2006 Mellisa moved to the Bronx. – Johnny Terry (Blaze) was a pimp in Bronx, NY. Within a short time of heading to New York City began working as one of his “girls”. She ended up getting a tattoo on her lower back, with pimp’s name, “Blaze.” After working for a for Blaze, Melissa started renting a basement apartment 1149 Underhill Ave, Unionport, Bronx, NY 10472 Location

September 12, 2008, Melissa was arrested for soliciting prostitution. She plead guilty, but received no jail-time or fines, just a five-days of community service.

2009, Melisa tried to get away from Blaze and began advertising her services on Craigslist, on Adult Friend Finder as well as and through an escort service called James Bond Entertainment.

2009 Melissa advertise her services almost exclusively on websites such as Craigslist, advertised out calls only: She’d only go out to a john’s place. She charged $100 for 15 minutes, $150 for a half-hour, $250 for an hour, and $1,000 for overnight.

• Her Phone and Address was registered under Chloe
• She used the aliases: Chloe and VerySexyChloe.
• She had tattoos: “Blaze” and “Focus” on her back, and letters on her chest.
• She was known to meet clients at bars, restaurants and hotels on the West Side of Manhattan.

She was openly breaking her arrangement with Blaze. Melissa started making enough money by cutting Blase off., 2008 She went home to Buffalo at Christmastime in 2008. Few weeks after she returned from Buffalo, Melissa was attacked by by a group of women with one man nearby. A witness heard the man say something like: “This is what you get for disrespecting me.” He was later identified that man as John Terry Blaze from a photo the police showed him.

By this time Melissa started using cocaine.

Months before her July 2009 disappearance. After disputes over money with her pimp, she had begun secretly advertising her services online and working independently.

July 3, 2009, the Long Island serial killer saw one of her online profiles and contacted her using a burner phone.

July 6, 2009 the Long Island serial killer contacted her again using a burner phone.

July 9, 2009, Melissa sent her younger sister, Amanda, a text message. She wanted Amanda to come out and visit again.

July 10, 2009 she deposited a thousand dollars into her bank account, profits from a night spent with a client a bank security camera recorded her by depositing $1,000. She withdrew $100 before heading out the door.

July 10, 2009 The final call came on July 10th, the same day she disappeared. Melissa Barthelemy was last seen outside of her apartment at 1149 Underhill Ave. in the Unionport section of the Bronx on, sitting on the curb and likely waiting for a ride. Her phone would dial out once that evening, a call to her ex-boyfriend/pimp Johnny Terry, aka “Blaze,” but he wouldn’t answer.

The night that she was last seen, Barthelemy told a friend she was going to see a man and would be back in the morning. This friend was aware she was a sex worker, but Barthelemy offered no other details.

Her cellphone records show she traveled from the Bronx to Manhattan, most likely via taxi.

From her computer left in the NY hotel room, LE discovered she was last contacted by a Staten Island police officer through Craig’s list.

July 11th, 2009 around 1.43 a.m Cellphone records indicate that Barthelemy was brought to a location near Massapequa, as her phone pinged a tower in that area. .

July 18. Melissa Barthelemy’s mother reported her missing to the NYPD

December 11, 2010, her remains were found among the bodies of three other sex workers on Gilgo Beach Body Location

John Terry “Blaze” pimp.

He used a laptop to place ads for her services and accompanied her to the Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.

Later on John “Blaze” Terry, said Melissa had arranged for another $1,000 date the next night somewhere on Long Island. He even said he knew the place and knew of the john. But he said that Melissa was working on her own; he’d offered her a ride that she’d declined.

Johnny Terry also claims to have gotten similar phone calls as Melissa’s sister Amanda, by someone that knew details of him: his tattoos, his traveling habits, his work, his home etc.

He claims the man on the other end of the phone sounded older and white, but also drunk, at least during the calls. Police followed through with this information, and discovered that Terry did receive calls from a disposable phone, which was registered to the name “Mickey Mouse.”

Blaze’s claims was corroborated with what Amanda recalls of the man on the other end of the line sounded middle-aged white man..

Calls from LISK to Barthelemy’s sister

Shortly After Barthelemy disappearance, the killer used her phone to make a series of short and disturbing calls to her younger sister, Amanda.

The killer always phoned in the evenings, spoke briefly and in a low voice — and only to Amanda. He calmly spewed taunts and allegations. He sent text messages.

According to former Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer, these calls were extremely “descriptive.”

LISK used Barthelemy’s phone to make a series of “descriptive” calls to her younger sister, Amanda.

During these calls, he calmly taunted Amanda in a monotone voice and informed her that her sister was dead. He also stated that he was going to watch her rot.

During the first call, he reportedly asked the teenager, “Are you a wh*re like your sister? I heard you’re a half-breed.” In the final call, he stated that he had finally killed her sister and that he was going to “watch her body rot.” He then said that he might come and show her one day.

They were all kept relatively short, and he refused to speak to anyone but Amanda. On one occasion, he immediately hung up when Melissa’s mother, Lynn, answered the phone.

The fact that he went through so much effort to psychologically torture the teenage sister of one of his victims suggests that he is a sadist who derives pleasure from such activities.

This theory is supported by comments from law enforcement, who said that the killer “spent time” with his victims and possibly tortured them.

The calls in question were all made from Manhattan. It is likely that he purposely chose this area because of how busy it is.

The details surrounding these phone calls provide a lot of insight into the killer.

The calls abruptly stopped in August 2009

The phone calls to Barthelemy’s sister took place on the following dates and approximate times:

• Friday, July 17th, 2009, at 12.40 p.m.
• Thursday, July 23rd, 2009, at 6.42 p.m.
• Wednesday, August 5th, 2009, between 6.50 p.m. and 7.11 p.m.
• Wednesday, August 19th, 2009, at 7.23 p.m.
• Wednesday, August 26th, 2009, between 11.29 a.m. and 11.34 a.m.
• During these calls, Barthelemy’s phone connected to cell towers at:
• 4 Penn Plaza, 275 West 39th Street, 249 West 36th Street, and 408 West 34th Street and cellphone briefly pinged off of a tower in the Massapequa area.
• At the time, Rex Heuermann’s architecture firm was situated at 19 West 36th Street (labeled “Workplace”).Billing and cell site records indicate that Heuermann’s personal phone, Barthelemy’s phone, and the burner phone that had been initially used to contact Barthelemy all intersected at various points in Manhattan.
• August 5 and August 18 the taunting calls stopped . Heuermann left for Iceland on August 10th and returned on August 18th,
• August 19 the killer resumed contact, RH returned from Island. *Calls Affidavit
• The calls abruptly stopped in August 2009 after TV station revealed their existence.

Megan was born to Lorraine and Greg Waterman, they had another child Greg Jr, Megan’s older brother, Megan’s mother Lorraine Ela was 21 when she gave birth to Megan. The children were removed from Lorraine and Greg Sr’s care. Megan and Greg Jr. were placed in emergency foster care. Loraine’s mother Muriel received a custody of the children. Megan and Greg grew up with their grandma, Muriel Benner, and her husband, Doug. Their home was a townhouse-style condo in downtown Portland.

Muriel and Doug moved the family from downtown Portland to a trailer park in Scarborough, Maine called Crystal Park Estates, right before Megan entered high school.

Megan attended Scarborough High but struggled academically

Megan got caught shoplifting from Walmart and She was sent to the Maine Youth Center in South Portland.

When Megan turned 17 she dropped out of high school.

October 2002, young Scarborough girl made allegations against her of stalking.

2004, a Crystal Park neighbor filed for a restraining order against Megan.

2005 Megan was 17 years old, when she started dating an older man in his early 30 who she met at a club in Portland. In the fall of the same year, she became pregnant.

Juvenile court ordered Megan to live at a home for young unwed mothers called St. Andre’s. The idea was to get Megan off of drugs and alcohol and give her a chance to stay in a safe environment for the duration of the pregnancy.

2006, 18 years old, Megan gave birth to healthy girl in the summer of 2006, who she named Liliana. Her daughter changed her priorities and her personality. Megan was receiving a subsidy of $400 a month to help support Lily, and She was working at a sandwich.

Megan met Robert Blake he was into drugs and other things, She was back into drinking and doing drugs.

October of 2008, she was arrested in Scarborough for theft.

August 13, 2009, arrested for theft.

Robert Blake suggests to Megan if she wanted to make some real money, start doing sex work. She decided to give it a try. The money was good.

Through Robert she meets his friend and protégé, Akeem Cruz. He was a tough guy from Brooklyn. Robert Blake taught Akeem the ropes of pimping.

Akeem Cruz started managing her sex work, becoming her pimp. He told Megan that he loved her and that he loved Liliana, too.

Megan advertised on Craigslist and Backpage. She used the names Lexxy, Sexy Lexi, Lexi, Lexy, and Tiffany

Waterman was known to stay at hotels and motels on Long Island, including the Extended Stay America in Bethpage.

Megan Aunt Elizabeth recalled “They started dreaming of living together—buying a house with the money she was making. But along with Akeem’s love came his abuse. Liliana later recalled, “I can remember him hitting her and just crying. He was very powerful, or at least he wanted to appear that way.” Aunt Elizabeth remembered getting a frantic call from Megan one night after she discovered a gun that he had hidden underneath Liliana’s mattress. He was a dangerous guy and Megan was a part of a dangerous world. Akeem started taking her to New York for sex work where the money was better, and he had the women—Megan included—hide cocaine in their body cavities, for some extra money.”

May of 2010, Akeem and three other men were arrested in South Portland, Maine—two of the men were from Brooklyn and one was from Portland. Police charged Akeem with aggravated drug trafficking. Summer 2010 Akeem was out on bail.

in the early summer of 2010, Akeem and Megan made her final trip to Long Island, a trip from which she would never return.

June 1st—Akeem and Megan took a bus from Portland to New York City.

Megan checked into a room at the Holiday Inn Express, a hotel on Long Island in a city called Hauppauge. Akeem was staying with his family—also nearby in Long Island while Megan was doing sex work out of her hotel room.

June 4th, Megan called her friend Nicci with some news. She told Nicci that Akeem wanted to have a child with her, and he no longer needed her to do sex work. Nicci later said, “I never heard her as happy as she was that day.”

June 5th, Megan spoke on the phone with her mom, Lorraine.

8:00PM, the hotel security camera captured Akeem and Megan leaving the Holiday Inn Express hotel together.

8:30PM, Megan returned to the Holiday Inn Express hotel alone.

9:50PM, Megan called her grandmother, Muriel, and spoke to her daughter, Lily.

12:00 AM, Megan called her grandmother again.

According to phone records, Akeem called Megan at 1:15AM

1:30AM. Megan spoke to Akeem, and she told him that she was going out for a little while and would call him later.

She grabbed her cell phone and left on foot, leaving the rest of her belongings in the room.

Security video footage shows Megan leaving the hotel alone at 1:30AM. witness spotted Megan outside, walking toward a convenience store, and that was the last sighting of Megan Waterman.

June 6 at 11: 00 am Cruz called her grandmother in Scarborough (according to Megan’s mother) inquiring if they heard from Megan. He said she was missing. He said that they had to wait 48 hours to get the police to listen.

Megan Waterman was 22 years old when she was last seen on June 6, 2010 leaving her hotel Holiday Inn Express, located at 2050 Express Drive South in Hauppauge.

Akeem “Vybe” Cruz

Cruz, also known as “Vybe” and “Mello,”

The FBI have seized the laptop of Akeem Cruz – who is linked to Megan Waterman – hoping to find a record of clients that could lead them to a possible serial killer, a source close to the investigation have indicated.

Cruz, of Brooklyn, is not considered a suspect in the disappearance of Waterman and three other prostitutes who bodies were found strewn last December near the side of a remote highway leading to Long Island’s Jones Beach, the official said.

Authorities say Cruz was one of the last people seen with Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine, last June when she disappeared after travelling to a hotel in Hauppauge, to meet clients for sex.

On August 10, 2010, Cruz was arrested and later released on bail.

Akeem Cruz, 20, was arrested Tuesday after authorities received complaints of suspected drug trafficking from a South Portland motel room, according to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency.

According to the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency, agents seized 13 grams of suspected crack cocaine base that was packaged for street sale and had an estimated street value of $1,300. Agents also seized $564 in cash.

Cruz was free on bail for criminal threatening and criminal mischief charges arising from a June incident in Portland. According to the agency, his bail conditions subjected him to court-ordered searches.

Cruz is now being held without bail at the Cumberland County Jail.

Scarborough police are still handling Waterman’s disappearance as a missing persons case and are treating Cruz as a witness, according to Detective Don Blatchford.

In addition to the computer search, investigators have questioned hotel guests who stayed at the Holiday Inn Express at the same time Waterman was there.

Waterman’s pimp Akeem Cruz was arrested on federal charges of Interstate Trafficking of Prostitutes on April 11, 2012 and was sentenced to three years in federal prison in January, 2013.

Akeem Cruz, 22, admitted to Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak in federal court in Brooklyn that he transported two women Megan Waterman and an unnamed woman from Maine to Long Island on a number of occasions between March 2009 and August 2010 so that they could meet clients at local hotels.

“While the women were only identified in court as “Jane Doe 4” and “Jane Doe 5,” law enforcement officials said that Jane Doe 5 was Megan Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine, whose remains were among those found in late 2010 along the Ocean Parkway in the Gilgo Beach area.”

November 14, 2005, Amber was Arrested on Possession Schedule I Charges in Beaufort County, SC she is going by Amber Lynn Wilhelm

January 30, 2006, Amber Arrested for a Drugs Possession of Narcotics in Beaufort County, SC

2006, Amber Moved to Florida after her arrest In SC and she Married Donald Costello

June, 26 2009 Amber was Arrested for a Petit Theft in Pinellas County, FL

2009 Originally from Wilmington, North Carolina, Amber had lived in Florida for a few years.

12/15/2009 Amber Arrested for a Petit Theft in Pinellas County, FL

December 2009, Costello was arrested on suspicion of shoplifting a few items, including toothpaste, from a Pinellas Park Publix supermarket, police records show. She told police she was an assistant at the Clearwater Library, but the city doesn’t have any record of her employment. There’s still an active warrant for her arrest because she failed to show up for court on the petty theft charge.

December 2009 Kimberly Overstreet (Amber’s sister) got Amber into her into drug rehab in New York.

She lived in a sober house and then moved into an apartment after completing 28 days of rehab.

Amber Lynn Costello was 27 when she moved in to 1112 America Ave. in West Babylon. Location

Amber Costello bought a prepaid cellphone and uploaded a Craigslist post advertising herself as a private dancer named Carolina.. 

“That phone never stopped ringing,”. Schaller allowed her to work from his home. He and Brodsky say they did not act as pimps for Costello. But one of them was usually in another room when she had clients over. There were rules: Clients came to her and paid $200 an hour; she went only as far as she wanted to; and if a client demanded more, she called out for Schaller or Brodsky. The men would make the client leave — in some cases physically removing him.

Amber Costello used the names Carolina or Mia and had tattoos of “Kaos” on her neck, a butterfly on her lower back and the word “Margeret” on her leg.

Costello and her roommates shared a cellphone. The other female roommate was also a sex worker supporting a heroin addiction and the two male roommates would arrange dates with clients for the women.

Costello did “in-calls” at her home, as well as “out-calls”.

When Costello would meet clients at her home, Dave and Amber Boyfriend Brodsky would often arrange a scam, during which, once a client had paid money, and before any sex acts occurred, they would confront the client saying Costello was their girlfriend and the client would flee.

August, 2009, Brodsky was back in rehab. Costello kept living with Schaller until her disappearance.

September 1, 2009 The client had called three or four times and offered Amber $1,500 for her services.

The final call took place at 10:30 pm with the client stating he was parked down the street.

She left the house, without her phone, wearing a pink hoodie and jeans.

was last seen by her roommate on September 2, 2010, leaving her home in North Babylon to meet a client.

• September 1st, 2010, it began traveling from West Amityville/Massapequa Park towards her house in West Babylon. Shortly afterwards, the “ogre” appeared at the residence. However, he left after Schaller pulled his “jealous boyfriend” routine.
• The following day, at around 9.32 p.m., the phone contacted Costello from Manhattan. Afterwards, it moved from Manhattan to Massapequa Park, where it communicated with her two more times.
• At roughly 11.17 p.m., it began traveling from Massapequa Park to West Babylon.
• 11:20 pm, Costello was picked up by an unknown client in a dark-colored truck and never seen again.

The night Amber was seen alive, Costello had two lengthy conversations with a man who answered her Craigslist Long Island ad, said her roommate, David Schaller. She agreed to meet him in a car parked around the corner, Schaller said. The client would pay $450 for two hours or $1,500 if she spent the night with him.

But the man set conditions: She was to bring nothing and tell no one where she went. Schaller told her not to go. “You can’t do this,” he said he told her. “At least take a phone so you can call me if something happens.” Costello refused, he said. “That’s not what he wants,” Schaller remembers her saying. “She said it was big money.”

Dave/roommate was concerned when Amber didnt come home, so he called Amber’s sister Kimberly Overstreet. However, Kimberly did not file a missing persons report, as she presumed that her sister was probably off getting high with someone else. Because her sister was a drug addict and a sex worker, she also believed that the police wouldn’t take her case seriously.

December 13, 2010, Police discovered Amber’s body on Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. Like Maureen, Melissa, and Megan, she had been strangled.

She is believed to be the fourth victim in what is known as the “Gilgo Four”.

Amber Lynn Costello and Dave Schaller lived at this small, 753-square-foot house on America Avenue in West Babylon, Long Island.

Costello was a heroin addict who lived at the house with another female and two men, who were also heroin addicts.

Costello, who was 4 feet 11 inches tall, and was a sex worker who advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ heroin addiction.

Costello used the names Carolina or Mia

and had tattoos of “Kaos” on her neck, a butterfly on her lower back and the word “Margeret” on her leg.

Costello and her roommates shared a cellphone. The other female roommate was also a sex worker supporting a heroin addiction and the two male roommates Dave Schaller would arrange dates with clients for the women. Costello did “in-calls” at her home, as well as “out-calls”.

That nights Dave Schaller and Amber Talked about her date:

“This one guy kept calling, and she said he wanted her for the night. I said, “Did he throw money at you?” “Yea, $1,500.” You know, it just sounded like too much money. 1,500 bucks. The guy called, and I walked to the edge of the property. She gave me a hug. She bounced. She took off. And all I had to do was walk another ten feet, and I would have seen the guy’s f**kin’ car. Like ten more feet. Ten feet… I could have seen a license plate or something. Ten feet killed that girl”

Roommate and the Pimp Dave described her client as a 6-foot-4-inch-man who looks “like an ogre.” and was driving the first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche was the vehicle he believed Costello’s killer was driving

September 1, 2010, an unidentified client contacted her using a prepaid burner phone. When Costello agreed to meet this man, the burner phone in question began traveling from the West Amityville/Massapequa Park area of Long Island towards her home in West Babylon.

While the client was en route, Amber Costello and Dave Schaller decided that they were going to pull a scam on him.

The scam, which they had pulled multiple times before, was pretty simple: Once Costello had taken the cash from the client, Schaller would appear and pretend to be her outraged boyfriend. This would often cause the client to flee without receiving any “services” for his money.

July, 2010 on the forum for Long Island Erotic Services user Humiliatrix69 claimed he had been scammed by Amber Lynn Costello; he said he paid $200 for sex, but was robbed by men who barged into a home, forum members replied, one member that was going under Italyrider asked for her address: “No one from this board needs to be involved. I have friends who can take care of this s—.” Another member Morrie said, “Tell her we are all coming over there with baseball bats.”

Not long after, a large white male in his mid-forties turned up at their residence. According to Dave Schaller, he was a tall “ogre” who was wearing sunglasses and driving a dark-colored pickup truck with some kind of triangular feature at the back.

Schaller confronted the man with his trusty “boyfriend ruse”, but he stopped short of taking his money after he saw that he was “the size of a mountain.”

The “ogre”, who must have thought that he had walked into a domestic situation, claimed that he was “just a friend.” He then said, “Tell her I’ll give her a call,” before leaving.

However, instead of cutting his losses and contacting a different escort, the man sent Costello a text message from his burner phone shortly afterwards: “That was not nice, so I [get] credit for next time.”

The following evening, on September 2nd, the man began calling her again. However, this time, he asked her to go to his place for the night, as he didn’t want to risk having another encounter with her “boyfriend”. During their conversation, the killer reportedly offered to pay her $1,500—a figure that was much higher than the usual rate.

After a bit of back and forth, the pair agreed on a price, and the burner phone began traveling from Massapequa Park to West Babylon.

At around 11.20 p.m., Costello exited this small house in West Babylon and walked to the killer’s vehicle, which was parked around the corner. Not long after, Schaller saw a dark-colored truck drive past the residence.

She is believed to have taken an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007.

While in Manhattan, she was staying at the Super 8 Motel, located at 59 West 46th St. At the time.

Brainard-Barnes, who was 4 feet 11 inches tall,

She was working as a sex worker, advertising on Craigslist, Backpage and other websites.

She was known to advertise under the names Juliana or Marie.

Her routine was to travel to Manhattan for a few days to work as an escort, and then return home to Connecticut.

While in Manhattan, she was known to stay at The Super 8, The Red Roof Inn on West 32nd Street, the Carter Hotel on West 43rd St. and the Manhattan Hotel on 8th Avenue.

On occasion, Brainard-Barnes would travel with her friend who worked out of a different room at the same location. They both may have used a family – cousin, who they would refer to as their cousin, to accompany them and offer a level of safety and protection.

Brainard-Barnes traveled with her female friend the weekend she went missing, however her friend returned home early and Brainard-Barnes stayed behind.

July 9, 2007 at 11:43 p.m. when she called a friend Sarah Marquis in Connecticut

Brainard-Barnes was last heard from on July 9, 2007 at 11:43 p.m. when she called a friend in Connecticut just minutes before midnight, telling her she was going to meet someone outside of the motel.

Although she was known to work out of motel rooms, it was not what her typical operating for her be going out to meet someone outside of the motel on an “out-call.”

Brainard-Barnes was reported missing by a friend to the Norwich Police Department on July 14, 2007.

Five days later, a friend reported Brainard-Barnes missing to police in Connecticut.

The NYPD assisted the Norwich Police Department in the missing person investigation, eventually taking it over.

Sister accessed her online accounts and shared the information with police

July 2007, she spoke to her sister on the phone from a train station in the city, saying she was on her way home, but was never heard from again.

Her sister said she knew right away that something was wrong when Maureen didn’t come home.

Since she knew her sister’s passwords, she accessed her online accounts and shared the information with police right away.

Cann said she found nothing in her sister’s digital communication to indicate she was going to Long Island.

December 13, 2010 Brainard-Barnes was found on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach

GPS Coordinates: 40.757108, -73.981304

Brainard-Barnes was found on December 13, 2010 on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach, during the search for Shannan Gilbert, who had gone missing from Oak Beach.

Her killer had restrained her using three leather belts, one of which had been tied around her legs.

Notably, one of the belt buckles contained a single strand of female hair that did not belong to the victim.

This hair was later proven to have the same mitochondrial DNA profile as Rex Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup. According to the police, the belt buckle may have picked up Ellerup’s hair while it was inside the couple’s residence.

Brainard-Barnes was dumped in the same spot as three missing sex workers called Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, and Amber Lynn Costello.

She is believed to be the first victim in what is known as the “Gilgo Four”.

The women are referred to as the “Gilgo Four” because they were all found in close proximity to one another.

Sara Karnes accompanied Brainard-Barnes to Manhattan

Sara Karnes accompanied Brainard-Barnes to Manhattan on Friday, July 6th, 2007.

July 8, 2007 after a quiet weekend, she decided to cut her losses and return to Connecticut.

Two weeks later, she received a phone call from a private number.

When she answered it, a man asked her if she was from Connecticut and if she knew Maureen.

He also described a tattoo on her friend’s right arm.

Karnes told the man that Maureen was her friend and that she had been missing for two weeks. In response, he claimed that she was “fine” and that he had just seen her at a “wh*rehouse in Queens.”

Karnes knew that this didn’t sound right, as her friend was an independent escort. When she asked where it was, he said that he didn’t know the exact address.

At that point, the man promised to call her back and provide her with the location. However, he never did.

It is possible that the man in question was the Long Island serial killer and that this was his first attempt at contacting one of the victims’ friends or families.

Brainard-Barnes was found at Gilgo Beach Location

Valerie Mack, used the alias Melissa Taylor, and who was previously known as Jane Doe 6

Valerie Lyn Fulton was born on June 2, 1976, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Before her birth, her mother, Fulton, had four other children and endured a contentious separation and divorce, a legal battle that spanned from 1972 to 1985. As a result, all of Fulton’s children, including Valerie, were placed in foster care.

In 1985 As a child, Valerie was adopted by the Macks and lived with them in a spacious ranch-style home on a tree-lined rural street near pristine marshland and the New Jersey Pine Barrens. In the spring, hummingbirds would sip nectar from feeders the family set out, as her parents fondly recalled. Valerie seemed to thrive in this environment. She participated in youth plays at the Greentree Church in Egg Harbor, part of the Sovereign Grace Churches Christian denomination. She did well in school, and one of her most treasured possessions was an upright piano that still stands in the Mack family home.

1990, Valerie’s life began to unravel at age 14 during her ninth-grade year. She started running away, falling in with the wrong crowd, skipping school, and using drugs, her parents said. The Macks sought counseling for her at a New Jersey crisis center specializing in children, but their efforts failed to help. By the time Valerie turned 17, the state social services system determined she should be treated as an adult capable of making her own decisions. “She had become pretty rebellious, so they figured she was old enough to live on her own,” JoAnn Mack explained.

In the early 1990s, Valerie moved in with her half-sister, the late Dierdre Gimmillaro, in Wildwood, New Jersey.

In 1994, Valerie gave birth to a son, Benjamin, and lived briefly with the child’s father. However, she soon left Benjamin in his father’s care and took off, frequently moving between Philadelphia and New Jersey. “She was afraid she couldn’t be a good mother,” JoAnn Mack recalled.

1999, when Valerie was diagnosed with pericarditis, an inflammation of the outer lining of the heart, her parents said. She moved back to the Mack home as soon as she left the hospital. Valerie got a job at a local Dollar Tree discount store in Egg Harbor Township.

By 2000, Valerie had been working as an escort in Philadelphia. In Philadelphia, she was arrested three times for prostitution, drugs and loitering, Suffolk County investigators said. She used the alias Melissa Taylor.

Her family last saw her in New Jersey that year. Tragically, Valerie was never reported missing. According to her adopted sister Angela, the family attempted to file a missing person report, but police refused, stating Valerie was an adult who had likely left on her own accord. Despite this, the family continued to search for her. “I figured she was gone all these years, but not in the way they described. It’s just really hard to think that somebody could do that to her,” Angela said.

On November 19, 2000 10:50 AM, a hunter’s dog discovered some of Valerie’s remains in a wooded area of Manorville, Suffolk County, New York. Her torso was found in a black plastic bag wrapped with duct tape, with additional plastic bags containing her decapitated body. Her head, hands, and leg had been severed. Investigators estimated her death occurred weeks prior.

More than a decade later, on April 4, 2011, Valerie’s head, hands, and right foot were discovered in a plastic bag along Ocean Parkway on Gilgo Beach, Long Island. Investigators believed Valerie had been working as a prostitute in the New York City area.

On May 28, 2020, Suffolk County Police officially identified the remains as belonging to Valerie Mack. Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart explained that the breakthrough came after investigators tracked down Valerie’s aunt, who led them to her adoptive family and her son, Benjamin. Now in his 20s, Benjamin’s DNA confirmed Valerie’s identity.

In 2023, prosecutors linked Valerie’s murder to Rex Heuermann through mitochondrial DNA analysis. A female hair found on Valerie’s remains matched profiles of Heuermann’s wife and daughter, with investigators noting that Heuermann’s daughter would have been between 3 and 4 years old at the time of Valerie’s death. Additional evidence came from the 350 electronic devices seized from Heuermann, which contained a significant collection of violent, bondage, and torture pornography dating back to at least 1994. Some images depicted breast mutilation and women bound with rope, injuries consistent with Valerie’s condition.

Prosecutors also uncovered a document they believe Heuermann used to plan his murders. Created in 2000, the year Valerie was killed, the document included sections titled “supplies” and “DS,” believed to stand for “dump site.” Items listed included “rope/cord,” “saw/cutting tools,” and “foam drain cleaner,” along with instructions under “body prep” to “remove head and hands.” Prosecutors noted that one of the listed dump sites matched the location where Valerie’s remains were found.

Valerie’s brutal murder and the condition of her remains reflect a chilling level of planning and violence. Her family, shocked to learn of her final resting place nearly 180 miles from home, continues to grapple with the tragic circumstances of her death. “Nobody, nobody could understand how she got to New York because any time she would disappear, she went to Philadelphia,” Angela said. “I really don’t think she went to New York willingly at all.”

Jessica called her mother and made plans to be back home for her mothers birthday. July 15, 2003 left her apt she shared with Remy and was reported missing by White later that day.

– Jessica Taylor was born on July 14, 1985

– Jessica Taylor is from Poughkeepsie, New York,

– Jessica Taylor had left home as a teenager, eventually moving to Brooklyn.

– Jessica met Khalil White (Remy) and quickly fell in love.

– He was her pimp, who she worked under with another young woman.

– They lived in Brooklyn, NY.

– From 2002-2003, she faced various arrests throughout NYC, NJ, Washington D.C., and North Carolina.

– On Feb. 4, 2003, Taylor solicited an undercover officer for $50 to perform a sex act in Long Island City

– When she was being booked, Taylor assaulted a police aide, punching her in the face, police said. She pleaded guilty to prostitution and assault charges.

– Also that month, she pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property after she was accused of driving a stolen 1995 Chevy Cavalier in the East New York section of Brooklyn

– Taylor was sent to Rikers on Feb. 25, 2003.

– April 28, 2003, She was released. Jessica moved to Washington D.C but quickly came back to NY

– She traveled to North Carolina with Khalil and Chrystal, the young woman she worked with, and then they traveled to Cheverly, Maryland, where they stayed while working in Washington, D.C.

– 2003: May 2003 Jessica worked in a strip club called Sweet Cherry in Sunset Park, Brooklyn 42nd St and 2nd Ave

– 2003: She possibly stayed at an organization known as the Paul and Lisa Program

– 2003: July 14, 2003, Jessica turned 20 years old

– 2003: On July 15, 2003, at 1:00am, Jess decided to run. She took her dog, Cuts, and told Khalil she was going to get milk at a nearby 7-11 and would return. Her friend, Chrystal, the young woman she worked with, reports that Khalil and Jessica fought the night before.

– At 1:30 p.m., Khalil and the friend made a missing person report for Jess with Cheverly PD. When Jessica ran, she didn’t make it far before her car broke down at a gas station. She was panicked, scared that Khalil would go looking for her and find her.

– A car of 3 people her age pulled into the gas station and noticed she needed help. They offered to bring her and her dog back to Brooklyn, where 2 of them lived. She gladly took the offer and hopped in, doing whatever she could to put distance between her and the life she was trying to escape.

– When they arrived, she asked the person driving to drop her off around 45th and 9th Street in Midtown Manhattan. She was known to work in that general area. She preferred to walk even though the Internet was starting to emerge as a form of advertisement at that time.

– She ended up spending her first night back in New York at the apartment of one of the people who picked her up and would then spend the next week with another one of the people who had picked her up, a woman her age who lived in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

– The people she stayed with that week of July 2003 reported that she dyed and cut her hair, changed her phone, and was trying to make money to get herself home. They said she had a bible she was carrying with her and that she spoke of wanting to change her life.

– After a week back in Brooklyn, Jess went to work one day and didn’t return, leaving her dog, Cuts, behind at the new friend’s apartment. It’s unclear what exactly happened to Cuts after Jessica returned.

– Khalil White claims he got the dog from a pound, while others report a police officer adopted the dog, and others claim the dog was taken by animal control.

– Jessica walked out wearing red-heeled sandals, with possible red hair, a cell phone, and a purse with her bible in it. –

– July 18 and 23, 2003: Jessica was reportedly seen a few days later, between July 18 and 23, 2003, at the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan, according to the detective who investigated her case. – She was last seen at Port Authority at 8th and 42nd St, an area she was known to work around.

– 2003: July 22-July 26, 2003 A call was made on Jessica’s phone to the person who drove her back to New York, who happened to live on Long Island, a town close to Manorville. The call was possibly Jess seeking help from her new friend or possibly somebody else deciding to use her cell phone to make a call.

– On July 26th, 2003 Jessica’s torso was found in the open in Manorville, off of Halsey Manor Rd.

– The ME estimated that she had been deceased for 2-3 days.

– Jessica’s dismembered body was found on top of a plastic sheet, possibly a shower curtain liner, on top of a pile of sticks;

– Her killer had slashed up a tattoo on her lower back, a heart with wings that read “Remy’s Angel.”

– A tattoo on her right hip had been mutilated with a sharp instrument.

– The tattoo was a red heart with an angel wing that said “Remy’s angel” in reference to her pimp. Detectives released photos of the tattoo in an attempt to identify her.

– February 2004 Taylor might have remained anonymous had it not been for a Washington police officer. Poring over police bulletins of unidentified remains, he realized that a tattoo of wings and the words “Remy’s Angel” on her back fit the description of Taylor. He contacted Suffolk police.

– Suffolk County police obtained DNA samples from her family to compare, and a positive match was made. A private memorial service was held by her family in Poughkeepsie shortly afterward.

– 2011: On March 29, 2011, Jessica’s skull, hands, and forearm were found on Ocean Parkway, along with 10 other victims. That time led to their names being known, a revelation that there may actually be a serial killer involved.

– May 9, 2011, DNA matched a skull, a pair of hands, and a forearm found at Gilgo Beach were matched to Jessica Taylor.