01-04-2025
The Surprising Way Police Finally Caught the Long Island Serial Killer
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer goes over the details of a case that has haunted New York for over a decade. The docuseries, directed and produced by Liz Garbus, follows the Gilgo Beach serial killings and examines the perspective of the victims and loved ones as it unravels the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
But the Netflix docuseries doesn't just do that, it also delivers a very detailed account of how law enforcement finally managed to zero in on Rex Heuermann, a local architect, and eventually charged him with the murders of seven women.
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An exhaustive investigation finally led to the arrest of Rex Heuermann, who has been charged not just with the murder of the so-called 'Gilgo Four,' the first four victims whose remains were discovered along a stretch of Ocean Parkway in Suffolk County in 2010, but three other women as well.
The investigation that led to Heuermann's arrest was led by the Suffolk County Police Department and District Attorney's Office alongside the FBI and New York State Police.
One of the key factors that led to his arrest was Heuermann's Chevrolet Avalanche. The car led authorities to his residence in Massapequa Park and his office in Midtown Manhattan, both of which were identified as zones of interest in the investigation. Heuermann was also caught by police adding minutes to a burner phone, which matched the movements of burner phones used during the crimes. Crucially, though, his DNA matched hair found on the victims. How did the police figure that out? Well, the DNA was lifted from a discarded pizza crust, so yes, this is how he finally got caught. All of it put together was enough for an arrest.
Heuermann's arrest is anything but the end of the story, though. With multiple victims attributed to the suspect, authorities are now looking back at multiple other cases, looking for possible connections. Gone Girls director Liz Garbus was very aware of the reality of dealing with an ever-changing case even as she was trying to deliver a finished cut of the documentary.
'After we completed and turned in our cuts to Netflix, there was another victim added to [Heuermann's] docket. Will there be more between now and the time that we air? It's possible. Will there be more between now and the time that we go to trial, if they go to trial? It's probable,' she told Tudum about the documentary.
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer also examines allegations of corruption that may have hindered real progress on the case for years. 'I think Suffolk County under police chief Jimmy Burke and DA Tom Spota was run like a crime syndicate…. This is a cautionary tale about how to stop that kind of thing before these kinds of people get in positions of power,' Garbus also said.
'I think audiences should believe in the power of their voices when they see injustice,' Garbus added. 'These family members were never going to give up. They knew there was a need to shake the establishment to get attention for this case.'
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