Full Episode for Thursday April 16, 2026

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This is Nightline.

Tonight, the shocking twist in the Gilgo Beach serial killer case, Rex Hurman's astonishing double life.

He commuted by day, he killed by night.

How did he hide his murders from his family?

What authorities say about his secret murder room and what victims' families still want to know?

Why did he choose her?

Where did all this happen?

How did all this happen?

Plus, Jenny Garth.

Launching to fame as Golden Girl, Kelly Taylor on Beverly Hills 90210.

And for that scene...

Have made my choice and I choose me.

She says she had no idea would become an emblem of self-empowerment.

I just thought it was simply a choice between two guys, but it was really so much more than that.

Opening up about what she calls an emotional roller coaster behind the scenes.

I did a lot of trying to fit the mold or you know be what other people expected me to be.

And what she now says about her late co-stars, Luke Perry and Shannon Doherty.

And Val Kilmer, back on the big screen thanks to artificial intelligence, the new trailer featuring the AI likeness of the beloved actor more than a year after he passed.

Don't fear the dead.

And don't fear me.

From ABC News Headquarters in New York, this is Night Live.

Thanks for joining us.

Tonight inside the chilling double life of Rex Huerman, the Gilgo Beach killer.

After denying the charges for nearly three years, Huerman made a stunning about face and confessed to eight murders,

leaving still so many questions for the families of the victims.

We're now hearing from those family members for the first time.

Rex Huerman was a suburban dad and an architect with an office on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

He's kind of dual personality. On one side he's this family man and on the other side he's a terrifying serial killer.

This man was truly living a double life.

The prolific psychopath, this monster and his crimes really terrorized Long Island.

He commuted by day, he killed by night.

The chilling turn in court today involving serial killer Rex Huerman.

Rex Huerman admitting to murdering eight young women in a string of killing that went unsolved for two decades.

District Attorney Ray Tierney starts to ask Rex Huerman the manor in which he killed these victims.

And one after the next he just says strangulation.

And when he's asked if he killed each victim, he's like, yep, yes, I mean he's unfazed.

It is tragic to think about and also terrifying that this guy who's six four, he is huge, would take these women tiny, petite women and strangled them.

The idea that there even was such a thing as the Gilgo Beach serial killings begins with a woman named Shannon Gilbert.

So Shannon Gilbert was engaging in sex work and ended up going on a call to a neighborhood called Oak Beach in May of 2010.

And something went wrong during the date and she ended up fleeing from the house.

While she was fleeing this house, she made a 23 minute long 911 call in which she sounds really frantic.

And then according to police, she ends up taking off into this marshy area and she was never heard from again.

Then in December of 2010, a police officer and his canine find a set of human remains but it's not Shannon Gilbert, it's Melissa Bartholomey.

And then the next day they find another victim and then another victim.

A gruesome find, about three miles away near Gilgo Beach, a suspected serial killer cemetery containing four skeletons dumped by the side of the road.

The first four women found on Gilgo Beach were all sex workers and they were given the name the Gilgo Four.

They were Melissa Bartholomey, Maureen Brainerd Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello.

My name is Liliana Waterman. I am the daughter of Megan Waterman.

I was three years old when she first went missing and when she was found I was four years old.

Coming to this park definitely makes me think about my mom.

Some of my favorite things to do with her when I was younger was go to the park spend some time.

So it's nice to come here and just feel like she's with me.

Megan Waterman was a young woman in her 20s from Maine who had been working as a sex worker and who was reported missing in June of 2010.

The last place she had been seen was leaving the hap hog Long Island holiday.

In a spring they find their remains tied to seven other victims.

Shannon Gilbert's body was later discovered in a marsh. Rex Heurman has not been connected to or charged with her death.

Suffolk any law enforcement suggests that she wandered into the marsh and died under those types of circumstances.

Despite the fact of finding bodies along Ocean Parkway, this case went dormant but over a decade later finally the cases reinvigorated with the creation of the forest.

They welcomed the FBI and other resources into this investigation and that's when this case really started to move.

So early on, law enforcement knew some things about this killer.

The killer was taunting the families with his victims' own phones and burner phones and those calls were traced to Midtown Manhattan and Massive Equal Park.

Rex Heurman made one error and allowed his vehicle to be spotted in one instance and he drove a distinctive Chevy Avalanche and from that vehicle.

Investigators were able to winnow down who bought it and they used cell phone records to track down who may have been driving it in certain areas.

Ultimately, that leads them to Rex Heurman.

Rex Heurman was arrested in front of his Midtown office. He was on the sidewalk. He had no idea this was coming.

Rex Heurman was even profiled at an online video about being an architect in Manhattan.

Rex Heurman, I'm an architect, I'm an architectural consultant, I'm a troubleshooter.

And all the while, every time he sent his family on vacation, he was murdering innocent women.

Law enforcement suspected early on that these women were killed inside the Heurman home.

The Heurman House is weird. It's in this nice neighborhood with manicured lawns and then there's this dilapidated thing where Rex Heurman lived and investigators went all over it.

They find a locked room in the basement that looks almost like a murder room.

Asa Ellerup and their daughter Victoria reportedly got paid to appear in a documentary about Rex Heurman.

A lot of media, they're calling the vault the kill room. The vault was always locked.

This is the steel door. It had a combination lock.

Prosecutors said from the outset, it appeared his wife, his daughter and his stepson did not know about his deviant double life.

When the young women were killed, there's evidence prosecutors said that the family was away.

Rex Heurman's wife and family were not charged in connection with his crimes.

When Rex was arrested and they started to go through his computer, they found this planning document. It's called the Hunt and Kill Planning Document.

This was basically a blueprint for murder created by a guy who liked to make blueprints and architect and laid out every step of his process.

One reminder said, hit harder. Another said, use thicker rope, constantly updated with lists of supplies, with locations of dump sites.

What was so terrifying is certain lines that he would use. Get more sleep for more playtime.

It really made you understand how terrifying this guy was.

Prosecutors headed overwhelming amount of evidence for this case.

Rex Heurman's defense attorney Michael Brown, although tried, he lost every single question that he raised.

And so as he sits there and sees what the prosecution can use against and all of the information that they can throw at him, I think the writing was on the wall and he knew, it's time to take a plea.

As part of his guilty plea, Heurman is going to have to sit with behavioral analysts from the FBI. They're going to study the mind of Rex Heurman and perhaps get a window into this monstrous serial killer.

The reverberations of his crimes will never disappear. You know, that kind of stuff, the ripple effects, never end.

With the pain he's caused people, with the fear, he's instilled in the communities that were affected.

He is nothing but a serial murderer, callous, cruel, no conscience. I have no sympathy for him.

Hearing him admit that he killed my mom and all of those other girls, it definitely felt like a weight had been lifted off of me.

For a much deeper look into this story, including the Memento's police say Heurman kept, watched the monster at the beach, now streaming on Disney Plus and Hulu.

And now a look ahead at Tomorrow's show. We're on location in Japan with Punch the Monkey, what the world's most famous snow monkey has been up to since winning the hearts of millions with his lucky spirit.

And the big news is that Punch has a girlfriend. And when we come back, she was the golden girl of the culturally phenomenal Beverly Hills 90210.

Jenny Garth, opening up about how she was feeling behind the scenes of the iconic show.

I have made my choice and I choose me after the break.

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Welcome back. Most of us know Jenny Garth as Kelly Taylor, the California golden girl from Beverly Hills 90210.

As the cast brought on the drama and melted hearts, now she's bearing it all in a new memoir. The actor sat down with ABC's Stephanie Ramos.

Welcome to Nightline, Jenny. Thank you for having me. This is an absolute dream come true to me.

I watched Beverly Hills 90210 growing up. I probably shouldn't have. My mom was like, you're too young, but in those early teen years, I was able to watch in the 90s.

What's been like all these years to run into fans who say we grew up watching you? I always say, I know we grew up together because I feel like I did grow up on that show.

It was incredible. You know what a cool experience and getting to look back on that now later in life and really appreciate it with a different perspective has been so fascinating.

There is one scene that a lot of fans will remember. The eye choose me clip, which we have.

Have nice trip. I can't go with you. Not this time.

I've made my choice and I choose me. I hope you understand. Do you remember shooting that scene? I do.

I remember I didn't even understand what that meant. That truly meant I choose me in that moment. I just thought it was simply a choice between two guys, but it was really so much more than that.

I didn't really understand it until later in my life when I was reminded by other women who had grown up watching the show.

And for the first time in their lives, they got the message that they can choose themselves in any given moment and that that's always going to be the right choice.

And it's become your mantra 30 years later. It is. I'm just fascinated by how did you get here and how did you survive the highs and the lows of your life.

So I really just wanted to bring all of that to the forefront. I did that in the book by sort of sharing my stories, my challenging times, and my greatest experiences of my life.

You really open up in the book about heartbreak, depression, and substance abuse. What was it like for you revisiting those tougher times in your life?

It took a lot of self-reflection and allowing myself to go to those moments and to really kind of stop pointing the finger and blaming others and start pulling the thumb and kind of looking at my part in everything throughout my life.

Something that caught my attention in the book is the aspect of forgiveness and forgiving your ex-husband.

I really looked in the mirror and realized that I didn't even like the person that I saw in my reflection. She was angry and afraid and full of just bitterness.

And I thought, this is not how I want to live the rest of my life. This is not how I want to show up for my girls. It was honestly like flipping a switch.

In your co-stars on 90210, Luke Perry, Shannon Doherty, Jason Priestley, you all were so young on this show.

You were just 18 years old experiencing this tidal wave of fame, the red carpets, the hordes of fans.

And you write that behind the scenes, you were just trying to hold it together, struggling with anxiety, body image, and just this enormous amount of pressure.

What would you tell that young Jenny Garth?

I would tell her it's okay to let people see your flaws that were all humans and we all have flaws.

And I think I did a lot of trying to fit the mold or play the role or be what other people expected me to be instead of using my voice the way I wanted to or just showing up as the authentic me.

And I think I hid that for so long. And now, you know, growing up, stepping into your power as a woman, it's a whole new ballgame.

And during that time, what helped you get through it? I mean, this was a hit show for so many years.

It was an avalanche of just weight, responsibility, and I didn't have any idea how to navigate that. I'm from the Midwest.

I didn't know what Beverly Hills was like. I had my parents with me. My dad was still alive. My mom was there with me. I also had a best friend and I had a manager who discovered me and is still my manager to the stay.

You also have some really great stories in the book, just about rewatching the show and seeing Luke Perry, a good friend who tragically passed away a few years ago.

She and George also passed away. What was it like to build that bond over the years with them?

We were on our own together in a little bubble for 10 years.

It doesn't matter where any of us go or what happens in our lives. That show will be referenced.

There will flash a group, you know, a cast photo of us. And we're forever connected. It's really hard to look back at the cast photo now and see two people missing.

It's just, it's really hard to wrap my brain around. And every time I see the image of everyone, I just have this incredible fondness in my heart.

We've seen your Instagram posts taking your daughter to college, setting up her door room, which is a big, big deal.

I definitely need a little love. So we rearranged some things, did some cleaning.

What was that like for you just kind of stepping into this next chapter of your life with your daughter?

And did any other parents are on campus recognize you? And I go, oh my goodness.

I'm sure that happened, but I kind of didn't really stop to notice.

But I think, you know, we've put all the focus on being a mom and taking care of everybody in the house and around us.

You have to ask yourself, like, what do I want at this next stage in my life? Because guess what?

The sky's the limit. You can create whatever you want. Those dreams that you put on the back burner. Those can come forward now.

Yeah, and to have a strong support system. Jenny, thank you so much. So many lessons in this book. Thank you.

Thank you. I choose me chasing joy, finding purpose and embracing reinvention is out now.

Our thanks to Stephanie. When we come back, Val Kilmer back on the big screen more than a year after his death with the help of artificial intelligence.

Don't fear the dead and don't fear me.

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No one goes to Hanks for spreadsheets. They go for a darn good pizza.

Lately though, the shop's been quiet, so Hanks decides to bring back the $1 slice.

He asks Copilot in Microsoft Excel to look at his sales and costs. They'll help him see if he can afford it. Copilot shows Hanks where the money's going and which little extras make the dollar slice work.

Now Hanks has a line out the door. Hanks makes the pizza. Copilot handles the spreadsheets. Learn more at m365copilot.com slash work.

And finally tonight, the late, great Val Kilmer returning to the big screen thanks to AI.

The new trailer for the film as deep as the grave giving viewers their first look at an AI generated performance from the late star who passed away just over a year ago.

Don't fear the dead and don't fear me.

We build this character that he would have played and working with his family. This is where we use family photographs. We use voice recordings.

Kilmer's likeness was created using a state-of-the-art, generative AI model after he became too sick to shoot the role in the movie.

And that's nightline for tonight. You can watch all of our full episodes on Disney Plus and Hulu. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.

Same time. Thanks for staying up with us. Good night, America.

Baby monkey, baby, punch.

I love this monkey.

Punch the monkey has been accepted by the other monkeys.

He's a celebrity a-lister, the most famous monkey in the world. It's punch and tomorrow. The interview everyone will be talking about.

Punch has a girlfriend. We're in Japan with punch the monkey tomorrow, first on Good Morning America, and then even more on nightline.

The next generation are ready to show the world what they're made of.

We're the first pick in the NFL draft.

The 2026 NFL draft April 23rd through 25th on ABC ESPN and NFL Network, also streaming on the ESPN app.