NetflixThe new Netflix documentary Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer may be getting a Season 2, and if it does, followers of the true crime case hope it elaborates on suspect Rex Heuermann and the victims known as Asian Doe and Baby Doe.
As is explored in the new docu-series, the Long Island Serial Killer case remained unsolved for over a decade. Although the first murder took place in the ‘90s, it wasn’t until Shannan Gilbert went missing in 2010 that an investigation discovered the remains of four women along Gilgo Beach.
A further seven bodies were later discovered in and around the same Long Island area. For years, law enforcement was accused of prejudice towards the victims, as many were sex workers. It wasn’t until former DA Thomas Spota and Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke were arrested that headway was made.
Finally, in 2023, Rex Heuermann was arrested, and he’s currently awaiting trial for seven of the Long Island murders. With so many moving parts, Gone Girls creator Liz Garbus is open to a Season 2. Warning: some may find this content distressing.
Viewers call for deeper dive into Rex Heuermann’s Google searches
Among the 12 remains discovered in the same area was an unidentified female toddler nicknamed by police as Baby Doe, as well as an unidentified male adult named Asian Doe.
NetflixAlthough Heuermann hasn’t been charged for these murders, a number of viewers have complained that the true crime docu-series didn’t elaborate further on how Heuermann’s Google searches demonstrate his interest in graphic content beyond just women in their 20s.
Taking to Reddit, one wrote, “I just finished the Netflix series and found it quite odd that they mentioned the unidentified Asian victim who was assigned male at birth but feminine-presenting… [and] showed the Google search queries regarding ‘Asian Twink’ and ‘ten year old girl’, but then never verbalized the obvious presence of sexual interests outside of the heteronormative, and the likelihood that he is the perpetrator responsible for ‘Asian Doe’ and ‘Baby Doe’s’ murders.
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“In fact, even as they displayed the list of Google searches on screen, they only mentioned his predilection for material containing the ‘abuse and degradation of women’ – even though the list also indicates not only an interest in males but in children as well.
“They literally ask the question, ‘Is it possible this one man is responsible for all these murders?’ But don’t bother to summarize such an obvious connection.”
It’s worth pointing out that since Heuermann is yet to go to trial, Gone Girls is dealing with allegations for the time being. The Massapequa Park resident is yet to be convicted of any crime, and so it may be that Garbus is saving this for a follow-up.
Plus, he hasn’t been charged with either Asian Doe or Baby Doe’s murders, so even speculation may jeopardise any police or federal investigations into these cases.
“It’s also Season 1. They are gonna do a Season 2 post trial, guaranteed, so I’m taking it as seed planting for a future discussion,” said another, to which the OP replied, “I suppose it makes more sense (and is probably safer from a legal standpoint, or even for the integrity of the investigation) to do it that way.”
A third agreed, “Yeah. It seemed like it was setting up for something, most likely another season.”
Let it be known that Netflix hasn’t greenlit a second season just yet, but Garbus is certainly game if the circumstances call for it.
When asked this question by Variety, the Lost Girls director replied, “If there is a lot that we learn in the trial that puts pieces together we haven’t been able to put together, then yeah, I think it might be worth taking another look at.
“If it is just awfulness, then no. But if there is something we can take away from it that is socially useful, then maybe yes.”
For more true crime news, read our Good American Family Episode 4 recap, where Dionne Hornigold is now, and the shocking details exposed in A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read.