Gilgo Beach LISK Serial Killer, Rex Heuermann, charged with 3 murders, July 2023 #7

[investigatefred]

I think it was a legitimate question, and certainly not meant to gawk at the family, nor victim blame.

After seeing the original question, "Why would the adult children need an attorney?", it prompted me to do a bit of googling.

In most states, there is no parent-child priviledge if one is called to testify against the other.

Only a few states recognize some form of parent-child privilege -- Connecticut, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota (by statute) and New York (by judicial ruling).

So, it is possible and now makes sense that this would likely be one of many reasons why the adult children have retained an attorney. JMO.


Exerpt BBM from:

https://practice.findlaw.com/practice-guide/is-there-a-parent-child-evidentiary-privilege-.html

 

[Yemelyan]

I can't be the only one who is confused by some of the info we're getting from LE, can I ?

1. Why did every prior source we had (family, msm, etc.) say that Megan left her cell phone in her room ? But LE tells us her phone pinged in Massapequa ?

2. We know that Dave Schaller didn't see the vehicle Amber got into on the night she disappeared. Dave himself said so, and continues to say so. So who actually identified RH's car as the vehicle Amber left in the night she disappeared ?

3. If RH was the customer Amber and Dave ripped off the night before Amber disappeared, why on earth would she book a second date with him the following night and NOT bring a phone ? In fact, why would she book a date with him at all ?

4. Why would LE indicate that they were coming out with the info about Vergata because they had already contacted her family members, and yet, her 2 grown sons were apparently clueless.

Not criticizing LE here, just saying that a lot of this just doesn't make sense to me.

I agree that there are some things that seem different than what we've heard. I usually go back to Kolker's book to see if it sheds any lights on things that don't seem to make sense.

1. Kolker's book seems to indicate that Megan took her phone with her the night she disappeared (I agree that other sources seem to say a cellphone was still in the room). Page 222 quotes her boyfriend/pimp Vybe calling a friend to say that Megan was missing: "I've been to the hotel, she's not there, her phone's not there." Page 358 quotes her mother Lorraine saying "Megan's (phone) hasn't been found neither." Is it possible that Megan had more than one cell phone, that she was using to place multiple ads? Thinking here about the same book saying Shannan Gilbert had five cellphones..

2. I think it's possible LE have a different witness id'ing the car from the night Amber disappeared (possibly a neighbor?) since DS's info about it definitely comes from the night of the ruse.

3. Again from page 358 of "Lost Girls" where the surviving family discuss the cellphones, Amber's sister Kim says that "My sister had her phone...but four other people worked off of that phone too. After my sister went missing, there were still phone calls with girls using her ad. You just can't go off phone records, at least not my sister's." So possibly Amber did take a phone with her that night.

As to why she went with him, having pulled the ruse on him the night before, I think it was a combination of desperate need for money and an addict's poor judgment. The book describes Amber as "never sober," having a several hundred dollar per day heroin habit, and also being the "main economic engine" of the house, who supported three other active addicts with her sex work. The book said she usually brought in $1000 per day and all of it went back out to pay for drugs. I think she set caution aside in order to make what she felt she needed to survive. I agree it doesn't make "sense," but I feel like she was putting money above any sense of danger.

 

[Vern]

I’d agree, except that to PAY someone you have to have money.

The idea that the wife was on food stamps, while he was a well-regarded architect working with many city agencies, suggests to me that he kept her in poverty somehow.

Her living in that dilapidated house while they had property in other states is IMO also persuasive that he kept her on a tight leash.

In NY she would’ve not been eligible for food stamps based on her husband’s salary and the ownership of a condo or timeshare in Vegas, along with the South Carolina property. I’m wondering how that happened.

Jmo

Their son is a disabled adult and lives in the home and I am unsure if he is able to work/live on his own; perhaps it is he who receives this support?

 

[Vern]

I've wondered about that too.

Others have mentioned the possibility of them having to be questionned and/or testify, but I have a couple other reasosn that I can think of:

Daughter - was employed in RHs business. She and her income are directly impacted by his actions as are all of his other employees. She may also be looking to protect any intersts she can on this front (pension, 401K etc)??

Son - a disabled adult living within the home. If he is incapable of working and/or living on his own, he also has a direct requirement in having his interests protected (and Mom's too!) by ensuring that the home/financials are not just split 50/50 in any divorce, but that court considers that RH would have a continuing obligation, post-divorce, to help support him via a portion of RH's cut of the pie. I've no doubt that Mom will continue to care for her son - it takes money to house, feed, clothe etc so fight for the entire house and her 50% financial and a % financial for the son too. He needs a non-conflicted advocate in this and I am glad he has one.

 

[FromGermany1]

I wondered about that, also. But I do remember reading somewhere in MSM that AE's sister stated that this was overwhelming for their 90-something aged father, so the sister may have been staying with him trying to help him deal with the situation. And maybe AE and her two adult children moving into the father's home nearby was just too much, so they went back and forth. Just speculating.

Sad, either way, and they likely didn't have the money for both a rental car and a hotel, so chose the former so they could be mobile. Again, just speculating.

The sister is an author of at least 4 books, besides her pharmacist job, and is living with her old father. I saw it on a site re her books, I think.
Certainly it is too much for him to have these 3 family members of RH with their many problems around him, apart from accommodation difficulties.
If their relationship to each other didn't exist, then these new findings (RH = SK) definitely don't help. IMO

 

[kittythehare]

Well, because it's the smartest thing to do. They have no idea what kinds of challenges they'll be faced with (legal and otherwise). I find it really troubling that there's so much picking apart of his family- by all accounts so far they are victims too and had nothing to do with what their father is accused of. It's nobody's

I'm also very uncomfortable with it.
I feel compassion for them and I hope they are guided to do the right thing for them.

But there are still victims out there and more questions than answers.

I believe they are the priority.

 

[kittythehare]

I agree that there are some things that seem different than what we've heard. I usually go back to Kolker's book to see if it sheds any lights on things that don't seem to make sense.

1. Kolker's book seems to indicate that Megan took her phone with her the night she disappeared (I agree that other sources seem to say a cellphone was still in the room). Page 222 quotes her boyfriend/pimp Vybe calling a friend to say that Megan was missing: "I've been to the hotel, she's not there, her phone's not there." Page 358 quotes her mother Lorraine saying "Megan's (phone) hasn't been found neither." Is it possible that Megan had more than one cell phone, that she was using to place multiple ads? Thinking here about the same book saying Shannan Gilbert had five cellphones..

2. I think it's possible LE have a different witness id'ing the car from the night Amber disappeared (possibly a neighbor?) since DS's info about it definitely comes from the night of the ruse.

3. Again from page 358 of "Lost Girls" where the surviving family discuss the cellphones, Amber's sister Kim says that "My sister had her phone...but four other people worked off of that phone too. After my sister went missing, there were still phone calls with girls using her ad. You just can't go off phone records, at least not my sister's." So possibly Amber did take a phone with her that night.

As to why she went with him, having pulled the ruse on him the night before, I think it was a combination of desperate need for money and an addict's poor judgment. The book describes Amber as "never sober," having a several hundred dollar per day heroin habit, and also being the "main economic engine" of the house, who supported three other active addicts with her sex work. The book said she usually brought in $1000 per day and all of it went back out to pay for drugs. I think she set caution aside in order to make what she felt she needed to survive. I agree it doesn't make "sense," but I feel like she was putting money above any sense of danger.

How reliable is Kolker?
I've not read the book.

 

[Yemelyan]

How reliable is Kolker?
I've not read the book.

Personally, I consider him and the book to be extremely reliable because he is not just a person who decided to write a book about true crime, he's a former contributing editor at New York Times Magazine and a former investigations reporter for Bloomberg. He's won awards for his journalism including the 2011 Harry Frank Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Reporting, which is given by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He's also a National Magazine Award finalist. Robert Kolker | Penguin Random House

So could he have gotten some details wrong? Sure, maybe...but if his info in the book dovetails with what LE are now saying in the investigation, then I think I have to accept that some of the other sources over the years have perhaps been wrong or at least not the full story.

 

[Elley Mae]

Neighbors saw less of Heuermann’s son, whom some sources suggested was his stepson.

Everything we know about family of ‘quiet’ Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann

Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann is a twice-married architect quietly raising two children — including a son with special needs — in the ramshackle Long Island home he grew up i…

nypost.com

…
Read last two paragraphs.

Gilgo suspect Rex Heuermann was loner who ‘really scared’ peers, ex-classmates say

“He was everybody’s punching bag,” one former classmate said of Rex Heuermann, who graduated from Berner High School in 1981.

nypost.com

…

Mr Heuermann’s DNA was found on one of the victims, while his wife’s hair was found on three of the four women he is connected to.

Sons of newly-identified Gilgo Beach murder victim ‘weren’t warned by police’

Long Island police on Friday identified the victim previously known only as Jane Doe 7

www.independent.co.uk

 

[iamshadow21]

How reliable is Kolker?
I've not read the book.

It's an excellent book, and from what I've read about the case, very reliable. He has a gift for humanising people without turning them into caricatures or glossing over their faults or failings. He talked to as many people as he could who knew the girls, especially their families and friends. He shows this gift equally well with his book Hidden Valley Road, which is about a family with an incredibly high incidence of schizophrenia (six of twelve children). Both are books with sharp, unforgiving realities which can be difficult to read about without heartache, but you never forget the people in them are real, not characters.

MOO

 

[DetectiveDraper]

Neighbors saw less of Heuermann’s son, whom some sources suggested was his stepson.

Everything we know about family of ‘quiet’ Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann

Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann is a twice-married architect quietly raising two children — including a son with special needs — in the ramshackle Long Island home he grew up i…

nypost.com

…
Read last two paragraphs.

Gilgo suspect Rex Heuermann was loner who ‘really scared’ peers, ex-classmates say

“He was everybody’s punching bag,” one former classmate said of Rex Heuermann, who graduated from Berner High School in 1981.

nypost.com

…

Mr Heuermann’s DNA was found on one of the victims, while his wife’s hair was found on three of the four women he is connected to.

Sons of newly-identified Gilgo Beach murder victim ‘weren’t warned by police’

Long Island police on Friday identified the victim previously known only as Jane Doe 7

www.independent.co.uk

Her hair being found is really throwing me off. Especially since multiple hairs were found and on different bodies.

 

[CuriousCricket]

Her hair being found is really throwing me off. Especially since multiple hairs were found and on different bodies.

It does, doesn't it? But LE has travel records that she and the children were out of the state for all 3 of the disappearances/deaths they are able to get travel info for. That throws another monkey wrench into the any usual pattern, doesn't it? I don't recall ever reading anything like hair and DNA from a recognizable, familial source like that before. Has anyone else? I recall (or think I recall) that Bittrolf was ID'd because his brother's DNA was in the system, but it was Bittrolf's DNA on the victim. Surely, this has happened before? Wouldn't RH's wife be in a world of trouble without the travel records?

 

[investigatefred]

Her hair being found is really throwing me off. Especially since multiple hairs were found and on different bodies.

Most women shed a lot of hair. Maybe it's just more noticeable as our hair is generally longer than most male styles. Rex was likely oblivious to the fact that the wife's hair was in his vehicle, on his own clothes, etc. It is very easily transferred from one surface to another. Look around in your own vehicle, on your clothes, etc., and I'll bet you can find a hair or two at any given time.

 

[iamshadow21]

Her hair being found is really throwing me off. Especially since multiple hairs were found and on different bodies.

People do shed a lot, especially people with long hair. Mine's about two thirds of the way down my back, and I find it all over the place. I do wonder, though, whether with his wife out of the way, he used the home, and specifically the marital bed for his assignations with sex workers. I find a lot of my own hairs on my pillowcase.

MOO

 

[ArianeEmory]

How reliable is Kolker?
I've not read the book.

Others have already mentioned that he is a very reliable/professional source, but I thought I’d also add here that he’s interviewed several times on the LISK: Long Island Serial Killer podcast. His interviews are very helpful and he seems very grounded in the known facts of the case. Not exploitative or saying anything for shock value.

 

[Just K]

Her hair being found is really throwing me off. Especially since multiple hairs were found and on different bodies.

Just a possibility, the wife was into comic con. So maybe she’d dress up for these events. Maybe she had wigs and just maybe he asked other women to wear them. Or it’s as simple as the house was a cluttered pigsty and her hair was just incidentally transferred to other materials in the home- like fabric, tape, furniture etc.

 

[Elley Mae]

In reference to her hair being found on burlap/victim.

My hair is 2 feet long, I find my hairs all over the house, in his vehicle, on his clothes and have to cut it with scissors out of vacuum brush.

I have thought about the burlap and wondered if he bought it in bulk/roll. Could there have been some in the house or another one just like the ones they found.

 

[dotr]

In reference to her hair being found on burlap/victim.

My hair is 2 feet long, I find my hairs all over the house, in his vehicle, on his clothes and have to cut it with scissors out of vacuum brush.

I have thought about the burlap and wondered if he bought it in bulk/roll. Could there have been some in the house or another one just like the ones they found.

Maybe burlap was occasionally used to protect the plants in the wife's greenhouse? speculation.

 

[Just K]

Maybe burlap was occasionally used to protect the plants in the wife's greenhouse? speculation.

The burlap could have caused transfer as it picks up everything.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

*I’ve forgotten an important detail. Was it reported RH is a disorganized serial killer?

In contrast, the disorganized offender is likely to be of below average intelligence, low birth order, and subjected to harsh parental discipline. He is in a confused and distressed state of mind at the time of the murder, is socially inadequate, and sexually incompetent. The crime scene shows that the crime was committed suddenly with no set plan of action for deterring detection. Facial destruction and sexually sadistic acts performed after the murder are typical. Disorganized offenders usually leave the victim in the same position in which he or she was killed and make no attempt to conceal the body. Case examples and photographs are included

Crime Scene and Profile Characteristics of Organized and Disorganized Murders | Office of Justice Programs

www.ojp.gov

https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/99114-99117NCJRS.pdf