Episode Details

Valerie Mack was born into loss. Placed in foster care as a child, adopted by the Mack family, estranged from her own son by her early twenties. She was working in Philadelphia when she vanished — and after she was found, it took twenty years for anyone to learn her name. Jessica Taylor was twenty years old, working near Port Authority in the same Midtown neighborhood where Rex Heuermann ran his architecture practice. She was the youngest of the women he was charged with killing. This look back puts them first — their lives before the case files, before the evidence, before the headlines.

The forensic connections between them are devastating in their precision. Valerie's remains were found in two locations between 2000 and 2011. Jessica's were found in the same dual-location pattern — Manorville and Ocean Parkway — with years between discoveries. Tool marks on their bones matched: the same type of instrument, the same characteristics. A hair on Valerie's remains matched the DNA of Heuermann's family members. A hair beneath Jessica's remains matched his own. And the planning document recovered from his computer included preparation notes that prosecutors say corresponded to the condition of both women's remains.

Heuermann pleaded guilty to both murders as part of the agreement covering seven victims, and admitted to an eighth. He is expected to be sentenced to three consecutive life terms plus an additional hundred years. Valerie waited twenty years for a name. Jessica was found twice. We revisit where the case stood at the time of our reporting. This segment says their names first, and the evidence second.

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