Netflix's Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer treads new ground as a true crime documentary about a lesser-known case. From around 1993, sex workers began to go missing from the Long Island area, but the cases were not given the kind of widespread attention that other missing person cases often get. This was likely due to the stigma against sex workers. The families of the missing women worked together to raise awareness, and in 2020, a film called Lost Girls was released, which covered the disappearances and the bodies that were later found in the Gilgo Beach area.

At the time that Lost Girls was released, there were some possible suspects for the murders, but nobody had been charged with the crimes. The ending of Lost Girls revealed one man as the killer but suggested that he did not work alone. However, Lost Girls is a dramatized and fictionalized of what happened, and there has since been a break in the real-life case. In 2023, the Long Beach resident Rex Heuermann was charged with the murders of seven of the women who were found dead near Gilgo Beach, and Gone Girls addresses this part of the story.

Rex Heuermann Has Been Accused Of Killing Seven Women In The Long Island Serial Killer Case

It Is Possible That Heuermann Is Connected To More Murders

Rex Heuermann is the prime suspect in the Long Island serial killer case. He was seen putting minutes on burner phones, which were discovered to have pinged in the same areas as the phones belonging to the murdered women. Heuermann was found to have a diary that appeared to document the torture and killing of these women, and he does not appear to have an alibi, as his family was out of town during all the murders. He was arrested in July 2023 and charged with the murder of three women. He has since been charged with four more murders.

Rex Heuermann has been connected to the murders of seven women.

The third part of Netflix's Gone Girls showed that Rex Heuermann has been connected to the murders of seven women after an exhaustive FBI investigation. Heuermann was tracked extensively and linked to the murders through his DNA, forensic analysis, cell phone positioning, and digital evidence. That said, as many of the investigators in the documentary have said that they believe the murders were all committed by the same person, Heuermann may have killed many more people. However, while Heuermann has been charged, it is important to note that he has not yet been found guilty in a court of law.

Rex Heuermann Is Still In Jail While Awaiting His Trial Date

Where Is Rex Heuermann Now?

At the time that Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer was released, a trial date has not yet been set, but attorney Ray Tierney told ABC News that the case is "heading toward the trial phase." Rex Heuermann is currently in jail while he waits for the date to be set, and he has pleaded "not guilty," which surprised many of the people featured in the documentary. It is possible that he could change his plea, but as of now, it appears that he will continue to protest his innocence despite the wealth of forensic evidence against him.

Rex Heuermann is currently being held in Riverhead Correctional Facility in Suffolk County, New York, and he is reportedly in a cell that measures 60 square feet. Heuermann's wife filed for divorce shortly after he was arrested, but has visited him in jail, and there has been a plot twist according to the documentary. Netflix's Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer revealed that Heuermann's wife and children were still living in the house where the murders were likely committed. In an even more chilling twist, their hairs were discovered on some of the victims, likely transferred from Rex.

Source: ABC News