True Crime NYC

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DIDDY ON TRIAL: Ventura cross-examination day 1 recap May 15, 2025

Show notes

After two days of testimony about how her relationship with Sean Combs grew violent and coercive, Cassie Ventura faced six hours of grueling cross-examination on Thursday, as defense attorneys attempted to cast doubt on her credibility and portray her as a willing participant in his sexual activities.

Ventura’s testimony as the star witness for the prosecution is expected to conclude tomorrow, given concerns that the singer, now eight months pregnant, could go into labor as early as this weekend.

Defense attorneys turned to a decade of archived text messages to question Ventura about the consistency of her earlier testimony, highlighting her apparent eagerness to engage in Combs’ lifestyle of swinging at drug-fueled orgies. They insist that she was not a victim of sex trafficking or racketeering and that Combs is innocent of the federal charges he’s facing.

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DIDDY ON TRIAL: Cassie Ventura testifies she was 'badly beaten' by Combs on second day of testimony May 14, 2025

Show notes

The R&B singer Cassie Ventura returned to the witness stand Wednesday for a second day spent recounting tumultuous details of life with her ex-boyfriend, Sean "Diddy" Combs.

She testified in a Manhattan courtroom that Combs kept her in a cycle of abuse and exploitation by threatening to release recordings of her with male sex workers in encounters Combs orchestrated and called "freak-offs."

After prosecutors completed their questioning, Judge Arun Subramanian opted to adjourn court for the day and begin the defense's cross-examination of Cassie on Thursday.

The defense said it expected cross-examination to take all of Thursday and that it will likely continue into Friday, followed by redirect examination by the prosecution.

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DIDDY ON TRIAL: Full recap of intense testimony from Cassie Ventura May 14, 2025

Show notes

For six hours on Tuesday in a packed Manhattan courtroom, Cassie Ventura testified how her decade-long relationship turned violent as her then-boyfriend, Sean “Diddy” Combs, seized control of her personal and professional lives and demanded she orchestrate his drug-fueled sex parties known as “freak offs.”

Ventura is the star witness in the federal racketeering and sex-trafficking case against Combs, who faces the possibility of life in prison if he is convicted.

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Diddy On Trial: Full recap of first day of testimony May 12, 2025

Show notes

Eyewitness News reporters Mike Marza and Darla Miles give you an in-depth look the first day of the Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex-trafficking and racketeering trial in Lower Manhattan.

Cassie Ventura is expected to be the next witness called later Tuesday morning. Prosecutors allege that Combs, 55, used his fame and power at the top of the hip-hop world to sexually abuse women from 2004 to 2024. He pleaded not guilty after his September arrest and has remained held without bail at a federal lockup in Brooklyn.

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GILGO BEACH E16: How a hair tied 7th murder to alleged Gilgo serial killer Jan 03, 2025

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Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has been charged in the death of a seventh woman.

Heuermann is charged with one count of second-degree murder in connection with the murder of Valerie Mack, according to a superseding indictment unsealed Tuesday.

Mack, whose remains were first found on Long Island in 2000. Mack, 24, had been working as an escort in Philadelphia and was last seen by her family that year in New Jersey.

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GILGO BEACH E15: New sketch released of male Gilgo Beach victim Dec 27, 2024

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Even though there has been an arrest in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, investigators are still trying to solve cold-case murders and authorities are asking for the public's help.

On Monday, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney released three new updated sketches of a Gilgo Beach victim.

The Asian male victim's remains were recovered along Ocean Parkway in April 2011. However, authorities say he was killed during or prior to 2006.

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GILGO BEACH E14: 7,000 tips, 350 electronic devices Dec 20, 2024

Show notes

Suffolk County prosecutors have received some 7,000 tips following the arrest of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, district attorney Ray Tierney said after his latest court appearance.

Prosecutors turned over "voluminous" evidence to Heuermann's defense, including results from DNA lab work, data from Heuermann's electronic devices, and notes from searches of his home.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to killing multiple women.

No trial date has been set.

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GILGO BEACH E13: What Rex's wife and children think Dec 13, 2024

Show notes

Rex Heuermann, the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer charged in six killings is now being eyed by investigators for even more, nearly one year to the day that the Manhattan architect, husband, and father of two was arrested.

Heuermann's adult children - and his now-estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, showed support at court.

Robert Macedonio, Asa's attorney, talked with Eyewitness News reporter, Chantee Lans, about what the past year has been like for the family.

"Complete shock. The world was turned upside-down in the last year."

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GILGO BEACH E12: Sickening 'planning document' of murders Dec 06, 2024

Show notes

Disturbing new details have emerged in the Gilgo Beach serial killings as Rex Heuermann, 60, was charged in two additional women.

The new charges also significantly expand the timeline in the Gilgo Beach case, with the first murder Heuermann is accused of committing now taking place in 1993.

Prosecutors also revealed disturbing "planning" documents that they allege the suspect used in his killings and disposal of the victims.

The architect and father allegedly "meticulously planned and executed six separate murders," Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said at a news conference Thursday.

Heuermann appeared before a judge on Long Island to face charges in the killings of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla, two young women who were long suspected of being the victims of men preying on sex workers.

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GILGO BEACH E11: Heuermann charged with another murder Nov 29, 2024

Show notes

Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is expected to be charged this week with an additional murder, according to Newsday.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to killing four women -- Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes - whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach along Ocean Parkway.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declined to comment.

Word of the new indictment follows searches by the Gilgo Beach Task Force at Heuermann's Massapequa Park home and a wooded area of Manorville where the remains of two women were previously found.

Heuermann had been scheduled to appear in court on June 18 but is now expected to be arraigned on the new charge on Thursday, June 6, 2024.

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