One thousand days. That's how long Rex Heuermann maintained his innocence. On day one, he was in tears, telling his attorney he didn't do it. On day one thousand, he stood calm and controlled in a packed Suffolk County courtroom and pleaded guilty to strangling eight women across seventeen years. No tears. No visible emotion. His defense attorney called it a calculated pivot — and everything about this plea supports that description. Every pre-trial motion had been denied. The DNA was ruled admissible. The seven charges would be tried together. Trial was months away, and the defense had nothing left to fight with. But the plea wasn't just about avoiding a trial he was going to lose — it was about controlling what came out and what stayed buried. During a confidential session, Heuermann brought up Karen Vergata — a woman he was never charged with killing. Her case was folded into the deal. No separate prosecution. No public presentation of the evidence against him in her death. The agreement also reportedly bars further prosecution related to all eight named victims. This look back examines the plea as strategy — the work of a man who spent decades planning how to avoid getting caught, now potentially planning his exit from the justice system the same way. Then psychotherapist Shavaun Scott goes inside the home. Asa Ellerup heard her ex-husband admit to eight murders — and reportedly moved back into the basement where it happened. Scott doesn't excuse or condemn. She examines the psychology: the difference between denial and constructed reality, what a lifetime of trauma does to someone's ability to separate from the person who caused the most harm, and why Asa's decisions make a disturbing kind of sense when you understand the framework. We revisit where the case stood at the time of our reporting. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeachKiller #LISK #GuiltyPlea #AsaEllerup #ShavaunScott #KarenVergata #CalculatedPivot #TrueCrime #HiddenKillers