Liz Garbus jokes that it was “kind of ordained” that she would one day make a
documentary about the Long Island Serial Killer. Her first scripted narrative film, 2020’s “Lost Girls,” was based on Robert Kolker’s book of the same name about the series of 11 murders that took place from 1993 to 2011, and ever since she received the script for that project in 2015, she’s kept up with the case.
“I was just crossing my fingers that some good police work would happen,” Garbus said.
Then, in the summer of 2023, Rex Heuermann was arrested for the crimes. “I
immediately checked in — it may sound weird — to congratulate the (victims’) families,” she said. “This was something they had been waiting on for so long. Once I got back in touch with them, I thought, ‘There’s a lot more story to be told here.’”
Garbus’ documentaries range from deep dives into the prison system (“The Farm:
Angola, USA”) to biographies of celebrities (“Harry & Meghan” and “What Happened, Miss Simone?”) to explorations of odd events (“There’s Something Wrong with Aunt Diane”). Now, with Netflix’s “Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer,” the filmmaker focuses not so much on Heuermann but as on how his horrific crimes forever changed his victims’ loved ones.
When you’re dealing with a case whose trial is still ongoing, when do you know it’s time to cut off your story?
When I started this project, [Heuermann] was charged with the murders of three women and connected as a person of interest to one. Now he is fully charged for the murders of seven women. There’s a reason that things have taken time, but this trial was way off enough that there was time to complete this film. If there is a follow-up to the trial and there’s more that we need to know — and I imagine there will be a lot of questions answered — then we go back. But at this point, the story has been told up until the point of the trial.
Your series does a good job of putting the victims’ families first and foremost.
You don’t want to think about losing a loved one, but there are ripple effects on people’s lives, like Amanda, the sister of Melissa Barthelemy, who got phone calls from the killer, and the PTSD she had, dropping out of high school and being afraid to go on dates because it could be him. The massive shadow it casts over so many lives is something that I don’t think is obvious to people who are just following the news of the case.
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Unfortunately, once there’s more and more death and bloodshed, it’s harder for people to really process how devastating the loss is. We kind of get number blind.
Right. “I’ll Be Gone in the Dark,” which is another series, I made — I don’t say that’s about the Golden State Killer because we barely even talk about him. It’s about those crimes and the huge ripple effect it had on the lives of the survivors and those pursuing the case. Without this kind of storytelling that (the book’s author) Michelle McNamara did, that Robert Kolker did, that I’m doing, that a lot of other people are doing, it just becomes about this guy — his name and these numbers. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.
How do you see the current documentary landscape? Is there more or less of a demand than in years past?
When I started making documentaries, there were really one or two places they could go. There was an audience, but it was not really being serviced. Then with Netflix and the explosion of other streamers in its wake, they turned documentaries into something that everybody watches. It has really changed the profile of documentaries from something that you watched in science class to something that you’ll choose to watch at home at night with your best friend.
I’d say we’re now in a period of contraction, and that’s all across the entertainment industry. We’ve seen that over the last couple of years. Some of the films that I could have gotten made a few years ago would be a lot harder to get
made now. I hope that this is a cycle, and that we can continue to make the more challenging stuff we’ve made all throughout our careers and that people have shown up for.
This article has been edited for length and clarity.
This story first ran in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine. Read more from the Race Begins issue here.
