27. Weekly Roundup | April 13, 2026 | Rex Heuermann · Lynette Hooker · Ashley Okland · Union Township

Eight names. Said out loud. In a courtroom. By the man who killed them.

On Wednesday, Rex Heuermann stood in Suffolk County Court and pleaded guilty eight times — once for each woman he strangled and dumped along the Long Island coast over seventeen years. Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Melissa Barthelemy. Megan Waterman. Amber Lynn Costello. Jessica Taylor. Sandra Costilla. Valerie Mack. Karen Vergata. Sentencing is June 17th. Their full episode is coming.

In the Bahamas, Lynette Hooker — 55, Michigan, a sailor who loved the water her whole life — disappeared from a dinghy on April 5th. Her husband says she fell overboard. Her daughter says nothing about that story adds up. He was arrested this week. No charges. No body. This one is still moving.

In Iowa, Ashley Okland was 27 years old when she was shot twice at an open house on April 8th, 2011. This past Wednesday was the fifteenth anniversary of her death. Two days later, Kristin Ramsey stood in a courtroom and pleaded not guilty. Ashley's siblings were in the front row. Trial is January 2027.

And last Saturday night in Union Township, New Jersey — one person killed, six injured at a Chick-fil-A. Masked gunmen. Not random. No arrests. No name yet. When there is, we'll be back for them.

Before we talk about how they died, we talk about how they lived.

Transcript

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Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of I Fear You Babe. My name is Dino Malvone, and I'm your host. Okay, hi you guys. So I missed last Monday. I'm gonna be straight up about that because life happens. The week got away from me and the episode didn't go up. But and I'm sorry to the people who are looking forward to it, but I did want to say something about the week I missed because it was not a quiet week in true crime. And I don't want to pretend that it was, but so on Wednesday, April 8th, while I was not recording, Rex Hewerman stood in a courtroom in Long Island and said the word guilty eight times, once for each woman that he killed. So that's eight women whose families have been waiting for that moment for years, and some of them for over 30 years. And today that is where we are starting. So we also have Lynn Hooker, which is a 55-year-old woman from Michigan who disappeared from a dinghy in the Bahamas on April 5th. Her husband was arrested this week. There are no charges yet, but and because there's no body found yet, but this one is still moving as I record. And the other story we're covering today is Ashley Oakland. She's a 27-year-old Iowa realtor who was shot and killed while hosting an open house on April 8th, excuse me, of 2011. 15 years ago, this past week, in fact, a woman named Kristen Ramsey stood in a courtroom on Friday and pleaded not guilty. We have been following this and I'm staying on it too. So, and the other thing before we start, this one's weird. Last night, well, two nights ago, Saturday night, April 11th, a shooting happened at a Chick-fil-A on Route 22 in Union Township in New Jersey. One person was killed, six others were injured. They said masked masked gunmen walked in, went behind the counter, and opened fire. No arrests have been made. Investigators say it was not a random act of violence. I'm gonna flag that one today because it happened and it deserves to be named, but the victim's identity has not been released yet, and the show doesn't cover cases until there's like enough on the person's life to do them justice. When there is, we will be back and we will be back for them specifically. And that's the world we're walking into today. Always before we talk about how they died, we talk about how they lived. I'm Dino Malvone, and this is I Fear You Babe. So let's get started. We're gonna talk about Rex Hewerman. This one took place in Suffolk County Court on April 8th, 2026. And there again, there are eight women named. The dude at Rex Huerman pled guilty on Wednesday, April 8th, uh guilty to seven murder counts and admitted intentionally causing death of an eighth woman. The victim's names are Maureen Brainerd Barnes, Melissa Bartholomew, Megan Waterman, Amberlynn Costello or Castillo, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, and Karen Vergata. These all took place from 1993, these murders from 1993 to 2010. So it spans a good 17 years. Their sentence that was given was three life sentences without parole, plus four terms of 25 years to life, no appeal. The sentencing is taking place on June 17th, and the agreement is that he must fully cooperate with FBI behavioral analysis unit in order to help catch other serial killers. So here's what happened in the actual courtroom. Because I want to take the time to actually describe what happened on Wednesday, because a headline doesn't really do it. But so Rex Hewerman, who's 62 years old, a former architect from Massapia Park, Massapiqua Park resident, commuter resident, neighbor, father, husband, weirdo. He walked into Suffolk County Court on in Riverhead and sat before Judge Timothy Massey. The gallery behind him was packed. There were reporters and law enforcement, a bunch of family members of the victims. And some of those family members had been waiting for this moment for, you know, like I said, 30 years. Rex did not look back at them as he as he entered the plea. The judge went through the charges one by one, victim by victim, and asked Huerman how he pleaded. And eight times Huerman answered, guilty. By multiple accounts in the room, his tone became almost casual as it went on. Can you imagine? Casual. So seven women he killed over 17 years, and by the time he got to the seventh, he was answering the judge like he was like confirming his lunch order. You know? And then after that, he admitted to an eighth, which was Karen Vergata. Her murder had not been, he'd not been charged with it. It was just part of the deal. He admitted that he strangled all eight of them. He confirmed he bound three of them, Bartholomew, Waterman, and Costello. The same way, wrapped in burlap, heads and legs bound. He used burner phones to contact them and lured them with money, and he confirmed he dismembered some of them before dumping their remains along the Long Island coast. 1,000 days. That's how long it's been since his arrest on July 13th, 2023. 1,000 days during which he maintained his full innocence, appeared in court and let his defense team fight every single piece of evidence, and then stood up and said guilty eight times on Wednesday. So the district attorney Ray Tierney said it plainly afterward. He thought that by killing them, he could silence them forever and get away with murder, but he was wrong. So, okay, the eight women. So there's Maureen Brainerd Barnes. She was 25 years old when she disappeared in July 20 of 2007. She was a mom, um, and her daughter Nicolette was seven years old when Maureen went missing. She was from Norwich, Caliph, Connecticut. And she had a warmth that people who knew her who have described over and over again over the years as natural. She had an easy way of connecting with people that made her someone others wanted to be around. Her sister Melissa Cannes stood at a news conference after the plea on Wednesday and said, quote, this has been a long journey of hope. Hope that one day we would get to stand here and say her name with justice beside it. Today that long, painful journey brings us to this moment, end quote. Then there's Mars M Melissa Bartholomew. She was 24 years old and she was living in the Bronx when she disappeared in July of 2009. She came from upstate New York. It was a family that loved her and looked for her. After she disappeared, the man who killed her used her phone to call and taunt her 15-year-old sister repeatedly. That detail is one of the most chilling things in the entire case, honestly. It's never left me since I read it. And like he did not just kill Melissa Bartholomew, he used her disappearance to terrorize her teenage sister. This is wild. Then we've got Megan Waterman, who was 22 years old. She was from Scarborough, Maine. She had a daughter that she adored, a toddler who was still really young when Megan disappeared in June of 2010. People who knew Megan described a young woman who was trying. She was trying to get things right and trying to get stable and trying to build something. And she had not had an easy path. She was 22 and she was trying. Next, we have Amberlynn Costello, who was 27 years old, and she was from West Babylon, New York. She had struggled with addiction since she was a teenager. She'd been sexually assaulted by a neighbor at six years old, and the road after that was really hard. She'd been working to get clean. You know, her family who initially did not know she was missing because they thought she was in a rehab center. They've talked about who she was. Someone who would give you her last dollar. Someone who underneath the addiction and the struggle was a person with real warmth. She was 4'11. She weighed about 100 pounds. And she is not just a statistic. Next we have Jessica Taylor. She was 20 years old. She was living in Manhattan when she disappeared in July of 2003. One of the earlier victims, years before the others, her remains were found in pieces, some near Gilgo Beach, some 45 miles away in Manorville, recovered years apart. Her mother, Elizabeth, was in the courtroom Wednesday, and she'd been carrying this for over 20 years. She said after the hearing, quote, I am glad that this is over as far as him pleading guilty. It took a big chunk of stress off of me and my family, end quote. Sandra Costilla was 28 years old. She was living in New York City when she disappeared. Her remains were found in November of 1993 by two hunters in the woods near Southampton, in the Hamptons, over 60 miles from Gilgo Beach. She was the earliest known victim. She waited 33 years for someone to be held accountable. She is often the name that gets dropped from headlines now because of the Gilgo four, the four women that were found together in 2010. They tend to get the focus. But her name is Sandra Costilla, and she was 28 years old. We also have Valerie Mack, who was 24 years old. She'd been working as an escort in Philadelphia. Her remains were found in two different locations, years and miles apart, some of them in a wooded area in Manorville, some near Gilgo Beach. The remains were found over a decade apart. And that detail tells you something about the deliberateness of how he operated. She was 24. We also have Karen Vergata, who was 34 years old. She disappeared in February of 1996. For years, she was known only as Fire Island Jane Doe. Her partial remains found on Fire Island in 1996 and additional remains found near Gilgo Beach in 2011. She was not identified until August of 2023 using genetic genealogy. This is after Hewerman was already arrested. She was never charged in her death, but on Wednesday, he admitting to killing her. As part of the plea deal, he will not face additional charges for her murder. Her family waited nearly 30 years to know her name was on the list. And her name was Karen Vergata, and she was 34. So, okay, a few minutes on the investigation because I know it's one of the more method methodological like true crime investigations. And it's like harder to kind of understand this one, but I think people underestimate how much work went into this. Because so, like the case started in 2010 when police started searching for some missing women. The woman they were looking for in particular, her name was Shannon Gilbert, and her whose disappearance is a whole separate and still kind of unresolved story. But when they were looking, they began finding human remains in the scrub along Ocean Parkway on Long Island's South Shore. So they found four sets of remains close together, found within days of each other. All young women who had gone missing between 2007 and 2010. They became known as the Gilgo Four. Then the search expanded and more remains were found. There were more victims. And so by the end of the search, investigators had identified the remains of at least 10 people in the area. The investigation itself dragged for years. In 2015, then Suffolk County police chief James Burke was himself arrested for beating a man in custody and conspiring to obstruct an FBI investigation into his own conduct. Can you even imagine? He pled guilty and was sentenced to prison. And that's the environment in which the original Gilgo Beach investigation was operating inside. So it was under a police chief who was like later convicted of a federal crime. And it's one of the reasons why the investigation stalled for so long. But in January 2022, a new task force was convened. There was a new police commissioner, and new resources were applied and so a new approach. Six weeks later, they had identified Rex Hewerman as a suspect, like literally just six weeks. So, you know, so here's what cracked it open. A witness had reported seeing a pickup truck near the area where one of the victims disappeared in 2010. So investigators used a vehicle registration database to track down the truck, and it led them to Rex, a 60-year-old architect with an office in Midtown who commuted from Massive Piqua Park on Long Island. And he was a man who'd been living about a 25-minute drive from Gilgo Beach for decades. Okay. So he's also a man who, according to prosecutors, had searched online for information about his own case. Like he was keeping track of it, trying to check in to see who was following the investigation. So the new task force ran surveillance on him quietly for over a year. They didn't want him to know that they were watching. So they tracked his movements in the city. And one day in January 2023, they watched him toss a box of leftover pizza crust into a sidewalk garbage can in Manhattan. And they rushed over to grab it. The crime lab matched the DNA from the hair in the box found on a burlap to use to wrap one of his victims. They matched that DNA. So the Pizza Crust, 30 years of murders, and then Pizza Crust is what finally did him in, which is so ironic because I grew up in a pizza shop. He was arrested July 13th, 2023. He cried in court. If you can imagine, he's like a gigantic dude, too. He cried in court. His attorney said the only thing I can tell you is that he did say, as he was in tears, was I didn't do this. And then a thousand days later, he said guilty eight times. So the sentencing, this is what happens next. The sentencing is June 17th. He will receive life in prison without the possibility of parole. He's got three consecutive life sentences, plus four consecutive terms of 25 years to life. It's a long time. He has waived his right to appeal, and as part of the plea agreement, he is required to cooperate fully with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit to help investigators catch other serial killers. Now, his ex-wife Asa, I don't know how to say her name. I I feel like I've never even heard her name out loud, but and their daughter Victoria were in the courtroom Wednesday. It's been confirmed that neither of them had any knowledge or involvement in the killings. His wife said that her thoughts were with the victim's families. They're now divorced, I believe, and asked for privacy for her own family. Their lawyer confirmed that she never wanted to believe the man she was married to for 27 years would be capable of committing such heinous acts. I mean, duh. There are still open questions. The case of the person known as Asian Doe, unidentified remains found near Gilgow Beach, they remain unsolved. Rex says he had nothing to do with it. Investigators appear to believe him, but the question of Shannon Gilbert, whose disappearance sparked the whole search, has been ruled an accidental drowning, though her family has long disputed that as well. This show is gonna do a fully dedicated episode on the eight women before June 17th. They deserve their own episode, so that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna do a deep dive. So, okay, the next case we're gonna talk about is Lynette Lynette Hooker from Bahamas. She disappeared on April 5th, 2026, and they're still and she's still missing. So Lynette Hooker is 55 years old. She's from Michigan. And on Saturday evening of April 5th, near Elbow K, Albaco Islands in Bahamas, her husband says that she fell overboard from a dinghy in rough conditions and he couldn't reach her. So the husband was whose name is Brian Hooker, was arrested April 8th, which was a Wednesday. He was arrested for questioning, no charges as of this recording, okay? So he's in custody, extended through Monday, April 13th, which is today, charging decision expected later today. So before we went while as we're recording this, it's probably going to be noted, okay? And so they shifted the search from rescue to recovery, and there's still no body found. And the U.S. Coast Guard has opened a criminal investigation. So who was Lynette? Well, Lynette Ooker was a 55-year-old woman who grew up on water. Her mother, Darlene Hamlet, said that Lynette had been near lakes or on boats, swimming and sailing her entire life. And it wasn't a hobby that she just picked up. It was something she'd known since she was like a little kid, you know? She and her husband, Brian, had been married for about 25 years. Over the last decade, they built a life at sea together, learning how to scuba dive, navigating between islands, chasing marine life, you know, documenting everything on social media. Their account was called The Sailing Hookers. They posted regularly on TikTok and Instagram sea turtles gliding across the ocean floor, you know, narrow channels, the details of a life in motion, if you will. People who followed them said it looked exactly like what it appeared to be to people who had found their thing and were living it. Her daughter Carly described her mother as fit and strong and an experienced swimmer, the kind of person Carly said who would not just fall off of a boat. So two days before she disappeared, Lynnit posted on her last TikTok. Okay. The couple had been in the Bahamas for about a month. The post shows darkened skies and choppy water, and she wrote, Here we are at Marsh Harbor. The Sea of Abaco is very entertaining. It is the last thing she posted, and she filmed it from their boat, and she seemed fine. I mean, happy even. So on Saturday night, on the evening of April 5th, Lynette and Brian left Hopetown in a small eight-foot dinghy heading to El Bokeh, which is two and a half miles away, to reach their sailboat, the soulmate. It was around 7:30 p.m. By Brian's account, conditions were rough. There were some high winds and some choppy water. So Brian told police that Lynette fell overboard. He says she was wearing the engine safety lanyard, a cord that's designated to shut the engine off if the operator falls in, which meant that when she went in the water, the engine died. So he says he tried to reach her through a flotation device to her, but the strong currents carried her away. He lost sight of her. He couldn't restart the engine, and he paddled the dinghy to shore, arriving at Marsh Harbor Boat Yard at 4 a.m. on Sunday, nearly nine hours after she went in. That's that is where he alerted authorities that she'd gone missing. So he later gave a statement: quote, I am heartbroken over the recent boat accident and unpredictable seas and high winds that caused my beloved Lynette to fall from our small dinghy. Despite desperate attempts to reach her, the winds and currents drove us further apart. We continue to search for her, and that is my sole focus. End quote. So Lynette's daughter, Carly, has been speaking publicly since the beginning and she's not buying it. She told CNN, I have a hard time believing that she just fell off. And even if she did, I don't understand why he didn't drop another anchor and look for her or even swim to go get her, because he was a Marine. The story just doesn't really add up, end quote. She also described the marriage as sometimes rocky. Alleged episodes of domestic violence. Police records show a prior incident in which Lynette told officers her husband had struck her. Though the case was dismissed because there was insufficient evidence at the time as to who started the fight. So Carly said simply, if my significant other fell into the water, I'd be freaking out and going after them. I wouldn't just say bye. I'd be out in the middle of the ocean with you. At least we'd be alive and together. She also said she doesn't want her stepfather to be in trouble if this was genuinely a terrible accident. She just wants the truth. So Brian Hooker was arrested Wednesday, April 8th, by the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the same day that Rex was pleading guilty in a different part of the world. He was arrested as a suspect based on probable cause for additional questioning. And he's not been charged yet. He has been questioned for a couple of times. Bohemian law allows police to hold a suspect for 48 hours with a possible court-approved extension for up to 96 more hours. And his detention was extended through today, which is Monday, April 13th. A charging decision is expected either today or it expires and he walks out. So one or the other. And no remains have yet been found. Brian Hooker's attorney says he is heartbroken and deeply distressed. He says his primary frustration is his inability to continue searching for his wife. He categorically denied any wrongdoing. So I guess I want to be clear about where this case stands right now because no charges have been filed, no bodies been found. And Brian Hooker has maintained from day one that his this was like a tragic accident. The investigation is ongoing and we don't know what happened on that dinghy on that Saturday night. And, you know, there's only two people who know. What we do know is that Lynette Hooker went into the water near Elbow K at some point on the evening of April 5th. She was 55 years old. She'd been sailing for more than a decade. She loved the water her whole life, and she is yet to be found. We're going to watch this case pretty closely. And I'll be back when something, when there's something to report. So the last story that we're going to cover is Ashley Oakland from West Des Moines, Iowa. And she was 27 years old. She was an Iowa real estate agent. And on Friday, April 8th of 2011, she was shot while hosting an open house at a model townhouse. She died from two close-range gunshot wounds, one to the chest and one to the face. And a woman named Kristen Ramsey, who's 53 years old, was charged with first-degree murder and indicted March 17th, 2026. The arraignment was on April 10th, 2026, and Ramsay pleaded not guilty. The bond was set at$2 million cash only, bond review pending, ruling expected this week. The trial is set for January of 2027. So Ashley Oakland was a 27-year-old. She'd grown up in Iowa and built her career in the Des Moines area real estate market. She worked for Iowa Realty, which is one of the larger agencies in the region. And by the spring of 2011, she had the kind of career going that made people notice. So the Des Moines real estate community is not a big one and people know each other. Scott Steelman, who knew Ashley and is now the president of the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors, he described her death as so out of character for our business, our industry, our profession. The killing shook people who had worked alongside her because she was the kind of person who, you know, she made an impression. Her sister Brittany Bruce said at the press conference when Ramsey was arrested last month, that Friday afternoon when Ashley was taken from us seemed so long ago. We'd lost our hope in finding answers and having any justice for Ashley. She said that slowly. She was hosting an open house, and that's like literally all she was doing. So the model townhouse was on Vine Street in West Des Moines. It was owned by a company called Rutland Homes. Rutland was using independent real estate agents for their sales, and Ashley was there to show the home to some potential buyers. It's like a standard open house on a Friday afternoon. And, you know, that's like kind of the last normal moment in the story because at some point a neighbor in the adjoining townhouse heard two loud noises, like two thuds, about three to four seconds apart, and they looked outside. They saw a woman they recognized near the front door pacing by her car on a cell phone. The woman drove away erratically. The neighbor who was concerned entered the home and they found Ashley Oakland unresponsive on the ground and they called 911. The autopsy confirmed two close-range gunshot wounds. One was to the chest, one to her face, and the medical examiner ruled it a homicide. The woman that the neighbor saw outside was later identified as Kristen Ramsey, 53 years old of Woodward, Iowa. At the time of the killing, Ramsey was working as a sales manager for Rutland Homes. That's the same company that owned the model home where Ashley was killed. She had worked with Ashley and she knew the property. Ramsey left the scene. She did not call 911 and she returned 15 minutes later. So the West Des Moines Police Department investigated, and the investigation did not stall for lack of effort. Over the following 15 years, investigators followed every 900 leads and made contact with approximately 500 people. Ramsey herself was interviewed a couple times. And according to prosecutors, her statements not only conflict with each other, but also conflict with other witness statements. So in 2021, on the 10th anniversary of her death, Ashley's family offered a reward for up to$150,000 for information leading to an arrest. They held a press conference. Brittany sort of at a podium 10 years after her sister was killed and said she believed there would finally be justice. In 2024, Iowa Attorney General Brennan Byrd announced a dedicated cold case unit to investigate unsolved cases across the state. And in 2025, she released a cold case playing card deck as a way of keeping unsolved cases visible in the public consciousness, if you can imagine that. So Ashley Oakland's case was one of those cards. So then on March 17th, 2026, almost, it's almost exactly 15 years after the murder, a grand jury indicted Kristen Ramsey on the charge of first degree murder. She was arrested the same day. Ashley's sister Brittany stood another press conference 15 years older than the last one and said we had lost our hope in finding answers. Had so past since. And then they finally got the call. So what happened on Friday was the arraignment was on April 10th, almost 15 years to the day, because she was killed on April 8th, that Ashley was shot. The anniversary of the killing was again April 8th, and her family had been living with that date on the calendar for 15 years. And now they were sitting in a courtroom in Adele, Iowa, watching a woman allegedly responsible appear before a judge two days, two days later. So Kristen Ramsey, who's 53 years old, walked into Dallas County court wearing a pantsuit, one arm and both feet shackled. And she wiped tears away from her eyes at various points as witnesses spoke to her character. Her husband, her son, her parents, and her grandfather sat in the front row behind her. Her defense team presented over 70 pages of letters of support from her community in Woodward, where she had lived since childhood. She pleaded not guilty. Her defense made a clear argument. The state cherry-picked evidence for a grand jury. There's no weapon, there's no ballistics evidence, no DNA directly linking Ramsey to the crime. Her attonies attorneys wrote, the grand jurors here were only shown a few pieces of the puzzle over two days. They were not shown the whole picture. So the state pushed back pretty hard. Prosecutors revealed the search warrants executed on Ramsey's home, both in 2011, shortly after the killing, and again in 2026 when she was arrested, and they found firearms, illegal substances, and also what they described as posters threatening violence. They called her a flight risk and argued the$2 million bond should stand. The judge said he would issue a written ruling on the bond question this week. One more detail worth naming Ashley Oakland's death changed how real estate profession works nationally. So after she was killed, the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors pushed for new safety standards. So now, as Scott Steelman put it, nationwide, we will not show any property to someone we don't know, who we don't know, aren't familiar with, or at least have not vetted. So the entire industry changed after this happened. That's her footprint, you know? That's the one that shed the legacy that she gets to leave behind. So Ashley Oakland, 27 years old, Iowa Realty. She went to work one day. Her siblings sat in that courtroom on Friday. Today she would be 42 years old. The trial is set for January 27th, and we will be there. So, okay, come back this Thursday. We're gonna go over do a deep dive. And of course, as always, before we talk about how they died, we talk about how they lived. Dino Malvone, and this was I Fear You Babe. Talk to you guys soon.