Melissa Barthelemy went missing in 2009 when her doting kid sister Amanda Funderburg was just 15.
Amid a desperate search, Amanda began getting calls from Melissa's phone. The teen hoped it was good sign — that Melissa resurfaced or that someone had information.
Instead, it was the first of a series of calls from a deranged stranger who bragged about killing and sexually assaulting the 24-year-old Buffalo native.
The caller refused Amanda's pleas to share her sister's location. Amanda spent years dreading the possibility that the \"repulsive monster\" would reemerge.
Seventeen years after the first call, Amanda got to face Rex Heuermann in court. He was finally in custody and no longer a threat to Melissa’s family or anyone else.
Heuermann is serving more than three life sentences after pleading guilty in connection to eight murders. Investigators are trying to determine if he’s responsible for additional killings.
On this week’s The Trial: USA, Funderburg speaks to Daily Mail reporters Ruth Bashinsky and Rachel Sharp about her sister, her family’s struggle and what Heuermann deserves.