Serial killer dumped mutilated bodies in bags & told victim’s sister ‘I’m watching her rot’…before being snared by snack

IN a haunting call to 911, Shannan Gilbert pleaded to police for help, sobbing: ‘There’s somebody after me. Somebody’s after me – please.’

But after the panicked call on April 20, 2010, the 23-year-old, who was working as an escort in New York City, disappeared without trace. 

NetflixShannan’s disappearance was initially dismissed by cops[/caption]

GettyThe bodies of four women were found by the side of this beach-side highway[/caption]

ReutersAccused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann is facing trial[/caption]

That night, she had headed out to a suburb on Long Island to meet a client. But after meeting him, she’d run out into the night, never to be seen again. 

Police were dismissive despite the 911 call – treating it as just another case of a missing prostitute who would turn up sooner or later.

But Shannan’s mum Mari refused to stop putting pressure on the local police to look for her daughter – and almost eight months after the night Shannan went missing, police launched a search.

Then on December 11, they made an announcement. Deep in the bushes off the side of the ocean highway, next to Gilgo Beach, they found a burlap sack containing the skeleton of a woman, with her wrists bound.

However, Shannan was known to have a distinctive titanium plate in her jaw from an earlier surgery. It wasn’t there – which meant the body wasn’t hers.

Two days later, three more bodies were found in the desolate wooded brush. All were like the first body, decomposed and in the sacks. 

Suddenly, this wasn’t just a hunt for a missing woman – but a hunt for a serial killer.

Now, these murders are explored in the new Netflix Documentary series Gone Girls: The Hunt for the Long Island Killer.

Six weeks after their discovery, the police finally announced they had all been identified. 

They are Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes. 

NetflixMari Gilbert campaigned for justice for her daughter[/caption]

All of them were escorts in their 20s, working around the New York and Long Island area – and they all went missing between 2009 and 2010. 

But who was the Jack the Ripper style killer behind this?

False sighting

Sara Karnes, a friend of Maureen, has never forgotten the night she lost her friend forever. 

She recalls how shortly before she disappeared, Maureen had been served an eviction notice and urgently needed $3,000 to cover it. 

“She was stressed,” said Sara. “It’s the eleventh hour. She was at her wits end.

“Monday morning, I told Maureen I’m going to go back home (to Connecticut) but Maureen said she was going to stay. That was the last time I saw her.”

Two weeks after she went missing, Sara received a call from an unknown number. 

“He was very articulate, and he was calm,” she remembered. 

Suffolk County Police DepartmentMaureen Brainard-Barnes was one of the first four bodies found in sacks[/caption]

APAmber Costello was also found with hands bound[/caption]

Suffolk County Police DepartmentMelissa Barthélemy went missing on July 10, 2009[/caption]

Whoever this man was, he described Maureen perfectly. 

“She’s not missing,” the mysterious voice continued. “I just saw her, at her house in Queens.”

But Sara never got a return phone call – and heard nothing more about her until her body was eventually uncovered. 

And Sara wasn’t the only person to receive a mysterious call.

One of the other victims, Melissa Barthelemy, was last seen in July 2009.

Just one week after she went missing, her sister, Amanda, started to receive strange phone calls from her sister’s number.

But instead of Amanda, it was a man’s voice on the other end of the line.

“I was relieved to see my sister’s name pop up on my phone thinking it was going to be her. But it wasn’t,” recalled Amanda.

Despite Amanda’s repeated questioning about where her sister was, the man on the other side of the line wouldn’t say.

Instead he taunted her: “I’m watching your sister’s body rot.”

“There were a ton of leads coming in,” said Geraldine Hart, a senior agent of the Long Island FBI at the time. 

“The behavioural analysis unit gave a profile. They think he’s a white male, probably in his 40s. They think he’s socially competent, but very devious. He blends in very well in the community.”

But by Spring 2011, police were still no closer to identifying a killer. 

Even worse, Shannan’s body still wasn’t found – but at her mother’s insistence, police widen the search.

Over March and April, they found more remains – a set of head and hands by the highway – as well as skulls, teeth, and more bodies.

By the end of the search, they were now not looking at four victims – but ten.

Supreme Court of Suffolk CountyMap of the first six victims[/caption]

Suffolk County Police DepartmentMegan Waterman was also among the first four in the grisly find[/caption]

Family HandoutSandra Costillo’s murder was later linked to the other victims[/caption]

It seemed that wherever they looked, they’d find a body. But was one person responsible? And if so, was he still around?

Tragically for Shannan’s mum, Mari, her daughter’s body still hadn’t been found. Even worse, local law enforcement were trying to cast doubt on the idea it was all one killer.

But when police finally searched the nearby marshes in December 2011, they finally made the discovery Mari had been dreading. 

They’d found her belongings – her ID, jeans, cell phone and shoes. 

Far away from this stash, her naked body was uncovered. 

“I got a phone call,” said Mari. “They told me that they think they’d found Shannan. At first I was hesitant. I’d heard it so many times.”

Despite all the other bodies of young escorts that had been discovered, the police insist her death was accidental, and had drowned in the mud. 

For the families of the other victims, justice also remains elusive. 

The police dithered and delayed – even placing a ban on local officers working with the FBI, despite their efforts to track the person behind the phone calls. 

In 2018, a new leadership team was installed in the local police department, and finally they started to make progress.

Thanks to DNA testing, they were able to identify the remaining victims – finding some were cold cases dating as far back as 1993.

But they were still no closer to finding the killer, until in 2022, a new taskforce started to comb through all the evidence and interviews from the last 12 years.

Finally, something came up.

One of the victims, Amber Costello, had met up with a client shortly before she disappeared who had left her shaken.

“There was a guy who came to the house,” recalled her friend Dave Schaller.

“She called, freaking out, she’s like ‘I’m in the bathroom hiding’. I came flying back to the house and busted the door down. I turned around and see this giant there. Literally the size of the door.

“We were trying to get him out, but instead of looking at us, his eyes were looking past me, at her. Almost like a predator. 

“As he’s walking to the car, he’s looking straight at her. He’s like, ‘I’ll see you.’”

NetflixPolice chief James Burke[/caption]

NAMUSThis unidentified victim is known as Asian Doe[/caption]

HandoutJessica Taylor’s heart tattoo was mutilated because it took away his ‘fantasy’[/caption]

They saw him get into a distinctive vehicle – a dark-coloured Chevy Avalanche. But despite reporting it to the police at the time, nothing came of it. 

Now, however, things were different. 

Closing in

Using the data from the burner phones, detectives narrowed down the suspect’s location to the Massapequa Park area of Long Island, and who worked in Midtown Manhattan.

Finally, a person matching the location and description who owned a truck just like this comes up – Rex Heuermann, an architect working in New York who had grown up on Long Island. 

The team built up a timeline, finding that whenever Heuermann was, the burner phones were too. 

They found the anonymous email addresses he had been using to contact escorts – and terrifyingly, he was still actively looking for them. 

Police were sure they had their man – but they needed DNA evidence. 

An undercover team was dispatched to follow him as he left his New York office. 

They watched as he ate a takeaway pizza and discarded the box in the bin – then jumped at their chance. 

Inside was a crust he’d bitten on – and it was all they needed to get his DNA.

Comparing it to hairs found on some of the victims, it was a match. Finally, on July 13th 2023, he was arrested.

GettyAlleged serial killer Rex Heuermann appears at Suffolk County Court in February[/caption]

GettyHeuermann’s house in Massapequa Park, New York, was searched[/caption]

Upon searching his home, cops made a chilling discovery. In his basement were at least 300 guns – and what they found on his computer hard drive horrified researchers even more.

A chilling file listed exactly how he carried out his attacks – right down to how to keep his victims silent, to the best ways to dispose of the bodies and a reminder to “get sleep before hunt” and “have story set.”

One section, titled “things to remember,” appeared to highlight lessons from previous killings, prosecutors said, such as using heavier rope and limiting noise in order to maximize “play time.” A “body prep” checklist includes, among other items, a note to “remove head and hands.”

“That planning document was jaw-dropping,” said journalist Robert Kolker.

“He had lists of equipment he needed to use. Tips for doing a better job the next time. Everything from try to hit the victim a little harder, to try to get more rest so you have more time to torture your victims.

“This was a document written by someone who was so determined not just to do it, but to do it again and again as the years go on.”

SUPREME COURT OF SUFFOLK COUNTY STATE OF NEW YORKThe chilling ‘dispose of’ list was found on his computer[/caption]

SUPREME COURT OF SUFFOLK COUNTY STATE OF NEW YORKThe attacks were meticulously planned[/caption]

But Heuermann was a family man with a wife and children – so just how was it they knew nothing about his sadistic hobby?

By looking at their credit card records, they found that Heuermann was careful to pick his time to strike.

His family were always out of town for the murders – away on holiday before Heuermann later joined them.

Other members of his family started to ask questions about how the Rex Heuermann they thought they knew was actually a sadistic murderer. 

“He wasn’t an outsider in the family,” recalled Margaret, the wife of one of his cousins.

“They started talking about stories from his childhood. It was like walking on thin ice being around his father – you didn’t want to set him off because god knows how he was going to react. 

“Rex actually lived in the house he grew up in as a child. His mother, for whatever reason, couldn’t leave this abusive man that everybody was traumatised by. And so the pipeline of trauma flowed from one generation to another.

“My husband went to stay at Rex’s house and he came back and said, ‘You’ll never believe this house. He’s an architect and it’s a scary horror house.’ He was really creeped out.”

Investigations are ongoing in other states to see if Heuermann can be linked to other unsolved murders.

A trial date has also not yet been set – and his lawyers are currently trying to argue that the DNA evidence should be excluded. He is currently charged with seven murders, for a trial that will prove once and for all if Heuermann is the Gilgo Beach serial killer.

Tragically, Shannan’s mum, Mari, passed away before she could see justice for her own daughter. 

“I believe Mari would still be campaigning to have Shannan’s death ruled a homicide,” said journalist Robert Kolker.

“She would not be convinced that her death was disconnected from the others.”

“Shannan deserves justice,” said Melissa Cann, the sister of one of the other victims Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

“At the end of the day, we all are here to acknowledge that without Shannan Gilbert going missing, our loved ones would have never been found.”

Gone Girls: The Hunt for the Long Island Killer is on Netflix now.

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