Nancy Grace to anchor cable special on Gilgo killings

Legal analyst and crime journalist Nancy Grace will anchor the one-hour “ID Special Report: The Long Island Serial Killer” Sunday at 8 p.m., the basic-cable network Investigation Discovery has announced.

Joining her will be a panel of experts examining the nearly 13-year-old case involving 10 victims of suspected serial killings who were found on Oak Beach, Gilgo Beach and elsewhere on Long Island, along with the recent arrest of suspect Rex A. Heuermann, 59, of Massapequa Park.

Panelists and Grace, 63, will discuss how the crimes were concealed for well over a decade, what law enforcement knew and when those facts became known, and what might be next for the victims’ families. The special is produced by ABC News chief legal correspondent Dan Abrams’ Law & Crime Productions.

The special preempts two episodes of the half-hour true-crime series “Forensic Files II.”

GILGO TIMELINE

Authorities in December 2010 began uncovering the remains of what eventually would be 10 victims of suspected serial killings — mostly women, some of them sex workers, but also a man and a toddler. Suffolk County police have said the remains of the earliest known victim, linked through DNA analysis, were found in Davis Park on Fire Island in 1996.

Heuermann was arrested on July 13 and charged with the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. He has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors also have said he is the prime suspect in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

Former prosecuting attorney Grace began her TV career on what was then Court TV, co-hosting with attorney Johnnie Cochran the legal-analysis program “Cochran & Grace.” She went on to other shows at that cable network, and in 2005 began additionally hosting “Nancy Grace” on CNN Headline News, now Headline News Network. Her subsequent syndicated program “Swift Justice with Nancy Grace” earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for outstanding legal/courtroom program in 2011. She currently hosts the SiriusXM satellite-radio program “Crime Stories with Nancy Grace" and "Crime Stories" on the Fox Nation streaming service.