The Lost Girls of Ocean Parkway: The Gilgo Beach Killer

About this episode

This episode discusses the resolution of the Gilgo Beach case and the long history of the investigation into the murders of eight women on Long Island.

**This episode is unedited On April 8th, 2026, Rex Heuermann, a 62-year-old Manhattan architect, husband, and father from Massapequa Park, pleaded guilty to murdering eight women on Long Island over a 17-year span. The Gilgo Beach case, one of the longest-running unsolved serial murder investigations in American history, is finally closed. This episode is about how it stayed open for 30 years. It's about Sandra Costilla, killed in 1993 and uncharged for three decades. About Karen Vergata, cataloged as Jane Doe Number 7 until 2022. About Melissa Barthelemy's 15-year-old sister, who got phone calls from Melissa's killer for five weeks after she disappeared. About the Suffolk County Police Department leadership that refused FBI help for over a decade because the chief of police was running his own federal cover-up. About a planning document recovered from a deleted hard drive, a basement vault containing 279 firearms, and a piece of pizza crust pulled from a Manhattan trash can that finally cracked the case open. -------------------- Keywords: Gilgo Beach Killer, Rex Heuermann, Long Island Serial Killer, Gilgo Beach murders, Rex Heuermann guilty plea, Long Island murders, Shannan…

People in this episode

Host: We Saw the Devil

Topics covered

• Gilgo Beach murders
• serial killer investigation
• true crime
• law enforcement
• unsolved cases
• murder
• criminal justice

Keywords

• Gilgo Beach Killer
• Rex Heuermann
• Long Island Serial Killer
• Gilgo Beach murders
• true crime podcast
• serial killer podcast
• Suffolk County murders
• Lost Girls

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Suffolk County Police Department

Books & works: We Saw the Devil podcast

Places: Long Island, Massapequa Park

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