Defense Wants Gilgo Charge DROPPED — Rex Heuermann May Not Be the Only Killer on That Beach
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 910 Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
Rex Heuermann's defense just made their biggest move yet. A 178-page motion filed January 12, 2026 demands the Sandra Costilla murder charge be dismissed — and points directly at another convicted killer who may have been responsible for deaths attributed to their client.
Sandra Costilla was murdered in 1993. The prosecution's entire case linking Heuermann to her death rests on a single hair found on the outer layer of her shirt. Not on her skin. Not in his vehicle. Not in his home. Defense attorney Danielle Coysh called it insufficient: no eyewitnesses, no surveillance, no digital evidence, no phone records, no fingerprints, no confession, no murder weapon.
The defense wants discovery from the John Bittrolff case. Bittrolff is already in prison for two Long Island murders — same era, same geography, same victim type. A former prosecutor previously said Bittrolff was "probably responsible" for Costilla's death. Now Heuermann's team is forcing that issue into the spotlight.
And then there's Andrew Dykes — arrested in December for murdering "Peaches," Tanya Denise Jackson, whose remains were found along Ocean Parkway with the other Gilgo victims. For years, she was assumed to be part of Heuermann's alleged body count. She wasn't.
Judge Mazzei set trial for September 2026. DA Ray Tierney has whole genome sequencing, nine hairs across six victims, and a computer planning document. But the defense is building a case that Long Island wasn't one killer's hunting ground — it was several. And reasonable doubt lives in that chaos.
#RexHeuermann #GilgoBeach #LongIslandSerialKiller #JohnBittrolff #SandraCostilla #TanyaDeniseJackson #Peaches #AndrewDykes #TrueCrime #SerialKillerCase
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. |
| 0:02.9 | Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 0:06.8 | For years, the working theory was clean. |
| 0:10.1 | One killer, one stretch of coastline, one monster hiding in plain sight in a long island suburb |
| 0:17.1 | while bodies piled up along Ocean Parkway. |
| 0:21.1 | Rex Ehrman was supposed to be the answer, the architect, who allegedly spent three decades, |
| 0:26.5 | murdering women and dumping them like construction debris, case closed, justice pending, |
| 0:31.9 | narrative complete. |
| 0:34.8 | Except here's the thing about clean narratives. |
| 0:36.9 | They almost never survive contact with the facts. |
| 0:41.8 | And three weeks into 2026, the Gilgo Beach case is starting to fracture in ways that should make everyone pay attention, |
| 0:47.8 | including the people who thought they had figured this out. |
| 0:52.8 | In January 13th, Judge Timothy Mazai finally set a trial date. |
| 1:00.2 | Right after Labor Day, he said, come hell or high water. |
| 1:04.0 | Those were his exact words. |
| 1:06.4 | You don't talk like that unless you're a little sick of waiting. |
| 1:09.7 | You know, this has been a little while. |
| 1:11.3 | A little while in the making. |
| 1:15.3 | It'll be three years since Sierman was arrested outside his Midtown Manhattan office coughed while |
| 1:19.8 | allegedly asking officers, what is this about? And it's a mistake. Three years of hearings, |
| 1:25.7 | motions, DNA arguments, and a case file that could fill a storage unit. |
| 1:29.3 | Both sides have confirmed there's no plea deal on the table. |
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