The hotel where Megan Waterman was last seen

Megan Waterman was last seen leaving the Holiday Inn Express at 2050 Express Drive South in Hauppauge, New York.

Security cameras recorded the 22-year-old exiting the hotel lobby in the early morning hours of June 6, 2010.

Six months later, her skeletal remains were discovered alongside those of three other women near Gilgo Beach.

Background

Waterman was born in Portland, Maine, on January 18, 1988.

As a toddler, she lived in a motel with her parents, Lorraine Ela and Greg Waterman. Although the couple had separated before her birth, they continued living together. Greg's girlfriend, Karen, also stayed there.

Lorraine permitted the couple to sleep in the living room on the condition they helped with the children.

Lorraine struggled with alcoholism. Acting on reports from relatives, Child Protective Services removed Waterman from the motel and placed her in the care of her grandmother.

Diagnosed with ADHD, she struggled academically and dropped out of Scarborough High School at 17.

In September 2006, she gave birth to her daughter, Liliana. To support herself, she worked at a sandwich shop.

In 2009, Waterman met a drug and sex trafficker named Robert Blake, who suggested she could make extra money by working in the sex trade.

Later that year, Waterman began dating Blake's associate, Akeem Cruz.

Cruz, a Brooklyn pimp, convinced her to continue in the sex industry, promising they would use the earnings to buy a home and start a family together.

Cruz regularly trafficked Waterman from Maine to New York, as the sex trade was more lucrative there.

Trip to New York

On June 1, 2010, Waterman and Cruz traveled from Maine to New York by bus.

Cruz stayed with relatives in Brooklyn, while Waterman checked into the Holiday Inn Express, where she began advertising her services online.

Craigslist ads from the time of her disappearance show that she operated under the pseudonym "Lexi" or "Lexy."

Waterman was in high spirits that week. Cruz told her he wanted a child and that she could soon quit the trade. A friend who spoke with her on the phone later said she had never heard Waterman "as happy as she was that day."

Disappearance

On June 4, Waterman met a "white male" who paid her $850, a sum considered unusually high at the time.

In the early hours of June 6, she called Cruz and told him she was going on an outcall with the client from the previous day.

At approximately 1:30 a.m., she exited the lobby and turned right toward an industrial area on the southern side of the hotel.

The area was unlit and lacked security cameras.

The southern side of the hotel also had no windows or balconies.

Phone records indicate she was picked up and driven to Massapequa Park, about 15-20 miles southwest of the hotel. Her last phone activity occurred in that area at 3:11 a.m.

The following morning, Cruz tried to contact Waterman multiple times but received no response. At approximately 11:30 a.m., he alerted her grandmother to the situation.

Waterman's disappearance was immediately treated with suspicion. When traveling, she would regularly call her daughter a few times each day. Her sudden radio silence led police to suspect foul play.

The Scarborough Police Department opened an investigation, while friends and family mounted an extensive grassroots effort to raise awareness. Flyers were circulated, a Facebook page was created, and vigils were held in Maine. Local newspapers also began covering her disappearance.

Despite these efforts, no meaningful leads emerged.

As the weeks turned into months, Waterman's family started losing hope that she would be found alive.

Gilgo Beach

On December 11, 2010, Suffolk County Police Officer John Malia and his K-9 partner, Blue, were walking along the shoulder of Ocean Parkway on Jones Beach Island when Blue showed interest in a section of thick brush.

When Malia entered the thicket, he found the skeletal remains of Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old who had disappeared in July 2009.

A follow-up search revealed three more bodies.

When news broke that four bodies had been discovered near Gilgo Beach, Waterman's mother told reporters she was "90% certain" her daughter was among them. She believed too much time had passed for her to still be alive.

On January 19, 2011, Suffolk County detectives traveled to Maine to notify Waterman's family that DNA results had confirmed she was among the victims.

The women were nicknamed the Gilgo Four due to the similarities in their profiles, the method of their disposal, and the proximity in which they were found.

All four women were sex workers who disappeared between 2007 and 2010 after meeting a client who had contacted them using a burner phone.

A distinct signature was the wrapping of the bodies. Three of the four victims (Barthelemy, Waterman, and Costello) were bound and wrapped in duck blind camouflage burlap.

The killer had bound Waterman using clear or white duct tape, which he had wrapped around her neck, head, waist, and lower legs. He also appeared to have placed a paper towel in her mouth.

Investigators recovered significant physical and forensic evidence from Waterman's remains and the materials used to conceal her body. A male human hair was discovered at the bottom of the burlap, while two foreign female hairs were found near her head.

At the time, technology was unable to generate a usable DNA profile from the samples, as they were rootless or degraded.

Rex Heuermann

On the evening of July 13, 2023, the Gilgo Beach task force arrested Massapequa Park resident Rex Heuermann in connection with the murders.

The following day, he was arraigned for the murders of Waterman, Barthelemy, and Costello.

Prosecutors said that the male hair recovered from Waterman matched Heuermann's DNA, while the female hair was identified as belonging to his wife, Asa Ellerup.

Investigators believe Ellerup's hair was transferred to Waterman's remains inside the home. At the time of the murder, Ellerup and the couple's two children were in Maryland.

On April 8, 2026, Heuermann pleaded guilty to Waterman's murder, as well as the deaths of seven others. Two months later, a judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney revealed to ABC News that a rolled-up Bounty paper towel had been recovered from Waterman's mouth.

Investigators learned that the towel had a distinct pattern that was created exclusively for BJ's Wholesale Club. The pattern was only in circulation during 2010, the same year Waterman was murdered.

Investigators found a BJ's receipt for Bounty paper towels in Heuermann's home. Inside his office desk drawer, they discovered a matching square of the exact same patterned paper towel.

Prosecutors believe Heuermann kept the square as a "memento" of the crime.