New York: Arrest made in three Gilgo Beach slayings after over a decade of investigation – National & International News – FRI 14Jul2023

New York: Arrest made in three Gilgo Beach slayings after over a decade of investigation.

Biden to forgive $39 billion in debt for 800K+ student borrowers- What you have to do to qualify.

US, Asia allies slam North Korea missile tests.

NATIONAL NEWS

New York: Gilgo Beach murder suspect identified after over a decade of investigation

In 2010, a sex worker named Shannon Gilbert went missing in a quiet and remote Long Island suburb after calling 911 for help. Gilbert told the 911 operator was involved in a dispute with two men, her customer and her driver. However, she had run off into the night before anyone arrived to help her. Authorities commenced searching for her and made a grisly discovery. Searchers found the buried remains of at least 10 people, none of them Gilbert. These were eight women, one man and one toddler. Here began the hunt for a possible serial killer which has now spanned over a decade and inspired numerous documents, podcasts and even a Netflix film called Lost Girls.

At last, a suspect in 3 (or possibly four of the murders) has been arrested and identified. Yesterday, the Gilgo Beach Task Force has arrested a 59-year-old architect named Rex Heuerman. Heuerman, a married father of two, lived in a one-story home in Massapequa Park, a neighborhood less than half-an-hour’s drive away from Gilgo Beach. Heuerman has an office in Midtown Manhattan, to which he commuted during the week.

Victims and investigation

Authorities have linked this unlikely suspect to three of the identified victims, Melissa Barthelemy (missing since July 2009), Megan Waterman (missing since June 2010) and Amber Costello (missing since September 2010). All the women were in their 20s and known to be participating in sex work at the time they disappeared. Heuerman is also the lead suspect in the murder of a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes (missing since July 2007), but he has not yet been charged in her murder. 

Through DNA, investigators matched a male hair found on one of the victims to a pizza crust that Heuerman discarded in January 2023. They’ve also linked him to a vehicle and to several burner phones believed to be connected to the crimes. Court records reveal that Heuerman’s wife was out of town when each of the victims disappeared. 

Officials have long said they believed that the Gilgo Beach killings, some of which date as far back as 1996, were the work of more than one killer. Heuerman is not under suspicion for any of the other murders at this time.

The remains of Shannon Gilbert, whose May 2010 disappearance kicked off the entire investigation, were found over a year later in December 2011. Despite the circumstances, investigators do not believe foul play was a factor in her death. Gilbert’s family dispute this and have demanded further investigation.

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Related: What neighbors and colleagues say about Heuermann (opens in new tab).

Biden to forgive $39 billion in student debt for 800K+ borrowers

Last month, the Supreme Court blocked an effort by the Biden administration to forgive over $400 billion in student loans for over 40 million borrowers. Now the administration has announced that over 800,000 borrowers will benefit from $39 billion in loan forgiveness. Many who have been paying their loans for over 20 years will have their student debt slate wiped clean.

This relief is not connected to the policy blocked by the Supreme Court and is not affected by the ruling. Instead it is the result of over a year of investigation by news outlets, including NPR journalists, and consumer advocates. It is also a response to years of complaints and lawsuits from borrowers who did not receive the relief they were promised under a Department of Education program for low-income borrowers. 

Income-driven repayment plans

Income-driven repayment plans (IDR) were designed to pin student loan repayments to income for people struggling to make payments without putting them into default. Those eligible should have been able to benefit from low loan payments (as low as $0 in some cases) that would qualify them for loan forgiveness at the end of 20 years. But private student loan servicers contracted by the government were not keeping adequate records for eligible recipients. Worse yet, records would be lost when one servicer passed a loan to another servicer, a problem the Department of Education was aware of for some time.

An independent investigation found that 4.4 million borrowers had been making loan payments for 20 years or more. Of those, only 32 borrowers ever received loan forgiveness under IDR.

To fix this problem, the Education Department is now engaging in a one-time automatic review that they expect to continue into 2024. Most eligible borrowers do not need to do anything. However, borrowers who have some of the oldest loans in the system (known as FEL loans) must take some action to benefit from the relief. FEL loans are held by private entities, so FEL loan borrowers must consolidate these loans into a new federal direct loan in order to qualify.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

US, Asia allies condemn North Korea missile tests

Earlier this week, North Korea test launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) which landed in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. This is the third such test in recent months. The first two tests sparked panic in Japan and even triggered warning sirens in October 2022.

The US, Japan and South Korea issued a joint statement condemning the missile tests. The statement reaffirmed the US commitment to defend Japan and South Korea with “the full range of capabilities, including nuclear”. Just two days before launching the missile, North Korea had rebuked a US plan to deploy nuclear submarines near the Korean Peninsula. North Korea has long complained that US naval drills near its waters were a threat to its sovereignty.

The US and its allies also vowed to tackle North Korea’s “illicit revenue generation through overseas workers and malicious cyber activities” which the country uses to fund its missile program. Last year, there were also reports that North Korea was selling ammunition to Russia for use in Ukraine.

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