Family of man allegedly murdered and dismembered by reality TV star make a huge call
The 39-year-old was allegedly murdered by his partner, former Beauty and the Geek contestant Tamika Chesser, 34, at their Port Lincoln home on June 17.
Investigators are still hunting for Story's alleged decapitated head, which remains a key focus of the search.
While the investigation continues, Story's family have revealed details of his funeral, which will be held on August 7.
South Australian Police said on Wednesday that Major Crime detectives, the STAR Group and Eyre Western officers scoured multiple locations around Port Lincoln after new intelligence identified fresh search zones.
'Specialist equipment has been used in the hopes authorities can locate Mr Story's remains and give his family closure,' Detective Superintendent Darren Fielke said.
The operation turned up at least three items, a T-shirt, a drink bottle and a wristband, near the town's cemetery, according to 10 News First.
A second location was later searched. While the items will undergo forensic testing, police said there was still no trace of human remains.
Julian Story's family meanwhile is preparing to lay him to rest.
Williams Funeral Services in Port Lincoln announced details of a memorial service for the 39-year-old.
'Taken from us on Tuesday June 17, 2025,' the funeral notice reads.
'Aged 39 years. Dearly loved son of David and Cathie. Stepson of Pam. Much loved by all his aunties, uncles and cousins.'
The service will be held next Wednesday at St Mary of the Angels Catholic Church in Port Lincoln.
Instead of flowers, the family is encouraging donations to a local mental health charity.
'No flowers by request, in lieu of floral tributes, a donation in Julian's memory can be made to Mentally Fit EP. Envelopes will be available at the Church,' the notice reads.
It also confirmed that 'a private cremation has taken place.'
Mr Story, 39, was allegedly murdered and dismembered by his partner, former Beauty and the Geek contestant and OnlyFans creator Tamika Chesser, on June 17 at their Flinders Highway unit.
She has been charged with murder and with interfering with human remains to pervert the course of justice.
In a chilling detail, police previously revealed Mr Story's head was missing, and extensive ground and water searches had so far failed to recover any part of his body.
In the days after the alleged murder, a neighbour told The Advertiser he had run into Mr Story's unit to extinguish what he thought was a smouldering fire, only to learn from police later that it was his remains.
Authorities have since scoured bushland, parks, reserves, and the popular Parnkalla Trail for evidence.
Specialist divers also searched Boston Bay, assisted by SES volunteers, but without success.
Police said the search would continue in the coming days.
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Daily Mail
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
He was the 'perfect' co-worker but 'life of the party' architect with a sexy nickname stands accused of dark secret
Drinking a beer and cracking jokes with colleagues, he seemed like any co-worker enjoying a night out after a busy day in a Manhattan office. But once he left the bar and headed back to his Massapequa Park, Long Island home the architect Rex Heuermann allegedly went Jekyll and Hyde and prowled his neighborhood looking for his next victim to kill as his wife and children slept. Katherine Shepherd worked with Heuermann in the same midtown Manhattan office at 525 Seventh Avenue in New York City 's Fashion District during the early 2000s. She was working for an architectural design firm and his company was providing city permits. On occasion, she and her co-workers would gather at Pete's Tavern in Gramercy Park. She remembered Heuermann acting like the life of the party which later earned him the nickname 'Sexy Rexy' amongst colleagues. 'He was fun. He was funny,' Shepherd told Daily Mail. 'He would tell funny stories and jokes that made everyone laugh.' During working hours, she said he was always professional towards her and the other female employees. 'If he ever made me feel uncomfortable, touched me in any way or would've made any inappropriate sex jokes there was no way I would have worked with him,' she said. 'Never ever did he ever make me feel uncomfortable,' she added. However, she said he liked pretty girls in the office and using them to help get what he wanted professionally. 'He knew how to get permits and was renowned for it. He knew all the people and had all the relationships,' she said. 'He had women in the office that were petite and beautiful and he would send them down to the city to get those permits.' Heuermann was arrested two years ago in July 2023 and initially charged with the murders of three women: Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. Since then, he has been charged with the murders of four more victims: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack. All the victims were working as sex workers when they vanished after going to meet a client. Their bodies were found dumped along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach and other remote spots on Long Island. Some of the victims had been bound, others had been dismembered and their remains discarded in multiple locations. The 61-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. Shepherd said: 'It's just hard to come to grips that this is the same person. It just doesn't match. It doesn't match. 'Though I know in my heart he did it. The evidence is overwhelming. 'He was able to separate his life - somehow put a divider in-between murderous spawn of Satan to a caring father and business owner. I don't know how but he was able too.' She recalled the first time she met him and said she was stunned by his 6ft 4ins size - a client of one of his alleged victims has described him as resembling an 'ogre'. 'He's one of the biggest men you'll ever meet in your life. It is very intimidating having someone that large,' Shepherd said. 'He joked around a lot and made you feel comfortable because he knew he was big and intimidating. I think he was trying not to be intimidating,' she added. However she said he was 'soft spoken' and described him as coming off as 'arrogant and cocky'. She said: 'He was very smart. He was very confident.' Shepherd remembered how kind he was to her when she injured herself on black ice on a city street and took her to the emergency room when the pain became too much to bear. That day in the hospital, she said he waited for her for hours as she took tests, including an MRI. Once discharged, they went by cab to her apartment in Hell's Kitchen and after he got her settled, he went to the pharmacy to pick up her painkiller prescription. She remembered he made her a slice of toast when he returned before leaving her by herself. 'I was grateful for his help. I felt like he was almost taking care of me like a dad would,' Shepherd said. The day that happened was November 17, 2003, four months earlier one of Heuermann's alleged victims 20-year-old Jessica Taylor's body was found decapitated with her hands cuts off in a wooded area in Manorville, Long Island. 'He (allegedly) cut her head and hands off, spread them around Long Island and four months later took me to the hospital because I was in pain and needed help,' she said. When Shepherd learned Heuermann had been arrested for murder and was not the 'normal, everyday, nerdy guy', she thought he was but a cold blooded killer she was stunned. 'I have a totally different view of this guy because like I said, he took care of me. He helped me. He took time out of his day, his job to take me to the hospital to take care of me. I saw that as, "Wow what a good co-worker realizing that I needed help stopping his day to help me. No one else did,"' she said. In 2005, she started consulting on her own and working with Heuermann directly. She said, they'd meet at job sites and one time, the avid hunter and gun aficionado, taught her how to shoot a gun while they were at a job site in the Bronx. She said she didn't plan on it but went for it. 'It was a 9mm - the kind you see in movies all the time - the black square gangster gun,' she explained. 'Anyway that is what I fired. He was telling me where to put my hand because when you shoot the whole top part goes back and if you put your hand in the wrong spot you can hurt yourself'. On some days they'd travel in the same vehicle to a job. She said their conversations were always focused on business and that he would never talk about his wife or kids. However, she did meet them once when she went to his home to do some measuring for a home renovation project he was planning. She was horrified to later learn that she took measurements in the same area that held a secret room where he would allegedly torture his victims. She recalled her final communication with him was in summer 2011 while she was working in California. She sent an email to Heuermann for some permit expediting work she needed done. She said she jokingly called him 'Rexy' like 'Sexy Rexy' - the playful term that she and her colleagues sometimes used. It was also the time when some of the bodies were being discovered along Ocean Parkway in Suffolk County's GIlgo Beach. She said that he never responded. This month marked two years since Heuermann's arrest and the interior designer still grapples with the idea that her kind-hearted co-worker who became her knight in shining armor when she was in distress, is the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer and charged with the brutal murders of seven women. 'I didn't even know about the Gilgo Beach Killer until two years ago. It feels like someone is playing a trick on me. It feels like you are talking about someone else.' 'I am a little bit in denial, still. The practical side of me understands what happened but I just don't get it. It is really hard to comprehend. 'I didn't know he was capable of that. How is anyone capable of that? He has kids. How do you have kids and a wife and go off and do something like that,' she added. After all this time, Shepherd said her time with Heuermann still haunts her but she concluded: 'It is good to talk about it. Every time I talk about it - it is like a little therapy and it helps me.'
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
Mike Johnson says Ghislaine Maxwell coming clean on Epstein case would be ‘a great service to the country'
Speaker Mike Johnson called on Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, to come clean and told Americans that he "hoped" she could be trusted as he faces the growing uproar around the White House's handling of the investigation. Johnson appeared Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press, where moderator Kristen Welker asked him point-blank if the convicted sex-trafficker girlfriend of Epstein could be trusted to accurately testify about the crimes she and Epstein committed. Epstein was awaiting prosecution for sex trafficking underage girls after a previous conviction on similar charges when he died in federal custody. Maxwell has been thrust back into the spotlight as the MAGA base has grown frustrated with President Donald Trump and his administration's shutting down of the so-called Epstein files release. Last week, a top Department of Justice official met with Maxwell about the case. "Well, I mean, look; it's a good question. I hope so," Johnson told Welker in response. "I hope that she would want to come clean." "I hope she's telling the truth. She is convicted, she's serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking. Her character is in some if she wants to come clean now, that would be a great service to the country. We want to know every bit of information that she has." The House Oversight Committee voted this week to issue a subpoena for Maxwell after the Justice Department announced its own plans to speak with her. Agency officials did so for nine hours between Thursday and Friday, after making a statement seeming to confirm that her testimony hadn't been aggressively sought before. Some have called Maxwell to testify and suggested she should be given a pardon for sharing what she knows about the Epstein case. She was convicted of sexual abuse against minors and sex trafficking for helping Epstein carry out crimes. Johnson touted the Oversight subpoena favorably Sunday, casting it as evidence that GOP leadership supported efforts aimed at transparency. The Trump administration turned speculation about Epstein's death and the so-called 'Client List' of his co-conspirators into a raging wildfire in early July. The Justice Department and FBI published a joint memo explaining that future releases from the files would not take place, and that the list of Epstein's accomplices was not found. Epstein was rumored to have cultivated personal relationships with many powerful men and institutions. Critics of the president have alleged that a cover-up is in the works regarding the Epstein files. Democrats have hammered the president for his reversal, and a pair of scoops from the Wall Street Journal have reported on the president's connections to Epstein, to Trump's fury. The newspaper reported the contents of a message allegedly penned by Trump to Epstein as part of a 50th birthday celebration in 2003, including allusions to a shared 'secret' between them. Trump firmly denied authoring the note, and sued the Journal and its reporters in response. A second article from the Journal days later reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump in May that he was mentioned in the Epstein investigation multiple times, thought it was not clear in what context. The White House called that story 'fake' and has repeatedly insinuated that Democrats including Joe Biden tampered with evidence while Trump was out of office. Being mentioned in the files does not mean wrongdoing, and hundreds of names are reportedly included. The lead GOP co-sponsor behind a House resolution that would force the Justice Department to release the entirety of its collected evidence related to Epstein said Sunday that his push was to help the convicted pedophile's victims and would only grow stronger in the coming weeks. Earlier on the same network, Rep. Thomas Massie appeared alongside the resolution's lead Democratic co-sponsor, Rep. Ro Khanna, as the two promoted a resolution that would force Attorney General Pam Bondi to release 'all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials' related to the Epstein and Maxwell investigations. Massie told Welker that 'the release of the Epstein files is emblematic of what Trump ran for' and explained that the president's MAGA base expected results. 'There seems to be a class of people beyond the law, beyond the judicial all thought that when Trump was elected, he would be the bull in the china shop and break that all up,' said Massie. Massie went on to say that the Trump administration had lost his trust on the issue after publicly supporting transparency around the investigation, then doing an abrupt about-face. The administration is now calling on its supporters to move on from the issue and focus on hashing out issues with the 2016 'Russiagate' investigation instead of Epstein. Top administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance, also spent months calling for the very releases the Justice Department says it won't authorize. 'People who were allegedly working on this weren't sincere in their efforts,' Massie said. 'Somebody should ask Speaker Mike Johnson, why did he recess Congress early so that he didn't have to deal with the Epstein issue?' 'Politics is the art of the doable. There's enough public pressure right now that we can get 218 votes and force this to a vote on the floor,' said Massie. He also firmly rejected a DOJ memo explaining the administration's position against further releases of information from the Epstein files, despite the very public promises of Bondi and others to do the opposite. In the memo, agency officials said that explicit imagery involving children was 'intertwined' throughout the files collected by the Justice Department. Some have said the files should not be released to protect sex-abuse victims of both Maxwell and Epstein. 'That's a straw man [argument],' Massie responded on Sunday, after Welker read part of the memo. 'Ro [Khanna] and I carefully crafted this legislation so that the victims' names would be redacted, and that no child pornography will be released.'
BBC News
42 minutes ago
- BBC News
Murder arrest after woman's body found in Batley
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder and police are looking for two more people who may have "come to harm" in West were initially called to reports of an armed robbery in Asda in Dewsbury at about 21:20 BST on Saturday, where they arrested the 37-year-old man and seized a Yorkshire Police said he told them there was a dead woman at a property in body of a woman, believed to be in her 20s, was subsequently found in Norfolk Street. The force is making inquiries into the welfare of a man and a woman in Dewsbury, and on Sunday there was police activity in the town centre, near the River Calder and in Ch Insp Dan Bates said: "This is clearly a very serious incident, where a young woman has lost her life."There is a heightened police presence in Dewsbury today as we work to establish the full circumstances surrounding this incident."Our immediate priority is to identify and locate the two people and establish whether or not they have come to any harm."A murder investigation is also under way [but] we do not believe there is any wider risk to the public at this time." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
