Rex Heuermann and Sandra Costilla: Gilgo's Oldest Cold Case
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 907 Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
Over three decades, Sandra Costilla's murder was assigned to the wrong man. Investigators circled John Bittrolff — a convicted killer from the area — and it never stuck. Prosecutors say the actual killer was hiding in plain sight. An architect. A commuter. A family man on Long Island. Rex Heuermann was 30 years old when Sandra was found in the woods of Southampton in 1993. If the prosecution's case holds, that makes her the very first in a pattern that wouldn't surface for another generation.
Episode 1 of "The Seven" — one full episode for each woman Heuermann is charged with killing. Sandra's story is the hardest to tell because we know the least about her life. She came to New York from Trinidad and Tobago. She was 28 years old. And almost nothing else has been preserved in the public record. That erasure is part of the story — and part of the indictment against a system that let her death sit unsolved for three decades.
The DNA evidence came from technology that didn't exist when Sandra was alive. Advanced analysis matched hairs on her body to Heuermann. The defense challenged it, calling the evidence "a single hair on a shirt." The judge ruled it admissible. The charge stands. And the seven-year gap between Sandra and the next known victim is a question nobody has publicly answered.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you're fascinated by true crime, then join us in October 26 for CrimeCon London. Meet the biggest names in True Crime TV, experience live forensic demonstrations and dive deep into the criminal mind with your favourite authors, experts, podcasters and content creators. To secure your place, go to crimecon.com.com.uk now and be part of the UK's biggest true crime community. |
| 0:24.2 | CrimeCon London, partnered by True Crime Channel 3rd and 4th of October, 2026. |
| 0:30.3 | If you're fascinated by True Crime, then join us in October 26 for CrimeCon London. |
| 0:36.5 | Meet the biggest names in True Crime TV, experience live |
| 0:39.8 | forensic demonstrations and dive deep into the criminal mind with your favourite authors, experts, |
| 0:45.6 | podcasters and content creators. To secure your place, go to Crimecon.com.com.com.com |
| 0:51.0 | now and be part of the UK's biggest true crime community. |
| 0:54.8 | CrimeCon London, partnered by True Crime Channel, 3rd and 4th of October, 2026. |
| 1:01.4 | This is Hidden Killers with Tony Bruske. |
| 1:04.9 | Here now, Tony Bruske. |
| 1:08.0 | For more than 30 years, Sandra Costello's murder belonged to someone else. |
| 1:16.5 | Investigators spent years trying to pin it on John Bitterolf, a convicted killer from the area who'd already been linked to two other women's deaths. |
| 1:27.5 | Bitteroff lived in Marionville. |
| 1:29.6 | He had the profile. |
| 1:31.1 | He had the proximity. |
| 1:32.1 | And for a long time, that was enough to keep investigators circling back to him. |
| 1:38.8 | Even when they couldn't quite make it stick. |
| 1:45.1 | Meanwhile, according to prosecutors, |
| 1:47.0 | the man who's DNA ended up on Sandra's body |
| 1:50.6 | was building an architecture career in Manhattan, |
| 1:53.6 | commuting from a quiet house on Long Island, |
| 1:56.4 | raising kids living completely undisturbed. |
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