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

[LadyL]

I always wondered what the source of Bittrolff's DNA was, so thank you to whomever posted the article that stated it was seminal.

So...let's assume, for the sake of argument , that John Bittrolff isn't responsible for the murders of Tangredi and McNamee, and that he did merely engage their services. The simplest break down of that would be that he just happened to have intercourse with 2 different victims, on 2 different occasions, who also just happened to have had their services engaged by Rex Heuermann. And this was in the early 90's...way before the internet took off. I suppose it's not impossible that, back in the day, RH and JB both trolled the same areas known for prostitution, but it seems a stretch that they both just happened to choose the exact same victims on 2 different occasions.

JMO

[bbm]

big stretch
huge

 

[Forest_Wood]

Not sure if this got answered later, but Joel Rifkin, who also wore aviator-style eyeglasses and strangled women, killed a sex worker named Julie Blackbird in 1990. Her body was never found. He killed 17 women between 1989 and 1993 in and around New York City and Long Island. There doesn't seem to be much information out there about Julie Blackbird, so I'm not sure if she was a redhead, but the timing would fit her and the description of the abusive john could have fit Rifkin at that time, though he was in his early 30s by then.

He's New York's Most Prolific Serial Killer — Who Were Joel Rifkin’s Victims? | Oxygen

Joel Rifkin was an unemployed New York landscaper living a dark double life as a prolific serial killer — claiming the lives of 17 women, a staggering total. His reign of terror came to an end on June 28, 1993 after he was pulled over for a routine traffic stop by New York State Police, who...

www.oxygen.com

From the article:

In early 1990, Julie disappeared. Then others. Not unusual. Sometime in 1991, the girls on the Lower East Side started whispering about a pervert who killed. Street prostitutes are murdered all the time.
...
During the winter of 1989, a working girl entered the van on Broadway in the 90s. Trembling, she showed me her savagely bruised neck and pointed to a collegiate-looking guy in aviator glasses: “He tried to strangle me during sex. He’s tried on other girls, too.” I told Dr X. She wasn’t interested — goes with the work.
...
Then at 3:15 a.m. on June 28, 1993, a traffic violation arrest was made for a van on Long Island; a dismembered body was found in the back and Joel Rifkin subsequently confessed to murdering 17 prostitutes (in all, probably more), including Julie, whose body has never been found. Detectives began arriving at my door with photo-album scrapbooks: Did I recognize this arm, this leg, this torso or tattoo? With each visit, the scrapbook grew thicker. The dedication shown by the detectives was nothing short of awesome.
...
It had been Rifkin I’d glimpsed on Broadway just before he began his killing rampage and it had been his malodorous white van I’d seen parked on Jane St. with the sticker “Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones But Whips and Chains Excite Me” a year before his arrest.

 

[Passeridae]

Yikes.

Was he RH's inspiration?

He certainly might have been, he was caught in summer of 1993 after he was pulled over on the Southern State Parkway in Nassau County for a broken license plate and led police on a slow chase. They smelled decomposition when they walked to his car, found a body in his trunk, and he pretty quickly confessed to all 17 murders before police even suspected him of any others. It was HUGE news nationwide back then, but especially on Long Island, since he lived in East Meadow (which is like 9 miles from Massapequa Park, for reference). He also dismembered a lot of his early victims and left them in rivers or wooded areas, but stopped dismembering later on.

Sandra Costilla's murder was about six months later.

 

[Passeridae]

From the article:

...
Then at 3:15 a.m. on June 28, 1993, a traffic violation arrest was made for a van on Long Island; a dismembered body was found in the back and Joel Rifkin subsequently confessed to murdering 17 prostitutes (in all, probably more), including Julie, whose body has never been found. Detectives began arriving at my door with photo-album scrapbooks: Did I recognize this arm, this leg, this torso or tattoo? With each visit, the scrapbook grew thicker. The dedication shown by the detectives was nothing short of awesome.
...
It had been Rifkin I’d glimpsed on Broadway just before he began his killing rampage and it had been his malodorous white van I’d seen parked on Jane St. with the sticker “Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones But Whips and Chains Excite Me” a year before his arrest.

Thank you, I hadn't gotten that far in the article but didn't realize it would talk about Rifkin since a few replies had suggested it was Heuermann the writer saw.

 

[Betty P]

Ten months ago someone on reddit linked RH to the Peconic Sportsman's Club. *Something I just noticed... for whatever it's worth.

In 2012, WS members here thought it was the South Shore Club. Not to say it couldn't have been the Peconic one, or both.

Check out this photo posted by a former member with camo burlap used as a table cloth

Burlap and Forensics

This may be the source of the burlap. Look at this: http://www.sswa.org/GallerySlideshow.aspx?ID=6&ImgID=42 Notice the "Winter Brant Feeding Program". I believe this picture was taken in 2007, but I can't date it for sure. I believe that this is a Federally funded program whereby the...

www.websleuths.com

 

[Megnut]

He certainly might have been, he was caught in summer of 1993 after he was pulled over on the Southern State Parkway in Nassau County for a broken license plate and led police on a slow chase. They smelled decomposition when they walked to his car, found a body in his trunk, and he pretty quickly confessed to all 17 murders before police even suspected him of any others. It was HUGE news nationwide back then, but especially on Long Island, since he lived in East Meadow (which is like 9 miles from Massapequa Park, for reference). He also dismembered a lot of his early victims and left them in rivers or wooded areas, but stopped dismembering later on.

Sandra Costilla's murder was about six months later.

If Rifkin featured in, say, a tabletop book?

 

[fred&edna]

In 2012, WS members here thought it was the South Shore Club. Not to say it couldn't have been the Peconic one, or both.

Check out this photo posted by a former member with camo burlap used as a table cloth

Burlap and Forensics

This may be the source of the burlap. Look at this: http://www.sswa.org/GallerySlideshow.aspx?ID=6&ImgID=42 Notice the "Winter Brant Feeding Program". I believe this picture was taken in 2007, but I can't date it for sure. I believe that this is a Federally funded program whereby the...

www.websleuths.com

Interestingly, the person who linked him to the Peconic club stated earlier that he/she was a member of the South Shore Club and didn't recognize RH, and nor did anyone they asked. FWIW which may be nothing or something, I don't know. Peconic is mentioned in the bail doc. RH's palm pilot 7/20/2003

 

[fred&edna]

I wonder if LE tracked down "Derek" mentioned in the document.

 

[cenazoic]

Backpage became accessible by searching the internet

Just to that before there was Backpage/Craigslist, sex ads appeared in many local ‘alternative’ newspapers.

If Rifkin featured in, say, a tabletop book?

That tabletop book concerned murders in LA in the 1930s-40s, so no.

 

[Passeridae]

If Rifkin featured in, say, a tabletop book?

I believe the particular tabletop book that has been the subject of a lot of conversation this week only features L.A.-area crimes, but he's been featured in others. Really, though, RH would have just had to pick up a Long Island newspaper anytime in summer/fall 1993 and he would've been able to follow the case.

 

[LadyL]

Very good thoughts! I believe wikipedia stated that they checked the DNA of the brother of JB, and it was a partial match, and they then matched JB's DNA to the crime through the brother. I don't know if JB had a criminal record before that. I would like to know how close these 3 women were found to each other. Was it just a matter of feet or miles? They found two hairs on Costella, one that matched RH and one that matched Witness 3 (either his first wife or a girlfriend of RH). On RHs kill sheet, he had B-UNK (for Black Unknown possibly), which I believe led LE to search in that area in May. I don't know if they found any other evidence during that search. I just can't see two random men staging their bodies in a similar fashion and all 3 of them killed or dumped so close together (Nov, Dec, Jan) by more than one person. And I can't imagine LE is going only off of those two hairs for evidence of RH being the murderer of Sandra Costella. MOO.

[bbm]

it actually says 'black'

I wonder if LE tracked down "Derek" mentioned in the document.

I didn't see that. Which column was it under?

 

[Deleted member 117884]

[bbm]

it actually says 'black'



I didn't see that. Which column was it under?

Derek is on the Palmpilot calendar.

edited to add source: see page 14 https://www.scribd.com/document/739...cation-from-June-6-2024#fullscreen&from_embed

jmo

 

[fred&edna]

I believe the particular tabletop book that has been the subject of a lot of conversation this week only features L.A.-area crimes, but he's been featured in others. Really, though, RH would have just had to pick up a Long Island newspaper anytime in summer/fall 1993 and he would've been able to follow the case.

Yes, the book covered the years 1925-45 or so and was a collection of photos from an LAPD detective (Huddleston). It's available on Amazon.

 

[Just K]

In 2012, WS members here thought it was the South Shore Club. Not to say it couldn't have been the Peconic one, or both.

Check out this photo posted by a former member with camo burlap used as a table cloth

Burlap and Forensics

This may be the source of the burlap. Look at this: http://www.sswa.org/GallerySlideshow.aspx?ID=6&ImgID=42 Notice the "Winter Brant Feeding Program". I believe this picture was taken in 2007, but I can't date it for sure. I believe that this is a Federally funded program whereby the...

www.websleuths.com

What’s crazy is, no matter how much we all searched the burlap angle, not until RH was arrested did we get that particular detail that it was Camo patterned burlap. I can’t help but wonder, if this person who pushed so hard for the duck hunting theory was either a detective who was trying to get info out that could have helped solve this case years ago or a member of RH’s inner circle doing the same.

 

[fred&edna]

[bbm]

it actually says 'black'



I didn't see that. Which column was it under?

As @Inthedetails said in palm pilot (7/27/2003 Derek cut posts on bandsaw.)

 

[Luna20]

I went back a re-read RH’s letter to KJ. IMHO, when he talks about taking K’s advice but it’s about timing, I feel like he’s just playing a waiting game to see how much LE uncovers and how many victims they can trace back to him. It gives me hope that he will talk and admit to murders he has committed but I feel like he will only give himself up on the ones that can be solidly tied to him. I think, and I know others have mentioned the same possibility, that there is at least one other dumping ground on LI, possibly other one(s) out of state. I feel like RH will take some secrets with him, it’ll make him feel like he still “won” in the end if some of his victims and murders go unlinked to him.

Which letter? Is it posted upthread?

 

[fred&edna]

What’s crazy is, no matter how much we all searched the burlap detail, not until RH was arrested did we get that particular detail that it was Camo patterned burlap. I can’t help but wonder, if this person who pushed so hard for the duck hunting theory was either a detective who was trying to get info out that could have helped solve this case years ago or a member of RH’s inner circle doing the same.

Didn't that WS duck-hunter-theory member call-in live on Trisha's old "radio" show with some others?? Was IG, IIRC.

 

[LadyL]

Derek is on the Palmpilot calendar.

edited to add source: see page 14 https://www.scribd.com/document/739...cation-from-June-6-2024#fullscreen&from_embed

jmo

thank you for the link
I've been looking for it

 

[willy wagtail]

'Additional Information'​

The New York State DNA Databank was established by law in 1994 and began operating in 1996. At that time, only offenders convicted of certain offenses were required to provide DNA samples.

The list of crimes that require a DNA sample upon conviction has been expanded five times, most recently in 2012. In addition to requiring DNA samples upon conviction for felony offenses and all Penal Law misdemeanors, the 2012 law expanded a criminal defendant’s access to pre- and post-conviction DNA testing in certain circumstances.

In addition, state regulations permit the release of partial DNA matches that meet certain criteria to law enforcement agencies for investigative purposes and allow law enforcement agencies to request a familial search of the DNA Databank in connection with unsolved, serious crimes. Information in the Databank is protected by state law and by comprehensive internal procedures. The intentional disclosure of a DNA record to an unauthorized person or agency or the intentional use or receipt of DNA records for an unauthorized purpose is a felony.

NYS DNA Databank and Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) - NY DCJS

Research the Databank law and qualifying Offenses. DNA Databank Statistics updated frequently. Learn how the DNA Databank came to be and how it is organized.

www.criminaljustice.ny.gov

Can they do through genealogy sites rather than CODIS?

 

[Forest_Wood]

[bbm]

it actually says 'black'

You are correct. Thank you for pointing that out.
In fact, it says, T-UNK (BLACK). I had written B-UNK by mistake.
I'm thinking that stands for Target Unknown, Black.
MOO.