at one caught in between the tape. that was recovered, amber lynn costello also had a hair, a significant hair that was recovered during the time, during the time of recovery. but again, the crime scene was out there for so long and because it was exposed to the elements, those hairs were debated. so you couldn t use traditional dna analysis on it. you would have to wait and use mitochondrial dna. back in 2010, the technology wasn t there for mitochondrial dna. to the investigation proceeded, but also, technology proceeded as well. and then in january february 2022, we formed a task force. we began working collectively. and six weeks later march 14, 2022, rex heuermann was identified for the first time. the manner in which it was
the killer. stuff that police could not have done 10, 20, 30 years ago. what stood out to you the most from this press conference? reporter: yeah, i think they were so descriptive for two reasons. one, i think because they wanted to tell the public this is every step we took to make this case come to where it is today. and this, again, has haunted police, it s haunted that community. they wanted answers as to who may have committed these murders. you heard mitochondrial dna. i had an up-close look being solved by the nypd where mitochondrial dna was used. if you heard the district attorney there, he said that they got his name, rex huerman, six weeks into forming the task force. once you have a name the case works backwards. that s what he is describing for everyone. they got this name, rex huerman. from there, they could go back to the evidence that they collected there at the scenes
the burlap, then there was one caught in between the tape. and that was recovered. amber costello also had a hair, a significant hair that was recovered during the time, during the time of the recovery. but again, the crime scene because it was out there for so long and because it was exposed to the elements, those hairs were degraded. so you couldn t use traditional dna analysis on it. you would you would have to wait and use mitochondrial dna. and back in 2010 the technology wasn t there for mitochondrial dna. so the investigation proceeded, but also technology proceeded, as well. and then in january in february of 2022 we formed the task force. we began working collectively, and then a mere six weeks later, on march 14th, 2022, rex
2022. and from that point on, our partners and my office, we use the grand jury to continue to investigate, and executed over 300 subpoenas, search warrants pertaining to this individual, to find out more information. one of the things that we did, we followed him because we wanted to get a sample of his dna. which we were able to do. we also got dna samples from his family.and we went back and got mitochondrial dna tested. and with regard to you know, and you know, there is an aspect of new york state law that does not allow me to talk about dna testing. specifically at press conferences. so i cannot do that. however, at the arraignment, and also when we filed our letter we
with regard to the four victims we were able to obtain five hairs of significance but because the bodies had been exposed to the elements for so long, that d.n.a. was degraded when people think of nuclear d.n.a. traditional d.n.a. analysis that is done. as the science advanced, and although the hairs were degraded for nuclear d.n.a. we were able to use them for mitochondrial d.n.a. we were able to use that technology but we still had to develop a suspect, that s where the phone evidence and the evidence with regard to the car and some of his other activities came in. how broad do you think his scope of victims could be and do you anticipate more charges? well, as i said at the press conference, you know, what we did was we identified, you know, i took office in january of 2022, in march of 2022, he was identified as a suspect in these