🏘️ Killing Grounds: The Gilgo Beach Murders (2026) - Season 1 Episode 3
The net tightens. Episode 3 follows the emergence of a prime suspect, the intense surveillance operations, and the legal hurdles that nearly let a killer walk free.
🔹 Episode Highlights:
• Prime suspect identified: the breakthrough moment
• Surveillance & undercover ops: high-stakes police work
• Legal battles: warrants, delays, and courtroom drama
• Victim advocacy: families push for justice against all odds
• Signature true-crime suspense: ticking-clock tension + moral complexity
🔹 Series Info:
• Format: True Crime Documentary / Investigative Serial
• Original Network: [Streaming Platform] | Production: 2026
• Season: 1 | Episode: 3 | Runtime: ~45-60 min
• Setting: Gilgo Beach, Long Island, USA | Language: English
🎧 Prefer audio? Listen to true crime podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts for deeper case analysis.
👉 Enjoying the series? Hit LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and comment: "Was justice served? 👇" Turn on notifications 🔔 for Episode 4!
#ShowTVMovies #KillingGrounds #GilgoBeach #TrueCrime #Documentary2026 #S01E03 #Manhunt #Justice #MurderMystery #CrimeDocs
⚠️ Copyright Disclaimer: This video is shared for promotional, review, and informational purposes only. All rights to "Killing Grounds: The Gilgo Beach Murders" belong to the respective producers and networks. This upload complies with Fair Use guidelines (Section 107, U.S. Copyright Act). No copyright infringement intended.
The net tightens. Episode 3 follows the emergence of a prime suspect, the intense surveillance operations, and the legal hurdles that nearly let a killer walk free.
🔹 Episode Highlights:
• Prime suspect identified: the breakthrough moment
• Surveillance & undercover ops: high-stakes police work
• Legal battles: warrants, delays, and courtroom drama
• Victim advocacy: families push for justice against all odds
• Signature true-crime suspense: ticking-clock tension + moral complexity
🔹 Series Info:
• Format: True Crime Documentary / Investigative Serial
• Original Network: [Streaming Platform] | Production: 2026
• Season: 1 | Episode: 3 | Runtime: ~45-60 min
• Setting: Gilgo Beach, Long Island, USA | Language: English
🎧 Prefer audio? Listen to true crime podcasts on Spotify, Apple Podcasts for deeper case analysis.
👉 Enjoying the series? Hit LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and comment: "Was justice served? 👇" Turn on notifications 🔔 for Episode 4!
#ShowTVMovies #KillingGrounds #GilgoBeach #TrueCrime #Documentary2026 #S01E03 #Manhunt #Justice #MurderMystery #CrimeDocs
⚠️ Copyright Disclaimer: This video is shared for promotional, review, and informational purposes only. All rights to "Killing Grounds: The Gilgo Beach Murders" belong to the respective producers and networks. This upload complies with Fair Use guidelines (Section 107, U.S. Copyright Act). No copyright infringement intended.
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Short filmTranscript
00:06all right my last question
00:09if you were a tool or an object to bring your business to greater heights what would it be
00:21that's an interesting question i know because for what i do we have to have so many tools in
00:28the toolbox just one just one just one i have one tool that's pretty much used in almost every job
00:34and it's actually a cabinet maker's hammer oh okay cabinet maker hammer okay it is
00:42persuasive enough when i need to persuade something not someone something
00:51sometimes i have to be the heavy framing hammer
00:56other times i'm the lightweight hammer just to nudge things along all right i guess it's a
01:04hammer we got it selfie time selfie time
01:09you're fast ready one two three ah can you spy that is
01:34because this case gained such notoriety i knew that it would be very easy for the person who
01:40perpetrated these crimes to utilize the internet to try to figure out what we were doing so that's
01:46why i was very quiet i didn't show up on gilgo beach with the big magnifying glass and talk about
01:52all the things we were going to do because i wanted the perpetrator to think that it was business as
01:57usual we were spinning our wheels we weren't making any progress
02:03to maintain that investigative secrecy not everybody in my office knew what we were doing
02:08not everybody in the pd or the fbi it was just the members of the task force
02:17we had our first task force meeting february 1st and i think march 14th of 2022 was when
02:23rex yurman was was identified as a suspect for the first time
02:27there was a new level of energy injected into this task force they were finally starting to see
02:33some meaningful movement on this case
02:37but what we think doesn't matter as prosecutors it's what we can prove
02:44so we would just work to try to establish more connections to those murders
02:56so we were surveilling him for a number of months
03:04they tracked where he went they tracked him on the train the la double r they tracked him going to
03:08his office in midtown
03:13for the most part his activity was business as usual
03:18he would go to work and go home that is nothing that is in any way atypical
03:29but
03:33we saw within a very short period of time
03:36rex buy a prepaid phone which we confirmed on the camera
03:41remember the killer used the burner phones
03:45so now we looked at the phone in his name and what was the activity
03:49and was it consistent with the times when the burner phones were being utilized
03:54and it was
03:59that was arguably one of the most significant points in this investigation
04:08there was this tension because we knew through his use of burner phones
04:13that he was continuing to contact sex workers
04:16that's obviously concerning
04:18but you still don't have enough evidence to prosecute
04:22when you looked at the original crime scene
04:25there wasn't a lot of evidence
04:26but what we saw was these five question hairs of interest
04:31discovered in december of 2010
04:34with the gilgo four
04:37there was one that was recovered on amber costello
04:43and then there were three question hairs obtained from megan waterman
04:49and then hair that was recovered from the belt buckle of maureen brader barnes
04:55the hairs found on the victims were not a match to the victim
04:59nor any other profile within codis
05:02the hairs belong to an unidentified male of caucasian descent
05:08as well as three different females
05:12we need more dna profiles to compare against
05:17maybe these hairs would be associated with the suspect
05:23the task force obtained dna samples from the suspect's house
05:34so we were able to develop four genetic profiles off of bottles
05:40those genetic profiles were for family members who lived at the residence in massapequa park
05:48the suspect was married
05:50they had a biological daughter
05:52and she had a son who was unrelated to the suspect
05:57and now you have to actually see them
06:00discarding things that they eat or drink
06:02and then get the dna sample
06:04so you know for sure that you have the right profile
06:10it was painstaking because you're still trying to keep the suspect in your sights
06:15do the surveillance obtain this evidence
06:17but you don't want to blow the investigation
06:25one day rex comes out of the office
06:28and he throws away his box of pizza
06:31i just loved hearing this
06:32because it's just good old-fashioned detective work
06:35right the detective was standing there
06:38blending in with everybody else in new york city
06:40went over got the pizza box
06:42and therein was a piece of crust
06:44and he went and they took that pizza crust
06:47and they ran it
06:51when i read it
06:52i realized it sounds like we have a match here
06:56and then i started calling people in
06:58i said read this
07:00and we all agreed
07:03it was on
07:06we had enough probable cause to arrest
07:09the rex human
07:17for a myriad of reasons
07:19we had decided that we wanted
07:21to arrest him in midtown manhattan
07:23coming out of his place of business
07:36it was exciting
07:37it was scary
07:38because you know what this person was capable of
07:46so you really worry about keeping people safe
07:50the rest of his life
08:20to do
08:28We got him!
08:30All right.
08:33What's happening?
08:36It's not easy when you go into a case
08:38and you are looking for that needle in the haystack.
08:42There were tens of thousands of hours
08:45placed into this investigation by Suffolk County Police,
08:48the FBI, the district attorney's office,
08:51the sheriff's department, the state police.
08:53That task force was, in my opinion, a game-changer.
09:02For 13 years, the public has been just so fascinated by it,
09:07and law enforcement has been confounded by it.
09:10There has finally been an arrest,
09:12a Massapequa Park man charged with the murder of three women.
09:16Rex Hureman stayed silent as he walked out of
09:19Suffolk County 7th Precinct to face a judge on Friday afternoon.
09:23My friend, she called me.
09:25She was like, are you watching TV?
09:27I was like, no, why?
09:28She's like, your exact description of an ogre.
09:32Six-foot-seven, 350-pound man.
09:34She's like, he's being arrested right now for Amber's murder.
09:39I've seen what that motherfucker looks like.
09:42I'm like, sorry, but that's being nice still.
09:45And he looks like an AI-generated version of Grimace if he was a human.
09:55The first time I saw pictures of him, I was like, wow, what a monster.
10:01He's huge.
10:03And these girls are all so tiny.
10:05And then the scenarios started coming in my head of this accused's big body,
10:15and her, she's so tiny.
10:17And now I have those nightmares in my head on top of everything else.
10:24If this is the person, it's going to save a lot of lives.
10:29No other girl is going to get hurt the way our girls got hurt.
10:37Our hope is that those families are experiencing some level of comfort and some level of relief,
10:43knowing that the person responsible for their loved one's death is now being held responsible.
10:51It was later on that day, they came out with the truck.
10:55And it was just like, holy shit, they had that, you know, everything for 13 years in front of them.
11:00They just never used it.
11:05If it comes out that this guy's been killing girls since they could have had him in 2010,
11:11that's what bothers me. That's what's going to cause me to lose sleep.
11:22Kristen Thorne is live outside the home where neighbors were shocked to learn of today's arrest.
11:27Sade, this is sort of the place to be on Long Island right now.
11:31When I come down with my car to drop my wife off, I see him walking.
11:35Looks like every other American type person, I guess.
11:40I saw it on Facebook this morning, and I was at work.
11:44And I was just like, listen, I got to take some personal time.
11:47I got to go down here because this is a big case.
11:50You know, we got to see how it plays out, too.
11:52We're talking about the Gilgal 4, so you all know that's not the end of the story, right?
11:59I was at work watching it on TV.
12:02In just joking fashion to the guys, I was just like, hey, you know, I probably went to high school
12:09with them.
12:10And I found out about three hours later that they named the suspect, and it was Rex Hoyerman.
12:19We went to the same schools growing up.
12:22He was more of a recluse.
12:25He was very introverted, very skinny and tall.
12:30You know, we would bully him.
12:34You know, we used to call him Herman Munster.
12:38And he never bullied anybody.
12:40You know, he wasn't that type of person.
12:46When I saw his house, I was more surprised because I thought maybe being an architect,
12:51you would do something a little nicer.
12:54This is a very nice neighborhood, and the house does stand out.
12:59Most of the people in the neighborhood didn't want to be closer,
13:02mainly because of the condition of the house and stuff like that.
13:05Because he's an architect, for you to have a house like that in a neighborhood like this,
13:09on this block, how come you haven't done your house?
13:12You go down the street, normal house, normal house, serial killer, normal, normal.
13:17You know what I mean?
13:19You know, then we started hearing from neighbors,
13:20like that was the house they told the kids at Halloween, don't go to.
13:26The condition of the house was very cluttered.
13:29We found a large number of electronic devices, phones, laptops.
13:34We found 116 or so handguns in the house and about 163 long guns.
13:41And if you look at the profile, here's an individual who hunts, an individual who targets
13:47shoots.
13:47The main reason why we wanted to arrest the defendant at his place of business rather than his home,
13:53was we wanted to avoid those guns.
13:55You know, and then of course, we're also looking for trace evidence, you know, blood, hair, stains.
14:03When Rex Heurman is arrested, we're all rushing to figure out, who is this guy?
14:08You have to remember, this is years of not knowing who the Long Island serial killer
14:15was, and now we have a name.
14:20I was doing legal research on my computer and I saw the name Rex.
14:25And I thought, not a lot of Rexes, but okay, there's another Rex.
14:30And then I saw his last name and then I saw an architect and then I saw a serial killer.
14:36And I thought I was hallucinating.
14:39This was impossible.
14:40And then I saw his mugshot.
14:44I thought there's no way that's him.
14:47Like, oh, there must be another Rex Heurman.
14:49It's so crazy that there are two Rex Heurmans.
14:52And then I was like, no, that's him.
14:54That's like his face.
14:55Like, and also there aren't two Rex Heurmans.
15:00I just couldn't believe it.
15:01I thought somebody had just played a joke on me.
15:05There's no way.
15:07I was 26 years old when I started working with Rex.
15:10He's a pretty girl, but he just tells jokes and never hit on me.
15:15To me, he was never a scary person or anyone you should ever fear.
15:23He was a licensed architect.
15:26There were mostly women working in the office, usually one to two other architects.
15:33And then he had, you know, a handful of people who helped him really grind out the work.
15:41When I worked for him, my job was to be his assistant.
15:47The office was a disaster area.
15:50It was a mess.
15:51There were blueprints all over the floor.
15:54It was dirty.
15:56The, um, so I spent the day cleaning.
16:00Inside his own office, you know, he's the main event.
16:06He doesn't have a very high emotional intelligence.
16:09He, he can't read people very well.
16:13But I can't envision him being a killer.
16:17I just think he's so large and bumbling.
16:21I, you know, I just can't imagine it.
16:23No.
16:25Like, he's this kind of lumbering guy who shuffles around.
16:29You don't look at him and think, here's the most agile, fearsome killer.
16:39I am a survivor of sexual assault.
16:42And my guard is totally up most of the time.
16:50And he didn't even register on my radar.
16:54I'm trying to reconcile why I didn't take better care of myself.
16:59Or how could I have not known, you know?
17:03But I think no one could have ever known.
17:08Those girls never had a chance.
17:13Because he tricked them, just like he tricked everybody else.
17:19Here we had a killer who was hidden for all these years.
17:23And so far, we believe that we've got him.
17:31When he was first arrested, his lawyer told the media that Rex was crying.
17:39He was very upset that he said he had nothing to do with any of this.
17:43He didn't even know these women.
17:46And that he didn't know any of what was going on.
17:50Official site DNA and cell phone data is evidence alleging used burner phones.
17:55Defense attorney Michael Brown calls the evidence circumstantial.
17:58I don't believe everything the government says.
18:01Do you believe everything the government says?
18:03The press has convicted my client without seeing a shred of evidence.
18:08So he doesn't stand a chance with the press.
18:10And we're not going to try the case in the press.
18:13I doubt that any one of you for a moment have even contemplated the possibility that
18:17they have the wrong guy.
18:19The government is looking to convict my client.
18:22What has my client told me?
18:23He told me he didn't do this.
18:28So, am I starting?
18:29Am I leading on?
18:31Ray Tierney wants the buck to stop with him.
18:33It's like the biggest case of the century, right?
18:37If anything goes wrong with this prosecution?
18:42The indictment of Defendant Rex Andrew Heerman, 59 years of age, for the murders of
18:48Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello.
18:53The investigation of Maureen Brainerd Barnes is ongoing.
18:58Maureen Brainerd Barnes was not included.
19:01The reason is they didn't have enough time to get her DNA into that indictment.
19:06But they felt they had to arrest him when they did because they could see his activities in
19:12terms of trying to reach sex workers.
19:13And they were worried that he was a threat to public safety.
19:19We've been able to associate eight or so burner phone accounts to him.
19:24Primarily, those burner phones were used to speak with a large number of sex workers.
19:31It was, you know, precisely what we've been talking about all along with this tension between
19:37public safety, grand jury secrecy, and obtaining the evidence.
19:41So, we continue to prosecute those three cases in court,
19:45while still investigating the Brainerd Barnes case in the grand jury.
19:49Look, prosecutors do not like to move forward in a case without having everything together.
19:57Of course, they wanted the four of them ready to go at one time.
20:01But unfortunately, in this situation, there was still some outstanding DNA.
20:08So, we definitely know that Maureen Brainerd Barnes had been restrained by three leather belts,
20:19one of which was utilized to tie Barnes' feet, ankle, and legs together.
20:23And on the belt had the initials WH or HM.
20:30WH are the initials of Rex Heurman's grandfather.
20:35Could be coincidental.
20:37But most importantly, they found on the belt one female hair.
20:47The hair that was recovered from the belt buckle of Maureen Brainerd Barnes,
20:53that was consistent with his wife.
20:56There is this known phenomenon in science, it's called transference.
21:01If you live with the person, oftentimes their hair will get on your clothes,
21:05you'll come in contact with a third party,
21:06and both those hairs could then be transferred to that third party.
21:11Rex's wife's hair was found on Maureen's body.
21:16Could this be transference?
21:19Or could it be that Maureen had actually been in Rex's house?
21:25And then you have the people who theorize that Asa may not be telling us everything that she knew
21:35about what was going on and may have interacted with some of these women.
21:40She had no idea any of this was going on or the allegations were even her husband was a suspect.
21:45She's not a suspect.
21:47She has not been questioned by the police regarding any of this.
21:50It's been extremely overwhelming for her and the children trying to piece life back together or
21:55what it was two and a half weeks ago.
21:57I think there's still a lot of concern and suspicion about whether these women were ever in the house.
22:05I mean, there's an incredible amount of Asa and Victoria's DNA on these female victims.
22:17There's a lot of supposition and noise surrounding the wife.
22:22But what we've been able to prove conclusively is during the time of the commission of these four
22:26charged murders, the wife and the rest of the family were out of the state at the time of the
22:32commission of the murders.
22:44The first round of charges against Rex Hureman were for Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Melissa Bartholomew.
22:52Six months later, he was charged with Maureen Brainerd Barnes, the fourth of the Gilgo Four.
23:06So good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for coming.
23:10We're here to discuss the superseding indictment.
23:12The only change in that indictment is that we've charged the murder of Maureen Brainerd Barnes,
23:18which occurred in July of 2007.
23:21It's important that we keep in mind what this case is about.
23:25Maureen Brainerd Barnes was 20, 25 years of age when she lost her life.
23:30She was a devoted sister, devoted mother, devoted daughter.
23:36And this is what this case is about. This is what this case should be about.
23:41And I went for the press conference when the asshole was charged with my friend's murder.
23:51The justice needs to be served, and I hope he just never ever sees a light of day.
24:01I'm attorney Gloria Allred, and today I'm here at the Suffolk County New York courthouse with five of my six
24:09clients who were relatives or a friend of alleged victims of defendant Rex Hureman.
24:16They have asked me to represent them as their victim's rights attorney in this case, and I'm honored to support
24:23them.
24:25Next, I would like to introduce Nicolette Brainerd Barnes, who is the daughter of Maureen.
24:35I'm here to speak for my mom, Maureen. I was only seven years old when my mother was murdered.
24:41Her loss drastically changed the trajectory of my life. I remember she read to me every night, and now I
24:47can no longer remember the sound of her voice.
24:52For years, it looked like there might not be charges filed against any suspect for the murder of my mother.
24:58While the loss of my mom has been extremely painful for me, the indictment by the grand jury has brought
25:03hope for justice for my mom and my family.
25:08I'm a women's rights attorney, and I've represented 20 victims of Jeffrey Epstein, a number of victims against Harvey Weinstein.
25:19I don't judge people. Life is a challenge for every woman I know, and I understand what women have to
25:30go through in life because I've lived it.
25:34After I became a teacher and moved to California, I went to Mexico on a vacation with a friend, and
25:40there I met a doctor and went on a date with him and ended up being raped at gunpoint and
25:51had nobody who could help me.
25:54I didn't know attorneys. So I remember when I didn't know and why I didn't know, and it just always
26:03motivates me to help win change.
26:10The people who are involved with the Gilgo Beach case contacted me and asked me to help.
26:18I felt that I had the ability to help. I have the opportunity to help and I have the desire
26:25to help.
26:27But there's a long way to go to learn if they're going to win any justice.
26:36It took years to even discover the bodies of their loved one, and some bodies have not yet been identified.
26:49The Gilgo Four definitely received a lot of attention, mainly because that's where the investigation has focused and because, quite
27:00frankly, they're all identified.
27:01The remaining six victims attached to this crime scene, with the exception of Jessica Taylor, were all John and Jane
27:08Doe's.
27:10Every time there is a press conference on this case, we ask about these other victims, and police will only
27:16say they're continuing to do their work, they're continuing to investigate it.
27:21ID'ing a body is so important. It is the first step that allows law enforcement to go and try
27:29to figure out who killed someone.
27:30You cannot find out who killed someone if you don't know who the victim is.
27:36The FBI approached Suffolk County and offered to deploy investigative genetic genealogy in order to resolve the identities of the
27:45remaining bodies.
27:45Jane Doe number six, Jane Doe number six, Fire Island Jane Doe, as well as Jane Doe found in Hempstead
27:52Lake Park, Peaches, and her baby, as well as Asian Male.
27:58Their DNA profiles were submitted into NamUs, that is the national database for missing persons, for DNA profiles, and there
28:06were no hits.
28:06So from there, the FBI used investigative genetic genealogy to build out the family trees.
28:15And in the end, the identity of Jane Doe number six was resolved to Valerie Mack.
28:22Peaches, Tanya Jackson, Tatiana, that's her baby, and Fire Island Jane Doe, Karen Vergarda.
28:34And the work to identify Asian Male remains ongoing.
28:39The investigation into the remaining six victims is extremely active, and more active than it's been in a very long
28:47time.
28:48We don't know yet if Rex Howerman will be charged with their murders, but Jessica Taylor will, in my opinion,
28:58be the most viable of the remaining victims to have a suspect associated with them.
29:05She could be the link that linked not only those other victims, but links back to the go-go four.
29:13Jessica Taylor's body was found at Gilgo Beach, but parts of her body were also found years prior in Manorville,
29:22Long Island.
29:24Jess Taylor was 20 years old.
29:27She had a rough upbringing, but a mom that loved her and two brothers that loved her.
29:33And she fell into the wrong crowd who introduced her to sex work.
29:40In July of 2003, her torso was found in Manorville, and she remained unidentified for about a year.
29:50Jessica had a tattoo on her back.
29:53The tattoo had been mutilated in a way to disfigure it so that it was not reasonably identifiable.
30:02But the medical examiner's office effectively pushed the skin together, sent out a photo, blasted around to local police agencies,
30:10and a detective in Washington, D.C. that had arrested Jessica the preceding year recognized the tattoo,
30:19and called Suffolk PD and said, I know who she is.
30:33So Jess Taylor's body was found right about here, maybe 10 feet set back, right by the tree.
30:45She had been decapitated.
30:48Her hands and her feet had been cut off, and she had been posed to maximize the shock value
30:56and also to increase the amount of humiliation to the victim.
31:02A neighbor reported seeing a large Chevy pickup truck, dark color, pull into this service road,
31:10stop for a bit, for maybe 10 minutes, and then leave around 10.30 at night.
31:15That's when we believe the perpetrator drove up, took out Jessica's effectively her torso,
31:21posed it on a medical U-drape tent, and left her hair to be found.
31:28And from what I understand from her family members about Jess, she would not have gone softly.
31:34She went, she was not going down without a fight.
31:38She was tortured, pre and post-mortem.
31:43She probably inflicted some degree of humiliation onto the perpetrator, and so he inflicted it back.
31:54Her head and her hands, the remaining body parts, were found along Ocean Parkway in March 2011.
32:02Jess's case was crucial to the identification of Jane Doe No. 6, Valerie Mack.
32:09She was a 24-year-old female from South Jersey who was involved in sex work.
32:18Both Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor had both of their torsos and other body parts recovered in Manorville in 2000
32:27and 2003, respectively.
32:31Jessica Taylor's body was found on Falsey Manor Road, which bisects with Mill Road.
32:37The location of Valerie Mack's body, they were found less than half a mile from each other.
32:46And if you look at the manner in which both Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor's bodies were left, it was
32:53very similar.
32:55Both victims were decapitated and dismembered at their arms below their elbows.
33:02During the course of the investigation, it became pretty evident that it was necessary that the task force expanded the
33:08search for victims after they had a DNA profile from Rex Howerman.
33:13They looked for cold cases going back decades in Suffolk County for victims that may have had DNA evidence linking
33:22to this potential suspect.
33:25Sandra Castilla was one of those victims.
33:31In the early stage of the investigation, Sandra Castilla was a case that we thought was of interest to us.
33:38The similarities between Sandra Castilla and Jessica Taylor were so striking in the way they were left and the manner
33:45of their death.
33:47So this is the site where Sandra Castilla's body was found, November 20th, 1993.
33:53She was not covered. She was not put in a bag. She just was there out in the open.
34:00The official cause of death was asphyxiation.
34:04She had multiple slash wounds across her body. Her arms were above her head. Her legs were spread apart.
34:11Her top was shoved up above her head so that it just compounded the humiliation of it all.
34:21Several of her injuries, from what I understand, were post-mortem as well.
34:25So she's dead and he's still defacing her body.
34:35As a journalist, I advocate on behalf of women who had in some way been brutalized, in some way been
34:44harmed.
34:45I saw this one face, and something about her face told me that if I could not be sure that
34:52she was Trinidadian, I knew she was Caribbean.
34:55So I proceeded on an investigation to try to figure out who Sandra Castilla really was.
35:05Sandra Castilla was born in Trinidad and Tobago. The family was by no means wealthy, but they were also not
35:12impoverished.
35:13And it seemed that the unit was a fully functional and happy unit and a happy family.
35:20Her mother and father died in very tragic circumstances. Sandra and her brother were immediately and instantly orphaned.
35:29And then eventually Sandra left Trinidad for Queens, New York.
35:35The police seemed to assume that her lifestyle was, quote unquote, substantially similar to the lifestyle of the other victims,
35:43meaning that she did interface in some way with sex work.
35:46There's nothing that I have discovered to suggest that she was a sex worker.
35:52She worked in bookkeeping and through that job was in Manhattan quite often.
35:58There's one suggestion that perhaps that he may have encountered her in a bar.
36:04On November 13th, 1993, there was a best friend she had who was living in Massachusetts, and she phoned her
36:11in some distress.
36:12She told her life was not going well. And her friend suggested, why don't you just pack up and come
36:18to Massachusetts? You can stay with me.
36:21And Sandra said, yes, I will do that. I wanted to do that. And her friend waited for her to
36:27come and waited and waited and waited and waited.
36:31And she was never showed. And about a week later received a phone call. The person was a gentleman. And
36:39he said, he claimed he was a police officer.
36:42He said that Sandra had died, her body had been found. And that her friend's contact information had been found
36:49on Sandra's person.
36:50And that is how the contact was made. And from then to now, there has been no further contact from
36:58the police. Her friend is unsure whether it was the police who phoned or whether it was someone else.
37:10Sandra Casilla was found by two hunters in the area. At the time, this area was open up to hunters.
37:17And a number of the residences that are nearby now did not exist. They weren't here. So it was a
37:24relatively secluded area and a decent dumping site for someone looking to dispose of a body to go undetected.
37:35He was really into hunting. He had been for years. That was known. He loved guns, all types of hunting.
37:45He was a duck hunter. He went hunting for big game. He would go to Alaska to hunt bear. He
37:54was crazy. He's like, you're going to set a trap, you know, and lie in wait for this dangerous animal
37:59to come and then like spring into action or whatever.
38:07He liked to talk about going out and shooting bears and skinning them. And he would just like to watch
38:15people get nauseated from his story.
38:21What makes it so spooky for those of us who knew him and worked alongside him at any point is
38:28just that he's created a world where he can boss around a room full of women, many of whom are,
38:36you know, on the petite side.
38:38And then on the weekends, he's allegedly out hunting women of the same stature.
38:54We were continuing to work the case. As we were doing that, we were getting back forensic evidence from some
39:02of the devices.
39:09During the search of the house, we found a couple of laptops, standalone computers.
39:17There was some evidence of further searches with regard to torture porn, with regard to monitoring the investigation, looking up
39:26the Gilgo investigation, the victims, the victims' families.
39:34We also recovered, I think, the most pertinent piece of evidence that we were able to retrieve out of unallocated
39:42space, which means it was erased originally, but we were able to forensically retrieve it nonetheless, was the planning document.
39:50The task force discovered a Microsoft Word document entitled HK2002-2004.
39:59We didn't have much of a conversation, but, yeah, he's in a dead place.
40:08This document shows his intent, and that intent is to meticulously plan and premeditate the murders of the victims in
40:19this case.
40:20This document is unlike anything I've ever seen.
40:24This guy's an architect, and he's allegedly made a blueprint for his crimes.
41:14This document is called a
41:24called the Translator, which is a
41:52We'll see you next time.
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