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"That was not nice, so do I get credit for next time." That text message — sent from a burner phone after a failed scam at a West Babylon house in September 2010 — sat in phone records for over a decade. It was sent to Amber Costello, a 27-year-old escort, after her roommate scammed a client out of cash. The next night, the same phone contacted Amber again. She walked out to meet the man. Her roommate saw a dark-colored Chevrolet Avalanche. Amber was never seen again.
Episode 7 of "The Seven" — the final installment. That truck description is what cracked the Gilgo Beach case. When the task force ran it through registration records in 2022, Rex Heuermann's name came back. From there — surveillance, the pizza-crust DNA, the house searches, the planning document, the arrest.
Amber was from North Carolina, battling heroin addiction, living with roommates in West Babylon. Friends called her quirky, goofy, generous. Her sister said she forgives Heuermann. Without Amber's case — the witness, the truck, the text, the cell tower data — the Gilgo Beach investigation might still be cold. Her story, the evidence, and how the last known victim became the one that broke everything — all covered here.
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Two cases with distinct legal landscapes, both producing significant procedural questions.
Rex Heuermann, 62, has pleaded guilty in Suffolk County Court to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of intentional murder in the Gilgo Beach serial killing case. He admitted to intentionally causing the death of Karen Vergata under the plea agreement. Sentencing is set for June — life without parole. He has agreed to cooperate with the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit. A wrongful death civil suit has been filed by the son of victim Valerie Mack, naming Heuermann, his ex-wife, and their daughter. No trial means no cross-examination, no public presentation of the full evidentiary record, and no jury verdict. The cooperation agreement introduces a separate investigative track whose scope and findings remain to be seen.
Joseph Duggar, 31, faces two felony charges in Bay County, Florida — lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim under twelve and lewd and lascivious conduct. He has pleaded not guilty. Bond was set at six hundred thousand dollars. His Florida arraignment is pending. He and his wife Kendra face separate Arkansas misdemeanor charges — four counts each of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor and four counts each of second-degree false imprisonment. Both have pending court dates in Elm Springs District Court. The evidentiary record includes what investigators describe as two pre-counsel admissions.
On Hidden Killers Live With Tony Brueski & Robin Dreeke, defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis provides legal analysis of both cases — plea mechanics, civil liability, admissibility challenges, and multi-jurisdiction exposure. Robin Dreeke examines the behavioral dimensions that connect both cases through the lens of his FBI career.
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Samuel Bateman is serving fifty years. His follower Ladell Bistline Jr. got life after giving six of his underage daughters to Bateman and participating in their abuse. Torrance Bistline, the financial engine behind the operation, got thirty-five years. Seven of Bateman's adult wives were convicted. In total, all eleven co-defendants in this case have been held accountable — making it one of the most thorough federal prosecutions of cult-based child trafficking in recent history.
But accountability and resolution are different things. This final episode examines what justice looks like when it can't undo the damage. The defense called Bateman "mentally ill" and "delusional," the product of an upbringing that normalized the criminal. The prosecution countered that Bateman and his followers built their own ideology to serve their own interests. The judge sentenced him to what amounts to a life sentence and called him the worst kind of abuser.
Meanwhile, Faith Bistline — who escaped the FLDS and spent years fighting to expose Bateman — is now caring for the children her own brothers helped destroy. Parents of victimized girls attended court hearings to support Bateman, not their daughters. And the conditions that produced both Warren Jeffs and Samuel Bateman remain structurally intact in Short Creek, where thousands of FLDS members still live under the One Man Rule theology.
The hopeful counterweight: the Short Creek Dream Center, built inside Jeffs' former compound, serves as a refuge for people leaving. Survivors are rebuilding. The rescued girls are in school, driving, reclaiming their lives. One of them stood in a courtroom and told Bateman she never needed him. That's the sound of someone breaking free from a system built to make escape impossible. The question is how many others are still waiting.
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Joseph Duggar, 31, faces two felony charges in Bay County, Florida — lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim under twelve and lewd and lascivious conduct — stemming from allegations of abuse during a 2020 family vacation to Panama City Beach. He appeared for his first hearing, where bond was set at six hundred thousand dollars. He has pleaded not guilty. His Florida arraignment is pending.
The evidentiary record in this case includes what investigators describe as two separate pre-counsel admissions. According to the Bay County arrest affidavit, the victim’s father confronted Duggar directly, and Duggar admitted to the conduct. Tontitown detectives subsequently monitored a phone call between Duggar and the father, during which Duggar again allegedly admitted to the acts. Both admissions were documented before defense counsel was retained. The admissibility and weight of those statements will be central to the proceedings.
Separately, Joseph and Kendra Duggar face misdemeanor charges in Washington County, Arkansas — four counts each of second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor and four counts each of second-degree false imprisonment. Kendra was arrested and released on one thousand four hundred seventy dollars bond. Both have pending court dates in Elm Springs District Court. As a condition of release, Joseph is prohibited from unsupervised contact with any minor.
On Hidden Killers Live With Tony Brueski & Robin Dreeke, defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis provides legal analysis of the Florida charges, the admissibility questions surrounding the pre-counsel statements, and the procedural landscape across both jurisdictions. Robin Dreeke examines the behavioral dimensions of the family pattern.
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A pizza crust. That's what cracked the Gilgo Beach case. Investigators tailing Rex Heuermann watched him eat pizza near his Manhattan office and recovered the discarded crust — legally obtained because he'd tossed it in public. The DNA on that crust matched a male hair found in the burlap around Megan Waterman's remains. And that single match opened the door to warrants, searches, and everything the prosecution is built on.
Episode 6 of "The Seven." Megan was 22, from Scarborough, Maine. A mother who called her three-year-old daughter every day without fail. When the calls stopped in June 2010, her family reported her missing within two days. Surveillance footage shows Megan leaving a Holiday Inn Express at 1:15 a.m. to meet a client. She was found six months later on Ocean Parkway, wrapped in burlap, alongside the rest of the Gilgo Four.
Prosecutors allege every murder Heuermann is charged with occurred when his family was out of state — and that his internet search history included images of the victims' families. Megan's life, the pizza-crust breakthrough, and the evidence prosecutors built from that single DNA match — all covered here.
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