Rex Heuermann got scammed — and that scam led to his arrest. In September 2010, a man matching his description showed up at a West Babylon house to meet an escort named Amber Costello. Her roommate ran a hustle — pretended to be her outraged boyfriend, the man fled, and they kept the money. Then a text arrived from the man's burner phone: "That was not nice, so do I get credit for next time." The next night he came back. Amber walked out to meet him. Her roommate saw the truck — a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche. Amber was never seen again. That truck description sat in a case file for over a decade. When the Gilgo Beach task force was formed in 2022, they ran the vehicle through registration databases. Rex Heuermann's name came back. From there — surveillance, the pizza-crust DNA, the warrants, the house searches, the planning document, the arrest, and eventually a guilty plea to eight murders. This look back puts Amber's story first. She was twenty-seven, from North Carolina, battling addiction, living with roommates in West Babylon. Friends described her as generous and funny. Her sister said publicly she forgives Heuermann — and that Amber would have too. Without Amber's case — the witness, the truck, the text — Heuermann might still be walking free. The segment also examines the erosion-of-agency pattern with psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, who ties the Heuermann and Richins cases together through a single thread: how control doesn't start with a crisis, it starts with compromises so small you don't think to question them. 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. #AmberCostello #RexHeuermann #GilgoBeachKiller #LISK #ChevyAvalanche #ShavaunScott #ErosionOfAgency #TrueCrime #GilgoBeach #HiddenKillers