Right now, 60-year-old Rex Heuermann is sitting in a 60 square foot prison cell in Long Island, not far from where the bodies of his six alleged victims were found.
There are five more bodies police are yet to lay charges over, but as investigative journalist Alexis Linkletter, who has been covering this case closely told Mamamia's True Crime Conversations, "we expect he will be charged with every victim".
Heuermann was supposed to be going to trial in September 2024, but that keeps being pushed back.
There are too many ongoing investigations.
LISTEN: On True Crime Conversations we delve into the case. Post continues after podcast.
For 12 years, police knew they were hunting the 'Long Island Serial Killer', but it turns out the clues were under their nose the whole time.
Heuermann was arrested in July 2023, a year after a new taskforce was called in to tackle the case. As it turns out, some corruption in the local force likely contributed to leads not being followed a decade ago.
In 2011, the bodies of five women were found near Gilgo Beach on Long Island.
All were escorts in their 20s, and at least four of them were murdered. The fifth, police say, died by misadventure, but Shannan Gilbert's family isn't convinced. Gilbert was the reason police were searching the area in the first place, after a frantic 911 call in which she repeatedly told an operator "there's somebody after me".
There was no doubt, however, about the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, Megan Waterman and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who went missing between 2007 and 2010. They were all found strangled, and it was Costello's roommate who gave a clue that could've led police to Heuermann long before he was finally caught.