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The former executive assistant of accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann is speaking for the first time exclusively with Eyewitness News.
Donna Sturman told investigative reporter Kristin Thorne she still has not gotten over the shock of the claims made against her former boss.
"It's traumatizing," she said. "It's so unbelievable."
Sturman worked for Heuermann from 2017 to 2018 at his architectural office in Midtown.
She said the irony is not lost on her that it was DNA from a discarded piece of pizza crust that prosecutors have used to tie Heuermann to the Gilgo Beach murders. He has plead not guilty to all the charges.
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"Rex Heuermann is everything we've been led to believe would be the guy," said reporter Josh Einiger. "He's kind of a loner. He's kind of antisocial. His house is different from every other house on that block. It's sort of a mess. He works in the city. He has a job, where he's very technical, where he's an architect and engineer."
The amazing details of the investigation that finally collared a suspect in the longtime cold case.
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On July 13, 2023, police finally made an arrest in the Gilgo Beach murder case.
"This was an earthquake in Massapequa Park. This was a storm like they had never expected this," recalled Eyewitness News reporter Stacey Sager.
Rex Heuermann was arrested in Midtown Manhattan. He was initially charged in the deaths of Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Melissa Barthelemy.
Investigators also named him as the prime suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
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Eyewitness News got an alert that Suffolk County police were going to release surveillance video of Megan Waterman leaving a hotel in Hauppauge -- the last place she was seen.
"As reporters were thinking, again, why do this now?" recalled Kristin Thorne. "They've had this video for so many years -- why now? And they said they want to keep the case going."
Then on May 9, 2022, Suffolk County Police released a 22-minute 911 phone call from Shannan Gilbert the night she disappeared in 2010.
"The 911 tape was sort of as advertised," said Einiger. "It was Shannan Gilbert sounding terrified running for her life."
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In December 2015, the FBI joined the investigation.
Why did that collaboration not happen for so many years?
"It didn't happen because of politics. We had a police chief in Suffolk County, as well as a DA, that did not seem open to FBI involvement," recalled Kristin Thorne.
On Jan. 16, 2020, police released photos of a belt imprinted with the letters "H-M" or "M-H" to the public. Police say they believe the belt was handled by the suspect.
Two years later, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison announced a new task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach murders.
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After a year and a half of searching, investigators found the skeletal remains of Shannan Gilbert on Gilgo Beach.
"What was the ultimate stunner in all of this is that they believed -- and still do believe -- that Shannan Gilbert was not murdered. That Shannan Gilbert died in an accidental drowning," recalled reporter Josh Einiger.
A few years later, Shannan Gilbert's mother, Mari Gilbert, who is credited for the discovery of the Gilgo bodies because of how she pushed for her daughter's search, is found stabbed to death in her apartment.
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Investigators had found 10 bodies and identified five of them, but they were still searching for Shannan Gilbert.
"This investigation started because Shannan Gilbert disappeared," said reporter Kristin Thorne. "It wasn't until Shannan Gilbert disappeared that her family started to hold police accountable and say -- you have to get out there and try to find Shannan Gilbert."
Investigators found a cell phone, lip gloss, shoes, and a pocketbook they say belonged to Shannan Gilbert on Gilgo Beach.
Yet they did not believe her death was related to the 10 bodies they found in the area.
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Investigators continued to find more bodies, but the remains differed from those of the "Gilgo Four".
Police found three more victims in the area between Oak Beach and Gilgo Beach, bringing the total count of victims to eight.
Investigators identified the victims as Jane Doe Number 6, a baby girl and an Asian man.
Investigators then say they believe they are looking for three, if not four, killers.
"This is around the time that it got complicated to tell this story," reporter Josh Einiger recalled.
We shed light on this complex stage of the story.
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Shannan Gilbert's disappearance in 2010 sparked the discovery of 11 bodies on and near Gilgo Beach on Long Island.
"One of the most significant things I've ever heard at any kind of public official say, I think it was the first full day after that first report that we did," recalled Einiger. "There was a press conference with the man who was then the police commissioner. And he said something that to this day, I remember everything about what he said and how he said it."
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It began on a regular garden variety day in December, when Eyewitness News reporter Josh Einiger and his photographer, Tony Saturno, were covering stories in Suffolk County.
"We were on our way back and we got a call from the desk - saying 'there's a crime scene, there's a maybe body discovered', way down south on Ocean Parkway. Go check it out," Einiger said.
When they arrived at the scene, it was cold and pitch black. There were four crime scenes along the beach and spotlights set up.
"It was clear at that point that it was something," recalled Einiger.
Nobody quite understood it was something that we'd be talking about over a decade later.
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Few situations exist in which one can draw a parallel to the men and women who lost their lives on 9/11.
But, retired NYPD detective Michael Prate said one does stick out in his mind - the murder of Henryk Siwiak in Brooklyn during the last few minutes of that tragic day.
Siwiak, 46, a recent Polish immigrant, was supposed to be at his first night at a new job at a grocery store in Brooklyn.
He got on the A train and that's where he made a fatal error.
If you know anything about the murder of Henryk Siwiak, call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
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Investigators unravel a murder-for-hire plot to kill a well-known mob associate, Sylvester Zottola, in New York City.
They found a key piece of evidence under the hood of Zottola's car.
That piece of evidence, along with cell phone text messages, led them to who killed the mob associate and why.
This is Part 4 of a four-episode murder mystery.
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Someone tried to kill mob associate Sylvester Zottola not just once or twice, but at least six different times.
Almost all of the vicious attempts were captured on camera.
He survived a beating, a shooting, and a throat slashing, only to be murdered doing something he did routinely every day.
To his dying day, the father of three never suspected who was trying to kill him all along.
This is Part 3 of a four-episode murder mystery.
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Someone tried to kill mob associate Sylvester Zottola not just once or twice, but at least six different times.
Almost all of the vicious attempts were captured on camera.
He survived a beating, a shooting, and a throat slashing, only to be murdered doing something he did routinely every day.
This is Part 2 of a four-episode murder mystery.
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Someone tried to kill mob associate Sylvester Zottola not just once or twice, but at least six different times.
Almost all of the vicious attempts were captured on camera.
He survived a beating, a shooting, and a throat slashing, only to be murdered doing something he did routinely every day.
This is Part 1 of a four-episode murder mystery.
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An 83-year-old was caught on camera shopping in a motorized scooter with something unusual - a woman's severed leg.
Harvey Marcelin is accused of killing her, cutting up her body, and dropping off parts across New York City.
But it's not the first time Marcelin has been accused of murder.
Marcelin was convicted of killing a girlfriend in 1963, and another girlfriend in 1985.
After getting released from prison a second time, Marcelin is accused of striking again.
This is Part 2 of a two-episode murder mystery.
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An 83-year-old was caught on camera shopping in a motorized scooter with something unusual - a woman's severed leg.
Harvey Marcelin is accused of killing her, cutting up her body, and dropping off parts across New York City.
But it's not the first time Marcelin has been accused of murder.
Marcelin was convicted of killing a girlfriend in 1963, and another girlfriend in 1985.
After getting released from prison a second time, Marcelin is accused of striking again.
This is Part 1 of a two-episode murder mystery.
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Across the United States, thousands of unidentified human remains sit in local medical examiner's offices.
Some of the remains are corpses - some are only bones, skeletons.
In many cases, it's clear the people were murdered, but without knowing their identities their killers cannot be held accountable.
Their murderers walk among us because their victims remain nameless.
Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne works with the forensic anthropology team at the New York City Medical Examiner's Office to try to help identify the remains of a teenager who was stabbed to death, a woman who was buried in concrete, and others.
If you recognize any of the individuals featured in this story, call 212-447-2030.
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A non-profit from Oregon that specializes in finding missing people has come to Westchester to search for a mother and her two children who disappeared in 1977.
Doug Bishop, with United Search Corps, heard about the case of Leslie Guthrie and Julie, 6, and Timmy, 3, who disappeared from Katonah 47 years ago.
"Everything points to in this case it simply being an accident," Bishop said.
Police said on February 5, 1977, Leslie drove away with her two children from her house in Katonah and was never seen again.
Leslie's husband, Tim Guthrie, said he buckled his kids in the backseat and waved goodbye.
"I helped her put the kids in the car and they drove off and that was the last I saw them," he said. "I always think of them and where they are."
Bishop's theory - a theory that law enforcement has also long believed - is that Leslie's car is in one of the many bodies of water in and around Katonah.
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On a snowy day in February 1977, Leslie Guthrie left her home in suburban New York in a car with her two small children.
They were never seen again.
Leslie's family says just before they disappeared, Leslie was having marital problems.
Could Leslie have taken Julie, 6, and Timmy, 3, and started a new life?
Could they have joined a cult -- something Leslie had been reading into?
Could their car have gone off the road and sunk deep to the bottom of one of the many murky bodies of water surrounding her house in Katonah?
Leslie's family and Tim Guthrie Sr., Leslie's husband, have gone in circles for 46 years trying to answer those questions.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Leslie Guthrie has a strawberry birthmark on her chin and on her back.
They were last seen driving a green 1974 Ford Maverick with a white roof and the New York State license plate 636-WNA.
Can Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne help the family zero in on one of the theories and lead them to Leslie, Julie, and Timmy?
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