True Crime NYC

Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has been charged in the death of a seventh woman. Heuermann is charged with one count of second-degree murder in connection with the murder of Valerie Mack, according to a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday. Mack, whose remains were first found on Long Island in 2000. Mack, 24, had been working as an escort in Philadelphia and was last seen by her family that year in New Jersey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Even though there has been an arrest in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, investigators are still trying to solve cold-case murders and authorities are asking for the public's help. On Monday, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney released three new updated sketches of a Gilgo Beach victim. The Asian male victim's remains were recovered along Ocean Parkway in April 2011. However, authorities say he was killed during or prior to 2006. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Suffolk County prosecutors have received some 7,000 tips following the arrest of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, district attorney Ray Tierney said after his latest court appearance. Prosecutors turned over "voluminous" evidence to Heuermann's defense, including results from DNA lab work, data from Heuermann's electronic devices, and notes from searches of his home. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to killing multiple women. No trial date has been set. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rex Heuermann, the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer charged in six killings is now being eyed by investigators for even more, nearly one year to the day that the Manhattan architect, husband, and father of two was arrested. Heuermann's adult children - and his now-estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, showed support at court. Robert Macedonio, Asa's attorney, talked with Eyewitness News reporter, Chantee Lans, about what the past year has been like for the family. "Complete shock. The world was turned upside-down in the last year." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Disturbing new details have emerged in the Gilgo Beach serial killings as Rex Heuermann, 60, was charged in two additional women. The new charges also significantly expand the timeline in the Gilgo Beach case, with the first murder Heuermann is accused of committing now taking place in 1993. Prosecutors also revealed disturbing "planning" documents that they allege the suspect used in his killings and disposal of the victims. The architect and father allegedly "meticulously planned and executed six separate murders," Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said at a news conference Thursday. Heuermann appeared before a judge on Long Island to face charges in the killings of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla, two young women who were long suspected of being the victims of men preying on sex workers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is expected to be charged this week with an additional murder, according to Newsday. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to killing four women -- Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes - whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach along Ocean Parkway. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declined to comment. Word of the new indictment follows searches by the Gilgo Beach Task Force at Heuermann's Massapequa Park home and a wooded area of Manorville where the remains of two women were previously found. Heuermann had been scheduled to appear in court on June 18 but is now expected to be arraigned on the new charge on Thursday, June 6, 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The former executive assistant of accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann is speaking for the first time exclusively with Eyewitness News. Donna Sturman told investigative reporter Kristin Thorne she still has not gotten over the shock of the claims made against her former boss. "It's traumatizing," she said. "It's so unbelievable." Sturman worked for Heuermann from 2017 to 2018 at his architectural office in Midtown. She said the irony is not lost on her that it was DNA from a discarded piece of pizza crust that prosecutors have used to tie Heuermann to the Gilgo Beach murders. He has plead not guilty to all the charges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

"Rex Heuermann is everything we've been led to believe would be the guy," said reporter Josh Einiger. "He's kind of a loner. He's kind of antisocial. His house is different from every other house on that block. It's sort of a mess. He works in the city. He has a job, where he's very technical, where he's an architect and engineer." The amazing details of the investigation that finally collared a suspect in the longtime cold case. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On July 13, 2023, police finally made an arrest in the Gilgo Beach murder case. "This was an earthquake in Massapequa Park. This was a storm like they had never expected this," recalled Eyewitness News reporter Stacey Sager. Rex Heuermann was arrested in Midtown Manhattan. He was initially charged in the deaths of Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Melissa Barthelemy. Investigators also named him as the prime suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eyewitness News got an alert that Suffolk County police were going to release surveillance video of Megan Waterman leaving a hotel in Hauppauge -- the last place she was seen. "As reporters were thinking, again, why do this now?" recalled Kristin Thorne. "They've had this video for so many years -- why now? And they said they want to keep the case going." Then on May 9, 2022, Suffolk County Police released a 22-minute 911 phone call from Shannan Gilbert the night she disappeared in 2010. "The 911 tape was sort of as advertised," said Einiger. "It was Shannan Gilbert sounding terrified running for her life." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In December 2015, the FBI joined the investigation. Why did that collaboration not happen for so many years? "It didn't happen because of politics. We had a police chief in Suffolk County, as well as a DA, that did not seem open to FBI involvement," recalled Kristin Thorne. On Jan. 16, 2020, police released photos of a belt imprinted with the letters "H-M" or "M-H" to the public. Police say they believe the belt was handled by the suspect. Two years later, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison announced a new task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach murders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a year and a half of searching, investigators found the skeletal remains of Shannan Gilbert on Gilgo Beach. "What was the ultimate stunner in all of this is that they believed -- and still do believe -- that Shannan Gilbert was not murdered. That Shannan Gilbert died in an accidental drowning," recalled reporter Josh Einiger. A few years later, Shannan Gilbert's mother, Mari Gilbert, who is credited for the discovery of the Gilgo bodies because of how she pushed for her daughter's search, is found stabbed to death in her apartment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investigators had found 10 bodies and identified five of them, but they were still searching for Shannan Gilbert. "This investigation started because Shannan Gilbert disappeared," said reporter Kristin Thorne. "It wasn't until Shannan Gilbert disappeared that her family started to hold police accountable and say -- you have to get out there and try to find Shannan Gilbert." Investigators found a cell phone, lip gloss, shoes, and a pocketbook they say belonged to Shannan Gilbert on Gilgo Beach. Yet they did not believe her death was related to the 10 bodies they found in the area. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Investigators continued to find more bodies, but the remains differed from those of the "Gilgo Four". Police found three more victims in the area between Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach, bringing the total count of victims to eight. Investigators identified the victims as Jane Doe Number 6, a baby girl and an Asian man. Investigators then say they believe they are looking for three, if not four, killers. "This is around the time that it got complicated to tell this story," reporter Josh Einiger recalled. We shed light on this complex stage of the story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Shannan Gilbert's disappearance in 2010 sparked the discovery of 11 bodies on and near Gilgo Beach on Long Island. "One of the most significant things I've ever heard at any kind of public official say, I think it was the first full day after that first report that we did," recalled Einiger. "There was a press conference with the man who was then the police commissioner. And he said something that to this day, I remember everything about what he said and how he said it." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It began on a regular garden variety day in December, when Eyewitness News reporter Josh Einiger and his photographer, Tony Saturno, were covering stories in Suffolk County. "We were on our way back and we got a call from the desk - saying 'there's a crime scene, there's a maybe body discovered', way down south on Ocean Parkway. Go check it out," Einiger said. When they arrived at the scene, it was cold and pitch black. There were four crime scenes along the beach and spotlights set up. "It was clear at that point that it was something," recalled Einiger. Nobody quite understood it was something that we'd be talking about over a decade later. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few situations exist in which one can draw a parallel to the men and women who lost their lives on 9/11. But, retired NYPD detective Michael Prate said one does stick out in his mind - the murder of Henryk Siwiak in Brooklyn during the last few minutes of that tragic day. Siwiak, 46, a recent Polish immigrant, was supposed to be at his first night at a new job at a grocery store in Brooklyn. He got on the A train and that's where he made a fatal error. If you know anything about the murder of Henryk Siwiak, call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Investigators unravel a murder-for-hire plot to kill a well-known mob associate, Sylvester Zottola, in New York City. They found a key piece of evidence under the hood of Zottola's car. That piece of evidence, along with cell phone text messages, led them to who killed the mob associate and why. This is Part 4 of a four-episode murder mystery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Someone tried to kill mob associate Sylvester Zottola not just once or twice, but at least six different times. Almost all of the vicious attempts were captured on camera. He survived a beating, a shooting, and a throat slashing, only to be murdered doing something he did routinely every day. To his dying day, the father of three never suspected who was trying to kill him all along. This is Part 3 of a four-episode murder mystery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Someone tried to kill mob associate Sylvester Zottola not just once or twice, but at least six different times. Almost all of the vicious attempts were captured on camera. He survived a beating, a shooting, and a throat slashing, only to be murdered doing something he did routinely every day. This is Part 2 of a four-episode murder mystery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Someone tried to kill mob associate Sylvester Zottola not just once or twice, but at least six different times. Almost all of the vicious attempts were captured on camera. He survived a beating, a shooting, and a throat slashing, only to be murdered doing something he did routinely every day. This is Part I of a four-episode murder mystery. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An 83-year-old was caught on camera shopping in a motorized scooter with something unusual - a woman's severed leg. Harvey Marcelin is accused of killing her, cutting up her body, and dropping off parts across New York City. But it's not the first time Marcelin has been accused of murder. Marcelin was convicted of killing a girlfriend in 1963, and another girlfriend in 1985. After getting released from prison a second time, Marcelin is accused of striking again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An 83-year-old was caught on camera shopping in a motorized scooter with something unusual - a woman's severed leg. Harvey Marcelin is accused of killing her, cutting up her body, and dropping off parts across New York City. But it's not the first time Marcelin has been accused of murder. Marcelin was convicted of killing a girlfriend in 1963, and another girlfriend in 1985. After getting released from prison a second time, Marcelin is accused of striking again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Across the United States, thousands of unidentified human remains sit in local medical examiner's offices. Some of the remains are corpses - some are only bones, skeletons. In many cases, it's clear the people were murdered, but without knowing their identities their killers cannot be held accountable. Their murderers walk among us because their victims remain nameless. Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne works with the forensic anthropology team at the New York City Medical Examiner's Office to try to help identify the remains of a teenager who was stabbed to death, a woman who was buried in concrete, and others. If you recognize any of the individuals featured in this story, call 212-447-2030. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A non-profit from Oregon that specializes in finding missing people has come to Westchester to search for a mother and her two children who disappeared in 1977. Doug Bishop, with United Search Corps, heard about the case of Leslie Guthrie and Julie, 6, and Timmy, 3, who disappeared from Katonah 47 years ago. "Everything points to in this case it simply being an accident," Bishop said. Police said on February 5, 1977, Leslie drove away with her two children from her house in Katonah and was never seen again. Leslie's husband, Tim Guthrie, said he buckled his kids in the backseat and waved goodbye. "I helped her put the kids in the car and they drove off and that was the last I saw them," he said. "I always think of them and where they are." Bishop's theory - a theory that law enforcement has also long believed - is that Leslie's car is in one of the many bodies of water in and around Katonah. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a snowy day in February 1977, Leslie Guthrie left her home in suburban New York in a car with her two small children. They were never seen again. Leslie's family says just before they disappeared, Leslie was having marital problems. Could Leslie have taken Julie, 6, and Timmy, 3, and started a new life? Could they have joined a cult -- something Leslie had been reading into? Could their car have gone off the road and sunk deep to the bottom of one of the many murky bodies of water surrounding her house in Katonah? Leslie's family and Tim Guthrie Sr., Leslie's husband, have gone in circles for 46 years trying to answer those questions. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Leslie Guthrie has a strawberry birthmark on her chin and on her back. They were last seen driving a green 1974 Ford Maverick with a white roof and the New York State license plate 636-WNA. Can Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne help the family zero in on one of the theories and lead them to Leslie, Julie, and Timmy? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kassandra Ramirez was a 25-year-old aspiring chef who disappeared from the Bronx in September 2018. Her family says one week before Kassandra disappeared she testified to a grand jury that she was raped by a family friend a few months before. Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne hit the streets of the Bronx to try to get answers for Kassandra's family only to find that the biggest clues in her disappearance could be not only on Long Island, but 1,200 miles away in Kansas. If you know anything about the disappearance of Ramirez, call the NYPD Missing Persons Squad at 212-694-7781. All tips can be kept anonymous. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the last phone calls William "Billy" Smolinski made before disappearing in Connecticut back in August 2004 was to a man who was also romantically involved with a woman Billy had been dating. Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne steps in to help. Kristin finds that the puzzle pieces lie across Connecticut -- witnesses who saw strange things happen at the time of Billy's disappearance. For instance, a young girl said she saw men in the woods carrying what she believed to be a body; a woman saw a white truck matching Billy's in the woods behind her house; and a group of 20-year-olds hanging out in a parking lot late at night saw a man walk into a deserted driving range carrying large bags. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the last phone calls William "Billy" Smolinski made before disappearing in Connecticut back in August 2004 was to a man who was also romantically involved with a woman Billy had been dating. Billy left a voicemail telling the man to "watch his back." Police believe Billy was murdered, but by whom? And where is his body? Billy's heartbroken parents have been trying to find him for two decades. Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne steps in to help. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of 'Missing', Eyewitness News Investigative Reporter Kristin Thorne profiles a young mother, Chelsea Michelle Cobo, who vanished from Brooklyn in 2016. For almost six years, Chelsea's desperate mother, Rose, has been doing everything she can to find her, uncovering her daughter's darkest secrets, imperiling her own safety to get answers from people who don't want to talk, and holding the NYPD and the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office accountable. This is the story of a mother's relentless quest to piece together the twisted puzzle of her daughter's disappearance, a woman who is ready to follow the leads wherever they may take her. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the new episode of "Missing," Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne examines the disappearance of Corinna Paige Slusser, who went from small-town Pennsylvania cheerleader to sex-trafficked 'hostage' in New York City, where she vanished almost half a decade ago. According to police, someone reported seeing Slusser leaving the Haven Motel on Woodhaven Boulevard in Rego Park, Queens early one September morning in 2017. She has never been seen again. This is the story of a heartbroken mother's determined search for her daughter, along the way confronting dangerous pimps, mysterious extortion attempts, and confounding clues on social media in her quest for answers. Is Slusser still alive, trapped in a sex-trafficking nightmare? Her mother, Sabina Tuorto, is hoping this investigation will help her find out what happened to her daughter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Oct. 24, 1978, Ethel Louise Atwell of Newark, went to work on Staten Island and never returned home. It was dark - around 6 a.m. - when she arrived at her job as a nurse aide at the Staten Island Developmental Center on the grounds of the former Willowbrook State School. Workers heard the 46-year-old scream from the parking lot. By the time police arrived, Ethel had disappeared, but they found her purse, buttons from her coat, her dentures, and one of her shoes just outside her parked car. Her keys were found in the woods. Police and volunteers scoured the 300-acre property for days -- her sons looked for her in the woods for months -- but no one found any evidence of Ethel. In August 1978, only two months before Ethel's disappearance, another nurse was found buried in a shallow grave not far from where Ethel parked her car. Several children also disappeared from Staten Island in the 1970's and 1980's. Could Ethel's disappearance be linked to these other cases? For more than four decades, Ethel's family, including her four sons, has been haunted by the questions of who abducted her and why. Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne returns to the woods with her family and tries to uncover clues in this terrifying cold case in the latest episode of "Missing." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The disappearance of Dr. Sneha Anne Philip has never been covered on a podcast - until now. The basic details of her disappearance - that she was last seen on September 10, 2001 shopping at a department store in lower Manhattan - have been reported. However, lots of people who have read about her story studied her case, or who knew her have been skeptical about whether she died in the 9/11 attacks. It was a question from a Redditor on a recent AMA (Ask Me Anything) that Kristin Thorne hosted that got us thinking here at "Missing" about Sneha's case. In this episode of "Missing," we take a deeper look at Sneha's life and whether it's possible that she did not die in the 9/11 attacks as determined by only the New York courts - not by the NYPD, not by the family's private investigator and not by witnesses. Did something happen to the 31-year-old doctor the night before the event that changed the course of history? Is it possible that Sneha is still alive? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the morning of March 18, 1999, teenager Leanne Marie Hausberg disappeared into thin air. The 14-year-old left her family's apartment in Brooklyn and has never been heard from again. For almost 23 years, Leanne's family has lived with the agony of not knowing what happened to her. I hope that by bringing their emotional story to the world, people will try to find Leanne or - at the very least - come forward with information they may have about where she went or who she was with when she disappeared. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the 'True Crime NYC' podcast and our series 'Missing' which tells the stories of missing people who never got the coverage they deserved. Every single victim and every single family deserves justice -- and that's the mission of this series. It all began on Sept. 13, 2021, the first day Channel 7 Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne covered the disappearance of Gabby Petito and met with her distraught parents on Long Island. The story consumed the next two months of her life. Throughout this time, she spoke routinely with Gabby's father, Joseph Petito. Most of what they spoke about, she has never reported, but one thing he made clear to her is that he wanted the media to cover other missing people. He said they deserved attention, too, and he was right. Kristin started to look at databases of missing people and as she scrolled through the hundreds of faces, she thought about not only those people but their families and friends and the ripple effect of pain that is caused when they disappeared. She thought, "Maybe I can help?" Now, with the "Missing" series - a part of the 'True Crime NYC' podcast - she is shining a light on victims that might have previously been overlooked in the hopes that the exposure will lead to new clues, and more families and loved ones finding justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The biggest city in America is home to some of the most sinister crimes. In the new podcast “True Crime NYC,” ABC7 Eyewitness News in New York unravels some of the most ghoulish stories in the Big Apple and exposes the shocking twists and turns. They include: A mobster eludes a series of astonishing assassination attempts – until his luck runs out in a fast-food drive-thru lane. A senior citizen is accused of being a serial killer. A seaside dumping ground for bodies – and how the alleged serial killer behind it was caught. People who vanish without a trace – and the pain of loved ones hoping for answers. These are but some of the stories “True Crime NYC” will showcase, bringing you new interviews to reveal what it takes to investigate – and crack – these cases. Follow “True Crime NYC” for chilling new stories weekly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices