0:00

We've all seen the headlines in the news of

0:02

how somebody lost their life in an act of

0:05

cold-blooded murder, and it grabs your attention, but

0:07

have you ever stopped to think about the life of

0:09

the person at the center of the news story? These

0:12

victims were way more than a salacious

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headline. I'm Eric Carter-Lon Dean, and my

0:17

podcast, The Murder in My Family, dives

0:19

into some of those stories to help listeners get

0:22

to know the person who was lost, and

0:24

how their death affected those closest to them. And

0:27

to The Murder in My Family everywhere you listen

0:29

to podcasts. Subscribe

0:58

where you're listening to this podcast so

1:00

you don't miss an episode. Long

1:40

Island, New York juts out to the east

1:42

of the teeming boroughs comprising New York City.

1:44

On its southern shore, pristine beaches and parks

1:47

along the Great South Bay span its length.

1:50

Just across the Great South Bay from the

1:52

southern coast, hundreds of tiny barrier islands dot

1:54

the water. All

1:56

of these barrier islands are habitable, and feature

1:59

long, narrow stretchy as a beach that

2:01

had become some of the most sought-after, off-the-beaten-path

2:03

vacation spots in New York, particularly

2:06

the more populous Jones Beach Island

2:09

and the vehicle-free summer hideaway Fire

2:11

Island. To the south of

2:13

these barrier islands, the huge Atlantic Ocean. This

2:17

area of Long Island is a far cry

2:19

from the glitzy, glamorous beach towns comprising the

2:21

Hamptons, the Astor and Vanderbilt

2:23

mansion-studded villages of Great Neck, and

2:26

the verdant wineries surrounding the upscale,

2:28

celebrity-dense hamlets like Montauk. Although

2:31

Long Island itself boasts a population

2:33

of 7.5 million, these tiny

2:35

barrier islands along its southern shore

2:37

are sparsely populated mostly by summer

2:39

folk, blue-collar workers and shellfishers

2:42

and fishermen. Rustic beach

2:44

shacks and ramshackle capes make up the

2:46

vast majority of the homes amidst

2:49

the topography composed of dunes,

2:51

seagrass, thistle, cattails, sand, and

2:54

saltwater marshes. Retail

2:56

stores, restaurants, and even gas stations are few

2:58

and far between. Residents of

3:01

this area are generally either natives who have

3:03

grown up in the isolated beach communities and

3:05

work nearby, or summer people

3:07

who seek out the rustic feel and

3:09

privacy of these eastern enclaves, Tobay

3:12

Beach, Gilgo Beach, Oak Beach, and

3:14

then Fire Island. Jones

3:16

Beach, the closest of these southern shore

3:19

barrier island beaches to Manhattan and the

3:21

other New York City boroughs, is public

3:23

and in the summer often features thousands

3:25

of people escaping city life, attending large

3:27

concerts, and packing like sardines onto the

3:30

soft sand to enjoy a little R&R.

3:34

Ocean Parkway, constructed in 1933 by

3:37

a Corps of Engineers led by Robert

3:39

Moses, was the result of

3:41

dredging and fill brought in to connect

3:43

the small barrier islands and

3:45

to create the straight four-lane highway

3:47

running the 15.5-mile length of the

3:49

narrow peninsula. Ocean

3:52

Parkway effectively connects the city of New

3:54

York to the remote island communities below

3:56

Long Island's south shore. Ocean

3:58

Parkway commences at the Meadow 2016

18:01

DNA testing to be Peach's child. She

18:03

didn't live to be 13 as Brosnem guessed.

18:06

She was under the age of four when she died. 2011

18:09

investigators weren't certain what her cause of death was,

18:11

but in 2016, they revealed

18:13

that they considered her to be the victim of

18:15

a homicide. So

18:18

just to recap this part of the story, Peach's torso

18:20

was found in 1997, and her

18:23

extremities were found 14 years later in 2011, 15 miles away. The

18:28

toddler girl was found in 2011 just 150 feet from

18:30

Mannerville Jane Doe, but she

18:33

was not the child of that Doe, she was Peach's child.

18:36

And mother and child had been deliberately separated,

18:39

as stated by the Long Island Press,

18:41

quote, Peach's and her child were placed

18:43

at opposite ends of the dumping grounds,

18:45

making them the two victims who were

18:47

farthest apart from one another on Ocean

18:50

Parkway, end quote. They were about seven

18:52

miles apart. Peach's and her child remain

18:54

unidentified. There

18:56

were still more. About a half mile

18:58

east of the bodies of the Gilgal

19:00

Four, along Ocean Parkway, investigators discovered the

19:02

remains of an Asian male wearing women's

19:04

clothing who had been savagely beaten. This

19:07

from the Long Island Press in 2011, quote, the

19:10

Asian male is believed to be between 17 and 23 years

19:12

of age, approximately

19:14

five foot six inches tall, according

19:17

to police commissioner Richard Dormer, with

19:19

poor dental health. The

19:22

man was missing his top and bottom molars and

19:24

one front tooth, and police believe he

19:26

had been missing these teeth for some time before

19:28

he was killed. Police say he'd

19:30

been dead at least five years, possibly 10,

19:32

end quote. Pix

19:35

11 reported, quote, a law enforcement

19:37

source told Pix 11 News that

19:40

the male victim's head had been crushed, leading

19:42

some to theorize that this was a crime

19:44

of rage, end quote. Many

19:46

theorize that Asian male was killed by a

19:49

John whom he duped into believing he was

19:51

a female escort. Asian male has

19:53

not been identified. Finally,

19:56

the last discovery on April 11, 2011, a woman's Audio

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34:52

E. it

40:00

sounds like Karen had a good relationship with her dad,

40:02

you have to wonder if Karen would have spiraled

40:04

downward had her mom been around to support and

40:06

guide her. After graduation,

40:09

Karen drifted moving around cities on the

40:11

East Coast and beyond, supported by her

40:13

father and picking up a drug habit.

40:16

She was arrested in 1983 in New Orleans on

40:18

drug charges and again in 1984

40:20

in Connecticut, where she was required

40:22

by the court to attend drug treatment programs. By

40:25

1986, Karen was living

40:27

in the Shore Haven Apartments in Brooklyn, and

40:30

was in a long-term relationship with a married man. The

40:33

2000 unit apartment complex where she lived

40:36

was built by Fred Trump, the former

40:38

president's father, and managed by

40:40

a man named Gunther Hugo Lind, a German

40:42

immigrant to whom Trump had taken a liking.

40:45

It was with this guy Lind that Karen

40:47

was having an affair they had met sometime

40:50

in Brooklyn. Lind remained married

40:52

with his wife Lynette, who knew about Karen.

40:54

She was hurt but maintained to news day

40:56

that her husband had heart of gold. Karen

40:59

and Lyn had two sons together, and Lind

41:01

housed his second family in the Trump complex

41:04

he was the resident manager for. This

41:07

is all a direct quote from Newsday. Vergotta

41:09

became pregnant with Gary in 1988 while

41:11

still dealing with a major drug problem.

41:14

Five months pregnant, she walked across the

41:16

busy Brooklyn Queens Expressway near the Williamsburg

41:18

Bridge, where she was struck by a

41:20

car. Vergotta suffered a broken

41:22

right leg, ruptured spleen, and other injuries.

41:25

A lawsuit resulted in Vergotta being awarded a

41:27

$90,000 settlement for her injuries.

41:30

Court records revealed she was on methadone treatment

41:32

at the time of this accident. Gary

41:35

was born premature two months after the

41:37

accident at Bellevue Hospital with cerebral palsy,

41:40

and there was concern his congenital condition

41:42

was somehow caused by the accident, court

41:44

records showed. After the

41:47

accident, Vergotta and Lind remained together and she

41:49

became pregnant with Eric, who was born in

41:51

1990. But with Vergotta facing

41:53

continuing drug and psychological problems, she had

41:56

to give up custody of both boys.

42:01

Eric and Gary were adopted by Diane and

42:03

Edward Doherty, who initially served as their foster

42:06

parents. Their mother, Karen, visited them in Wisconsin

42:08

at Long Island when she could, and

42:10

had a good relationship with her kids. The

42:12

kids also maintained occasional contact with their father until

42:14

he died in December 1991 at age only 50.

42:19

After that, Karen was in bad shape. More

42:22

from Newsday, quote, From December 1991 until

42:25

late 1994, Vergada was arrested 11

42:27

times in New York City, mostly

42:29

on charges of loitering for prostitution

42:31

but twice for drug possession court

42:33

records show. The resulting

42:35

sentences were either time served, short stints

42:37

of community service, or relatively short jail

42:40

sentences, none of which appeared to act

42:42

as deterrence. By September

42:44

1994, the Doherty's had adopted Gary and

42:47

Eric in a final order from Suffolk

42:49

County Judge William Kent. Vergada

42:51

visited the boys, and those family visits

42:53

were warm and friendly, Doherty recalled. Vergada

42:57

was arrested for the last time in New York City

42:59

in November 1995 on a drug charge and

43:02

sentenced to a week in jail in 1996. Dominic

43:08

Vergada spoke to his daughter for the last time on

43:10

Valentine's Day 1996 when he told

43:12

authorities she called him from jail. His

43:15

daughter often called him on holidays and

43:17

special occasions, usually asking for money. After

43:20

that final call to her father, Vergada's family

43:22

lost contact with her. Court

43:25

records showed that on March 12, 1996,

43:27

Vergada missed a court date, and a bench warrant

43:29

was issued for her arrest. Dominic

43:32

hired a private detective to look for leads

43:34

and also tried to file a missing persons

43:36

report with NYPD but was unable to do

43:38

so. After not hearing

43:41

from his daughter for nearly 20 years,

43:43

Vergada's father filed a surrogate court action

43:45

in 2015 to have her declared legally

43:47

dead. The court issued such a

43:49

declaration in October 2017. Dominic

43:52

Vergada died in 2022, and his

43:55

will stated that he disinherited Vergada

43:57

for reasons good and sufficient to

43:59

me. also

58:01

charging Rex Huerman with the murder of

58:03

Maureen Brainerd Barnes on or about July 9,

58:05

2007. Maureen

58:07

was the fourth of the Gilgo Four. A

58:10

hair was found on Maureen Two, trapped in the

58:12

buckle of one of the three leather belts strapped

58:14

around her body when she was found. This

58:16

hair had been examined back in 2010, but all

58:18

the lab was able to determine was that the

58:21

hair owner was Caucasian. Now,

58:23

quote, recently, Forensic Laboratory Number One

58:25

was also able to generate DNA

58:27

sequencing data for the female hair

58:29

on Barnes. Forensic Laboratory

58:32

Number One was then able

58:34

to conduct a one-to-one autosomal

58:36

nuclear DNA comparison between said

58:38

profile to AsaEllerup's SNP genotype

58:40

file, which resulted in the

58:42

following conclusion. The DNA

58:44

profile generated from the female hair on Barnes

58:46

is 7.9 trillion times more

58:48

likely to have come from a

58:50

person genetically identical to AsaEllerup's SNP

58:52

genotype file than from an unrelated

58:54

individual, end quote. That's

58:58

pretty definitive. To be clear, prosecutors

59:00

do not believe AsaEllerup was involved

59:02

in the murders. As the

59:04

superseding indictment states, Huerman's wife was out of

59:07

state during Maureen's disappearance just as she was

59:09

with the other three Gilgo victims. But

59:12

as I mentioned, Asa's hair is being found

59:14

on the tape, burlap, and bodies of the

59:16

victims seems to point to the possibility that

59:18

these women were killed in the Huerman home.

59:22

The cell phone evidence also supported the conclusion

59:24

that Rex Huerman killed Maureen from the court

59:27

documents, quote, Maureen Brainerd Barnes was last seen

59:29

on July 9, 2007 in New York City.

59:33

On July 6, 2007,

59:35

Ms. Brainerd Barnes' cell phone was contacted by a burner

59:37

cell phone. Between July 6 and

59:40

July 9, there were 16 interactions between this

59:42

burner phone and Brainerd Barnes' cell phone. On

59:45

July 9, 2007, the last cell site

59:48

location for the Brainerd Barnes' cell phone

59:50

was at approximately 11.56 p.m. in Midtown

59:52

Manhattan near the 59th Street Bridge. Thereafter,

59:56

the Brainerd Barnes' cell phone had no further

59:58

activity until July 12, 2007. In

1:00:00

2007, on that date, three days

1:00:02

after her disappearance, two outbound calls were

1:00:04

made from Brainerd Barnes' cell phone, checking

1:00:07

her voicemail from a cell site location

1:00:09

near the Long Island Expressway in Ilandia."

1:00:13

Ilandia is a hamlet on Long Island, 24 miles

1:00:15

from Massapequa. Maureen's phone was

1:00:17

in Long Island three days after she vanished

1:00:19

from Manhattan. The

1:00:23

bail documents and indictments lay out some of

1:00:25

the other evidence against Huberman. The task force

1:00:27

discovered another email account for Huberman using the

1:00:29

name Andy Roberts. Andrew is his middle name.

1:00:32

This email account conducted thousands of

1:00:34

searches for more horrific sites involving

1:00:37

sex slavery, medieval torture of women,

1:00:39

BDSM, and skinny escorts. The

1:00:42

email account also searched for hundreds of articles

1:00:44

about the Lisk murders. Police

1:00:47

seized Huberman's laptop and were able to retrieve

1:00:49

all sorts of things, including things he tried

1:00:51

to hide or delete. The laptop

1:00:53

showed that on September 1, 2010, at approximately 9.03

1:00:56

PM, Huberman

1:00:58

had accessed Amber Costello's back page ad.

1:01:01

This was right before she and her co-conspirators stiffed

1:01:03

Huberman out of his money. Quote, two

1:01:05

hours later, approximately 11.33 PM and 11.34 PM, a burner

1:01:07

phone linked

1:01:11

to Huberman contacted Amber's phone. During

1:01:14

those communications, the burner cell phone connected

1:01:16

to cell towers in West Amityville and

1:01:18

Massapequa Park. Thereafter, the

1:01:20

burner cell phone indicates travel to West Babylon

1:01:23

in proximity to the residents of Amber

1:01:25

Costello and again had contact with Ms.

1:01:27

Costello's phone at approximately 12.05 AM

1:01:29

on September 2, 2010, which is when witnesses

1:01:33

describe an individual now known to be

1:01:35

the defendant Rex Huberman arriving at the

1:01:38

Costello residence. The task force's

1:01:40

discovery of a direct link between Rex

1:01:42

Huberman and Ms. Costello's back page ad,

1:01:44

just hours before defendant Huberman met with

1:01:46

Ms. Costello, further solidifies that

1:01:48

defendant Huberman was the John who was

1:01:51

the subject of the ruse on September

1:01:53

2, 2010 and

1:01:55

therefore was the same John who returned later that

1:01:57

day to pick up Mrs. Costello prior to the

1:01:59

murder. to her disappearance and murder." The

1:02:04

updated January 2024 charges also

1:02:06

beefed up the evidence in Megan Waterman's case.

1:02:09

They already had tied the two female hairs found on

1:02:11

her to Hugh Roman's wife and daughter. Now,

1:02:14

the male hair found at the bottom of the

1:02:16

burlap she was wrapped in was sent

1:02:18

to a forensic lab which, quote, was

1:02:20

able to generate DNA sequencing data

1:02:22

for the male hair on Waterman

1:02:24

and subsequently conducted a one-to-one autosomal

1:02:27

nuclear DNA comparison between said profile

1:02:29

to Rex Hugh Roman's SNP genotype

1:02:31

file developed from an extract of

1:02:33

the napkin contained within the pizza box, which

1:02:36

resulted in the following conclusion, quote, the

1:02:39

DNA profile generated from the male hair

1:02:41

on Waterman is 1.408 times 10169 times

1:02:43

more likely to have

1:02:47

come from a person genetically identical to

1:02:49

Rex Hugh Roman's SNP genotype file than

1:02:52

from an unrelated individual. On

1:02:56

or about August 16, 2023 Suffolk County District Attorney's Office

1:03:00

Detective Investigators had finally been able to obtain

1:03:02

a buckle swap from Rex Hugh Roman at

1:03:05

the Suffolk County Correctional Facility. It matched the

1:03:07

pizza crust DNA. Now, it's

1:03:09

known for a fact whose hair was found

1:03:11

on Megan Waterman's burlap wrapper Rex Hugh Roman's.

1:03:15

Nonetheless, Hugh Roman again pleaded not guilty

1:03:17

to the updated charges. In

1:03:20

June 2024, the charges against Hugh Roman

1:03:22

were again amended to add two new

1:03:24

homicide charges for the murder of

1:03:26

Jessica Taylor on or about or between

1:03:28

July 21 to 26, 2003

1:03:32

and the murder of Sandra Castilla on

1:03:34

or about November 19 to 20, 1993.

1:03:38

You'll remember Jessica Taylor. Her torso

1:03:40

was found in the Mannerville Woods in July 2003. She's

1:03:43

the one with the mutilated tattoo who was identified

1:03:45

right away. Other parts were her

1:03:47

were found along Ocean Parkway on March 29, 2011. Jessica

1:03:50

and escort had

1:03:53

last been seen at 10 22 p.m. on July 21,

1:03:55

2003, when she'd made a

1:03:58

two-minute outgoing call on her phone. she

1:04:00

was never seen again. Rex

1:04:02

Huerman worked in the same area of Midtown

1:04:04

Manhattan that Jessica frequented, and cell

1:04:06

phone records proved that he was in Manhattan on

1:04:08

the date that Jessica was last heard from. Not

1:04:11

only that, his family was out of town. A

1:04:14

male human hair was found on Jessica's body

1:04:17

and preserved, this from the recent court documents.

1:04:20

On or about April 29, 2024, forensic

1:04:23

laboratory number one issued a report

1:04:25

indicating it had developed a nuclear

1:04:27

DNA profile for not only the

1:04:29

male hair underneath Taylor, but also

1:04:31

from Rex Huerman's buccal swab. Forensic

1:04:34

laboratory number one was then able

1:04:36

to conduct a one-to-one autosomal nuclear

1:04:38

DNA comparison between said profile from

1:04:40

the male hair underneath Taylor to

1:04:42

Rex Huerman's SNP genotype file developed

1:04:44

from his buccal swab, which resulted

1:04:46

in the conclusion that the DNA

1:04:49

profile generated from the male hair

1:04:51

underneath Taylor is 1.837 times 10 to

1:04:54

the 603 power times more likely to

1:04:57

have come from a person genetically identical

1:05:00

to Rex Huerman's SNP genotype file than

1:05:02

from an unrelated individual," end quote. The

1:05:06

other victim Huerman's recent charges attributed to him was a

1:05:08

woman killed all the way back in 1993, the

1:05:11

earliest suspected victim to date. She

1:05:13

was 28-year-old Sandra Castilla, born

1:05:16

on August 25, 1965. Sandra,

1:05:19

who hailed from Trinidad and Tobago, but had been

1:05:21

living in New York before she was killed, was

1:05:23

found by two hunters traversing a wooded area

1:05:26

in North Sea, New York on November 20,

1:05:28

1993. The

1:05:31

woman's body was lying on her back with her arms

1:05:33

over her head. Her shirt had been

1:05:35

pulled up to expose her breasts and her naked legs

1:05:37

were spread. Sandra had been

1:05:39

stabbed in the face, torso, breasts, left

1:05:41

thigh, and vaginal area. Thank

1:05:43

goodness the New York authorities had retained three

1:05:45

hairs found on Sandra's body in 1993. From

1:05:49

the court documents, quote, "'The DNA profile

1:05:52

generated from a male hair on Castilla,

1:05:54

which was recovered from Miss Castilla's mutilated

1:05:56

remains, was determined by a forensic lab

1:05:58

analysis to be...' 4.347 times 10 to the 332nd power times

1:06:01

more likely to have come from a person genetically identical

1:06:07

to Rex Huerman's SNP genotype

1:06:09

file than from an unrelated

1:06:11

individual." And

1:06:14

this is interesting, one of the hairs found on Sandra

1:06:16

was female. Based on the date on which

1:06:18

Sandra had been killed, 1993, the investigators

1:06:21

who were tearing Rex Huerman's life apart knew

1:06:23

that he had been in a relationship with

1:06:25

another woman at the time and she had

1:06:27

moved out just two months before Sandra was

1:06:29

killed. I don't know if this

1:06:32

was his first wife or a live-in girlfriend. Anyway,

1:06:34

the investigators obtained a buccal swab from this woman.

1:06:36

They had the forensic lab they were using run DNA

1:06:39

comparison between her buccal swab and

1:06:41

the female hair. Here are

1:06:43

the results. "...the DNA profile generated

1:06:45

from the female hair on Costia is 4.578 times

1:06:48

10 to the 1,040th power

1:06:52

times more likely to have come

1:06:54

from a person genetically identical to

1:06:56

the unnamed female romantic partner's SNP

1:06:58

genotype file than from an unrelated

1:07:00

individual." Isn't

1:07:03

it great that in the end, it's hairs from women

1:07:05

that are nailing Huerman to the wall? Again,

1:07:14

Huerman pleaded not guilty to the new charges against

1:07:16

him, but the evidence keeps racking up and that's

1:07:18

only the evidence we were being told about. For

1:07:21

example, 350 electronic devices in

1:07:23

all had been removed from his home and office. According

1:07:26

to the bail application document, an

1:07:28

analysis of these devices has revealed

1:07:30

Huerman's significant collection of violent, bondage,

1:07:32

and torture pornography, currently dating back

1:07:34

to 1994. The pornographic images

1:07:38

accessed by Huerman include, but

1:07:40

are not limited to, breast

1:07:42

mutilation, vaginal torture, sex substitution,

1:07:44

i.e. penetration with an object,

1:07:46

the sexualization of decapitated women,

1:07:48

bondage, and whipping." Okay,

1:07:53

so watching torture porn does not make

1:07:55

Huerman a murderer, but police found an

1:07:57

incredibly incriminating document hidden on one of

1:07:59

Huerman's computer found in his basement. This

1:08:01

was a document created in the 2001 to 2002 timeframe. As

1:08:06

the bail application states, quote, the

1:08:08

task force members believe the Microsoft

1:08:10

Word document to be a planning

1:08:12

document utilized by Huberman to methodically

1:08:14

blueprint and plan out his kills,

1:08:17

end quote. The document

1:08:19

contains items listed under four categories,

1:08:22

problems, supplies, DS for dump sites,

1:08:24

and TRG for target victim where

1:08:26

it says small is good. Things

1:08:29

listed under supplies include duct tape,

1:08:31

electric clips, saws, rope, and hair

1:08:34

nets. Remember that the hairs

1:08:36

found on the bodies were almost all

1:08:38

not Huberman's, but his family's. Under

1:08:41

dump site is listed Mill Road, referring to

1:08:43

the area of Mill Road and Ocean Parkway

1:08:45

where some victims were found. There

1:08:47

are also categories for prep,

1:08:50

prep, and post event that

1:08:52

include things like obtaining burner

1:08:54

phones, building reinforced tables and

1:08:56

suspension mechanisms, hanging drop cloths,

1:08:58

burning gloves, changing tires, checking

1:09:00

for surveillance cameras on Long

1:09:02

Island roadways, and destroying computer

1:09:04

files. As

1:09:06

for the bodies, Huberman's notes remind him

1:09:08

to wash them, remove tattoos and torture

1:09:11

marks, remove the head and hands, and

1:09:13

package them for transport. In

1:09:16

the things to remember section, there are

1:09:19

notes indicating steps to take next time, things

1:09:21

like consider a hit to the face or

1:09:23

neck next time, or using a heavier rope

1:09:25

for the neck, the light rope broke under

1:09:27

stress of being tightened, it says. Huberman

1:09:31

further notes the importance of sleep, to

1:09:33

not only avoid problems, as he puts

1:09:35

it, but also to increase what Huberman

1:09:37

refers to as playtime. And

1:09:40

the ultimate shocker, Huberman's document contains

1:09:42

page references to John Douglas's book,

1:09:44

Mine Hunter, where it discusses penetration

1:09:47

with foreign objects and mutilation, a

1:09:49

copy of Douglas's book, The Cases That Haunt

1:09:51

Us, was found in Huberman's home. According

1:09:55

to the New York Times, after the hidden

1:09:57

planning document was located, investigators returned

1:09:59

to the house to Huerman's home to look

1:10:01

for physical evidence consistent with the manual. Quote,

1:10:04

investigators had already scoured the home after Mr.

1:10:06

Huerman's arrest last summer, but they

1:10:09

returned in May with an infrared light

1:10:11

and spent six days searching the paneled

1:10:13

walls and dropped ceiling of the basement

1:10:15

for signs that Mr. Huerman may have

1:10:17

used tape and pushpins to hang drop

1:10:19

cloths to conceal violent acts as suggested

1:10:21

in the manual. End quote. There

1:10:25

was more. This all from the bail document.

1:10:27

Quote, a forensic analysis of

1:10:29

Rex Huerman's digital devices also revealed

1:10:31

the following that on or about

1:10:33

July 28th, 2003, Rex Huerman accessed

1:10:36

a Newsday article entitled Cops Seek

1:10:39

Help in ID'ing Manneville Body Regarding

1:10:41

the Discovery of Ms. Taylor's Human

1:10:43

Remains. That online activity

1:10:45

was subsequently deleted. Two,

1:10:47

on or about July 29th,

1:10:50

2003, Rex Huerman conducted an

1:10:52

internet search for a new Chevrolet

1:10:54

Avalanche despite his 2002 Avalanche being

1:10:56

just over one year old. End

1:10:59

quote. This search

1:11:01

was because the Newsday article reported that

1:11:03

investigators had found a witness who on

1:11:05

July 25th, 2003, at around 10 30

1:11:08

p.m. had seen a dark colored Chevy

1:11:10

pickup truck backed into the location

1:11:12

where Jessica Taylor's body was found hours

1:11:14

later. Huerman knew his truck

1:11:16

had been spotted and the Avalanche indeed

1:11:19

turned out to be his downfall. Oh,

1:11:21

and all the DNA. One

1:11:24

thing that has not been mentioned by charging documents

1:11:26

is whether the initials on that belt, photos of

1:11:28

which were released in 2020, are

1:11:31

of anyone connected to Huerman. This is

1:11:33

from the New York Post. Quote, Suffolk County

1:11:35

District Attorney Ray Tierney told Newsday, yes,

1:11:37

there was W.H. or H.M. on the

1:11:39

belt. The last name is Huerman. There

1:11:42

are ancestors with W.H. so assigned

1:11:44

to that what you will, Tierney said. Although

1:11:47

the D.A. did not elaborate, the

1:11:49

initials W.H. match Huerman's grandfather, William

1:11:52

Huerman, who died in 1964. End quote. Okay,

1:11:56

so that gives you an idea of the man Rex

1:11:58

Huerman is and the monster. suspected to be.

1:12:01

Police believe that the sexual sadist and killer

1:12:03

planned his kills, lured escorts to their doom,

1:12:05

tortured and slayed them in the basement of

1:12:07

his home while his family was away, and

1:12:10

dumped them all over Long Island, some of them

1:12:12

in different areas. He has

1:12:14

been operating methodically and lethally since as

1:12:16

far back as 1993 and has continued

1:12:19

to hone and refine his methods. Prosecutors

1:12:22

have charged Huberman with the murders of six of the

1:12:24

women they've been able to link to him. What about

1:12:26

the others? Did Huberman kill

1:12:29

Karen Vergada? He has not

1:12:31

been charged in her murder, but the circumstances

1:12:33

of the last part of her life and

1:12:35

her death and disposal certainly mirror those of

1:12:37

other known victims. Police have

1:12:39

indicated that Karen is considered one of

1:12:41

the victims attributed to the Lisk, but

1:12:44

they have yet to charge Huberman in her murder. Perhaps

1:12:46

they lack any forensic evidence that links him

1:12:49

definitively to her slaying, or perhaps

1:12:51

they're still working on it. But

1:12:53

there is one witness who has alleged that

1:12:55

she believes she saw Karen Vergada in the

1:12:57

company of Rex Huberman. The

1:12:59

unnamed 54-year-old woman recently signed an

1:13:01

affidavit to the Gilbert family attorney

1:13:03

John Ray that states the following,

1:13:06

quote, I believe that great harm

1:13:08

came to that woman I believe to have

1:13:10

been Karen Vergada when she was at the

1:13:12

Huberman home in Massapequa Park, New York, on

1:13:15

or about Valentine's Day in 1996, end

1:13:17

quote. The witness's

1:13:19

affidavit details what she says happened in

1:13:22

early 1996. She was

1:13:24

dating a New York City police officer whose

1:13:26

initials are R.W. He soon became a detective

1:13:28

on the force. The two were

1:13:30

swingers and frequented a 300 plus member

1:13:32

swingers club known as Trapeze in

1:13:35

lower Midtown Manhattan. Members

1:13:37

would post contact information on a wall at

1:13:39

the club to invite hookups, quote,

1:13:41

from the affidavit. Either Rex Huberman or

1:13:43

his wife, Asa, posted contact information for

1:13:46

them in a house in Massapequa Park

1:13:48

to engage in swing or sex in

1:13:50

1996. I and R.W. chose to go

1:13:52

there to the Huberman home in February

1:13:56

1996. R.W. picked up a woman I believe to

1:13:59

be Karen Vergada in New York. York City on

1:14:01

the way to the Huberman house. She was hungry

1:14:03

and homeless. She sat in the back of the

1:14:05

car. When we stopped for gas she said

1:14:07

she was scared. I told her not to be scared

1:14:09

because RW was a cop. We entered

1:14:12

the Huberman home, it was in the night, inside

1:14:14

the house, it was dark. The

1:14:17

affiant goes on to detail that the woman

1:14:19

she believes was Karen went downstairs while she

1:14:21

herself stayed upstairs with Huberman's wife Asa. She

1:14:24

did not know where RW went during that

1:14:26

time. Quote, Asa told me words to the

1:14:28

effect that Rex brought her from her country

1:14:30

and that everything she has he has given

1:14:32

to her. She said that she was

1:14:34

lucky he was rich. She said she was also afraid

1:14:37

of Rex. I do not know if she was being

1:14:39

truthful. End quote. As she and RW

1:14:41

were leaving, the woman she believed to be Karen

1:14:43

suddenly ran outside naked and ran by the garage.

1:14:46

Quote, RW told me not to worry about

1:14:48

her that she was okay. They were only

1:14:50

playing a game. We left without her. I

1:14:52

felt uneasy. The

1:14:55

affiant said she came forward because she saw Rex

1:14:57

Huberman on TV recently and also saw a picture

1:15:00

of Karen Vergada and recognized her as the woman

1:15:02

whom they had brought with them to Huberman's home.

1:15:05

She said quote, I was shocked and deeply

1:15:07

sorrowful for having left her behind a Huberman's

1:15:09

house. In

1:15:11

October 2023, John Ray, the attorney

1:15:13

who represents the family of Shannon

1:15:15

Gilbert, released this affidavit as supporting

1:15:17

evidence that Huberman killed Karen Vergada.

1:15:20

Ray has been trying to convince Suffolk

1:15:22

County authorities that Shannon Gilbert, the sex

1:15:24

worker who disappeared after running away and

1:15:26

calling 911 in Obiech, is a LISC

1:15:28

victim. We

1:15:31

know there are some inconsistencies presented by this

1:15:33

witness statement. Every single murder that

1:15:35

Huberman has been charged with, the police have connected

1:15:37

to a period in time when his wife was

1:15:39

out of town or he was living alone. Here,

1:15:42

the affiant alleges that Asa was home and

1:15:44

was involved in swinging with her husband. We

1:15:47

don't know if what this woman alleges was true

1:15:49

at all, but it does not rule out that

1:15:51

Karen Vergada was Huberman's victim. First

1:15:55

of all, we know that Karen Vergada got out

1:15:57

of jail right around Valentine's Day of 1996. which

1:16:00

is right around when this is all alleged to

1:16:02

have happened. We know that Huberman

1:16:04

contacted a number of his victims more than once

1:16:07

and met with them more than once. Perhaps

1:16:09

Karen got comfortable with him and being in

1:16:11

his house and he lured her back to

1:16:13

his home later when his wife went on

1:16:15

vacation with their kids. I

1:16:18

personally think that the circumstances of Karen's death

1:16:20

and disposal are too similar to some of

1:16:22

Huberman's other victims for it to be a

1:16:24

coincidence. And now we know based

1:16:26

on Sandra Costilla that he was killing back in the

1:16:28

1990s, when Karen died

1:16:30

violently at the hands of someone else. What

1:16:34

about Valerie Mack? Suffolk County

1:16:36

Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told Newsday that

1:16:38

he had assigned additional task force investigators

1:16:41

to the Mack and Vergotta cases. Newsday

1:16:43

reports, quote, officials also linked the death

1:16:46

of Valerie Mack, another Gilgal Beach victim,

1:16:48

for the first time to Huberman. Although

1:16:51

the former Manhattan architect has not been charged

1:16:53

with the death of Mack, whose body was

1:16:55

found in Gilgal Beach, prosecutors indicated

1:16:57

in court documents that her manner of

1:16:59

death was similar to Sandra Costilla and

1:17:02

Jessica Taylor's, end quote. Valerie

1:17:05

Mack's body was dumped close to Mill Road,

1:17:07

which is mentioned as a dump site in

1:17:09

the planning document on Huberman's computer. DA

1:17:11

Ray Tierney has stated publicly that Rex

1:17:13

Huberman is a suspect in Valerie's murder

1:17:16

and that the team is working to

1:17:18

put together their case. We're not

1:17:20

going to stop, he said. We can't stop, we owe

1:17:22

that to the victims. Whatever we need

1:17:24

to do, we're going to do it. Even

1:17:28

farther behind and being linked to Huberman are

1:17:30

the three victims who remain unidentified. They

1:17:32

are the Asian male and Peaches and her baby.

1:17:35

We don't know if these homicide victims are connected

1:17:37

to Huberman or not. The first priority remains figuring

1:17:39

out who they are. In

1:17:41

2022, the FBI hit a wall with

1:17:44

the forensic genealogy they had undertaken to

1:17:46

try to identify Peaches. They

1:17:48

released a photo of her tattoo and asked for the

1:17:50

public's help in naming her. In

1:17:52

2022, the Mobile Alabama Police Department posted

1:17:55

on Facebook, quote, the FBI is seeking

1:17:57

relatives and friends of a local police

1:17:59

officer. Elijah Leige Howell, or Howard, 1927

1:18:02

to 1963. Mr.

1:18:05

Howard lived in Pritchard, Alabama with his

1:18:07

wife, Carrie, and passed away in Mobile,

1:18:09

Alabama in 1963 with

1:18:12

Ms. Lily Way-Magan's Packer. His

1:18:14

relatives may be able to assist in the case

1:18:16

of a woman and child found in another state.

1:18:19

If anyone has any information, please call 1-800-FBI or

1:18:24

www.tips.fbi.gov. So

1:18:28

as you can hear, the massive case against Hooriman

1:18:30

is developing. No one thinks it will go to

1:18:32

trial in 2024. Investigators

1:18:34

are still gathering and testing evidence.

1:18:36

For example, investigators recently again searched

1:18:38

his home and they also seized

1:18:40

a dark green Chevy Avalanche he owned at the

1:18:42

time the Gilgal Four were killed. He

1:18:45

had transferred title to his brother Craig in South

1:18:47

Carolina in 2012. That

1:18:49

truck had to be examined with a fine-tooth comb. And

1:18:52

of course, other victims may be revealed. The

1:18:54

charges against Hooriman are all allegations at this

1:18:56

point. He's entitled to a vigorous defense on

1:18:58

his day in court. But

1:19:00

from what I've seen, the evidence against him

1:19:02

is overwhelming. It's horrifying to

1:19:05

think of the numbers of lives this man

1:19:07

ended and unbearable to consider the pain and

1:19:09

suffering he inflicted on his prey and their

1:19:11

family members. Many of

1:19:13

the killers I cover on this show turn

1:19:15

out to be banal, the murders that commit

1:19:17

the result of some kind of base animalistic

1:19:19

impulse. Dumb luck prevented their discovery. Hooriman

1:19:22

is different. He is a true

1:19:24

serial killer. With all the

1:19:26

connotations of those words, methodical,

1:19:28

organized, targeted, cunning,

1:19:31

sadistic, narcissistic, prolific.

1:19:33

In other words, the stuff nightmares are made of.

1:19:36

After he was arrested, he reportedly inquired whether

1:19:39

his arrest was making headlines. He thrives on

1:19:41

this. May all his

1:19:43

victims, however many there may be, and

1:19:45

police are conducting searches on and

1:19:47

around a property he owns with his brother in

1:19:50

Chester County, South Carolina, and are investigating trips Hooriman

1:19:52

made in New Jersey and Las Vegas, rest

1:19:54

in peace. This will

1:19:56

be the final DNA ID episode. before

1:20:00

my summer break. The show will be back in mid-August.

1:20:02

I'm taking some time to stand with my family, but

1:20:04

I also need time to prepare episodes to air in

1:20:06

late summer and fall of 2024. In

1:20:09

the meantime, if you're one of the bad guys,

1:20:12

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