June 17, 2026
Judge Sentences Gilgo Beach Serial Killer: “You’re A Disgusting, Small Man, If You’re A Man At All”
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RSS Feed A New York judge sentenced 62-year-old serial killer, Rex Heuermann to three consecutive life terms plus 100 years to life for the murders of seven women. Heuermann had to listen to dozens of victim impact statements detailing the heartbreak so many families have had to endure based on his crimes. As the judge gave the harshest ruling possible for Heuermann, we also heard from his now ex-wife and daughter who did not attend today’s sentencing, but asked that the focus be on the victims and their families.
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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Wednesday, June seventeenth, and there wasn't much drama about what sentence a serial killer was going to get when he went into court today, but that didn't stop it from being a drama filled, emotional day in court for the so called Gilgo Beach killer. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:25
Speaker 1: Ropes.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: It was always known he was going to get life in prison without the possibility of parole. We knew that, but still, what a day.
00:00:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a moment not only for the victim's families to have their moment to address the impact of serial killer sixty sixty two year old Rex Oyerman's actions on their families, on their families' lives, but it was also an opportunity for the judge to say what he'd been thinking all this time, and we heard a lot from both.
00:00:57
Speaker 4: I think that was the interesting thing.
00:00:58
Speaker 3: We were expecting to hear fireworks and raw real emotion from the victims' family members. I don't know that we were expecting to hear it as much from the judge, and I'm.
00:01:11
Speaker 2: Not sure how I feel about it. I know judge sometimes take their moments. We watch a lot of judges in a lot of courtrooms more than most, and sometimes we like their personalities and whatnot. I'm not sure this judge wanted to take an opportunity, and he did, and that's fine. I think it has taken away from I think so many headlines are about him today and what he said, and I guess that's fine. I guess that's fine, But I don't know why not wild about it?
00:01:42
Speaker 3: You preferred the headlines to be about the victims' families rather than the judge.
00:01:48
Speaker 2: So I'm taking issue with what the headline that a reporter decided to write, but the judge went. And judges have full discription. I mean, they can do what they want to do and say what they want to say.
00:01:58
Speaker 1: But he.
00:02:00
Speaker 2: Made like personal It was a judgment, not a legal judgment, but a judgment of a person and his personality and insults and things that I think were reserved for people who were genuinely hurt by this guy.
00:02:14
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, right, And it's almost as the judge took what rex Horeman did to these seven technically but eight and we'll explain women personally that he actually like because there wasn't a trial because Rex Hornman did plead guilty, and so there wasn't a public display or some public long drawn out trial that many people were expecting and maybe some people even wanted or anticipated that didn't happen because he pleaded guilty, and.
00:02:47
Speaker 4: So maybe I don't know.
00:02:50
Speaker 3: My thought was that maybe the judge took the moment to maybe even just put an exclamation point to this ending of a a horrific, decades long crime fueled serial killer, and he wanted to actually like make it matter or maybe just put something on it that would grab the attention to folks because it didn't get maybe the attention it would have gotten if it had gone to trial.
00:03:19
Speaker 4: That was my only thought.
00:03:20
Speaker 2: And again it's not a criticism of the judge. Judges do this all the time and all the times we applaud We have favorite judges we know from them, we like this and don't like that. This wasn't that kind of a situation. I just he went and we're gonna give the words here. He just went and took it a step farther than even some of the family members, people whose entire lives have been impacted by this guy, Some of the strongest words today were from the judge. Yeah, and it was a matter of this is their moment, and he wasn't trying to show anybody.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: It wasn't that at all. We can get into it.
00:03:55
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I just asked me about something, and that's just my impression of.
00:04:00
Speaker 4: He stole the show, so to speak.
00:04:01
Speaker 2: So, but I hate to even make it sound as if he was doing something wrong, and doing so is just yeah, I felt that way.
00:04:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, and it's true. Prior to handing down the sentence to Rex Hoyerman, it's judge Timothy Mazay.
00:04:15
Speaker 4: He actually asked him.
00:04:18
Speaker 3: He asked this convicted serial killer whether or not he was sorry for what he had done to his eight victims, and he asked him if he was even a little bit sorry, and Hoyerman did reply yes, which was of note. But then he went on to say, and this is probably where you're taking issue. He said, you're a disgusting small man, if you're a man at all, and you're a coward. And then he told the bailiffs he said this. It was described as shouting get him out of here, and the court erupted in cheers.
00:05:00
Speaker 2: Okay, that's fine. That's fine. The families all deserve the moment they had today. They've been waiting for a long time, decades even for it. So I can't take it away. There's nothing I can take.
00:05:13
Speaker 1: Away from it.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to imagine just going through that unbelievable amount of evidence that was against Hoyerman, but just to get into the specifics of what actually happened in what his sentencing was, he was charged with first degree murder in the killings of Melissa Barthelemy Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. They were killed all within two years of each other, and he got a sentence of life without parole for each of those three killings. So that was his three life sentences. Then he received consecutive sentences of twenty five years to life for the second degree murders of marine Bernard Barnes, Jessica Taylor and Sondra Costilla, and.
00:05:58
Speaker 4: Valerie mack brings us the seven.
00:06:01
Speaker 3: Yes, so that was the three life sentences plus one hundred years. But as a part of his plea agreement this was interesting, he had to admit to and he admitted to the nineteen ninety six killing of Karen Virgatta, and he was never actually technically charged with her murder, but as a part of the plea agreement and for her family, he admitted to her murder. And so that was an important part of this sentencing or what like.
00:06:31
Speaker 4: He had to admit to that.
00:06:33
Speaker 3: They wanted him to admit to that as a part of this plea deal, and I think that that's important. They didn't want to go through another trial. The trial had already happened, but they wanted there to be closure for that family. And I do think that means a lot to those family members, many of whom were gathered there in that courtroom today.
00:06:50
Speaker 2: Now, is this a guy that was as I've been talking any other unsolved murders, they didn't think is anything else floating around out there?
00:06:57
Speaker 3: They think he I think they were absolutely leaving the door open to him possibly having committed more murders. But this was, you know, eight murders over a period of a few decades. But he the entire time was a family man. He was an architect, He was a father, he was a husband. This was one of those serial murders that you read about or you watch a movie about, but you can't believe actually were, like actually was existing in the world up until twenty twenty three, that is when he was finally, finally actually identified as the perpetrator of these horrific murders. Yes, the murders took place between nineteen ninety three and twenty ten, but it took investigators more than a decade to solve. So there are questions what happened between twenty ten and twenty twenty three? Did he stop killing? Are there other unsolved crimes that he could be possibly connected to that remains apostability?
00:08:00
Speaker 1: The math there on his age, he's sixty one, now sixty three?
00:08:03
Speaker 3: Now he is, let me get the exact age. I believe he's sixty three.
00:08:06
Speaker 2: Go back to thirty the first murder thirty years ago. Yeah, so he's a guy, a young, vibrant, pretty healthy guy. Assume in his thirties. He's a big dude, he's a big day and so he thirty for thirty years. He just stopped after what twenty years? It doesn't make it seventeen and Okay.
00:08:24
Speaker 1: Maybe he did.
00:08:25
Speaker 2: Maybe he got tired of it, maybe his life went a different direction. Maybe and have time for this anymore? I think if they had similar murders in the region, they would immediately be trying to connect them to him.
00:08:34
Speaker 1: So maybe they do think that that was it.
00:08:36
Speaker 3: This case remains open, They remain open to investigating what other potential murders could be connected to him, because look, I think, Look, I'm not some savan when it comes to serial murderers, but I think anyone who's actually watched any sort of true crime docs or watched any sort of history of these known serial killers, they don't stop. This is something that they're addicted to. So it is hard to imagine that he just stopped after not having been caught for more than a decade for whatever random reason.
00:09:12
Speaker 1: No motives here, no motives, So just a killer.
00:09:15
Speaker 4: He strangled the women, all of them.
00:09:17
Speaker 2: All of them.
00:09:18
Speaker 3: He strangled them. He dismembered most of them before dumping their bodies. And most of these women were in the sex industry, in the sex trade, and he chose women who he believed wouldn't be.
00:09:31
Speaker 2: Missed, and the dismembering was only a matter of getting rid of the bodies, not a sadistic exercise.
00:09:40
Speaker 3: We don't know, and look like they would find a body part on one you know peer or one area of this beachfront property and then two years later find another part of the same body. I mean, it was really bizarre what he did and how he dumped their body and how they were found. But I just feel like it's important for the record to just name the victims. Twenty four year old Melissa Barthelemy, twenty two year old Megan Waterman, twenty seven year old Amber Costello, twenty five year old marine Bernard Barnes, twenty year old Jessica Taylor, twenty four year old Valerie Mack, twenty eight year old Sandra Castilla, and thirty four year old Karen Bergata. And these were women whose family members showed up, showed up in court today.
00:10:34
Speaker 1: No I give them credit.
00:10:35
Speaker 2: This is again, we cover so many trials, we cover so many executions as well, where it's in many cases at least twenty but sometimes thirty and even forty years before.
00:10:46
Speaker 1: The executions take place.
00:10:47
Speaker 2: And to see family members who are still willing and find it to be a duty to be there rogues. There were folks. This was the most chilling part of today in court. You've got people in there making victim impact statements who literally were babies. Yeah, when their parents were dying when their parents were killed by this guy. Their moms were killed, and they're in there for a woman they can't even remember. Yeah, I think that that is that's that always stands out, And I don't know why. That is always something that jumps out to me as such a It's a part of something inherent in human nature that makes us show up in that way. I'm always fascinated by people decades and decades later. That tells you that these people have in that tragedy that has been with them in their lives for all this time, and they're finally now getting the chance to speak. I always find there's a one year old kid was one when mama got strangled and in there facing the guy who strangled mama when I was one. That is that is the height of human tragedy and the beauty of the human spirit and family and love, all these things. This is always robes one of the most fascinating parts of these stories.
00:12:06
Speaker 4: You make a good point.
00:12:08
Speaker 3: A child who never got to love their mom, who never got to know their mom, gets to speak of the pain of being robbed of that opportunity.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: Showing up for mom. Ain't that crazy? What we do.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: They's showing up for Mama after all these years. That's the beauty of this story, at least I take from it.
00:12:26
Speaker 3: It's beautiful, I agree, and that just speaks to the power of love in these moments. And there were two for me that stood out. I don't know if you read about these. We haven't talked about it ahead of time. But the sister of Melissa Barthelmy Amanda, I didn't realize this, babe.
00:12:42
Speaker 4: Did you read this? She talked about phone.
00:12:45
Speaker 3: Calls that rex Horman made to her family after he killed her sister, taunting them.
00:12:51
Speaker 4: I didn't realize he did this. Not only did he kill this.
00:12:54
Speaker 3: Woman, he then made phone calls to her family taunting her, detailing how he let her sister's body rot and how he raped her. She got on the stand today and said, I was fifteen and you said those things to me, and this is the first time I'm seeing you, and she said, the things I do to you are worse than what you've ever done to anyone. Save me a spot in hell, because I'll see you there. That to me, I had not heard that before. That not only did he rape and murder these victims and dismember their bodies, but then he taunted their families afterwards.
00:13:33
Speaker 2: It adds to and again roe the motive, right, serial killers? And I don't know why I'm thinking about this now. We've done recent stories about serial killers. Do they have motives? Do they have reasons? Do they have whys?
00:13:50
Speaker 1: Right? We did something on was it Bundy? Not too long ago?
00:13:54
Speaker 2: There was a serial killer in southern California, Like I'm trying to remember, what is There always a clear motive, There's usually a type of victim they go after. They're usually kind of consistent there.
00:14:07
Speaker 3: This is a lot of times it's sexual deviancy.
00:14:09
Speaker 2: Yes, the motive, the why and to why, torment and torture that there does seem to be some part of.
00:14:18
Speaker 1: This guy that does get off.
00:14:20
Speaker 4: It's sadistic in watching people suffer. Yeah, And I.
00:14:23
Speaker 3: Think that this case, more than any I have seen in recent history, fully fully displays that sadistic element. And that is what is so scary and so disturbing about this case. When we come back, we're going to tell you what Hoyerman's own family, his now ex wife and his daughter had to say about today's sentencing and what the DA said about the family and their words that they had for this Yes, sadistic serial killer.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: And true.
00:15:05
Speaker 3: And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ where we are talking about Rex Hoyerman, a.
00:15:13
Speaker 4: Now known serial killer.
00:15:16
Speaker 3: He was referred to and is known as the Gilgo Beach serial killer. He faced his day in court today. He had his sentencing hearing where he was sentenced to three life sentences plus one hundred years for the deaths of seven plus one he admitted to, so a total of eight women he is admitted to murdering, and those victims' families had their day in court to speak directly about what his crime did to their family, and it was chilling. It was compelling. The judge had very strong language for him as well. But I thought it was fascinating to hear about Hoyerman's own ex wife, her name is Asa Ellerup. She filed for divorce after his arrest, which you could only imagine, and his daughter Victoria. They did not attend the hearing, which also is understandable, but they did speak about why, and I thought it was cool. They said that the sentencing should be centered on the victims, their families and the profound impact these crimes have had on their lives. Can you imagine being the wife, being the daughter, being related to a man who you didn't I can only imagine you didn't think was possible of committing these horrific crimes.
00:16:38
Speaker 2: There's nobody in your life you've ever met you think is capable of that, certainly not somebody you're married to. So I can't imagine what she's feeling. Where was that statement? Where does she put that out?
00:16:47
Speaker 4: She put through her attorney.
00:16:48
Speaker 1: Okay, and that was it? Right?
00:16:50
Speaker 4: Correct?
00:16:51
Speaker 1: That was it.
00:16:51
Speaker 2: That was smart, that was classy, that was done well. And you know what, that's how I think the judge. That's what I'm talking about. She had the right, she understood because if she was in the courtroom or whatever, how many cameras would have been running towards them? Correct, how many news how much news coverage you would have been focused on?
00:17:09
Speaker 1: What was reaction?
00:17:10
Speaker 4: Married to a serial killer kind of thing?
00:17:12
Speaker 2: And well done? It wasn't even a long drawn out statement. Well done. Whoever that lady is and the family was never implicated in any way or had any indication or anything like that. So the thing she was it's yes, and it's also humiliating. How could I be married to this month. It's scary and all these things, but that was that was well done.
00:17:33
Speaker 3: I agree. And she did make it about the victims. And that is your point about the judge, that he was making it maybe more about himself or his own anger that he felt reading through and these are some really horrific things to read through. He took it personally instead of maybe perhaps giving the moment to the victimsone.
00:17:53
Speaker 2: I just don't want to be too hard on me, and I don't think he was insincere and what he was saying and where it came home, and just in that moment and looking at what's going on. I didn't see that comment from the ex wife ahead of time. She something that exactly what I'm talking about.
00:18:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, she nailed it as you would put it. But yeah, and just a reminder in terms of the ex wife and this daughter. You know, he was an architect and he's a father of two. I don't know about the other child. I'm not sure. We haven't heard from from the other child. But he's living in Massa Peakwick Park, which is you know, a nice neighborhood there on Long Island. He's an architect all of a sudden, your father, your husband. He's linked to these killings through like very irrefutable DNA evidence, And there was a pizza crust that they the detectives were able to get from him that linked that he got the DNA from him, put it to these victims that they had held for all these years. It was irrefutable, and there were even harris found on the victims that were attributed to him.
00:18:53
Speaker 1: So, look, you don't plead guilty to murder.
00:18:57
Speaker 3: Yes, this was there was proof beyond reasonable doubt, and he knew it, his attorneys knew it. And I guess that was maybe the only act of kindness he showed in any of this, was that he spared the community the expense and the emotion of having to have a long drawn out trial when the evidence was overwhelming that he was in fact the serial murder that this evidence pointed to.
00:19:25
Speaker 4: So, look, he is going to prison. He's in prison.
00:19:31
Speaker 3: Excuse me, but he's going to remain in prison for the rest of his life. And he is and he has we talked about this in an early episode, has committed to this research project that is that's ongoing. Yeah, he is going to submit himself to interviews FBI profils always looking to try and understand what makes creates sustains these types of monsters among us that we we may not even see. Who can have secret lives, live double lives, people like Ted Bundy, and yes, people like Rex Hoyman. And so he is going to submit to these questions and be a part of this study where FBI profilers learn more about people like this in the hopes of preventing or.
00:20:19
Speaker 4: At least stopping monsters before they continue to kill.
00:20:22
Speaker 1: Are they born? Are they created? Robes?
00:20:25
Speaker 2: Is he responsible for an illness that he has? Is he making conscious decisions? This is all fascinating stuff. We always are quick. He killed eight women. At least he's a monster and he should be dismissed and thrown away and all this stuff. Or I would love to hear from an FBI researcher about what they learn and to explain, because I do Robes.
00:20:47
Speaker 1: I just don't think this is natural.
00:20:51
Speaker 4: It can't.
00:20:51
Speaker 2: Just there's an illness, a sickness, something went wrong, And am I completely wrong? Maybe that some people just make decisions to be these people. That's hard to understand, hard to get your head around. It is baby, and I guess I'm miss I'm gotten a little. We we covered too many, too many of these things to where it's just it seems so dark and so heavy, and just you're trying to understand just how this is possible. And I always say, Robes when I tell you this, I tell the girls this, When you confront somebody in public, don't you don't know what kind of crazy you are encountering.
00:21:30
Speaker 4: You know, she married crazy and had no idea and and you.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: Don't You just don't know.
00:21:37
Speaker 2: Are you who this person's wants to snap at today or the person next to you? Just this stuff is terrifying, and we need to understand and pay attention to it and not just be so dismissive Robes as just their criminals. That this dude was a well educated and functioning member of society.
00:21:55
Speaker 3: He was he was an architect, he was a father of two, and he was a husband. And now he is going to prison for the rest of his life. And hopefully FBI profilers will study him enough to learn something that they can share with the rest of us.
00:22:12
Speaker 4: But until then, we always appreciate you listening to us. Everyone. I'm maybe roboch alongside TJ. Holmes, we will talk to you soon.
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks.
00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Wednesday, June seventeenth, and there wasn't much drama about what sentence a serial killer was going to get when he went into court today, but that didn't stop it from being a drama filled, emotional day in court for the so called Gilgo Beach killer. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ.
00:00:25
Speaker 1: Ropes.
00:00:25
Speaker 2: It was always known he was going to get life in prison without the possibility of parole. We knew that, but still, what a day.
00:00:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is a moment not only for the victim's families to have their moment to address the impact of serial killer sixty sixty two year old Rex Oyerman's actions on their families, on their families' lives, but it was also an opportunity for the judge to say what he'd been thinking all this time, and we heard a lot from both.
00:00:57
Speaker 4: I think that was the interesting thing.
00:00:58
Speaker 3: We were expecting to hear fireworks and raw real emotion from the victims' family members. I don't know that we were expecting to hear it as much from the judge, and I'm.
00:01:11
Speaker 2: Not sure how I feel about it. I know judge sometimes take their moments. We watch a lot of judges in a lot of courtrooms more than most, and sometimes we like their personalities and whatnot. I'm not sure this judge wanted to take an opportunity, and he did, and that's fine. I think it has taken away from I think so many headlines are about him today and what he said, and I guess that's fine. I guess that's fine, But I don't know why not wild about it?
00:01:42
Speaker 3: You preferred the headlines to be about the victims' families rather than the judge.
00:01:48
Speaker 2: So I'm taking issue with what the headline that a reporter decided to write, but the judge went. And judges have full discription. I mean, they can do what they want to do and say what they want to say.
00:01:58
Speaker 1: But he.
00:02:00
Speaker 2: Made like personal It was a judgment, not a legal judgment, but a judgment of a person and his personality and insults and things that I think were reserved for people who were genuinely hurt by this guy.
00:02:14
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, right, And it's almost as the judge took what rex Horeman did to these seven technically but eight and we'll explain women personally that he actually like because there wasn't a trial because Rex Hornman did plead guilty, and so there wasn't a public display or some public long drawn out trial that many people were expecting and maybe some people even wanted or anticipated that didn't happen because he pleaded guilty, and.
00:02:47
Speaker 4: So maybe I don't know.
00:02:50
Speaker 3: My thought was that maybe the judge took the moment to maybe even just put an exclamation point to this ending of a a horrific, decades long crime fueled serial killer, and he wanted to actually like make it matter or maybe just put something on it that would grab the attention to folks because it didn't get maybe the attention it would have gotten if it had gone to trial.
00:03:19
Speaker 4: That was my only thought.
00:03:20
Speaker 2: And again it's not a criticism of the judge. Judges do this all the time and all the times we applaud We have favorite judges we know from them, we like this and don't like that. This wasn't that kind of a situation. I just he went and we're gonna give the words here. He just went and took it a step farther than even some of the family members, people whose entire lives have been impacted by this guy, Some of the strongest words today were from the judge. Yeah, and it was a matter of this is their moment, and he wasn't trying to show anybody.
00:03:53
Speaker 1: It wasn't that at all. We can get into it.
00:03:55
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I just asked me about something, and that's just my impression of.
00:04:00
Speaker 4: He stole the show, so to speak.
00:04:01
Speaker 2: So, but I hate to even make it sound as if he was doing something wrong, and doing so is just yeah, I felt that way.
00:04:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, and it's true. Prior to handing down the sentence to Rex Hoyerman, it's judge Timothy Mazay.
00:04:15
Speaker 4: He actually asked him.
00:04:18
Speaker 3: He asked this convicted serial killer whether or not he was sorry for what he had done to his eight victims, and he asked him if he was even a little bit sorry, and Hoyerman did reply yes, which was of note. But then he went on to say, and this is probably where you're taking issue. He said, you're a disgusting small man, if you're a man at all, and you're a coward. And then he told the bailiffs he said this. It was described as shouting get him out of here, and the court erupted in cheers.
00:05:00
Speaker 2: Okay, that's fine. That's fine. The families all deserve the moment they had today. They've been waiting for a long time, decades even for it. So I can't take it away. There's nothing I can take.
00:05:13
Speaker 1: Away from it.
00:05:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to imagine just going through that unbelievable amount of evidence that was against Hoyerman, but just to get into the specifics of what actually happened in what his sentencing was, he was charged with first degree murder in the killings of Melissa Barthelemy Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. They were killed all within two years of each other, and he got a sentence of life without parole for each of those three killings. So that was his three life sentences. Then he received consecutive sentences of twenty five years to life for the second degree murders of marine Bernard Barnes, Jessica Taylor and Sondra Costilla, and.
00:05:58
Speaker 4: Valerie mack brings us the seven.
00:06:01
Speaker 3: Yes, so that was the three life sentences plus one hundred years. But as a part of his plea agreement this was interesting, he had to admit to and he admitted to the nineteen ninety six killing of Karen Virgatta, and he was never actually technically charged with her murder, but as a part of the plea agreement and for her family, he admitted to her murder. And so that was an important part of this sentencing or what like.
00:06:31
Speaker 4: He had to admit to that.
00:06:33
Speaker 3: They wanted him to admit to that as a part of this plea deal, and I think that that's important. They didn't want to go through another trial. The trial had already happened, but they wanted there to be closure for that family. And I do think that means a lot to those family members, many of whom were gathered there in that courtroom today.
00:06:50
Speaker 2: Now, is this a guy that was as I've been talking any other unsolved murders, they didn't think is anything else floating around out there?
00:06:57
Speaker 3: They think he I think they were absolutely leaving the door open to him possibly having committed more murders. But this was, you know, eight murders over a period of a few decades. But he the entire time was a family man. He was an architect, He was a father, he was a husband. This was one of those serial murders that you read about or you watch a movie about, but you can't believe actually were, like actually was existing in the world up until twenty twenty three, that is when he was finally, finally actually identified as the perpetrator of these horrific murders. Yes, the murders took place between nineteen ninety three and twenty ten, but it took investigators more than a decade to solve. So there are questions what happened between twenty ten and twenty twenty three? Did he stop killing? Are there other unsolved crimes that he could be possibly connected to that remains apostability?
00:08:00
Speaker 1: The math there on his age, he's sixty one, now sixty three?
00:08:03
Speaker 3: Now he is, let me get the exact age. I believe he's sixty three.
00:08:06
Speaker 2: Go back to thirty the first murder thirty years ago. Yeah, so he's a guy, a young, vibrant, pretty healthy guy. Assume in his thirties. He's a big dude, he's a big day and so he thirty for thirty years. He just stopped after what twenty years? It doesn't make it seventeen and Okay.
00:08:24
Speaker 1: Maybe he did.
00:08:25
Speaker 2: Maybe he got tired of it, maybe his life went a different direction. Maybe and have time for this anymore? I think if they had similar murders in the region, they would immediately be trying to connect them to him.
00:08:34
Speaker 1: So maybe they do think that that was it.
00:08:36
Speaker 3: This case remains open, They remain open to investigating what other potential murders could be connected to him, because look, I think, Look, I'm not some savan when it comes to serial murderers, but I think anyone who's actually watched any sort of true crime docs or watched any sort of history of these known serial killers, they don't stop. This is something that they're addicted to. So it is hard to imagine that he just stopped after not having been caught for more than a decade for whatever random reason.
00:09:12
Speaker 1: No motives here, no motives, So just a killer.
00:09:15
Speaker 4: He strangled the women, all of them.
00:09:17
Speaker 2: All of them.
00:09:18
Speaker 3: He strangled them. He dismembered most of them before dumping their bodies. And most of these women were in the sex industry, in the sex trade, and he chose women who he believed wouldn't be.
00:09:31
Speaker 2: Missed, and the dismembering was only a matter of getting rid of the bodies, not a sadistic exercise.
00:09:40
Speaker 3: We don't know, and look like they would find a body part on one you know peer or one area of this beachfront property and then two years later find another part of the same body. I mean, it was really bizarre what he did and how he dumped their body and how they were found. But I just feel like it's important for the record to just name the victims. Twenty four year old Melissa Barthelemy, twenty two year old Megan Waterman, twenty seven year old Amber Costello, twenty five year old marine Bernard Barnes, twenty year old Jessica Taylor, twenty four year old Valerie Mack, twenty eight year old Sandra Castilla, and thirty four year old Karen Bergata. And these were women whose family members showed up, showed up in court today.
00:10:34
Speaker 1: No I give them credit.
00:10:35
Speaker 2: This is again, we cover so many trials, we cover so many executions as well, where it's in many cases at least twenty but sometimes thirty and even forty years before.
00:10:46
Speaker 1: The executions take place.
00:10:47
Speaker 2: And to see family members who are still willing and find it to be a duty to be there rogues. There were folks. This was the most chilling part of today in court. You've got people in there making victim impact statements who literally were babies. Yeah, when their parents were dying when their parents were killed by this guy. Their moms were killed, and they're in there for a woman they can't even remember. Yeah, I think that that is that's that always stands out, And I don't know why. That is always something that jumps out to me as such a It's a part of something inherent in human nature that makes us show up in that way. I'm always fascinated by people decades and decades later. That tells you that these people have in that tragedy that has been with them in their lives for all this time, and they're finally now getting the chance to speak. I always find there's a one year old kid was one when mama got strangled and in there facing the guy who strangled mama when I was one. That is that is the height of human tragedy and the beauty of the human spirit and family and love, all these things. This is always robes one of the most fascinating parts of these stories.
00:12:06
Speaker 4: You make a good point.
00:12:08
Speaker 3: A child who never got to love their mom, who never got to know their mom, gets to speak of the pain of being robbed of that opportunity.
00:12:17
Speaker 1: Showing up for mom. Ain't that crazy? What we do.
00:12:20
Speaker 2: They's showing up for Mama after all these years. That's the beauty of this story, at least I take from it.
00:12:26
Speaker 3: It's beautiful, I agree, and that just speaks to the power of love in these moments. And there were two for me that stood out. I don't know if you read about these. We haven't talked about it ahead of time. But the sister of Melissa Barthelmy Amanda, I didn't realize this, babe.
00:12:42
Speaker 4: Did you read this? She talked about phone.
00:12:45
Speaker 3: Calls that rex Horman made to her family after he killed her sister, taunting them.
00:12:51
Speaker 4: I didn't realize he did this. Not only did he kill this.
00:12:54
Speaker 3: Woman, he then made phone calls to her family taunting her, detailing how he let her sister's body rot and how he raped her. She got on the stand today and said, I was fifteen and you said those things to me, and this is the first time I'm seeing you, and she said, the things I do to you are worse than what you've ever done to anyone. Save me a spot in hell, because I'll see you there. That to me, I had not heard that before. That not only did he rape and murder these victims and dismember their bodies, but then he taunted their families afterwards.
00:13:33
Speaker 2: It adds to and again roe the motive, right, serial killers? And I don't know why I'm thinking about this now. We've done recent stories about serial killers. Do they have motives? Do they have reasons? Do they have whys?
00:13:50
Speaker 1: Right? We did something on was it Bundy? Not too long ago?
00:13:54
Speaker 2: There was a serial killer in southern California, Like I'm trying to remember, what is There always a clear motive, There's usually a type of victim they go after. They're usually kind of consistent there.
00:14:07
Speaker 3: This is a lot of times it's sexual deviancy.
00:14:09
Speaker 2: Yes, the motive, the why and to why, torment and torture that there does seem to be some part of.
00:14:18
Speaker 1: This guy that does get off.
00:14:20
Speaker 4: It's sadistic in watching people suffer. Yeah, And I.
00:14:23
Speaker 3: Think that this case, more than any I have seen in recent history, fully fully displays that sadistic element. And that is what is so scary and so disturbing about this case. When we come back, we're going to tell you what Hoyerman's own family, his now ex wife and his daughter had to say about today's sentencing and what the DA said about the family and their words that they had for this Yes, sadistic serial killer.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: And true.
00:15:05
Speaker 3: And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ where we are talking about Rex Hoyerman, a.
00:15:13
Speaker 4: Now known serial killer.
00:15:16
Speaker 3: He was referred to and is known as the Gilgo Beach serial killer. He faced his day in court today. He had his sentencing hearing where he was sentenced to three life sentences plus one hundred years for the deaths of seven plus one he admitted to, so a total of eight women he is admitted to murdering, and those victims' families had their day in court to speak directly about what his crime did to their family, and it was chilling. It was compelling. The judge had very strong language for him as well. But I thought it was fascinating to hear about Hoyerman's own ex wife, her name is Asa Ellerup. She filed for divorce after his arrest, which you could only imagine, and his daughter Victoria. They did not attend the hearing, which also is understandable, but they did speak about why, and I thought it was cool. They said that the sentencing should be centered on the victims, their families and the profound impact these crimes have had on their lives. Can you imagine being the wife, being the daughter, being related to a man who you didn't I can only imagine you didn't think was possible of committing these horrific crimes.
00:16:38
Speaker 2: There's nobody in your life you've ever met you think is capable of that, certainly not somebody you're married to. So I can't imagine what she's feeling. Where was that statement? Where does she put that out?
00:16:47
Speaker 4: She put through her attorney.
00:16:48
Speaker 1: Okay, and that was it? Right?
00:16:50
Speaker 4: Correct?
00:16:51
Speaker 1: That was it.
00:16:51
Speaker 2: That was smart, that was classy, that was done well. And you know what, that's how I think the judge. That's what I'm talking about. She had the right, she understood because if she was in the courtroom or whatever, how many cameras would have been running towards them? Correct, how many news how much news coverage you would have been focused on?
00:17:09
Speaker 1: What was reaction?
00:17:10
Speaker 4: Married to a serial killer kind of thing?
00:17:12
Speaker 2: And well done? It wasn't even a long drawn out statement. Well done. Whoever that lady is and the family was never implicated in any way or had any indication or anything like that. So the thing she was it's yes, and it's also humiliating. How could I be married to this month. It's scary and all these things, but that was that was well done.
00:17:33
Speaker 3: I agree. And she did make it about the victims. And that is your point about the judge, that he was making it maybe more about himself or his own anger that he felt reading through and these are some really horrific things to read through. He took it personally instead of maybe perhaps giving the moment to the victimsone.
00:17:53
Speaker 2: I just don't want to be too hard on me, and I don't think he was insincere and what he was saying and where it came home, and just in that moment and looking at what's going on. I didn't see that comment from the ex wife ahead of time. She something that exactly what I'm talking about.
00:18:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, she nailed it as you would put it. But yeah, and just a reminder in terms of the ex wife and this daughter. You know, he was an architect and he's a father of two. I don't know about the other child. I'm not sure. We haven't heard from from the other child. But he's living in Massa Peakwick Park, which is you know, a nice neighborhood there on Long Island. He's an architect all of a sudden, your father, your husband. He's linked to these killings through like very irrefutable DNA evidence, And there was a pizza crust that they the detectives were able to get from him that linked that he got the DNA from him, put it to these victims that they had held for all these years. It was irrefutable, and there were even harris found on the victims that were attributed to him.
00:18:53
Speaker 1: So, look, you don't plead guilty to murder.
00:18:57
Speaker 3: Yes, this was there was proof beyond reasonable doubt, and he knew it, his attorneys knew it. And I guess that was maybe the only act of kindness he showed in any of this, was that he spared the community the expense and the emotion of having to have a long drawn out trial when the evidence was overwhelming that he was in fact the serial murder that this evidence pointed to.
00:19:25
Speaker 4: So, look, he is going to prison. He's in prison.
00:19:31
Speaker 3: Excuse me, but he's going to remain in prison for the rest of his life. And he is and he has we talked about this in an early episode, has committed to this research project that is that's ongoing. Yeah, he is going to submit himself to interviews FBI profils always looking to try and understand what makes creates sustains these types of monsters among us that we we may not even see. Who can have secret lives, live double lives, people like Ted Bundy, and yes, people like Rex Hoyman. And so he is going to submit to these questions and be a part of this study where FBI profilers learn more about people like this in the hopes of preventing or.
00:20:19
Speaker 4: At least stopping monsters before they continue to kill.
00:20:22
Speaker 1: Are they born? Are they created? Robes?
00:20:25
Speaker 2: Is he responsible for an illness that he has? Is he making conscious decisions? This is all fascinating stuff. We always are quick. He killed eight women. At least he's a monster and he should be dismissed and thrown away and all this stuff. Or I would love to hear from an FBI researcher about what they learn and to explain, because I do Robes.
00:20:47
Speaker 1: I just don't think this is natural.
00:20:51
Speaker 4: It can't.
00:20:51
Speaker 2: Just there's an illness, a sickness, something went wrong, And am I completely wrong? Maybe that some people just make decisions to be these people. That's hard to understand, hard to get your head around. It is baby, and I guess I'm miss I'm gotten a little. We we covered too many, too many of these things to where it's just it seems so dark and so heavy, and just you're trying to understand just how this is possible. And I always say, Robes when I tell you this, I tell the girls this, When you confront somebody in public, don't you don't know what kind of crazy you are encountering.
00:21:30
Speaker 4: You know, she married crazy and had no idea and and you.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: Don't You just don't know.
00:21:37
Speaker 2: Are you who this person's wants to snap at today or the person next to you? Just this stuff is terrifying, and we need to understand and pay attention to it and not just be so dismissive Robes as just their criminals. That this dude was a well educated and functioning member of society.
00:21:55
Speaker 3: He was he was an architect, he was a father of two, and he was a husband. And now he is going to prison for the rest of his life. And hopefully FBI profilers will study him enough to learn something that they can share with the rest of us.
00:22:12
Speaker 4: But until then, we always appreciate you listening to us. Everyone. I'm maybe roboch alongside TJ. Holmes, we will talk to you soon.