(NEW YORK) — Admitted Gilgo Beach, New York, serial killer Rex Heuermann was linked to one of his victims, Megan Waterman, by the distinct pattern on a Bounty paper towel, according to the district attorney.

In court on Wednesday, Heuermann changed his plea to guilty and admitted to the murders of eight women: Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Karen Vergata.

Prosecutors said the New York City architect targeted sex workers, strangled them and dumped their bodies near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach from 1993 to 2010.

“This was his obsession,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told ABC News. “With his internet searches and his thought process, this was what was driving him.”

A piece of evidence that would’ve been presented had the case gone to trial is a rolled up Bounty paper towel recovered from Waterman’s mouth, Tierney said.

Waterman, 22, went missing in June 2010 and her remains were found in December 2010 in Gilgo Beach, according to Suffolk County police.

The paper towel had a particular pattern that Bounty created specifically for the box store BJ’s Wholesale Club, and that pattern was only in circulation in 2010, Tierney said.

When searching Heuermann’s home, investigators found a BJ’s receipt for Bounty paper towels, and “the SKU [stock-keeping unit] number was for a Bounty paper towel with that same pattern,” Tierney said.

“And so we were able to show that this Bounty paper towel was purchased by the defendant,” Tierney said. “And inside his desk drawer was a square of that same paper towel that matched perfectly and that he had kept in his office since 2010.”

That paper towel square was a “memento” for Heuermann, Tierney said, adding that prosecutors “would have utilized [that] at trial to link him to the commission of that particular murder.”

Heuermann was arrested in 2023 and initially pleaded not guilty to killing seven women. He was set to go to trial in September.

On Wednesday, Heuermann agreed to serve three consecutive life sentences followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 years-to-life, prosecutors said. His sentencing is set for June 17.

Tierney said, from his “outside observation” as a prosecutor, Heuermann, 62, wanted to change his plea because “I think he was done.”

“He wanted this to come to a conclusion — that’s just my impression,” he said.

Waterman’s daughter, Liliana Waterman, told reporters on Wednesday that she accepts the guilty plea and is “very, very thankful.”

Part of the plea arrangement requires Heuermann to cooperate with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.

“I think it’s very important,” Tierney said.

“This is clinical,” he said. “So I think they’re going to, hopefully, gain insight into him, his motivations, you know, what created this need or desire in him. And hopefully we’ll gain insight, you know, for cases going forward.”

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(NEW YORK) — Nine months after a New York jury convicted Sean “Diddy” Combs of transporting prostitutes across state lines for drug-fueled sex parties, the hip-hop mogul is set to appear in a federal appeals court on Thursday to challenge his lengthy prison sentence.

Acquitted last year of the more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, Combs argues that the judge imposed an overly harsh sentence by considering the crimes for which the jury found him not guilty.

“He sits in prison today, serving a 50-month sentence, because the district judge acted as a thirteenth juror,” Combs’ lawyers wrote in their appeal.

A panel of judges on the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is set to hear the sentence challenge as well as Combs’ broader argument that he should not have been convicted because his sexual exploits are protected under the First Amendment.

His lawyers claim that Combs was merely “creating typical amateur pornography” by transporting escorts across state lines to engage in lengthy drug-fueled sex parties known as “freak offs.”

Lawyers with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, who initially asked for a 11-year sentence, argue the judge was correct in taking into account the violent way Combs treated his victims when handing down his sentence.

“According to Combs, the District Court should have closed its eyes to how he carried out his … offenses and abused his victims–violently beating them, threatening them, lying to them, and plying them with drugs,” prosecutors said in their appellate brief.

What was Combs found guilty of?
After a two-month trial last summer, a jury reached a split verdict against Combs, acquitting him on the more serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering while finding him guilty of two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Though the jury determined that Combs did not coerce or exploit his victims — necessary elements to prove sex trafficking — they did conclude that he transported people across state lines for his “freak offs.”

Claiming legal victory, Combs’ lawyers unsuccessfully pushed for his release from prison, arguing he had already served enough time in prison while awaiting trial.

U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian rejected those arguments and handed down a 50-month sentence, saying Combs was able to get away with violent and abusive conduct for years.

“The court is not assured that if released these crimes would not be committed again,” said Subramanian, who added that a lengthy sentence was needed “to send a message to abusers and victims alike that exploitation and violence against women is met with real accountability.”

How much time does Combs have left in his sentence?
After spending about 14 months in the federal jail in Brooklyn ahead of his trial and sentencing, Combs has been serving his sentence at the federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey. In addition to having those 14 months taken off his overall sentence, Combs is also likely eligible for a reduction in his sentence under the First Step Act and by participating in a drug rehabilitation program.

According to the federal Bureau of Prisons, Combs’ tentative release date is April 15, 2028.

What is Combs’ argument to reduce his sentence?
Combs’ lawyers have argued his sentence is “unlawful, unconstitutional, and a perversion of justice” because it factored in conduct for which the jury acquitted Combs.

“The jury refused to authorize any punishment for coercive sex or conspiracy–because the evidence showed there was none,” his lawyers wrote in a reply brief. “The jury only authorized punishment for ‘prostitution.’ It never authorized a sentence four times the typical sentence for that crime.”

Prosecutors pushed back on those arguments, arguing that the federal sentencing guidelines allow the judge to consider relevant conduct, even if he was acquitted of those crimes.

“That is because ‘acquittal on criminal charges does not prove that the defendant is innocent; it merely proves the existence of a reasonable doubt as to his guilt,'” they argued.

How does the First Amendment apply to Combs’ conviction?
Combs’ lawyers also asked the court to throw out the conviction altogether, arguing the prostitution at the center of his case was part of an effort to make “typical amateur pornography.”

“The encounters were highly choreographed performances involving costumes, lighting, and other staged effects. Later, Combs and his girlfriends often watched the films together. Such conduct is protected by the First Amendment,” his lawyers argued.

Prosecutors have told the court the transportation of sex across state lines “is not inherently expressive” conduct protected under the First Amendment.

“Combs’s intent to watch the sex sessions live cannot bring his interstate transportation of others to have sex for money within the First Amendment’s protection. Were it otherwise, any defendant who transported others to engage in prostitution could escape liability simply by watching or filming the sex,” prosecutors wrote in their brief.

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(NEW YORK) — The status of several threatened species has been downgraded to endangered, and climate change is to blame, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

The Red List of Threatened Species, which was updated by the IUCN on Thursday, now includes the Emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal on its endangered list.

The IUCN is the world’s largest environmental network and provides scientific, data-driven expertise on biodiversity conservation.

The Red List of Threatened Species is a comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. The species are listed in nine categories of risk: Not Evaluated, Data Deficient, Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild and Extinct.

Climate change is altering ice conditions and impacting food availability for these species, researchers told ABC News.

Emperor penguins moved from “near threatened” to endangered, according to the IUCN.

Satellite images collected from the region since 2009 indicate that the population of Emperor penguins in Antarctica has been decreasing for about a decade, Phillip Trathan, member of the IUCN’s Penguin Specialist Group, told ABC News.

“Ultimately, there’s only one trajectory, and that’s downwards,” Trathan said.

The main threat the penguins are facing is lack of sea ice due to climate change, Trathan added. Since 2016, sea ice has been diminishing and changing the whole ecosystem in Antarctica, including the molting process — when penguins shed their old feathers — and foraging opportunities, he said. Emperor penguins mainly consume fish, squid and crustaceans in Antarctic waters.

Scientists also are seeing patterns and major population changes in pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, that are making them “very nervous,” Kit Kovacs, Svalbard program leader for the Norwegian Polar Institute and chair of IUCN’s Pinniped Specialist Group, told ABC News.

The Antarctic fur seal has declined “precipitously” — losing about 57% of the adult population in the last three generations, Kovacs said.

The IUCN moved the species from “least concern” in the last pinniped assessment — which happened in 2014 — to endangered.

“That doesn’t happen very often, that you jump so many categories at once,” Kovacs said.

Populations of the krill that Antarctic fur seals subsist on are also dropping, which is likely fueling the decline, she added.

“Krill seems to be the crux of everything in the Southern Ocean,” Kovacs said.

Another Antarctic species — the Southern elephant seal — is also now at risk of extinction due to bird flu, moving from least concern to vulnerable, according to researchers.

Three out of the four big groups of Southern elephant seals have been hit by avian influenza, Kovacs noted. Those seals breed on shore, and 2023 and 2024 saw a 90% pup mortality, according to Kovacs. Breeding females are down about 67%.

There is growing concern that disease-related mortalities of marine mammals will increase due to the climate change, the IUCN said in a release. The organization noted that polar regions, where animals have not had much previous exposure to pathogens, and animals that live close together in colonies, such as southern elephant seals, could be particularly hard-hit.

Antarctic sea ice is declining at record rates, according to climate scientists.

Antarctica has lost enough ice over the last 30 years to cover the City of Los Angeles area 10 times over, glaciologists at the University of California, Irvine, found in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month.

The regions losing ice the fastest are West Antarctica, the Antarctica Peninsula and parts of East Antarctica, the research found.

Glaciers all over the world — especially in Antarctica — are also retreating at a rapid pace, recent research shows.

Scientists have taken a particular interest in Antarctica’s western shelf due to its potential to cause a significant rise in sea levels. Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday Glacier,” already contributes to 4% of overall sea level rise due to rapid retreat, while Pine Island Glacier is Antarctica’s fastest-melting glacier and has the potential to raise sea levels by 1.6 feet if melted.

Throughout the globe, climate-driven degradation to ecosystems is accelerating faster than conservation frameworks can respond, according to the IUCN.

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