Eyewitness to Gilgo Beach

Eyewitness to Gilgo Beach

The news coverage of the Gilgo Beach murders began with a single live shot: a live remote, plagued with technical difficulties, from a barren and frozen beach off Long Island's South Shore. Little did anyone know how important that report would be. No one could have predicted the international spectacle that would follow. That first report was on an impossibly cold December night in 2011. They had found bodies on a remote Long Island beach. And soon, more bones turned up in the sand. It was a serial killer's graveyard by the sea. The story of the Gilgo Beach murders - and the hunt for the suspect - is as convoluted as it is creepy, and Eyewitness News tells it like nobody else. From the first gruesome discoveries to an arrest more than 12 years later, our team of reporters describes the twists and turns of covering a true crime mystery in real time. Follow "Eyewitness to Gilgo Beach" now and never miss a new episode of our true crime series.

Episodes

Introducing 'Eyewitness to Gilgo Beach'

January 18, 2024 • 47 secs
The news coverage of the Gilgo Beach murders began with a single live shot: a live remote, plagued with technical difficulties, from a barren and frozen beach off Long Island's South Shore. Little did anyone know how important that report would be. No one could have predicted the international spectacle that would follow. That first report was on an impossibly cold December night in 2011. They had found bodies on a remote Long Isla...
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Chapter 2: We have a serial killer

January 25, 2024 • 14 mins
Shannan Gilbert's disappearance in 2010 sparked the discovery of 11 bodies on and near Gilgo Beach on Long Island. "One of the most significant things I've ever heard at any kind of public official say, I think it was the first full day after that first report that we did," recalled Einiger. "There was a press conference with the man who was then the police commissioner. And he said something that to this day, I remember everythin...
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Chapter 1: Bodies found on Gilgo Beach

January 25, 2024 • 10 mins
It began on a regular garden variety day in December, when Eyewitness News reporter Josh Einiger and his photographer, Tony Saturno, were covering stories in Suffolk County. "We were on our way back and we got a call from the desk - saying 'there's a crime scene, there's a maybe body discovered', way down south on Ocean Parkway. Go check it out," Einiger said. When they arrived at the scene, it was cold and pitch black. There were ...
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Chapter 3: Gilgo Beach body count rises

February 1, 2024 • 13 mins
Investigators continued to find more bodies, but the remains differed from those of the "Gilgo Four". Police found three more victims in the area between Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach, bringing the total count of victims to eight. Investigators identified the victims as Jane Doe Number 6, a baby girl and an Asian man. Investigators then say they believe they are looking for three, if not four, killers. "This is around the time that it...
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Chapter 4: Gilgo investigators stumped

February 8, 2024 • 14 mins
Investigators had found 10 bodies and identified five of them, but they were still searching for Shannan Gilbert. "This investigation started because Shannan Gilbert disappeared," said reporter Kristin Thorne. "It wasn't until Shannan Gilbert disappeared that her family started to hold police accountable and say -- you have to get out there and try to find Shannan Gilbert." Investigators found a cell phone, lip gloss, shoes, and a ...
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Chapter 5: Shannan Gilbert's bones found on Gilgo Beach

February 15, 2024 • 12 mins
After a year and a half of searching, investigators found the skeletal remains of Shannan Gilbert on Gilgo Beach. "What was the ultimate stunner in all of this is that they believed -- and still do believe -- that Shannan Gilbert was not murdered. That Shannan Gilbert died in an accidental drowning," recalled reporter Josh Einiger. A few years later, Shannan Gilbert's mother, Mari Gilbert, who is credited for the discovery of the G...
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Chapter 6: Decade later, belt emerges as key Gilgo murder clue

February 22, 2024 • 11 mins
In December 2015, the FBI joined the investigation. Why did that collaboration not happen for so many years? "It didn't happen because of politics. We had a police chief in Suffolk County, as well as a DA, that did not seem open to FBI involvement," recalled Kristin Thorne. On Jan. 16, 2020, police released photos of a belt imprinted with the letters "H-M" or "M-H" to the public. Police say they believe the belt was handled by the...
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Chapter 7: Shannan's chilling 911 call released

February 29, 2024 • 9 mins
Eyewitness News got an alert that Suffolk County police were going to release surveillance video of Megan Waterman leaving a hotel in Hauppauge -- the last place she was seen. "As reporters were thinking, again, why do this now?" recalled Kristin Thorne. "They've had this video for so many years -- why now? And they said they want to keep the case going." Then on May 9, 2022, Suffolk County Police released a 22-minute 911 phone cal...
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Chapter 8: Out of the blue, a Gilgo Beach arrest

March 7, 2024 • 11 mins
On July 13, 2023, police finally made an arrest in the Gilgo Beach murder case. "This was an earthquake in Massapequa Park. This was a storm like they had never expected this," recalled Eyewitness News reporter Stacey Sager. Rex Heuermann was arrested in Midtown Manhattan. He was initially charged in the deaths of Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Melissa Barthelemy. Investigators also named him as the prime suspect in the d...
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Chapter 9: Who is Rex Heuermann?

March 14, 2024 • 13 mins
"Rex Heuermann is everything we've been led to believe would be the guy," said reporter Josh Einiger. "He's kind of a loner. He's kind of antisocial. His house is different from every other house on that block. It's sort of a mess. He works in the city. He has a job, where he's very technical, where he's an architect and engineer." The amazing details of the investigation that finally collared a suspect in the longtime cold case. ...
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'I used to buy him that pizza': Rex Heuermann's still-shocked ex-secretary speaks out

April 17, 2024 • 9 mins
The former executive assistant of accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann is speaking for the first time exclusively with Eyewitness News. Donna Sturman told investigative reporter Kristin Thorne she still has not gotten over the shock of the claims made against her former boss. "It's traumatizing," she said. "It's so unbelievable." Sturman worked for Heuermann from 2017 to 2018 at his architectural office in Midtown. She s...
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BREAKING UPDATE: Rex Heuermann expected to be charged in additional murder

June 3, 2024 • 7 mins
Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is expected to be charged this week with an additional murder, according to Newsday. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to killing four women -- Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes - whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach along Ocean Parkway. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declined to comment. Word of the new indictment foll...
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Sickening 'planning document' of death revealed as alleged Gilgo killer charged in 2 more murders

June 6, 2024 • 25 mins
Disturbing new details have emerged in the Gilgo Beach serial killings as Rex Heuermann, 60, was charged in two additional women. The new charges also significantly expand the timeline in the Gilgo Beach case, with the first murder Heuermann is accused of committing now taking place in 1993. Prosecutors also revealed disturbing "planning" documents that they allege the suspect used in his killings and disposal of the victims. The a...
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Rex Heuermann Case: What his wife and children think

July 18, 2024 • 7 mins
Rex Heuermann, the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer charged in six killings is now being eyed by investigators for even more, nearly one year to the day that the Manhattan architect, husband, and father of two was arrested. Heuermann's adult children - and his now-estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, showed support at court. Robert Macedonio, Asa's attorney, talked with Eyewitness News reporter, Chantee Lans, about what the past year has ...
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7,000 tips, 350 electronic devices

July 31, 2024 • 9 mins
Suffolk County prosecutors have received some 7,000 tips following the arrest of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, district attorney Ray Tierney said after his latest court appearance. Prosecutors turned over "voluminous" evidence to Heuermann's defense, including results from DNA lab work, data from Heuermann's electronic devices, and notes from searches of his home. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to killing multi...
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A face but no name: New sketch released of male Gilgo Beach victim

September 16, 2024 • 8 mins
Even though there has been an arrest in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, investigators are still trying to solve cold-case murders and authorities are asking for the public's help. On Monday, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney released three new updated sketches of a Gilgo Beach victim. The Asian male victim's remains were recovered along Ocean Parkway in April 2011. However, authorities say he was killed during or prior ...
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How a hair tied 7th murder to alleged Gilgo serial killer

December 19, 2024 • 11 mins
Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has been charged in the death of a seventh woman. Heuermann is charged with one count of second-degree murder in connection with the murder of Valerie Mack, according to a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday. Mack, whose remains were first found on Long Island in 2000. Mack, 24, had been working as an escort in Philadelphia and was last seen by her family that year in New Jersey. ...
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Rex Heuermann admits he was Gilgo Beach serial killer in milestone for grieving families

April 8, 2026 • 9 mins
Rex Heuermann admitted Wednesday to murdering eight women during a 17-year killing spree that terrorized Long Island and labeled him the Gilgo Beach serial killer. Several of the victims' relatives sobbed quietly and were seen wiping tears as Heuermann admitted to the rash of killings beginning in 1993 and concluding in 2010. The killings went unsolved for two decades until the Suffolk County district attorney's office, New ...
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