On July 14, 2023, Rex Heuermann was charged with six counts of murder in relation to victims of the alleged Long Island Serial Killer. Those victims are Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. He was charged with both first and second degree murder in the cases, hence the six charges.
In January 2024, Rex was charged with the murder of a fouth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
On June 6, 2024, Rex was charged with the murders of two more women – Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla. We also learned at this time that he is under investigation for the death of Valerie Mack.
A 37 page court document was released and we learned a lot of new information about the case. In this episode, we are going to run through the new info. Make sure to listen to our previous episodes for updates on the case until now.
The document runs through how Jessica Taylor’s remains were found. She was last seen in July 2003. She had been working in the sex industry in Midtown Manhattan. Jessica last used her phone around July 21, 2003. She called her mother and the two spoke for a few minutes. Jessica made plans to visit her mother in Poughkeepsie, NY on July 25, 2003. The last activity on Jessica’s phone was at 10.22pm that night.
When Jessica did not arrive to visit her mother on July 25, her mother called police.
On July 26, 2003, a person walking their dog in Manorville, NY found human remains and called authorities. When police arrived, they discovered that the victim was lying on her back with her legs bent underneath her. The body had been decapitated and her arms had been cut off below her elbows.
The victim had a tattoo that had been ‘severely obliterated by a sharp object.
The remains were soon identified as belonging to Jessica Taylor.
On March 29, 2011, Jessica’s skull, hands and forearm were discovered just east of Gilgo Beach. These additional remains were found on the same side of the road where Maureen, Melissa, Megan and Amber (Gilgo Four) were found. The other women had been found there in December 2010.
All of the victims ended up being found at a depth of within 50 feet from the edge of the parkway. Jessica’s remains were found less than a mile from the other victims.
During the police investigation into Jessica’s murder, it was discovered that Rex worked in the same area where Jessica worked as a sex worker. Records show that Rex was present in the same area as Jessica on the date that Jessica vanished.
After the first of Jessica’s remains were found, police canvassed the area surrounding and spoke to witnesses. One witness said that on July 25, 2003 at around 10.30pm, they had seen a dark Chevy pickup back into the woods where Jessica’s remains would later be found. That happened around 13 hours prior to the 911 call being made by the person who discovered Jessica.
It is known that Rex purchased a 2002 dark coloured Chevy Avalanche in late March 2002. He owned that vehicle at the time that Jessica’s remains were found.
Records regarding Rex’s digital devices reveal that on July 28, 2003, he read a Newsday Article called “Cops Seek
Help in IDing Manorville Body.”. The article was about Jessica’s body being found.
That online activity was subsequently deleted around July 29, 2003. Rex also
conducted an internet search for a new Chevrolet Avalanche despite his 2002 Avalanche being just over one year old. Rex would later attempt to delete this search for a new vehicle.
Rex specifically searched for a different color Chevy at the time.
When authorities examined Jessica’s remains, they found a male human hair on her body. It was found on a surgical drape that had been under her body.
The hair was determined to be from a male that had Caucasian/European characteristics. At the time, it was determined that it could not be DNA tested due to unsuitability.
In August 2023, the Gilgo Homicide Task Force submitted the hair for further testing. When compared to Rex’s hair, the profile developed was the same and it excludes 99.96% of the North American population.
Further testing was undertaken on the hair and it was determined that the hair is 1.837 x 10603 times more likely to have come from a person genetically identical to Rex’s SNP Genotype File than from an unrelated individual.
Police determined that Rex’s wife Asa and their children were out of state at the time of Jessica’s murder. This seems to have been a pattern for Rex. He chose times to kill when his family were not around. The court documents go into a lot of detail about how they corroborated that Asa was on vacation at the time – things like phone records of calls that Rex made to her.
The documents also explain that in July 2023, investigators took a hard drive from Rex’s house. The drive contained a Palm Pilot backup file which had Rex’s date book/calendar. The file also confirmed Asa’s whereabouts at the time of the murder.
On November 20, 1993, two people were hunting in a wooded area near Southampton, Suffolk County, NY. They came across the remains of a female. Sandra Costillo, who was 28 at the time of her death, was found lying on her back with her arms outstretched. Her uncovered legs were spread apart. Her shirt had been pulled up over her head and her breasts were exposed. She had sharp force injuries to her face, torso, breasts, left thigh and genital region.
Sandra was originally from Trinidad and Tobago, but had been living in New York before her murder.
During the examination of Sandra’s body, three hairs were found. Two of the hairs belonged to a female and one to a male.
The hairs were tested first in 2014 and unique DNA profiles were created for each. After Rex was arrested, the hairs were tested and compared to his samples. In February 2024, it was found that the profile of the male hair excluded 99.96% of the population when compared to Rex’s sample. Later testing would also find that the hair is 4.347 x 10332 times more likely to have come from a person genetically identical to Rex’s SNP Genotype File than from an unrelated individual.
In 1993, Rex had been living with a female known as Witness 3. As an aside, he married Asa in 1996. Witness 3 and Rex started living together in 1991. She moved out of their home in September 1993, around two months before Sandra’s murder. Witness 3’s identity has not been made public, but she is known to law enforcement. She gave them DNA swabs in regards to the case.
Police compared the swabs to the hair found on Sandra, and discovered that 99.98% of the population would be excluded when comparing the two samples.
The new documents also stated that over 350 electronic devices were seized from Rex’s home.
The devices revealed Rex’s fascination with violent bondage and torture pornography, dating back to 1994.
The images accessed include things like breast mutilation, vaginal torture, sex substitution which is using objects for penetration, the sexualization of decapitated women, bondage and whipping.
A Word document titled “HK2002-04.” The document was discovered in “unallocated space.” “Allocated space”refers to stored data that a computer is using (files are that viewable and able to be opened by a
user). On the other hand, “unallocated space” refers to available or “unstructured” data, which is not readily viewable and able to be opened by a user. Unallocated space frequently contains room for “new data” or “old data” that has been deleted, sent to the “recycle bin,” overwritten, etc. For example, when a user deletes data, many users believe the file has been purged forever. However, “deleting” a file only tells the computer that the space previously occupied by that file is now available. The “deleted” data will remain in “unallocated space” until another file is written over it. Data contained within “unallocated space” can be retrieved via a computer forensic extraction method called “file carving.”
Analysis of this time discovered that it was a locally created draft and that it had not been downloaded from the internet. It was also recovered from a hard-drive that had been used by Rex. The document was first created in 2000 and had been accessed and modified between 2001-2002.
Police call the document the ‘HK Planning Document’ and believe that Rex used it to plan and map out the murders.
The document goes into detail about how the Body Prep section relates to the remains of Jessica and Valerie Mack. Jessica’s tattoo had also been attacked with a sharp object in an attempt to disfigure and conceal it.
Read the entire document here- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Zx8bbm41n81cKRdvQ-JhW0sJ5zUxrqFW/view