![]() ![]() Investigators found six more sets of remains, including more female sex workers, a man and a toddler. Soon after, police discovered four other women – Barthelemy, Brainard-Barnes, Waterman and Costello – in the same area, each body covered in a burlap cloth. ![]() Police found her body in a marshy area about half a mile from where she disappeared. Gilbert made a 22-minute 911 call in which she reportedly said: “They are trying to kill me.” The mystery surrounding the killings with which Heuermann has been charged dates back to when Shannan Gilbert – who had been a sex worker – vanished in May 2010 after she met a client at nearby Oak Beach. Searches during that period that police noted included: “Why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the Long Island serial killer”, “Why hasn’t the Long Island serial killer been caught”, “Long Island killer”, “Long Island serial killer phone call”, and more.ĭocuments allege Heuermann also searched for and read news articles about the creation of the law enforcement taskforce that arrested him. The searches also sought specifics about the disappearances and murders of Brainard-Barnes, Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello, and the police investigations into their killings. On that same account, he purportedly conducted 200 searches between March last year and June this year that related to active and known serial killers. On one burner email account he created, authorities alleged, he conducted “thousands of searches related to sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography”, and imagery depicting child sexual abuse. Some of those names included “Andy” – Heuermann’s middle name is Andrew – as well as “Andrew Roberts” and “John Springfield”. Investigators allege Heuermann had a series of online accounts in addition to the burner cellphones, which were held under “fictitious names, and used for illicit activities”. The court documents show various graphics of where Heuermann’s suspected burner cellphones had “activity”, alongside the cellular tower data nearest to that. Meanwhile, Heuermann, the victims and his phones had connections to either Massapequa Park or midtown Manhattan, where Heuermann lived and worked. Similarly, the billing records and cell site locations also allegedly tied Heuermann to calls checking the voicemail box on Brainard-Barnes’s cellphone after she went missing. The billing records and cellphone site locations also were consistent with taunting calls made to a relative of Barthelemy, and a separate call a detective placed to Barthelemy’s cellphone while looking into her disappearance. Incriminating items that police allege to have found included cellphone billing records for Heuermann that corresponded to cell site locations for “burner” – or temporary – devices Heuermann allegedly used to arrange meetings with three of the murder victims. The final scene in which he cuts to a clip from an old home movie of himself as a toddler with his mother was incredibly touching, and a rightful ending reminding viewers that the person at the centre of this tragedy was indeed a person.Heuermann is the main suspect in – but has not yet been charged with – the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, according to the district attorney’s office.Ĭourt documents released on Friday detail a sprawling investigation into Heuermann, which included more than “300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence”. No doubt it is precisely *because* he is the son of the central figure in the documentary that he is able to avoid the exploitation and de-humanization that so often mar true crime documentaries, where the gory details and detective work overshadow the humanity of the person whose life was lost, and the trauma, loss, and humanity of all those who loved that person. To me, the greatest success of this documentary is that while I started watching it for the reason that I suspect we all watch true crime documentaries - for the thrill of trying to solve the mystery myself from my living room - I continued watching it because Hamburg was so earnest in his desire to discover his mother as a person, and never lost sight of that as the ultimate goal of this project. Instead, Hamburg was able to craft a story that was thoroughly compelling for viewers while maintaining what appeared at all times to be sincere compassion and empathy as a family member. Or indeed, that he would have already made his mind up as to who murdered his mother and would have a singular vision in bringing that person down. I was skeptical at first that being so close to the story in question, Hamburg would not have the objectivity needed to investigate all angles and expose often ugly truths about his own family. Considering that this is Madison Hamburg's first-ever documentary and that his own mother and family are the subject of the docuseries, I was surprised at how excellent this was. ![]()
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