A documentary series 30 years in the making, Netflix is set to release Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer at the end of this month. Ahead of its debut, the streamer has shared the official trailer and more details about the three-part docuseries.
For several decades, young women working in the sex industry were repeatedly being murdered, with their remains buried in Long Island's Gilgo Beach area. The area became a dumping ground for a serial killer that went unidentified for years due to reported police corruption involving those working on the case. Watch the official trailer embedded below.
Families knew their loved ones were missing, but they couldn't get the police to take their inquiries seriously, struggling to even get them listed in the missing persons database. It wasn't until 2010, when Mari Gilbert advocated for a search into her daughter Shannan Gilbert's disappearance, that the case started to move forward. The search for Shannan led to the discovery of a skeleton buried in the Gilgo Beach area and a subsequent searched turned up more human remains along Ocean Parkway. It was then that investigators being to suspect that a serial killer could be at work, though it would still be years before the victims' families got any answers.
The doc is helmed by directed Liz Garbus, who also executive produces. If that name sounds familiar, you might have seen some of her other work, such as the acclaimed HBO documentary I'll Be Gone in the Dark. She also directed the Netflix movie Lost Girls, a dramatization about the search for Gilbert case starring Amy Ryan and Thomasin McKenzie as Mari and Sherrie Gilbert.
"Over three episodes, Garbus delves into the troubled investigation — as well as the stigma surrounding the victims’ work — which may have contributed to the lack of progress surrounding their cases. Featuring interviews with law enforcement officials, friends and family of the victims, and even acquaintances of the alleged serial killer, the docuseries unravels an ongoing tragedy that has forced the public to reflect on which victims are valued in a system that often neglects the voiceless," reads the Netflix synopsis.
In an interview with Garbus, she discusses why now felt like the right time to revisit this case, namely because of the new police chief and district attorney who "were able to do in six weeks what people hadn't done in a decade."
Garbus is referring to the arrest of key suspect Rex Heuermann, who was taken into custody in July 2023 and is currently awaiting trial. Seeing as this is an evolving story, there is potential for a follow-up documentary in the future.
All three episodes of Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer premiere exclusively on March 31. Set a Netflix notification here.