Summary
- Netflix’s upcoming true-crime series explores the Long Island Serial Killer cold case, focusing on victims and the failed justice system.
- Directed by Liz Garbus, the series features interviews and examines corruption in the police department.
- Architect Rex Heuermann was charged with seven murders, but maintains his innocence while awaiting trial.
Netflix‘s upcoming true-crime documentary series, Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer, lands on March 31, and it explores one of America’s most notorious serial killer cases. For years, the brutal murders of several women in Long Island, New York went unsolved, with law enforcement stuck for leads in the case. In 2023, police finally arrested and charged an architect called Rex Heuermann with four murders, while continuing to investigate his potential involvement in the remaining cases.
Heuermann is due to go on trial later this year, and Netflix’s documentary series will explore the lead up to his arrest, and will feature interviews with journalists, law enforcement, and family members of the victims and the alleged perpetrator. The three-part series is directed by Liz Garbus, who also directed Netflix’s 2020 drama, Lost Girls, based on the true story of one of the victims’ mother’s quest for justice.
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Netflix’s Upcoming True-Crime Series Will Explore The Long Island Serial Killer Case
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Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer |
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Cast |
Aaron Peck, Isabella Victorson, Char Jones, Nate Terani, Raquel Fernandez and Nicolette Fino |
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Air Date |
March 31, 2025 |
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Directed by |
Liz Garbus |
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer will tell the true story of the victims who sadly lost their lives at the hands of a profilic serial killer, and how the justice system failed them for many years. Many of the victims were sex workers, and it is believed the stigma attached to this could have hampered the case. In an interview with Tudum, Liz Garbus said:
These family members were never going to give up. These women knew that there was a need to shake [up] the establishment to get attention for this case. Of course, they shouldn’t have [had] to work so hard. The system should work to protect them and should’ve protected their family members. But at the end of the day, their voices really mattered. In the course of the documentary, we got to examine what was going on in the police department and uncover a corruption scandal that made it clear why so little was being done for these women. I think it’s a really interesting companion piece to the scripted film.
The True Story Of The Hunt To Catch The Long Island Serial Killer
Liz Garbus’ Netflix true crime drama was based on Robert Kolker’s book Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery, which told the story of the hunt for the Long Island serial killer, while also focusing heavily on each individual victim and their family’s backstory. Law enforcement weren’t even aware there was an active serial killer operating in the Long Island area, until a young escort called Shannon Gilbert vanished without a trace on May 1, 2010, in the Oak Beach area of Long Island. Gilbert called 911 after fleeing from a client’s home, claiming she was being chased. When the police turned up, Gilbert was nowhere to be seen, but it was the search for her that led to the harrowing discovery of four victims, who became known as the Gilgo Beach Four.
The Gilgo Beach Four
- Melissa Barthelemy
- Amber Costello
- Megan Waterman
- Maureen Brainard-Barnes
Fast-forward to March 2011, and a staggering eight more bodies were discovered along the large stretch of beach area on Long Island. In December 2011, Shannon Gilbert’s remains were finally found in a marsh in Oak Beach, but the police insisted Gilbert’s death was accidental, but her family were unconvinced by this, and this opinion has been shared by many experts in the case. The years passed by, and it looked like the serial killer cold case was never going to be solved, until a dramatic development in July 2023. A 61-year-old architect and father of two called Rex Hauermann was arrested after a task force was set up to investigate the murders. DNA evidence supposedly linked him to Barthelemy, Costello and Waterman’s murders, and as the case developed, the death of Brainard Barnes would also be attributed to Hauermann.
Law enforcement claims Hauermann used burner phones to set up meetings with all four women before brutally murdering them. In 2024, Hauermann was charged with the murders of three more women, and the case continues to find links to the remaining victims. The alleged Long Island serial killer is incarcerated in the Suffolk County Jail while he awaits trial for murder. Hauermann maintains his innocence, but the evidence against him is quite damning.
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