to a table. 64:08 This setup was consistent with the sorts of extreme bondage pornography that had been 64:12 found on his devices. 64:15 The final column was how he would cover his tracks by changing car tyres, burning and 64:21 disposing of items, and having a story set for where he'd been at the time. 64:27 Further down the document, a section titled Body Prep described how to remove evidence 64:32 from a victim and prevent their identification. Some of the items on this list included Remove ID 64:40 Marks, Tattoos and Remove Head and Hands. The year that this document had been written and 64:48 some of the items featured on Eulman's lists made investigators more certain than ever he was 64:54 responsible for more of the victims. Case file will be back shortly. Thank you for supporting 65:09 us by listening to this episode's sponsors. 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Her breasts had been mutilated and she was missing her head, 67:43 hands and forearms. Most of these body parts were found almost eight years later during the 67:49 extensive search along Ocean Parkway. While some close to the investigation had believed 67:56 a different killer was behind Jessica's murder, others suspected that her murderer had also 68:01 killed the Gilgo Four, he'd just changed his methodology. 68:06 There were other examples of the killer honing his methods over time. 68:11 For example, he'd initially not had a problem with victims bringing their cell phones on 68:15 dates but eventually began instructing them to leave their phones at home. 68:20 Probably because he realized that cell data allowed investigators to track a device's 68:25 general location. 68:27 After the news reported that Melissa Bartholomew's killer had taunted her younger sister with phone 68:33 calls, he ceased doing that as well. 68:37 The planning document Rex Hulman had written up for the years 2002-2004 appeared to confirm 68:44 the theory that he had changed his methodology over time. 68:48 This was a man who planned meticulously and adapted along the way. 68:53 Jessica Taylor had been identified in 2003 by a distinctive tattoo which her killer had 68:59 tried to remove by cutting it repeatedly. Luckily, medical examiners had been able to 69:05 reconstruct the tattoo. Hulman's office was also just a few blocks from where Jessica 69:11 had been known to work, and once again, his family had been out of state at the time of 69:17 vacationing with some friends in Vermont from July 20 until July 27. Hulman had 69:24 stayed home to work. Further forensic analysis of Hulman's devices revealed 69:31 that on July 28, 2003, two days after Jessica was found, he'd accessed an 69:37 article about the case, headlined, cops seek help in IDing Manaville body. The 69:44 The article revealed that about 13 hours before Jessica's body was found, a witness 69:49 who'd been in the area had noticed a dark-colored Chevrolet Avalanche backed up in the same 69:54 wooded area, the same kind of vehicle that Hulman owned. 69:59 He later deleted that online activity and searched for a new Chevrolet Avalanche in 70:04 bright blue or white, despite his dark green vehicle being just one year old at 70:09 the time. 70:11 Then, he deleted that search as well. 70:15 When Jessica Taylor's body was first examined, investigators recovered a human hair from 70:20 beneath the plastic sheet she was lying on. 70:23 Although it was believed that the hair had come from a Caucasian man's head, DNA testing 70:29 capabilities weren't advanced enough in 2003 to test it further. 70:34 By 2024, however, significant advances in technology allowed forensic experts to develop 70:40 a DNA profile from their hair. 70:44 It overwhelmingly pointed to the source being Rex Hulman. 70:49 The other victim recovered in both Manneville and Dotion Parkway was 24-year-old Valerie 70:55 Mack who had only recently been identified via genetic genealogy. 71:00 Valerie had been murdered between September and November of 2000, and a hunter's dog had found 71:05 her body wrapped in garbage bags near the same area where Jessica would be recovered almost three 71:11 years later. Like Jessica, her breasts were mutilated, and she was missing her head, hands, 71:18 as well as her right leg from the mid-calf down, where she'd had a tattoo of her son's name. 71:25 Investigators would find these dismembered remains more than a decade later along Ocean 71:30 Parkway. It had long been thought that whoever killed Jessica Taylor had also killed Valerie Mack. 71:39 Rex Hulman's digital devices revealed that throughout 2020 he had access to gilgownews.com, 71:46 a website maintained by Suffolk County Police Department to provide updates about the case. 71:52 several times he'd visited specific articles about the identification of Valerie Mack. 71:58 Moreover, the planning document recovered from his hard drive was initially created in the year 72:03 2000, the year Valerie went missing. In a section where human had listed possible dump sites for 72:11 human remains, he'd mentioned the specific road where Valerie's body was found. A female 72:17 hair found in one of the garbage bags that Valerie had been wrapped in came back as most likely 72:23 belonging to Hureman's daughter, Victoria, who would have been just three or four years old 72:28 when Valerie was murdered. Investigators had enough to charge Rex Hureman with the murders 72:34 of Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack. If they were his earliest victims, then Hureman had 72:41 started murdering women in the early 2000s when he was in his late 30s. But in 2024, 72:48 he would suddenly be linked to a much earlier case that, until then, hadn't been tied to 72:53 the Gilgo murders at all. 72:58 On Saturday, November 20, 1993, two hunters made their way through a wooded area of South 73:05 Hampton in Southeastern Suffolk County along the Aflorn Hampton shoreline of Long Island. 73:12 About 25 miles east of Manneville, along a hamlet called North Sea, they discovered the 73:18 remains of a young woman. She was lying on her back with her arm stretched over her head and 73:24 her legs apart. Her striped shirt had been pulled up over her torso, exposing her chest. Her lower 73:32 half was naked. Multiple stab wounds and cuts were visible across her face, torso, 73:38 so breasts, left thigh, and a genitalia. 73:44 The victim was identified as 28-year-old Sandra Castilla. 73:48 Originally a native of the Caribbean, Jewel Island Nation, Trinidad and Tobago, she had 73:53 been living in Queens, New York City, when she went missing. 73:58 The previous year, in 1992, she'd been arrested for jumping a subway turnstile, so police 74:04 had a record of her fingerprints. 74:06 Like all of the victims in the Gilgo Beach case, Sandra had been doing sex work at the 74:11 time of her murder. Three foreign hairs were recovered from Sandra's body, two from her 74:18 shirt and one from her right arm. In July 2014, almost a decade before Rex Hulman was 74:26 identified as a suspect in the Gilgo case, another man named John Bittroff was convicted 74:31 of killing two sex workers in Suffolk County in 1993 and 1994 respectively. 74:39 Thinking he might be responsible for Sandra's murder as well, 74:42 investigators had the three hairs found on her body tested. 74:47 Mitochondrial DNA profiles were extracted from the hairs, 74:50 ruling out John Bittroff as a contributor. 74:54 Two were actually from an unknown woman, the third was from an unknown man. 75:00 After the Gilgo task force identified Rex Hulman as a suspect, they requested further 75:06 testing on the hairs. Sandra Castilla hadn't been found in the same area as any other victim, 75:13 but there were similarities in her victim profile. They found that the male hair left on Sandra 75:20 had the same genetic profile as Rex Hulman. The female hairs were a match to a woman 75:26 Hulman had lived with between 1991 and September 1993, years before he married his wife, Arthur. 75:35 At the time of Sandra's murder in November 1993, Hulman was living alone in a childhood home where 75:42 he'd grown up. He purchased it from his mother the following year. This meant that Rex Hulman 75:50 had started killing at least seven years earlier than previously believed, shortly after his 30th 75:56 birthday. The timing also placed Hughman's offending within a notable period in Long Island's history. 76:05 Serial killers Joel Rifkin and Robert Shulman had also been targeting sex workers on Long Island 76:11 in the early 1990s. Rifkin was arrested just five months before Sandra Castillo was murdered, 76:17 while Shulman continued killing until 1995. It was an unusual concentration of serial killers 76:25 with similar victim profiles in the same place and time. By the end of 2024, Rex Shulman had been 76:35 charged with murdering seven women. Investigators strongly suspected he was guilty of killing an 76:42 Fire Island Jane Doe, whose skull and teeth were located near Gilgo Beach in 2011. 76:49 Those remains had been linked to a pair of severed legs that had been found in April 1996 76:55 in a garbage bag on Fire Island. In 2023, Fire Island Jane Doe was identified via genetic genealogy 77:04 as a 34-year-old Manhattan woman named Karen Vergada. Karen was believed to have been working as a 77:12 sex worker when she went missing in mid-February 1996. The last time anybody had heard from her was 77:19 when she called her father on February 14 to wish him a happy birthday. No missing person's report 77:26 was filed at the time. Almost exactly two months after she went missing, Rex Hulman married 77:33 his wife, Arsa Elrup, in Sweden. Law enforcement, the media and the public were overwhelmed by the 77:43 extent of Rex Hjulman's offending and wondered how many more murders he might have been behind. 77:50 As well as looking at other unsolved Long Island cases, investigators considered whether Rex Hjulman 77:55 could be responsible for crimes in other states. In 2012, he'd given his Chevrolet Avalanche 78:02 to his younger brother who lived in Chester, South Carolina. 78:07 Hulman also owned about 18 acres of land nearby. 78:11 Shortly after arresting Hulman, police seized the vehicle and searched it, looking for evidence 78:16 of the crimes. 78:18 Nothing of note was recovered, but Hulman's connections to South Carolina led to speculation 78:24 that he might have harmed women there as well. 78:27 News reports compared unsolved cases in the area to Hulman's crimes. Back in Long Island, 78:35 some women who'd met Hulman previously came forward to share their stories. A picture emerged 78:42 of a man who seemed to delight in discussing the crimes he was now accused of. Shortly after 78:48 Hulman's arrest, a woman named Nicky Brass posted on TikTok about an encounter she'd had with 78:54 him in 2015. 78:57 Nikki had been working as an escort on Long Island at that time when she met Rex Hulman 79:02 online. 79:04 They met up for a date at a restaurant in Port Jefferson, almost an hour from Hulman's 79:09 home in Massapequa Park. 79:11 Nikki was immediately struck by how enormous Hulman was. 79:16 They chatted for a little bit, then Hulman asked Nikki, are you into true crime? 79:21 them. Nikki replied that she was, and followed serial killer cases closely. 79:28 Have you heard about the Gilgo Beach killings, Huulman asked? He looked more excited and 79:34 animated than he had before. He spoke of the Gilgo Four in particular, nicknaming them with 79:41 numbers and calling them Girl Number One and Girl Number Two instead of using their 79:46 names. Huaman speculated about how the killer disposed of the bodies without being seen, 79:53 adding that he lived near Gilgo Beach and it was very quiet and secluded. 79:59 He invited Nicky back to his place, but she got a bad feeling and ended the date. 80:05 She texted a friend to come and meet her, saying, 80:09 I think I'm on a date with the Gilgo Beach killer. Questions still remained about the 80:17 victims along or nearby Ocean Parkway whose murders Hulman hadn't been charged with. 80:23 Answers would eventually arrive for some. It would take investigators the better part of 80:29 two decades to identify the victims who'd been known as Peaches and Baby Doe, an African American 80:35 mother and daughter whose remains had been strewn eight miles apart from one another. 80:41 While Baby Doe had been left fully intact, initially investigators only recovered her mother's 80:46 arms and legs, which had been placed in a plastic bag and left near Jones Beach State Park. 80:53 In December 2016, DNA linked these remains to a torso found in Hempstead Lake Park, 81:00 about 20 miles northwest of Gilgo Beach. That victim had been dubbed Peaches after a tattoo 81:07 on her left breast. Investigators had released a photo of the tattoo, 81:13 hoping it would prompt someone who knew her to come forward, but no credible leads resulted. 81:19 However, investigators eventually managed to identify both the mother and child via genetic 81:25 genealogy. On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, it was announced that peaches and baby dough 81:33 were Tanya Jackson, a 26-year-old originally from Alabama, and her two-year-old daughter, 81:39 Tatiana Dykes. Tanya had served in the US Army from 1993 to 1995, and while she was stationed 81:48 in Texas, she met a medical sergeant named Andrew Dykes. He was married with two sons, 81:55 but the two had an affair, leading to Tanya conceiving Tatiana. Shortly after Tatiana was 82:02 born, Dykes was transferred to a base in Brooklyn. Tanya relocated to be closer to him, 82:09 wanting a relationship with the father of her child. At the time Tanya and Tatiana were murdered, 82:15 they'd been living in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Sunset Park. Their disappearance had gone 82:21 largely unnoticed, as Tanya was estranged from her family back in Alabama. But police had 82:27 questioned Andrew Dykes in 1997 after Tanya and Tatiana went missing, and he denied having a 82:34 relationship with Tanya. Following Tanya and Tatiana's identification, investigators said 82:41 they weren't sure whether their case was linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killings. 82:46 Then, almost eight months later, on December 5, 2025, DNA evidence found on Tanya's remains 82:53 leads to Andrew Dykes being arrested and charged with her murder. The now 66 year 83:00 old man wasn't charged with killing Tatiana due to a lack of evidence but 83:05 investigators believed he was responsible for both deaths. Dykes has 83:10 pleaded not guilty and as of the release of this episode is still awaiting 83:14 his trial. The identification of Tanya Jackson and Tatiana Dykes left 83:23 only one Gilgo Beach victim who was yet to be identified. Asian Doe was the name given to a 83:30 victim who was biologically male but found wearing women's clothing, leading to speculation that they 83:35 had been a trans woman. Unlike the majority of the other victims who were white, Asian Doe's DNA 83:42 indicated that they were most likely of Han Chinese descent. Investigators believed Asian 83:48 Doe had been killed via blunt force trauma around the year 2006 or earlier. They were wearing pants, 83:56 a bra and a blue ribbed short-sleeved shirt. Aged between 17 and 23, Asian Doe was 5'6 84:05 inches tall. Some believed that this victim's profile made them less likely to have been killed 84:11 by Rex Hulman. But Hulman's digital footprint suggests that otherwise. 84:18 When trolling through Hulman's online searches, investigators found that he had looked for Asian 84:24 escorts in Manhattan as well as transgender sex workers. He had also googled the words 84:30 Asian twink tied up porn. Twink is a slang term from the LGBTQ plus community used to refer 84:38 to a young, slim man with a boyish or androgynous appearance. This led to speculation that Asian 84:45 Doe may have been one of Rex Hulman's victims after all. On Monday, September 16, 2024, 84:54 the Suffolk County District Attorney and the Gilgo Beach Task Force released two new 84:59 high-tech facial reconstructions of what Asian Doe may have looked like. 85:04 One depicted a more masculine presenting individual while the other showed a 85:08 feminine presenting person. 85:10 As of the release of this episode, Asian Doe has not been identified. 85:19 The final remains awaiting resolution were those of Shannon Gilbert, the woman whose 85:24 disappearance had triggered the entire investigation and led to the discovery of all the others. 85:31 Ever since Shannon's body was found in the marsh in Oak Beach, investigators had 85:35 concluded that Shannon's death was a tragic accident and entirely unconnected to the 85:40 Gilgo beach serial killings. Their theory was that during her appointment with her 85:46 client, Joseph Brewer, Shannon had possibly suffered a mental health episode, leading 85:51 to her becoming scared and disoriented. Believing that people were pursuing her 85:56 with ill intent, she fled and became lost in the dense marsh where she died of 86:01 exposure and or drowning. But Shannon's family and other people connected to 86:07 the case disagreed with this conclusion, pointing in part to her official autopsy, which listed 86:13 her death as undetermined. In early 2016, Shannon's family commissioned 86:19 a second examination by a private medical pathologist. He found that the condition 86:26 of Shannon's hyoid bone, a small bone in the front of the neck, was consistent with 86:31 strangulation. However, he too ruled Shannon's cause of death is undetermined, finding that 86:38 there was insufficient information to determine exactly how Shannon had died. 86:44 Shannon's mother Marie Gilbert became her fiercest advocate, pushing police to take 86:49 her disappearance seriously from the start and continuing to speak up for her daughter 86:54 after her death was said to be an accident. Robert Kolker, who wrote the acclaimed book 86:59 lost girls about the Gilgo Beach case described Marie as willing to challenge the authorities 87:05 in ways that some of the other women's families were reluctant to. She spoke up for all of the 87:11 women involved in the case, pointing out the unfair stigma around sex work and insisting 87:17 that the case be taken seriously. Marie never accepted that Shannon's death was accidental 87:23 and arranged for her daughter's second autopsy. Five months after the results of this examination 87:31 were shared, Marie was stabbed to death by her daughter Sarah on Saturday, July 23, 2016. 87:39 Sarah suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and said voices had told her to kill her mother. 87:45 She invited Marie over to her apartment where she then killed her. 87:51 Sarah was charged with second-degree murder and convicted the following year. 87:56 She is currently serving her sentence of 25 years to life. 88:01 Marie died before the arrest of Rex Hulman, preventing her from seeing some of the resolutions 88:08 she had fought so hard for. Rex Hulman initially pleaded not guilty to all of the seven murders 88:17 he had been charged with. Although the evidence investigators had shared with the public via 88:23 charging documents had most people accepting his guilt before he had even been trialed, 88:28 Huaman maintained the support of his nearest and dearest. 88:33 Arsirel Rup, his wife of 27 years, could not believe that her husband was guilty of the 88:39 horrific crimes he was charged with. She saw him as her personal saviour and a devoted father, 88:45 plus he'd told her he didn't do it. 88:50 Asa always took her husband's word for everything, never challenging or doubting him. 88:55 He was an authority figure in their relationship and she was loyal to him. 89:00 Hulman had been the family's breadwinner, as well as his daughter Victoria's employer. 89:06 With him gone, they faced financial struggles. 89:11 Six days after his arrest, Asa filed for a divorce which was uncontested by Hulman. But, 89:18 it is believed this was primarily done to protect the family's assets, including their home in 89:24 Massapequa Park. Asa continued to maintain an emotional relationship with Hulman, and he 89:31 called her regularly from jail. Asa and Hulman's children appeared in a four-part documentary 89:37 series titled House of Secrets, in which they allowed filmmakers into their home, 89:43 the same place where Hewman had committed his crimes. In return, they were paid more than 89:50 a million dollars by the production company G-Unit in conjunction with the streaming 89:54 platform Peacock, a deal that angered many of the family members of the victims. 90:01 Over the course of several years, Arthur and Victoria shared their thoughts with 90:06 the documentary crew via exclusive interviews. 90:10 Four months after Huleman's arrest, Asa stated on camera that she believed the killer had 90:15 to be a man without children, not a family man, like her husband. 90:21 She couldn't comprehend a father being capable of murder. 90:26 At the same time, Huleman's defense lawyers and the Suffolk County District Attorney's 90:31 office prepared for the criminal trial. 90:33 trial. It was expected to be the biggest trial the county had ever seen. But in the spring 90:39 of 2025, almost two years after Huaman was arrested, he began to discuss the possibility 90:46 of a plea deal. From the prosecution's perspective, a plea deal would make the process easier for 90:54 the victims' families, preventing them from having to hear certain things or having 91:04 the evidence against their client was overwhelming. They had tried to have the DNA evidence excluded, 91:11 but a judge had ruled it was admissible. They had also wanted each murder to be trialled separately, 91:18 but that request had also been denied. The cases would be far more damning when lumped 91:25 together, revealing a broader pattern. Realizing the writing was on the wall, 91:30 Hillman agreed to plead guilty, possibly believing that doing so was the only way he could exert 91:37 any control over his situation. 91:40 He wouldn't be facing a reduced sentence by pleading guilty, but he would be dictating 91:45 the narrative somewhat. 91:48 As part of the agreement, Hillman would cooperate with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis 91:53 Unit, providing information that may help them when it came to investigating other serial 91:58 killers. 91:59 And he had another condition. He wanted to meet with his wife and daughter individually prior 92:05 to publicly pleading guilty so he could tell them the truth and answer any questions they had 92:11 before the wider world heard what he'd done. In August of 2025, Rex Hulman's wife and daughter 92:19 visited him in two separate meetings at Suffolk County Correctional Facility where he was 92:24 held. 92:25 Asa's meeting was the first. 92:29 When she walked into the room where Hulman was waiting, she saw that he looked nervous. 92:35 Asa sat down at a table across from her husband and said, 92:39 So, Mr. Hulman, I understand that you are confessing to me on these murders. 92:45 Can you please tell me how many of these women did you kill? 92:49 He replied, 92:50 8. Hulman had only been charged with killing seven women. The 8th was Karen Vergara, the 93:00 woman previously known as Fire Island Jane Doe. Investigators had suspected Hulman was 93:07 responsible for her murder, but hadn't had the same strong evidence for that case as 93:11 they had for the others. Hulman told Arsa that all of the murders had been planned 93:17 in advance, with the exception of the first, Sandra Castilla. He claimed he had killed her while the 93:23 two were in the Dodge Ram Charger he'd owned back in 1993. It had been a spontaneous act, 93:30 committed before he'd become romantically involved with Arthur. Sandra was stabbed to death. 93:38 Karen Vergada was his next victim, killed in April 1996, just days before his and Arthur's 93:45 wedding. Hjulman strangled her in his home's basement. He hadn't used the gun vault as investigators 93:53 suspected. He'd killed her in his childhood bedroom. 93:59 Asa, who was then two months pregnant, had flown to Sweden for a three-week holiday with her 94:04 son Christopher. Hjulman had joined them two weeks in, and the couple was married in Sweden 94:10 on April 13th. The six victims that followed all shared the same pattern. They were killed while 94:18 Asa and her children were away, tortured and strangled in human's childhood bedroom in the basement. 94:25 Three of the women had been dismembered there as well. He spent considerable time planning 94:31 each crime, carrying it out and meticulously cleaning up afterwards. 94:35 words. 94:37 Listening to her husband, Asa didn't feel like he expressed any remorse. 94:43 He cried at times, but she felt as though his tears were for her, not his victims. 94:50 Experts believe that Hulman deliberately chose a wife who was insecure and wouldn't challenge 94:55 him. 94:57 He had been briefly married before Asa and described his first wife as crazy and uncontrollable. 95:03 In contrast, Arthur idolized him, believing every word he said, and felt deep gratitude 95:10 that he had chosen her. 95:13 Speaking to a psychotherapist who was hired by Arthur Elrub's lawyer, Hulman said he'd 95:18 had dark thoughts about death, mutilation, and violent sexual fantasies as a teenager, 95:24 but provided no explanation as to why these thoughts had started. 95:27 He claimed he'd stopped killing after Amberlynn Costello because he was no longer experiencing 95:33 gratification from his crimes. The psychotherapist pushed back against this, pointing out that the 95:41 discovery of the bodies on Gilgo Beach three months after Amber's murder shone a spotlight 95:46 on the murders that hadn't existed before. She believed Hulman had only stopped out of fear 95:52 of being caught. On Wednesday, April 6, 2026, 62-year-old Rex Hulman appeared in the Suffolk 96:03 County Court and pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, 96:08 and Amberlyn Costello, and the second-degree murder of Maureen Braynard Barnes, Jessica Taylor, 96:15 Valerie Mack, and Sandra Castilla. He also admitted to killing Karen Vergara, 96:21 whose murder he hadn't been formally charged with. 96:25 After admitting to his crimes, Hulman concluded, 96:30 there are no words I can say. The words I would say have no meaning. 96:36 In response, the judge retorted, I know that you're sorry you got caught. I assume that you're sorry 96:43 for what you've done to your wife and children. Are you a little bit sorry for what you did to 96:48 these poor innocent women. 96:51 Then he continued, 96:53 You've been described as a very big man, but you're a disgusting and despicable small man, 97:00 if you're a man at all, and you're a coward. 97:04 Then he addressed the bailiff, stating, 97:07 Alright, get him out of here. 97:10 This prompted the families and loved ones of the victims who were present in the courtroom 97:14 to burst out in cheers and applause. 97:16 One person chanted Oga, Oga, a reference to Hewman's distinctive physical appearance that 97:24 had been crucial to his suspect description and identification. Hewman has never admitted 97:31 to killing Asian Doe, which hasn't prevented many from believing that he is responsible 97:35 for that crime as well as other cold cases. Asian Doe's murder remains an active homicide 97:42 investigation. There are also dozens of unsolved murders 97:46 involving women on Long Island, some of whom were sex workers. 97:52 Rex Hulman was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 97:58 He received three life sentences for the first degree murder charges, and four 25-year-to-life 98:04 sentences for the second degree murder convictions, all of which will run consecutively. 98:12 On the day of Hulman's sentencing, the court was packed with family members 98:16 and loved ones of the women murdered, who were there to represent all of the victims. 98:22 The exception was Karen Vergada, who had only been in sporadic contact with her father when 98:27 she was killed, and he had died in 2022 before his daughter's case was solved. 98:34 The family members berated Hulman and mourned their lost loved ones. Jasmine Robinson, 98:40 person, a cousin of Jessica Taylor, told Hewman, 98:44 You chose small women because you're nothing more than a weak, disgusting coward. 98:49 Valerie Mack's parents said that although justice had finally been done, the damage Hewman 98:55 had inflicted on their family was irreparable. 99:00 Amanda Funderberg, the younger sister of Melissa Bartholomew, who had received 99:04 tauting phone calls from Hughamon when she was just 15, spoke about the questions she 99:10 delivered with for a decade and a half. 99:13 I always wonder if it would have happened if I would have been there, would she still 99:18 be here, would she have been spared because you wouldn't have met her or because I would 99:23 have known where she was going. 99:26 But those questions don't matter because you still took her from me, from all of us. 99:31 Notice that Hughman was staring blankly at the table in front of him, Amanda addressed 99:38 him directly. 99:40 �You can look at me while I�m talking� she said. 99:44 �It�s been about 17 years since we spoke, don�t forget.� 99:49 But Hughman kept gazing down at the table, as Amanda shared details of the lifelong 99:54 trauma she and her family had endured, how the cause he�d made to her caused 99:59 unspeakable suffering. 100:01 I was 15, 15 years old. I know you don't care, she added. I was robbed of my youth, 100:10 robbed of my young adulthood and I still feel robbed to this day. There were so many years
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