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By Melinda Cohenour
Armchair Genealogy - Sentenced! LISK
Rex Allen Heuermann appeared in court June 17, 2026. His appearance was
an event awaited impatiently by those of us who have followed the Gilgo
Beach Serial Killer case for more than a decade now. And, the shock
value of his appearance did not disappoint. But, more about that later.
As promised, this column documents the latest legal twist in Rex Heuermann's arrest and investigatory results into his actions as the suspected perpetrator of the deaths of multiple women in the case known as the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer.
To fully appreciate the historic importance of this case, it is essential to provide readers as yet unversed in the matter with a timeline of events. This case is notorious for the length of time it has taken to apprehend the man monster central to the horrific events.
In order to fully comprehend the causative factors creating the interminable length of time between discovery of the Gilgo Four, the interrupted investigation, and the ultimate surprise revealed in the most recent Court date, a history must be iterated.
Many of these events have been published in prior columns of Armchair Genealogy. A crime focused column? Oh, by no means. But as a result of your author's insatiable curiosity about DNA and how it may be utilized in genealogical research, one key area has involved the advances in processing genetic traces. First, we explored the case of the Golden State Killer. Fascinating.
But our interest in the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer case (also known as the LISK, Long Island Serial Killer case) arose years ago when coverage of National news reported the search for a missing woman who had made a series of 911 calls. Hysterical, breathless, a woman begging for help and repeating. "Someone is after me. They want to kill me." That woman was Shannan Gilbert. Her first 911 call was made just after 5:00 a.m. from a fashionable, gated community East of Gilgo Beach named Oak Beach. Shannan had fled a client's home and would seek safety in at least two neighboring domiciles before becoming lost. The date was May 1, 2010.
Thus began what became an extensive search but began as a rather ineffective visit by local police. The accusation that stalled the first efforts? The woman was a sex worker, a common prostitute with a history of drug use. Her driver/protector a man of Oriental heritage, last name Pak, had attempted to calm her. To get in his car. To let him return her to New York and assuage the temper and "confusion" of her John.
What made this matter the beginning of a serial murder case that promises to go down in crime annals as the most convoluted in history was the stubborn persistence of Shannan's mother, Mari Gilbert, to keep her name and the search for her in the news and before the police as a demand for equal dignity. FIND MY DAUGHTER was the demand not voiced so rudely but clearly the intent behind every trip to the police station and every contact to any news media: television, radio, journal, magazine, or podcast. Mari would not relent. She was (and Shannan's case remains his focus) represented by an eccentric but meticulous attorney named John Ray.
Let's begin the path of events that culminated in the June 17, 2026 court hearing most recently splashed on all media. More about that ... Later in this report.
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It's 1979 and a teenaged boy is found dead, choked to death by rocks, stones, grit and marbles forcibly stuffed into his mouth. Four local youths are suspected of the murderous assault. They're suspected of neighborhood thefts and mischief. But, hey! The local constabulary has an outstanding 96% maybe 98% CONFESSION rate. They'll wrap this up quickly, gaining more rep and political glory for young Assistant DA Tom Spota.
Of course, any knowledgeable law enforcement professional will attest to the improbability ... Nay, imPOSSibility ... of that high a rate. Undoubtedly, some rubber hose interrogations are taking place. Right?
Just as the parents of the four accused begin questioning the thin confession behind the arrests, a stalwart young man comes forward. He has a remarkable school grade average, no troubled history, clean, neat and a neighborhood kid familiar with the four accused. His name? James Charles Burke. He aspires to become a cop and is willing to testify against the four. Tom Spota accepts. The four are convicted (their convictions later overturned). Spota is impressed with young Burke. A storied relationship has begun.
Years pass. Spota advances politically. James Burke attains his desire. He becomes a New York policeman in the 1980's. He enjoys a decent salary, but like most New York cops he has heard of the amazing disparity in the salaries of the lucky guys who get hired in nearby Suffolk County. (Rumors say today's Suffolk County detective makes like $350,000 annually and goes on to retire with a lifetime pension! Even 40 years ago the salary would be impressive.) Burke gets hired in Suffolk County some time later in 1980.
Tom Spota was elected District Attorney of Suffolk County and in 2002 hired James Burke to become head of the DA's Detective squad. (Spota is Burke's "rabbi," his "hook," the guy pulling strings as needed for his Star Witness of so many years ago.) But Burke has developed some not so clean affinities: a reputation for drink and drugs, and illicit fraternity with local prostitutes. He's even "lost his police-issued gun" a couple times. Once it was found in the possession of a local prostitute with whom Burke is reported to have engaged in sexual acts in his patrol car! No. Young clean, smart Burke has not aged well. A report is made to Internal Affairs that Burke needs investigating. Somehow, nothing comes of it.
December 11, 2010, young K9 Officer John Mallia and his cadaver dog Blue, a German Shepherd, engaged in a search for Shannan Gilbert along Ocean Parkway, the road leading from Oak Beach where she was last known to be seen. Blue detects the scent of decomposition and leads Officer Mallia to a body wrapped in burlap, printed specifically for hunters' use in brushy, briar filled locales. It is not Shannan Gilbert but Melissa Barthelemy. Over the next two days searchers find three more sets of remains in close proximity. They are later identified as Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes. They would become known as the Gilgo Four.
Subsequent searches would result in the location of both skeletonized and partial sets of remains of ten victims along that lonely, dense, forbidding stretch of brush. One set of remains extends westward into the area of Gilgo Beach that lay within Nassau County. Immediately, law enforcement professionals from both counties and the FBI begin investigating what is clearly apparent as the dumping ground of a prolific serial killer.
In 2012, in the midst of the Gilgo Beach Serial Killer investigation, James Burke is named Chief of Police even though documents show an anonymous report by several members of the department recommending he not be appointed and listing the accusations mentioned above. Tom Spota, however, strongly backed his boy Burke to newly elected County Executive Steve Bellone, a move that would elevate Burke to Chief from his civil service rank of sergeant (albeit with 10 years heading up Spota's DA detective squad). The warning was dismissed. Burke made the leap.
Burke, remarkably, kicks the FBI off the case. He methodically begins removing key, seasoned detectives from their positions and does not order debriefings! No shown loyalty to Chief Burke? As Yogi Berra would say, "You're outta here!"
In May of 2013, however, the hornet's nest gets struck. Burke is arrested in connection with the arrest of Charles Loeb, common thief and drug addict, who broke into Burke's police car and stole his duffel bag. Within that bag, Burke had secreted drugs, porn films, sex toys and proof of many of the allegations made before his naming as Chief. Burke and several of his loyal officers took part in extended, hours long beating of Loeb in an attempt to quiet his allegations. It did not work. Subsequent occurrences resulted in charges for the beating, coercion of witnesses, and for the cover-up engaged in by Burke and his rabbi, Tom Spota. Federal charges resulted in prison time for both.
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