"THE ARCHITECT OF DEATH, PART ONE: 23-Minute 911 Call Exposes 11 Bodies While Corrupt Cops Let Gilgo Killer Walk Free for 13 Years"

0:03 Callaroga Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Read Carter, and welcome to Celebrity Trials. We're taking a break from live courtroom drama for the next two days to dive deep into a case that's been haunting Long Island for fifteen years. A case that started with one missing woman and became the discovery of eleven bodies, A case that went cold for a decade until a task force finally zeroed in on a suspect nobody saw coming. A married architect, a father of two, a man who commuted from his childhood home in Massapequa Park to his Manhattan office every day for thirty years. Rex Heyerman, six foot four, two hundred and seventy five pounds, and, according to prosecutors, the Gilgo Beach serial killer. Today, we're going back to the beginning to May one, twenty ten, to a twenty four year old woman named Shannon Gilbert, who made a nine to one to one call that would expose one of America's most prolific serial killers. Tomorrow, we'll bring you up to speed on where the case stands now, including the DNA controversy that could derail the entire prosecution. But first, let me tell you about the night that started it all.

1:20 May first, twenty ten, four fifty one am, Oak Beach, Long Island. Shannon Gilbert, a twenty four year old escort from Jersey City, is inside the home of Joseph Brewer. She's been there for hours. Something goes wrong. She calls nine one one. They're trying to kill me, she screams into the phone. The call lasts twenty three minutes, twenty three minutes of terror that nobody took seriously enough. Gilbert flees Brewer's house. She runs to a neighbor's door, Gus Coletti, banging frantically. He calls nine one one two. She runs away before police arrive. Another neighbor, Barbara Brennan, sees her, screaming help me, before disappearing into the marsh, and then nothing.

2:05 Shannon Gilbert vanishes into the pre dawn darkness of Oak Beach. The search for Shannon Gilbert would take seven months. What they found instead would horrify a nation. December eleventh, twenty ten, Suffolk County Police officer John Mallia and his cadaver dog Blue are searching along Ocean Parkway, not in the marsh where Gilbert was last seen, but along the shoulder of the road. FBI data shows bodies are often dumped close to roadways, blue alerts to ascent in the thick bramble. What they find is a skeleton wrapped in burlap, disintegrating burlap. But it's not Shannon Gilbert. It's Melissa Barthelemy, twenty four years old from the Bronx, missing since July twelfth, two thousand and nine. She was four feet ten inches tall.

2:55 She'd been working as an escort, advertising on Craigslist and Backpage. Her family got taunting phone calls after she disappeared, a man's voice calling from Melissa's phone, telling her teenage sister things that would haunt her forever. Two days later, December thirteenth, they find three more bodies, all within five hundred feet of each other, all wrapped in burlap, All young women. Megan Waterman twenty two years old from Scarborough, Maine. She'd left a holiday in express in Haupoge on June sixth, twenty ten to meet a client. She had a three year old daughter. Her family reported her missing when she didn't call to check on her little girl. That wasn't like Meghan. She always called Amber Lynn Costello, twenty seven years old from West Babylon, just minutes from Gilgo Beach.

3:50 September second, twenty ten, she left her house on America Avenue to meet a client who was picking her up, A client who'd called multiple times, A client who who offered her one thousand, five hundred dollars triple her usual rate. Her roommate Dave Shaller saw the man, described him as an Ogre driving a first generation Chevrolet Avalanche Dark Green. That description would matter thirteen years later. And Maureen Brainerd Barnes, twenty five years old from Norwich, Connecticut, a mother of two, she'd been missing since July ninth, two thousand and seven, three and a half years. Her body had been out there, the first to die, the last of the four to be found. She'd taken an Amtrak train from New London to Grand Central, stayed at the Super eight Motel on West forty sixth Street. Her routine was to work in Manhattan for a few days, then return home to her kids.

4:46 She never made it home. The Gilgo four, that's what the media called them. Four women, all escorts, all petite, none taller than five foot two, all wrapped in burlap, all bound at the ankles, knees, and wrists, some with tape, one with belts. All found within a quarter mile of each other a long Ocean Parkway. But the horror wasn't over. March twenty ninth, two thousand eleven, searching for more victims, police find partial remains of Jessica Taylor along Ocean Parkway. This is where it gets complicated. Eight years earlier, in two thousand and three, other parts of Taylor's body had been found in Manerville, forty miles away. She'd been only twenty years old. Someone had kept her for days before killing her. Someone had dismembered her, Someone had scattered her across Suffolk County like she was garbage. April fourth, twenty eleven, more remains a woman's torso, later identified as Valerie Mack, twenty four years old. Also dismembered parts of her had been found in two thousand in Manorville, just like Jessica Taylor.

5:57 There's a pattern here, an evolution or maybe two killers. The intact bodies wrapped in burlap along the beach, the dismembered bodies scattered between Manerville and Gilgo. They also find a female toddler between sixteen and twenty four months old, wrapped in a blanket, no visible trauma, and an Asian male dressed in women's clothing. The toddler and the cross dresser, they don't fit the pattern. Are they connected? Are they victims of the same killer? Or did Ocean Parkway become some kind of dumping ground for multiple murderers. April eleventh, twenty eleven, two more discoveries partial remains near Jones Beach State Park. One is a woman with a distinctive tattoo a peach. They call her Peaches. The other partial remains that had been found years earlier on Fire Island, both dismembered, both scattered, and still no Shannon Gilbert. It would take until December thirteenth, twenty eleven, nineteen months after she disappeared, for police to find Shannon's remains, not along Ocean Parkway, with the others in the marsh behind Oak Beach, exactly where you'd expect to find someone who ran into a swamp in the middle of the night. Her death was ruled accidental drowning. The police said she was high paranoid, ran into the marsh and died of exposure or drowning.

7:19 But here's what doesn't make sense. Shannon Gilbert was on the phone with nine to one one for twenty three minutes. Have you ever tried to make a call for twenty three minutes while running through a marsh? High and paranoid? Her mother, Marie Gilbert never bought it. She fought until her own tragic death in twenty sixteen, killed by another daughter, Sarah, who was suffering from schizophrenia. This family was destroyed by tragedy upon tragedy, the investigation went cold for years. Nothing happened, and not because there weren't leads. The problem was corruption. James Burke, Suffolk County police chief from two twelve to twenty fifteen. This man single handedly derailed the investigation. He refused to work with the FBI, actually kicked them off the case in twenty twelve. Why because Burke was dirty.

8:14 In twenty thirteen, he beat a handcuffed suspect who'd stolen a Duffel bag from his car, a bag containing sex toys and pornography. Burke tried to cover it up. The District Attorney, Thomas Spoda, helped him. They ran Suffolk County like their personal fiefdom. Burke went to federal prison. Spoda went to federal prison. Years wasted, leads gone cold, families suffering while the politicians played their games. Between twenty eleven and twenty twenty two, the case sat there like an open wound. The families held vigils, They demanded answers. Melissa Barthelemy's mother would call the Suffolk County Police every week, any updates. The answer was always no, you want to know the real tragedy. While Burke and Spoda were covering their own asses, there was evidence sitting right there. The witness description of the Chevrolet Avalanche, the burner phones, the pattern of the killer calling families to taunt them, the fact that all the victim's phones pinged off the same cell towers in Massapequa Park and Midtown Manhattan. Back in a moment, welcome back to celebrity trials. I'm read Carter.

9:38 We're discussing the Gilgo Beach murders, a case that sat cold for over a decade thanks to corrupt cops and dirty politicians. Everything changed in January twenty twenty two. New Suffolk County leadership, new task force, new technology, and suddenly the case that couldn't be solved, was solvable. They went went back to Dave Shaler's description the ogre in the Chevrolet Avalanche who picked up Amber Costello first generation Avalanche, dark Green. How many of those could there be on Long Island? They found one registered to a guy in Massapequa Park. Big guy, six foot four looked like an ogre if we're being honest. Rex Heyerman, architect, married two kids, lived in the same house since he was a kid.

10:28 March twenty twenty two, they put him under surveillance. This guy commuted to Manhattan every day, past the exact cell towers the victim's phones had pinged. His office was in Midtown, right where the burner phones were purchased, right where the calls to victim's families came from. They pulled his cell phone records. Every time a victim disappeared, Rex Heyerman's phone went dark, like he turned it off or left it at home, But his wife's phone always somewhere else Iceland, New Jersey, Maryland. Every single time they got his DNA the way they always do now. From trash pizza crust the great equalizer. Everyone eats pizza, everyone throws away the crust August twenty twenty two. They match male hair found on Megan Waterman's body to DNA from Rex Heyerman's pizza crust.

11:19 But here's the sick part. They also found female hair on the bodies. Who's Rex's wife, Asa Ellerup. How does a wife's hair end up on her husband's victims? Transfer prosecutors say, he's wrapping these women in burlap from his house. His wife's hair is on his clothes, in his car, on the burlap. She had nothing to do with it. She was always out of town every single time. Let's talk about those patterns for a minute, because this is where Rex Heyerman made his mistakes, or maybe he wanted to get caught. Who knows what goes on in the mind of someone who can do this. July ninth, two thousand and seven, Maureen Brainerd Barnes disappears. Asa Ellup is in Atlantic City, checked into a hotel on July sixth, checked out July twentieth, two weeks Rex had two weeks alone.

12:12 July twelfth, two thousand and nine. Melissa Barthelemy disappears The families in Maryland. Credit card records prove it. June sixth, twenty ten, Megan Waterman disappears, families out of town again. September two, twenty ten, Amber Costello disappears. Guess where the family is not home? You see the pattern. This wasn't crimes of opportunity. This was planned, scheduled around family vacations. Honey, take the kids to Atlantic City. I've got work to do. The work was murder. And the searches. Oh, the searches on his computers. Thousands of searches for violent pornography, torture, porn, child pornography, searches for the victims by name, searches for their families, searches for news articles about the investigation. My favorite, Why hasn't the Long Island serial killer been caught? I'll tell you why, Rex, Because the police chief was a criminal and the DA was covering for him. You got lucky for thirteen years. You got lucky. They arrested him July thirteenth, twenty twenty three, walked up to him outside his Manhattan office. No drama, no chase, just Rex, Heyerman, you're under arrest. His daughter, Victoria worked in that office.

13:31 Imagine finding out your dad's arrested for serial murder while you're at work at the family business. The house search was a circus. Twelve days they spent in that house. You know what they found? Over two hundred guns, books about serial killers, a blueprint for murder literally, a computer document detailing how to kill and dispose of bodies, and hair so much hair in boxes, in bags, trophies maybe or evidence he couldn't bring himself to destroy. The neighbors were shocked. Billy Baldwin, Yeah, the actor went to high school with Rex. Tweeted about how this quiet, average guy was his classmate. That's the thing about serial killers. They're never who you expect. They're architects, their fathers. They're the guy next door with the weird house and the too many guns. But I want to go back to the victims for a minute, because in all the excitement about finally catching this monster, we forget about them. Maureen Brainerd Barnes had two kids. They're adults now. They grew up without their mother. Her sister, Melissa Cann, spent fifteen years trying to solve this case herself, going through phone records, emails, staying in touch with other families. Fifteen years of her life searching for justice. Melissa Barthelemy's teenage sister got those phone calls. The killer, allegedly, Rex called from Melissa's phone, called this fifteen year old girl and just described what he'd done to her sister. What kind of evil does that?

15:04 What kind of person kills a woman and then tortures her family. Megan Waterman's daughter was three when her mother disappeared. She's eighteen now graduated high school without her mom. Every milestone, every birthday, every Christmas motherless because Rex Heyerman allegedly decided her mother's life was worth less than his sick fantasies. Amber Costello was struggling with heroin addiction, living with other atticts, trying to survive her family. Said she was getting her life together, she was going to get clean. She never got the chance. These weren't just prostitutes, as the early coverage called them. These were daughters, mothers, sisters, human beings with hopes and dreams and families who loved them. Melissa Barthelemy wanted to be a hairstylist. Megan Waterman was saving money to build a better life for her daughter. Maureen Brainerd Barnes was working to say support her children, they matter, their names matter, Their stories matter. Sandra Costilla, twenty eight years old from Trinidad and Tobago, killed November nineteen ninety three, Rex's first known victim. If the charges are true, thirty two years ago. How many others were there that we don't know about? Jessica Taylor, twenty years old, went missing in two thousand and three. Her remains were found in two locations eight years apart. She'd been working in Manhattan.

16:29 She had her whole life ahead of her. Valerie Mack twenty four years old. Another dismemberment, Another life scattered across Long Island like trash. Seven women charged so far, but there were eleven bodies found. Karen Vergatta, the woman found on Fire Island. They didn't identify her until twenty twenty three, twenty seven years. She was unidentified. Twenty seven years. Her family didn't know what happened to her, and just this April April twenty twenty five, they finally identified Peaches and her baby, Tanya Denise Jackson and her daughter, two year old Tatiana Marie Dikes, a mother and child found miles apart, the baby wrapped in a blanket, no visible trauma. What happened to them? Is Rex responsible for them too? Tomorrow we'll dive into the evidence against Rex Heyerman, the DNA controversy that has his lawyers crying magic and prosecutors claiming cutting edge science. We'll talk about his family, the wife who still doesn't believe he did it, the daughter who says he most likely did. We'll explore how a man can allegedly live this double life for thirty years without anyone knowing. But today, remember this, For thirteen years, a killer walked free because the people in charge of catching him were more interested in protecting themselves than protecting the public.

17:57 For thirteen years, families suffer while cops played politics. For thirteen years, evidence sat in boxes while bureaucrats covered their asses. Shannon Gilbert's nine to one one call lasted twenty three minutes. The investigation into her disappearance uncovered eleven bodies, Eleven people whose lives mattered, Eleven people who deserved better than to be dumped along a highway like garbage. Tomorrow, we'll talk about the man accused of putting them there, the architect who allegedly built a blueprint for murder, the father who allegedly scheduled his kills around family vacations. The husband whose wife's hair ended up on dead women's bodies. I'm read Carter, and this is celebrity trials. Lock your doors, trust your instincts, and if someone offers you triple your usual rate, maybe think twice. See you tomorrow,