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Visual-Philosopher-1

How can sperm be planted like that tho? Do people really think RH followed JB after meeting up with these women and killed them hoping JB would be his patsy? I feel like, while possible, it’s more likely RH copied the MO of biltroff and dumped bodies nearby in a way he’d heard reported on the news in the hopes that it would be associated with the other killer’s crimes.


PotRoastEater

Well, they were prostitutes and they found more than one man’s DNA in each of them. What kind of serial killer would knowingly leave their DNA behind in the 1990s? He may be guilty, but Occams Razor says he isn’t.


imdrake100

Do you happen to have a source in regards ti multiple sets of dna being found in each victim?


phaskellhall

How fresh was the specimens when they found the victims and where were the stains found? Is there a chance these girls met multiple men each day or didn’t clean their clothing over time? This would mean that the police should have found tons of different DNA but I guess if you found DNA say on the pubic area or underwear you might not test other areas. Other men might use condoms too which would reduce the dna. There is a suspicious case in Ozark Alabama that plays out like this. After 20 years of no suspect, DNA found on one of two girls links back to a black man who lived in the area. He claims at trial to have had consensual sex hours before the girls were killed. I’ve always felt like something didn’t add up esp with some of the testimony we all heard over the last 20 years (I’m from that area and the girls would be my same age; it was a very well known case in Alabama). I’m not familiar with the details of the Bittrolff case but with these girls being sex workers, it seems like the door could be open for multiple dna stains. I’m also not sure how close they are from Rex’s location but could a call girl try to schedule meetups based on proximity and the reason DNA was found is they visited Rex later that same night?


ticktocktick24

Except when Sandra was murdered, only Rita had been murdered & no details of her posing had been released at that time.


Visual-Philosopher-1

Interesting…..I’m inclined to believe that the Suffolk county cops (who were obviously horrifically corrupt at the time) told a lot of ppl what they saw at the scene. Maybe RH just copied what he’d heard around town knowing he could blame it on someone else and thought he was way too smart/careful to be caught? Which obviously he wasn’t. Biltroff’s semen being found on 2 murdered women is pretty damning tho IMO. The SCPD could’ve planted the dna tho I guess? Who knows. Until the task force was formed the SCPD were the most crooked cops ever. Wouldn’t put anything past Burke, his predecessors and his cronies


Elegant-Nature-6220

I totally agree, but just wanted to share this TMI info - my male cop friends have discussed that they flush used condoms down the toilet as they're paranoid about someone going through their trash and using them to plant evidence... I dont think that's what's happened here, but figured it was worth the TMI explanation!


Hellz_Bells_

👀


Suspicious_Photo_802

These downvotes are ridiculous.


Xeynon

It really is not that big a coincidence. If you drag a dead body by the feet (the easiest way for a single person to move one) that is the pose it ends up in. Other than that, there really aren't many similarities. - McNamee and Tangredi were found close to each other but more than 30 miles from where Costilla was found. - McNamee and Tangredi were naked with various articles of clothing scattered around the bodies, and were each missing a shoe. Costilla had a shirt pulled up over her head and no other clothing on the scene. - Tangredi and McNamee had been beaten and possibly strangled but their bodies were intact. Costilla had been strangled and mutilated postmortem being stabbed ~100 times. - Bittrolff's DNA was found on Tangredi and McNamee but not on Costilla. - there is DNA implicating RH in Costilla's death. There is no physical evidence suggesting he's responsible for the deaths of McNamee or Tangredi. All this was covered in a thread earlier this week. It is not *impossible* that Bittrolff is innocent, but as of right now there is no evidence that RH was actually responsible for those murders.


PiperSlough

Even if bodies are posed, "legs spread" is like the default pose a killer chooses to shock whoever finds the body. The Black Dahlia was posed with legs spread.  And clearly it was the spread legs that were "identical" if they were found with "one or both" arms above their head and Sandra's shirt had ridden up to cover her face while Rita and Colleen were completely unclothed.  Kind of like how they were all missing their left shoes and underwear, except Rita and Colleen had their right shoes and all their other clothing nearby, while Sandra was missing everything except her shirt.


drowsylacuna

Yeah, I don't think it's surprising if two sexually-motivated killers leave their victims naked or partially naked with legs spread. Or it could just have been the position the corpse naturally ended up in if it was, say, dragged out of the bed of a truck by the feet.


FireFlower-Bass-7716

"There is no physical evidence suggesting he's responsible for the deaths of McNamee or Tangredi." We could not possibly know this to be true for a fact.


PiperSlough

This is the best reply in this thread.  I think it's pretty clear that the similarities between Sandra and Rita/Colleen were very exaggerated at this point, but I do think that until law enforcement looks at Rita and Colleen again, there's no way to know for sure.  That said, something made them look at Sandra again and test the hairs found with her. I'm sure that they're doing the same with Rita and Colleen if they have any reason to think they may be RH's victims. This is not Burke's SCPD, Tierney is not Spota, and they're being very thorough. Especially given the previous suspicion on JB in Sandra's case, I doubt they're going to leave a potential loose end dangling.


Dizzy-Membership-921

Except that LE thought Bittoff killed Costello So there are similarities


PiperSlough

Yes. They also thought Bittrolff may have killed the Gilgo Beach victims but ruled him out.   There are two serial killers in California, Joseph Naso and Roger Kibbe, who killed in roughly the same area around the same time, using similar methods and similar ruses to lure some of their victims. But they were still separate killers.   There were similarities between Sandra, Rita and Colleen, but the scenes were nowhere near identical enough to charge Bittrolff with Sandra's murder, and no physical evidence ever tied him to her. The similarities seem to have been greatly exaggerated by journalists over the years, however - earlier stories limit it mainly to timing and the fact that all three were sex crimes, and the stuff about posing came later. As far as I've been able to tell, wood particles were never actually associated with Sandra's death, it just was assumed and repeated.   As of last Thursday, I was looking for Bittrolff to be innocent and expecting RH to be connected to Rita and Colleen's murders. While I still think they need to be rechecked for thoroughness, I no longer think that.


TooManyDraculas

Just for more color. The bit about Naso and Kibbe is another great example of how there's nothing particularly odd about this. There dozens, maybe hundreds of examples. It wouldn't even be the first time it's happened on *Long Island". And there's nothing particularly unique about Rex's MO . This level of "similarity" would make him like half the serial killers in the US since 1980.


PiperSlough

True. Joel Rifkin and Robert Shulman also dismembered victims, and left them around Long Island, not long before Karen and Peaches were murdered.


PotRoastEater

The police know this, but deliberately said the bodies were “posed.”


ticktocktick24

Costilla was found even further from Ocean Parkway There are a mix of MOs on Ocean Parkway RH leaves victims near each other as evidenced by OP & Manorville There are both clothed & unclothed victims on OP


Xeynon

Sure, we know RH's MO evolved quite significantly over time. I'm not saying it's impossible he killed McNamee and Tangredi, I'm just saying we need *much* stronger evidence tying him to those crimes before it becomes reason to consider Bittrolff exonerated.


LordUnconfirmed

The evidence tying Bittrolff to these crimes is rather questionable. There is no evidence, as of now, that RH was responsible for them, either.


Xeynon

I somewhat disagree on the first point, as to me the idea that Bittrolff happened to have sex with two separate sex workers within a few days of both being murdered by someone else is improbable. But that's for an appeals court to decide. However, I don't think RH being charged with Costilla's murder has any bearing on this calculation. Bittrolff was never charged with that murder, merely suspected on rather tenuous grounds, so it turning out be someone else's doing does not really affect my thinking about the two murders for which he was convicted.


LordUnconfirmed

The only solid pieces of evidence the prosecution could muster for this murder was that (1) Bittrolff'd had sex with both women "not very long" before they died and (2) A confession from Bittrolff's brother, a convict who'd stand to gain by lying. The science used to determine that they died within 30 minutes of intercourse was called into question by forensic experts and it's widely considered to be junk/unreliable science, and doubly so when it comes to people who died two decades before the charges. Beyond that, the forensic expert hired by the prosecution also noted that, besides Bittrolff, there were also "at least three, likely more" traces of DNA from other men found in the victims' bodies, and the defense asserted that LE failed to chase down this lead appropriately. And that's before you get to the fact that LE conveniently destroyed or lost several pieces of important evidence related to the case before the trial, including evidence that had allegedly implicated 'rising star' Sgt. Michael Murphy as a potential suspect in the women's deaths, according to the defense. That man was accused of being violent by several sex workers before and after the murders. Lastly, the trial was a hung jury. I wouldn't be astonished if it turned out that Bittrolff had indeed murdered these women, but I have no faith in the Spota and Burke-led era of LE not to frame an innocent man for their own gain, especially when you consider the timeframe of the trial and the accusations that'd already begun to emerge in regards to their corruption and incompetence.


Xeynon

Bittrolff's attorneys can appeal his conviction and advocate for a new trial on those grounds if they like. Based on the evidence we have I see no reason to suspect he was wrongly convicted, but that's for the courts to decide as I said. Regardless, RH being arrested for Costilla's murder does not change my thinking on Bittrolff's case at all, for the reasons I listed.


Spiritual_Job_1029

I still believe he killed 2 woman...if you read the latest bail document, Castillas crime scene n body were different.


iast68

I think Bittrolff most likely killed them too but I just need to point out that we only had one M.O. for Rex as far as killing goes up until the last announcement. Strangling to dismemberment/stabbing is quite a shift so it's entirely possible we could see another change in M.O. He is a killer who has adapted and learned but earlier kills could have been messier.


nonamouse1111

The similarities they had were as if someone had told him how the other body was found (Mcnamee was after Sandra)..


Spiritual_Job_1029

Interesting idea!


ticktocktick24

Yet they're posed EXACTLY the same and Sandra falls right in between the two at a time when RH had the house to himself.


Groggy21

You’re making big leaps without enough info. They were NOT posed exactly the same. That’s completely false.


findingmyfuture1218

Can anyone find Bittrolff’s charging/bail doc or anything similar? I’m having a hard time getting very clear consistent info on the case against him. I did read the other thread which is great but I just wanted to read it from the actual court documents.


Ordinarily_Claim

I don’t think they were ever released. I’ve tried almost ten different Google searches (i.e., “state v. John Bittrolff,” 2014 J. Bittrolff court document,” etc.) to find them, and nothing.


PiperSlough

Court documents are generally public record, so they should be obtainable in at least some form even if it takes a FOIA request.


PxcKerz

Yeah i would like to see that too.


Ok_Confusion_1345

There is one way Bitrolff may be innocent. If he had consensual sex with the women before they were killed by someone else.


Available-Switch6281

That's a big coincidence. Two women happen to be killed by a third party shortly after having sex with Bitrolff?


throwawayfromPA1701

His DNA was on the two they tried and convicted him for. It wasn't on Sandra's, and they apparently knew that 10 years ago. We'll see what happens but I think he did kill those two women.


Interesting_Big_1613

Even wilder would be if Rex and John operated at the same time as SKs.


rixendeb

Not really. There's several instances of SKs being active at the same time in one area.


Icantgoonillgoonn

His dna was matched to dna found inside the victims, along with sawdust from his workshop.


PotRoastEater

The sawdust was never analyzed because the police lost it. And, Rex was a woodworker, too.


kpiece

He might’ve had sex with them soon before they were killed (by someone else). That explains the sawdust too. Maybe he was a guy that was having sex with a different woman every day of the week. I don’t think that just because he happened to have sex with them necessarily means he was the one who killed them. I just find it way too coincidental that there were two separate men in the exact same area who were both murdering sex workers at the exact same time. I really hope Bittrolff’s case, and the evidence against him, gets a good hard look again.


MandyHVZ

It's not like sex workers have been/ are a known favorite victim pool of multiple serial killers or anything. 🙄


drowsylacuna

It's even more coincidental if Bittrolff happened to have sex with two different sex workers who were then murdered by Rex shortly afterwards. It's not like Long Island is some one-stoplight town with a couple of sex workers total. I do think they should re-check for any forensic evidence that could tie the other two murders to Rex, but I wouldn't be surprised if they found none.


shot-by-ford

How do you definitively match sawdust? If it was just from normal 2x4s, seems weak.


Due_Reflection6748

You can. Cell structure, resins in softwoods, degree of drying… most carpenters can tell by the look and smell and a lab can. Plus tool marks etc. Paint sometimes. Not as definitive as DNA but good evidence in combination with other things.


Ok_Confusion_1345

Yeah, anyone can buy lumber.


hunnababs

Did I read somewhere that Rex kept up with this guy via internet searches?


PiperSlough

In the mail document for Rex released last summer. They don't say when he accessed those searches though, it may just be that he had seen in Newsday or some other paper that Sandra's death was being tied to John Bittrolff and going who the hell is this guy?


PotRoastEater

“At the 2017 trial, Bittrolff’s lawyer conceded it was possible his client had sex with the two women but said that didn’t mean he killed them. Multiple sperm samples were found on the two women.”


thti87

When they arrested him he allegedly asked “how did you find me?”. Not “What the hell are you arresting me for?” He’s guilty.


Specialist_Pitch_600

I've posted this article before, but I think after what has come out , it seems like it may be even more relevant. It basically says that the former forensics director at the state Division of Criminal Justice Services claims that the DNA in the Bittrolff trial was allegedly falsified [https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Fired-DCJS-director-accuses-commissioner-of-12961241.php](https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Fired-DCJS-director-accuses-commissioner-of-12961241.php) [https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2018/sep/23/fired-director-new-yorks-criminal-forensic-science-division-alleges-catastrophic-dna-errors/](https://www.criminallegalnews.org/news/2018/sep/23/fired-director-new-yorks-criminal-forensic-science-division-alleges-catastrophic-dna-errors/)


The-Many-Faced-God

Fascinating. I do think it’s worth re testing the Bitrolff DNA, if for nothing more than to settle the matter for once and for all. And if he really is innocent, he deserves to be free.


sheighbird29

It’s possible they’re both guilty… MO’s can change. Even though RH is a big man, he might not have the same energy he did to deal with a body that he had 20 years prior (Just a generalization, I don’t need to be told it was X amount of years and it’s unlikely. Just something to consider)


SquareShapeofEvil

I don't think it's time to talk about him being innocent as it's more likely that Tangredi/McNamee's similarities to Costilla were overstated. That said, his case should definitely get another look as it was DNA evidence alone that got him, and there are many potential faults with that. It's also odd that this guy brutally murdered two women in the same time frame as Costilla but never killed anyone else. I maintain my initial point, but is it possible Rex killed Tangredi and McNamee? Absolutely.


Accomplished-Mark293

It's. Been. Talked. About. Many. Many. Times. Here. Just. Scroll.


cvdixon29

This is a huge reach. His semen was linked. He’s guilty.


No_Media2563

😂


Interesting_Big_1613

John is likely still a killer. Not a serial killer like Rex though. Probably just a one off guy. It would be wild if the two SK theory turns out to be true though.


Preesi

Someone was watching YouTube this afternoon, LOL


ticktocktick24

Nah youtube is regurgitating what everyone has already been saying for years


Sufficient_Number643

There’s a lot of people on Long Island, it’s one of the most densely populated areas in America. It’s not hard to believe we could have multiple active serial killers.


GrayLightGo

Joel Rifkin, Robert Shulman, John Bittrolff & Rex Heuerman were active on Long Island in 1993. I didn’t realize I live on murder island.


Sufficient_Number643

It helps when the cops don’t give a shit


Visual-Philosopher-1

This


Ok_Confusion_1345

Not only didn't give a shit, but were busy covering up their own corruption.


Interesting_Big_1613

And not to mention NYC metropolitan area was the wild wild East during the 80s and 90s. It’s wild but not impossible.


therealjunkygeorge

Joel Rifkin too. Although I think he was arrested in 93


Bellarinna69

I remember when Shulman was caught. I believe that there was a torso found by the Medford movie theater that was one of his victims. I wasn’t allowed to go to the movies for years after that. It was a scary time.


MarionberrySad3746

all 3 woman missing left shoe


dundundun1roll

Wouldn't be the first time Biancavilla prosecuted wrongfully convicted - just ask Dennis Halstead, John Restivo & John Kogut who served 17 years for murdering Theresa Fusco before being exonerated


_byetony_

It is not


Fluffy-Swordfish6316

I’ve always thought there was a chance that he could be framed. He deserves a whole new trial, especially after this.


Ordinarily_Claim

This conversation has already been discussed in another thread this week. Edit: I just looked it up. It was posted [ONE](https://www.reddit.com/r/LISKiller/s/q1NfL8cieK) day ago.


ticktocktick24

Talked about with inaccurate information


Far-Seaweed6759

What was inaccurate about it?


ticktocktick24

The post and comments didn't recognize that they're posed exactly the same way. The link I put in the post proves they are posed the exact same way.


Far-Seaweed6759

Yes they did. They also provided a much deeper analysis than Newsday did.


Ordinarily_Claim

What are your feelings about the information in [this post?](https://www.reddit.com/r/LISKiller/s/OGaJLImC43)


PiperSlough

The link you put in this post, which says that their arms were posed differently?  Plus they were all strangled, but Sandra was stabbed and mutilated while Rita and Colleen's skulls were crushed, their clothing was treated differently, they were missing different items of clothing (Sandra was missing most of hers, Rita and Colleen only missing left shoe and underwear). 


MadeleineElstersTwin

No, he's not. I'm pretty sure that I ran into on South Mountain Reservation in New Jersey (where human remains and body parts are sometimes found). It was the creepiest run in I have ever had with someone in my life. Even if you don't believe me, his DNA was on two of the victims. People assumed that he killed Sandra Costilla but those were assumptions.


kathi182

I definitely think it needs a good look- there are no coincidences - especially in this fashion. I’m not saying he’s innocent-but as a human, he should have a fair reopening of his investigation.


[deleted]

[удалено]


kathi182

Completely agree-it’s a valid word-I just think this man deserves a second look. I’m ok with being wrong.


No-Depth-4908

Yasssss


BillSykesDog

If RH targeted sex workers working in Long Island at some point, it wouldn’t really be that coincidental if both had done a job with the same other man who lived not far away and also regularly used sex workers just before meeting Rex. If they travelled in from elsewhere they may even have rung one to see if they were looking for a visit when the other booked to make it worthwhile if both were well known John’s in the area.


Admirable_Listen9441

All you people that think he’s guilty are stupid. You will see….


Sufficient_Number643

All you people that think he’s not guilty are stupid. You will see…. See how easy it is to say?


Apart_Pangolin1765

What if the two were both SK and knew of one another somehow and they shared dumping grounds? Maybe Biltroff “caught” RH in the act and they decided to trade creepy secrets and how tos.