Female 'Contact' Found on Rex Heuermann Planning Document Died in Manhattan Hotel: Friend

Danielle Goodling, 42, was found dead in April 2021 in Manhattan hotel.

The Pennsylvania woman who contacted the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, after her friend's phone number showed up on Rex Heuermann's alleged "kill" document, told me she's finally learned where Danielle Goodling died in April 2021.

"Her body was found in a hotel room in Manhattan," Stephanie M. revealed this week, quoting a source attached to the Gilgo case.

"They said she died of kidney failure associated with an accidental overdose."

We aren't publishing Stephanie's last name to protect her privacy.

Stephanie said she remained unsettled that Danielle Goodling was found in midtown Manhattan, a place where Rex Heuermann worked as an architect. He was still a free man in 2021. He's now charged in the murders of seven women in the Gilgo Beach serial killer case, Heuermann pleading "not guilty" to all of them. Each of the women he's accused of torturing and killing did sex work. Prosecutors believe he murdered them in the basement of his Massapequa Park home. Stephanie M. told us last summer that Danielle Goodling had made "a ton of money" doing dominatrix work in the early 2000's. That was about the time Heuermann allegedly created his Microsoft Word planning document.

Goodling, a mother of five, lived many years in the Bronx.

Her family and friends said she spent the last years of her life trying to save women from the brutality of domestic violence and sex trafficking. At one point, Goodling was reportedly living in Virginia with her sister, a former White House liaison for the U.S. Department of Justice. Goodling's sister resigned from DOJ in 2007, during an investigation of politically-motivated hiring and firing at the Justice Department. The sisters were raised in Pennsylvania.

Danielle Goodling, a mother of 5, lost one child in infancy.

"Why was she back in New York when she was living with her sister?" Stephanie M. wanted to know of Danielle. "Why was she found in a midtown Manhattan hotel?"

The office of Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney apparently doesn't believe that Danielle Goodling was a Heuermann victim. But investigators said the presence of Goodling's cell phone number in Rex Heuermann's alleged planning document could establish a long history of interaction with sex workers. The number, 917-294-4402, was deliberately made public in the D.A.'s June 2024 bail affidavit, with the hope a member of the public would come forward, which Stephanie did.

When Stephanie M. reached out to me last July on Facebook, she told me she was horrified by some phrases on Heuermann's alleged planning document, such as "SMALL IS GOOD."

"She was blonde with a small build," Stephanie said of Danielle Goodling. "She was tiny."

Rex Heuermann’s alleged planning document stated SMALL IS GOOD.

Stephanie observed that Goodling looked very similar in appearance and size to Gilgo victim Melissa Barthelemy and also Shannan Gilbert, whose 2010 disappearance led to the discovery of the Gilgo Four victims on Ocean Parkway. Gilbert's body was found a year later in a marsh at Oak Beach.

Danielle Goodling had a similar appearance to victims associated with the Long Island serial killer case.

Stephanie M. said she and Danielle Goodling had a falling out a few years before Goodling died, with Stephanie claiming her friend was getting involved with far right, QAnon conspiracy theories. Still, she never stopped thinking of Goodling or caring about her. The two had met when they were adolescents at the Eastern State Hospital and School in Pennsylvania, where they were treated in the mental health unit. Goodling ran away when she was 16 to New York City, where she was intercepted by people who introduced her to drugs and forced her into sex trafficking.

Stephanie said she can't shake the feeling that Rex Heuermann didn't lose touch with Danielle Goodling.

"I feel like he was one of her regular people," Stephanie said.