[MUSIC]
A million years isn't enough because you won't suffer for that long.
“You will spend the rest of your forever in prison, and it doesn't feel satisfying.”
Nothing will ever make this right, this kind of grief stays. [MUSIC] It was an incredibly emotional day and court for the families of the victims of the Long Island Serial Killer Rex Huerman, who had pleaded guilty to the murders of seven women spanning from 1993 to 2011.
My mother was not a headline, a statistic or a label. You thought you took her boys, but you didn't know that she had people who loved her. You hunted her, and I wanted to give his actions changed of course of my life forever. They devastated my family, but they also shattered the lives of his own family. Who now must live with the knowledge that they shared, they won't with a serial killer.
We have reached the final chapter of this high profile case that has cast the shadow over the shores of Gilgo Beach on Long Island and over so many families for years.
“I'm 48 hours correspondent, Aaron Moriardy, and this is Case By Case.”
On Wednesday, June 17, 2026, Huerman was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for three counts of first-degree murder, and then 25 years to life for each of the four counts of second-degree murder, all to run consecutively for the murders of Melissa Barthelomy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Moriardy, and Breiner Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Valerie Mack.
Recumant Spoken Court didn't say a lot and he showed very little emotion. "There are no words like you say, I'm responsible for what's said in this room today. The words I would say have no meaning, and I'm going to be with you now at this time." Huerman is also admitted to killing an eighth woman, Karen Fogada, however, is part of the plea deal.
He was not actually charged with Fogada's murder.
Rect Huerman, though, will never hurt another woman.
“I've been reporting on this case since 2011.”
Over the years we've interviewed the family members and friends of the murder victims. I've come to know many of them personally, and from the beginning, our goal was to make sure that these women weren't seen simply as escort as they were often portrayed in the media, but as mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends, people whose lives mattered and whose loved ones never stopped searching for answers.
Joining me today to discuss a dramatic sentencing is CBS News Legal Analyst, a criminal defense attorney, Caroline Polisi, who has been following this case since Huerman was arrested in 2023. Thanks for joining us, Caroline. Thanks for having me, Erin.
I've been watching your coverage of this case for many years now, and it's a real honor to be here today. I mean, you could feel that emotion in the courtroom. I found it so interesting. I mean, you could literally hear the judge's voice quivering as he delivered this qualically,
which was escalating to the end. He was yelling. He even wiped away tears at one point.
I mean, I've never seen a judge really get so worked up at sentencing.
I mean, in fact, the only person who didn't show emotion was a person who showed up. The one who brought everybody together, Rex, Huerman, let's start about, let's just start where this whole case started. And it's interesting. It began as a search for a missing woman, 23-year-old Shannon Gilbert.
I want to be clear, Shannon was not one of the murder victims. Shannon had been working as an escort and had been at a client house on Long Island, when she called police in a panic and then she suddenly vanished. "Hey, police. Yeah, that's all we have for me."
Police did an exotic search for Shannon, and while searching in an area near Gilgo Beach, police found, Huerman remains a four-other woman who became known as the Gilgo Four. Marine-brainer Barnes, Amber Costello, Megan Waterman, and Melissa Barthelomy. Shannon's remains were eventually found about a year and a half after her disappearance. The police believe her death was not a murder and not connected to the other victims that Shannon
had instead died from an accidental drowning. But given that police described the Gilgo Four as all petite in their 20s and working
As online escorts, investigators believed that they were dealing with the ser...
who soon became known as the Long Island serial killer.
“They got a description of him and the car he drove from a roommate of Amber Costello.”
The roommate had told police about the client she'd left with the night she disappeared,
describing him as looking like a quote, "Oger," and having a first-generation Chevrolet
avalanche. You know, it's funny. I met David Chowler, and he did use that term "Oger." Investigators didn't have much else to go on, though. I mean, that could fit any large man, and the investigation solved for over 10 years.
That lack of movement was so tough on the families of the four women. I talked to Missy Kan, Marie and Brainard Barnes sister frequently over the years. She tried so hard to keep a spotlight on the case, but it finally took a new Suffolk County police commissioner by the name of Rodney Harrison, who happened to be a retired high-ranking New York City police detective to make real progress.
He set up a task force in 2022 devoted to cracking the case and it worked. Yeah, and Kudos to them, and that task force. It was so gut-wrenching for those families when this case had turned cold for so many years. But they turned it around, and really once that task force was formed, they figured out pretty quickly.
It turns out that in the original case files, there were a number of critical clues that
this New Task Force was finally able to connect like the pieces of a puzzle. It was all really there. Like that information, we just talked about from the roommate of Amber Castello, who told police about this big, ogre-like man who drove a Chevy Abelanch, police back then also knew that a client used a burner phone to contact Amber Castello on the night she disappeared,
also that Marine Melissa and Megan had also been in contact with burner numbers right before they disappeared. So in 2012, with the help of the FBI, the task force determined that most of those calls were connected to cell towers inside a small area of Massapique with Park Long Island, they called it the box.
Yeah, we had known that for a long time that it was, they believed it was someone who lived on Long Island, they didn't know Massapique with Park right away, and someone who worked downtown. We always knew that. So the task force knew now that they were looking for a large, built man who also lived
in that small area of the box and owned a Chevy Abelanch and he owned it at the time of the disappearances. In March 2022, they had what we call that aha moment, a female state trooper linked a man by the name of Rex, your men who lived in Massapique, but Park, to a first generation Chevrolet Abelanch pick up truck that was registered to him at the time of the murders.
So after years, and we are talking years of uncertainty, suddenly six weeks sounds so fast to identify a suspect.
“I have to be honest, I remember hearing the news, Rex, you were men, I mean, that name wasn't”
even on the radar. Same, I mean, I was shocked. I was really initially just stunned by the profile of this guy, I mean, essentially he's the monster living among us, right? He went undetected for years. They finally were able to put all of those pieces together. Investigators say Huerman's personal cell phone records
show that his phone was in the same area as those burner phones when they were used to contact victims. They also say that when the burner phones contacted victims, they were often in Massapique or Park, where Huerman lived, or Midtown Manhattan, where his architectural firm was located. There's also DNA evidence, a police-tailed Huerman, and recovered his DNA from a discarded pizza crust in Midtown Manhattan, which was consistent with the DNA profile found on a male hair discovered with
Meghan Waterman's body. And from a legal perspective, when you think about investigative techniques, you know, a discarded pizza crust is fair game for law enforcement to use to test for DNA. Remember, Huerman
had never been arrested before, so obviously none of his forensic information was in any
database like Codes, which is the centralized system that combines local state and national crime labs information. So they had to get a new sample for this guy.
“And that's what made it so difficult to track him down for so long was usually a killer”
as connected to a victim, and he was picking strangers. So this DNA became so crucial. Huerman was arrested in 2023, and he was charged with multiple counts of murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelomy, Meghan Waterman, and Amber Costello. He pleaded not guilty.
Then in 2024, he was also charged with more murders, more marine brainer barn...
Costello, Jessica Taylor, and Valerie Mack, and again, also pleaded not guilty.
“So let's talk a little bit, Caroline. What the investigators learned about this man after”
his arrest. Well, that's right, Aaron. I mean, it's just so chilling. This is where we start to get this picture of a serial killer essentially hidden in plain sight. By all accounts, he was this family man who led a normal sort of boring suburban existence. He commuted to the city every day to do his job and provide for his family. He ran an architectural consulting
firm in Midtown Manhattan. He has a steps on and a daughter with his now ex-wife, Aisa Ella up, who was born in Iceland. And she would take the children to see her family there in the summers. And it was during those trips and some others that police believe that he or her men killed the women. Fewer men's wife filed for divorce shortly after the arrest. Her attorney said she was
a stunned as anyone, any a vase by the accusations. And I know there were real questions by the public. How could she not know? But I have seen this happen over and over again when wives of serial killers didn't know. But others would see personality traits that seem odd or stood out. And that was true with your men as well, including some of your men's neighbors, right? Yeah, here are men's neighbors. Obviously, we're shocked when
police made the arrest at the house. One neighbor described him as very quiet, dark, keeping
“to himself extremely intelligent, very smart. I remember reading a New York Times article”
that reported that he used to swing an axe in his front yard while he was blaring at neighbors. And that parents told their children not to go to his house on Halloween. I think we all have that one weird neighbor. You know, that we all tell our kids not to go on Halloween. But none of us obviously expect them to be a serial killer. I also remember the neighbors being shocked by how many firearms that he owned and more found in his house
because he was a hunter. He had an arsenal. Yes, he did. This case was expected to go to trial in September of 2026 with prosecutors planned to call more than 100 witnesses. That would have been a very long trial. But then in April of 2026, almost three years after Hugh Norman's arrest, he suddenly changed his plea. He pleaded guilty to killing seven women between 1993 and 2011 and admitted to killing an affective and caring for God. So can you tell me, can
you give me an idea of how unusual this is from a legal perspective? Why do you think he decides to take a plea? Yeah, I mean, to tell you the truth, I wasn't totally surprised.
I think the timing was more surprising than the guilty plea itself. Well, we'll never know
for sure why he did it. But in the evidence, in a case it is just so strong like this one. And, you know, when you lose constantly those pretrial motions like Hugherman did in this case, of course, the logical thing to do would be to plead guilty. And the prosecution really saved so many resources when you got a guilty plea. Also, he gives up his right to appeal. So saving you so much time and money and really the angst for those victims
families. And so that gives you a sense of sort of the benefit that both sides get here. The defense really essentially saves him from having to sit through all the glory details of what he actually did. And he may have wanted to spare his own family from hearing
“that. Well, that's what Michael Brown, who are men's defense attorney told me that he”
did want to spare his family. But he also told me saying that I found so interesting that as part of the plea agreement, you were meant to agree to cooperate with the FBI behavioral unit. It's the department that analyzes offenders motivations. It also is the department that creates profiles and it assists in solving cases. So are you at all surprised that this would actually be part of a plea agreement? Have you run into that? I am so surprised.
I've never, ever come across this. I find this to be one of the most fascinating aspects
of this plea agreement. I've never seen it before. And honestly, you know, I do believe that this sort of excites you are men and makes him feel important. We know other serial killers often love that attention because their narcissists and this likely feeds into that feeling of importance for human. Nonetheless, it is obviously so rare to be able to get inside the mind
Of someone like human that there may be some benefit to law enforcement in te...
psychological profile is of this specific kind of serial killer. In court documents, prosecutors
released an image of what they called a blueprint that human allegedly used to, I mean, it's detailed
“to plan out his kills with these excruciating details. What all do we know about that blueprint?”
And how unusual is that really to keep track of all these things for a killer? Yeah, well, and he would have to given how many victims there were over the course of how many years. I mean, 17 years we're talking about. The details are, as you would expect, just absolutely chilling. The document has four columns labeled "problems, supplies, DS and TRG," which police
believes to for dump site and targets. Among the problems that he listed down there, DNA,
tire marks, blood stains, and more. I mean, it's just chilling. Well, also he was really keeping track of the investigation itself. I mean, I did not initially believe that so many bodies would be connected with the Long Island serial killer. But he is really proof of how some of what changed his MO because he did over the years. Yeah, he really, it really seemed like he was essentially honing his craft as it were. And these meticulous notes that he
would have when his family were away on vacation. I mean, he had to plan it out day by day, minute by minute in order to stay undetected and under the radar for that period. And there were also some interesting reports of how fewer men has spent the last three years in jail, specifically what he reads, who he's been talking to, that also gave a sense of his character in mindset. Yeah, absolutely. Several county sheriff, Errol Tulin, told the Associated Press that
Heurman has been really voracious reader in jail with a preference for violent crime and mystery novels, some involving serial killers. Tulin also said that Keith Hunter, just person, the infamous happy face killer, who's currently serving multiple life sentences in Oregon, reached out to Heurman by letter. Heurman did write back, but he hasn't responded to several follow-up
“letters from just person. Sorry, I think it's very creepy that this case is brought out”
response from other serial killers. So it gives you a sort of a look inside the mind of, you know, some of these guys want to feel important and this is how they do it. Right, but on this sentencing hearing, this was not about the killer now. This now was something that was specifically for the families of the victim, sign they had been waiting for for years. And in the case of one family since 1993, on June 17, 2021, a sex-recurement showed up in court. He sat at the defense table
without much reaction. There were times I thought he looked red, but he didn't seem to be reacting. He remained still with one hand over the other. Yeah, you know, noticeably his ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, was not at the sentencing hearing. Her attorney did release a statement on her behalf, that red quote, "Miss Ellerup believes this day should be centered on the victims, their families, and the profound impact these crimes have had on their lives." At a respect for those who have
endured unimaginable loss and suffering, she does not wish her presence to distract from the purpose of these proceedings. Her thoughts remain with the victims and their loved ones as they
“continue their pursuit of justice, healing, and closure. In hindsight, I think it was wise that she”
did not go to this hearing. During this sentence, same we heard from several of the victim's families and friends. These families have been through a terrible time. They are angry. They want answers. And they were allowed to address and directly, which actually surprised me. Do you believe that they were limited in what they could actually say to him? Well, look, this was really meant to be a catharsis for those families letting out all that anger. And yeah, they were basically allowed to
say anything that they wanted, obviously, within these usual boundaries of courtroom decorum. So generally, no swear words, no yelling, etc. Every judge has different rules about what they
allow, but they were very powerful in those statements and just very gut-wrenching.
I thought it was kind of odd that they were facing the judge, and he was to t...
had to keep looking over. So I thought it was pretty typical. That's pretty typical. But if you listen to the statements, they are directed at Hewerman. I thought, you know, while he was emotionless, you could see sort of something on his face that wasn't, you know, he wasn't it wasn't penetrating. He wasn't feeling the emotion that was on display by the victim's families. Well, could be also because he was like looking down most of the time. We first heard from Valerie
Max family. She disappeared in 2000, and this is what her adopted mother, Joanne Max, said to the court. Even though just this is done, it cannot be placed what you have taken from us. Or can it give out beloved Valerie back her life here on her? I do however, what you don't understand, that even though you were able to code it these horrendous atrocities against our daughter. And
no matter what sense of power or control you felt over Valerie's body, you were never able
to touch her soul. We then heard from Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of Jessica Taylor, who was
“killed in 2003, and she was the one that was just so emotional. I think it really was because they”
were marking Jessica Taylor's 43rd birthday. I can't even put in the words that this already looking at half of you. My heart broke even more that there were more victims sick, twisted, heartless. There are enough words for these murders. Missy can is the sister of more re-brainer Barnes, and I have spoken to her actually many times before. She always carried so much guilt. The last time she talked to her sister, her sister had called her from Penn Station right
before she disappeared, asking for right home, but Missy was living in Connecticut. It was late at night. So this is what Missy said at the hearing, and this just broke my heart. When Brex chose to take more of that, he didn't just take her from us. He took my sense of safety. He took my piece of mind. He took the way I used to move through the world without fear. In many ways, I became on a mistake. I'm scared.
Well, I do have a, I could say that just what I had forgotten until I heard her speak is that they also had a brother will, and I mean, it's just vanished, and then he died. So Missy lost two siblings, and then had all of this guilt. Yeah, it's, it's, it's absolutely gut-wrenching. Also in attendance there was Marie and Sun,
Dylan Haggett, who was just one year old at the time of her murder. He spoke about how he never
had her when he needed her, and she never got to see who he had become. And there was Nicolette, brainard Barnes, Marie and Stauder. She spoke really lovingly about her mother, but then really turned her anger on human.
“You are a pathetic man who makes her better than women. You need to believe that sex workers”
are some human because you're a coward who takes out your own shortcomings on others. I feel bad for you because you're capacity for hate means that you can't possibly others in love. The purity of it, the kind of love I've had and still have for my mother. Seeing your lost appearance and the way you've smirked as you finally confessed to what you did to my mother proves that you need to be locked away from the safety of the community.
There are no words, extremely enough to communicate the lack of the level of depriving you. You make me sick and I don't forgive you.
Well, I think it's the toughest for the kids. The kids of these women they never really got to know
their parents. Megan Waterman's daughter, Liliana. I know her is Lily Waterman. So grown up now, started her statement and she was so caught up in emotion and she was sniffling as she was trying to speak and I hadn't even thought about this. She was noting that she is now the same age as her mother was when she was pregnant with her and Liliana expressed how difficult it had been living out this tragedy so publicly. For years, my mother's murder has been discussed
in articles, television, specials, podcasts and cross social media. There are weeks when I cannot burn myself to open any social apps because I'm constantly confronted with reminders
“of the worst thing that's ever happened to me. I am grateful that people want to stay”
her name and see justice for her, but there is a difference between remember and who she was
Often also the tragedy that she spent through.
Overstreet that was the sister of Amber Lynn Costello that was read aloud in court. In it,
“she spoke of finding religion and direction in the wake of her sister's murder and she actually”
credited her sister's death as leading to a crack in the case. For Karen Vergada, another victim, her two sons were president court for support, but they chose not to speak. A statement was read from Sandra Castilla's sister, Ruth Ramos. She spoke of Sandra as a mother. I was actually a little surprise to see Amanda Fundabird there. She was the little sister Melissa Bartholomep and when she was 15 years old, right after her sister disappeared in 2009, she gets a call and it looks like
it's from her sister's phone, but when she answered, it wasn't Melissa at all. It was a man,
it was her killer. We now know that was Rex Hureman, which means that he has such an evil sadistic streak because he threatened to do to Amanda what he had done to Melissa. What was interesting was, as Amanda is talking, as we've mentioned, Caroline all the way through this, you know, he's looking down and she's looking over him and you could tell it was really upsetting her. And so she tells him, you know, stop looking down, look at me.
Yeah, I mean, talk about taking the bull by the horns. I mean, this is her one shot,
her one chance to finally get that closure and she was not going to throw it away.
Amanda also specifically reference, Fureman's call during that sentence, in hearing, and that said something that I don't know about you, Caroline, but it really took me back and showed how angry she really is. You murdered my sister, the things that you do are far worse than anything you've ever done than anyone, or even about them. And just because you have a few fans, remember, you weren't hated by somebody, and you don't want everyone to smoke on heaven,
but you and if they were sitting in spot health, then I'll see you there. I mean, I really was, I was
“so sad at her, I think her statements the most. You'll see a range of emotions from each”
victim, some just extreme sadness, obviously at the loss. But then others really did have this angry side because there's obviously so much anger here. And it was almost like, you know, an emotional release for these victims to have their day in court to have this justice to have this closure. After hearing from many of the victim's families, the judge Timothy Maysey himself addressed Rex, you are men. Let's take a listen to that. I know that you're sorry that you got caught.
I assume that you're sorry for what you've done to your wife and children. Are you a little bit sorry for what you did to these poor innocent women? Eight women that you're strangled to death, at least eight that we know of, or at least a little bit sorry for that. Yes? Yes, I am. Yeah, and Aaron, if you listen closely, you can faintly hear him in the background saying, yes, I am. The judge that didn't meant words at all. I mean, he seemed to be getting
“angrier. Didn't you think? Yeah, I mean, honestly, you don't see that that often at a sentence saying,”
this judge, again, you could hear the quiver in his voice. He was audibly yelling by the end. You know, you've been described as a very big man, but you are disgusting and despicable, small man, if you're a man at all. And you're a coward. You know, when we when we watch sentencing on television typically, it is for heinous crimes. So judge judges do get a little more, worked up an emotional, but typically at your average sentence saying, a judge is much more
tempered, much more, you know, really, a little bit more tone down and follows the sort of courtroom etiquette, which is not to raise your voice, be controlled. Here, he just threw all caution to the wind and really let loose on here are men. So the judge sentenced human to three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the deaths of bartholomee, watermen, and Castello, and four consecutive sentences of 25 years to life for each of the murders
of brainard barns, Taylor, Castilla, and Mack. I mean, just for those four that 25 to life, that's
A hundred years.
is somewhat symbolic. The point being that this man is never going to see the light of day
“outside of a jail cell. And with that, the judge concluded the hearing. Anything else, John?”
Nothing from the people I was to brag about. Get him out. I mean, you can hear the cheers and cheers in the courtroom, almost like this physical release for the victim's families who've just been waiting so long for justice. But I even know you hear cheers. What I always hear after these kind of cases is no one really wins. You know, they get to face them. They don't get their loved ones back. None of those women are
coming back. So that it's got to be frustrating, too, that he just sat there. How does someone like you or men compare to other infamous killers and serial killers and the sentences that they've
“gotten in the past? Yeah. I mean, look, he really flew under the radar. This reminds me so much of the”
BTK killer. In fact, Aaron, the similarities are quite striking. Dennis Raider, better known as the BTK killer for buying torture kill, even called human a clone of himself in a letter to a news outlet in 2023. Raider was also married with two kids, lived in his community, undetected for years. I mean, they're both even 59 years old at the time of their arrests. Also, I'm reminded of Joseph James DeAngelo, better known as the Golden State Killer. He comes to mind and believe it or not,
I actually met Dennis Raider. I was trying to get an interview with him. So I went into the Wichita jail and spoke with him. And another comparison I could add to that is that lack of emotion we saw in Rex, you or men. I really thought with Dennis Raider, he spoke so casually about what he did. And the only time he cried was when he told me that his daughter would no longer speak to him. So it was all about him. He was only crying about his loss. Nothing about what he did.
“And I think, also, now in that case, Dennis Raider gave more details about what he did to his”
victims. But in this case, the victims families did not get to get the details that they always
wanted to hear. The fact is, you know, we may never know those answers. I was somewhat surprised that part of his plea agreement wasn't a more full-sum description potentially of what he had done. And that sometimes is why victims families actually want a trial. They want to know specifically what happened. But I think in this instance, you know, the just having this be done and over with for the victims families was sort of more at that top of mind was going to be
more preferential than going through the just arduous and gut-wrenching nature of a trial.
Here's what Lily Waterman had to say afterwards at a press conference.
This has been a long day coming. And from this day forward, stop saying his name, stop putting his space everywhere, put the girls face, put their names, and make it known that we are the ones who live on for them. So, I mean, I'm so happy for these families. Finally, getting closure. Obviously, Aaron, like you said, there will never truly be closure. They will never get there. Love the ones back. But I do have to admit, I'm not sure this is the last we're going to
hear about Rex Heurman. Aaron, I personally feel that there may be more victims out there who's families are looking for accountability. He insists, according to his defense attorney, that it was just these eight women, but we'll find out. I really appreciate you being here, talking about this very, very tough and emotional hearing, but thanks for being with us today. Thank you so much for having me. And I want to thank all of you for listening, be sure to rate,
and review wherever you get your podcasts. Now, streaming, only I'll pair my plus. Chicago, it's my home. Be it claimed, series the shy reaches its final chapter. This is the shy, anything's possible. The shy, the final season now streaming, only I'll pair my plus.
