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THE YouTuber who gave a can of Coke to the world’s deadliest tribe is to be held in custody for two weeks as he faces jail.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, risked his life by journeying to North Sentinel Island on Saturday – where unw…
SURROUNDED by turquoise waters and golden sands, the remote North Sentinel Island is incredibly enticing.
But this five-mile-long haven in the Indian Ocean is the one place in the world no tourist should tread.
Outsiders who have landed on the former British colony have been killed by arrows or spears from the mysterious tribe that inhabit this distant land.
Their families don’t get to bury their bodies because it is too dangerous to collect them.
And even if a trespasser does survive, they face a five-year prison sentence for breaking the law by visiting this protected island.
None of that, though, deterred YouTube host Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov from travelling for nine hours in an inflatable boat to try to meet the deadly Sentinelese tribe.
According to the authorities, the 24-year-old American adrenaline junkie evaded patrols by the Indian Navy, landed on the shore last Saturday and blew a whistle to try to attract the indigenous people.
When no one came, he took a sample of sand, before leaving a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as gifts.
It was only on his return to Kurma Dera beach on South Andaman Island that his mission was uncovered and he was arrested.
Polyakov’s adventure has caused outrage because isolated tribes can be killed by infectious diseases brought by foreigners.
Caroline Pearce, director of Survival International, a charity that campaigns on behalf of indigenous people said: “It beggars belief that someone could be that reckless and idiotic.
“This person’s actions not only endangered his own life but they also put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk.
“It’s very well known by now that uncontacted peoples have no immunity to common outside diseases like flu or measles, which could completely wipe them out.”
With very little of our planet untouched by tourism, wannabe social media stars are increasingly seeking out-of-reach destinations.
And with the Sentinelese considered by the charity to be “the most isolated indigenous people in the world”, they are a target for influencers.
In 2022 British “dark tourist” Miles Routledge, “who goes to the most extreme places on Earth for fun”, posted a message on Twitter discussing the idea of organising an expedition to North Sentinel.
Polyakov, from North Goldwater, Arizona, is of a similar ilk.
The American had already spent three weeks in Taliban- controlled Afghanistan, posting videos of himself shooting an AKM rifle, playing on abandoned tanks and trying on animal skins in the war-torn country which has the death penalty for various offences including blasphemy.
Last week’s forbidden trip would have required more planning.
Polyakov is said to have visited the Andaman Islands, of which North Sentinel Island is a part, three times since October.
On the first occasion, hotel staff stopped him going out on a kayak.
Then in January he filmed the Jarawa tribe on Baratang Island, reportedly without permission.
It beggars belief someone could be that reckless. This person not only endangered his own life, but put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk
For his latest adventure, the tide and sea conditions were carefully studied before he set off, then GPS was used to navigate his motorised dinghy’s 25-mile route to North Sentinel.
Footage from his Go-Pro camera shows him reaching the beach and calling out.
Andaman police officer Kumar Abhishek said: “He went with a can of Coke and coconut and left these things.
“At most he spent ten to 15 minutes there. He stepped on the sand and returned after waiting.
“He said he wanted to experience adventure and thrill.
“He has shot some videos but the videos are being examined. These are pictures and videos of the island, not the people.”
Fishermen became suspicious about Polyakov and he was arrested after returning to Kurma Dera beach.
Tribal welfare officer Pronob Sircar, who raised the alarm, spoke to Polyakov.
Sircar told The Sun: “He explained that he is crazy and likes adventures. I think he was inspired by John Chau.”
Fellow American Chau was a 26-year-old evangelical Christian, who sailed to North Sentinel Island in 2018 on a mission to bring the word of God to this “heathen” civilisation.
Chau, from Vancouver, Washington, tried to sing religious songs to them.
Warning shots from the skilled Sentinelese hunters failed to deter him — even when one struck his waterproof Bible — then other arrows hit home, killing him
Details of his fate are only known because of the journal he wrote and the recollections of the fishermen who he paid to take him there.
They saw Chau’s body being dragged to the beach and buried in the sand.
In letters to his parents, Chau said: “You guys might think I’m crazy in all this but I think it’s worth it to declare Jesus to these people.
“Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed.”
The authorities considered it too dangerous to recover his remains.
A 2023 documentary, The Mission, which explored his death, made it clear that Chau knew the risks.
The three-mile exclusion zone around North Sentinel was introduced in 1956 by India — which now oversees the islands — to protect the precious Sentinelese way of life.
It is estimated between 50 and 150 people live on North Sentinel Island and their immune systems are unlikely to be able to resist common illnesses such as the flu or a cold.
Locals who strayed too close serve as a warning to others.
In 2006, fishermen Sunder Raj, 48, and Pandit Tiwari, 52, fell asleep after fishing illegally for mud crabs off the island.
They drifted to the shallows where they were attacked and killed by the near-naked tribe.
When a helicopter was dispatched to try to recover their bodies, it also came under a hail of arrows.
The downdraft from the blades exposed the bodies of the men, which had been buried in the sand.
There were rumours that they had been eaten alive because many people falsely believe the Sentinelese are cannibals.
While the brutal attacks on visitors sound barbaric the isolated community have good reason to ward off intruders.
In 1880, British naval officer Maurice Vidal Portman, who was superintendent of the Andaman Island Penal Colony at the end of the 19th Century, brought six Sentinelese back to the capital Port Blair.
The two adults died quickly, so the four children who were with them were sent home.
During the 1960s the Indian government, which took control of Andaman after gaining independence from Britain in 1947, attempted to make contact with the tribes.
They left gifts such as plastic buckets or iron tools on the shore.
In return the Sentinelese warriors fired arrows and spears, with a cameraman hit in the leg.
Even Belgium’s former king Leopold III was shot at when he reportedly attempted to get there in 1974, although he escaped injury.
Indian anthropologist TN Pandit is the only person believed to have made contact with the tribe.
But it took him 25 years to build trust, having first gone there in 1966.
Pandit said in 2018: “If we tried to venture into their territory without respecting their wishes or got too close for comfort, they would turn their backs on us and sit down on their haunches, as if to defecate. That was meant to be an insult.
“If we didn’t pay heed and stop, they would shoot arrows as a last resort.”
Even when Pandit brought over two men from the Onge tribe — Andamanese people who had once shared the island — they were also warned off. No one is welcome.
YouTuber Mykhailo’s trip suggests that no matter how many times the Sentinelese make their feelings clear, the message does not get through.
THE YAIFO: Living in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, they are believed to practise headhunting – keeping enemies’ heads as trophies. But explorer Benedict Allen made contact in the 1980s, later saying they met him with “a terrifying show of strength – an energetic dance featuring bows and arrows”.
THE MOXIHATETEMA: Numbering around 100, they live a nomadic lifestyle in Brazil’s Amazon jungle – often setting up circular settlements in concealed areas. Aerial pictures show them hurling spears at passing aircraft.
THE MASHCO PIRO: At around 750 people, this is believed to be the largest uncontacted tribe in the world, and they are known to fire arrows at intruders. They live in south east Peru, building palm-leaf huts on riverbanks in the dry season for fishing, then heading into the rainforest in the wet months.
THE POLAHI: This group live in the forests of Gorontalo, a province on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. They are deeply spiritual and superstitious. After a family member dies, the tribe buries them then moves to a new settlement – believing that land to then be uninhabitable.
THE AYOREO: Originally a collection of nomadic tribes, these hunter-gatherers now live in settled communities in the Gran Chaco region across Bolivia and Paraguay. Though the majority of their 5,600 population are in contact with the outside world, there are believed to be around 100 living in isolation. They hunt in the forest, grow squashes, beans and melons, and harvest honey.
A YOUTUBER who travelled to a forbidden island to meet a deadly tribe had already tried and failed twice before, cops have now revealed.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, risked his life by journeying to North Sentinel Island on Saturday – wh…
A TALIBAN-LOVING YouTuber rowed 25 miles in a dinghy to bizarrely offer the world’s most dangerous tribe a coconut and Coke.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, risked his life by journeying to North Sentinel Island – where unwa…
AN ISLAND in the Indian Ocean is home to the world’s most isolated tribe who cut themselves off from the rest of the world decades ago.
But North Sentinel Island has a dark past, with unwanted visitors brutally killed by the tribe including o…
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IN a haunting call to 911, Shannan Gilbert pleaded to police for help, sobbing: ‘There’s somebody after me. Somebody’s after me – please.’
But after the panicked call on April 20, 2010, the 23-year-old, who was working as an escort in New York City, disappeared without trace.
Shannan’s disappearance was initially dismissed by cops[/caption]
The bodies of four women were found by the side of this beach-side highway[/caption]
Accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann is facing trial[/caption]
That night, she had headed out to a suburb on Long Island to meet a client. But after meeting him, she’d run out into the night, never to be seen again.
Police were dismissive despite the 911 call – treating it as just another case of a missing prostitute who would turn up sooner or later.
But Shannan’s mum Mari refused to stop putting pressure on the local police to look for her daughter – and almost eight months after the night Shannan went missing, police launched a search.
Then on December 11, they made an announcement. Deep in the bushes off the side of the ocean highway, next to Gilgo Beach, they found a burlap sack containing the skeleton of a woman, with her wrists bound.
However, Shannan was known to have a distinctive titanium plate in her jaw from an earlier surgery. It wasn’t there – which meant the body wasn’t hers.
Two days later, three more bodies were found in the desolate wooded brush. All were like the first body, decomposed and in the sacks.
Suddenly, this wasn’t just a hunt for a missing woman – but a hunt for a serial killer.
Now, these murders are explored in the new Netflix Documentary series Gone Girls: The Hunt for the Long Island Killer.
Six weeks after their discovery, the police finally announced they had all been identified.
They are Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Mari Gilbert campaigned for justice for her daughter[/caption]
All of them were escorts in their 20s, working around the New York and Long Island area – and they all went missing between 2009 and 2010.
But who was the Jack the Ripper style killer behind this?
Sara Karnes, a friend of Maureen, has never forgotten the night she lost her friend forever.
She recalls how shortly before she disappeared, Maureen had been served an eviction notice and urgently needed $3,000 to cover it.
“She was stressed,” said Sara. “It’s the eleventh hour. She was at her wits end.
“Monday morning, I told Maureen I’m going to go back home (to Connecticut) but Maureen said she was going to stay. That was the last time I saw her.”
Two weeks after she went missing, Sara received a call from an unknown number.
“He was very articulate, and he was calm,” she remembered.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes was one of the first four bodies found in sacks[/caption]
Amber Costello was also found with hands bound[/caption]
Melissa Barthélemy went missing on July 10, 2009[/caption]
Whoever this man was, he described Maureen perfectly.
“She’s not missing,” the mysterious voice continued. “I just saw her, at her house in Queens.”
But Sara never got a return phone call – and heard nothing more about her until her body was eventually uncovered.
And Sara wasn’t the only person to receive a mysterious call.
One of the other victims, Melissa Barthelemy, was last seen in July 2009.
Just one week after she went missing, her sister, Amanda, started to receive strange phone calls from her sister’s number.
But instead of Amanda, it was a man’s voice on the other end of the line.
“I was relieved to see my sister’s name pop up on my phone thinking it was going to be her. But it wasn’t,” recalled Amanda.
I’m watching your sister’s body rot
Killer’s taunt
Despite Amanda’s repeated questioning about where her sister was, the man on the other side of the line wouldn’t say.
Instead he taunted her: “I’m watching your sister’s body rot.”
“There were a ton of leads coming in,” said Geraldine Hart, a senior agent of the Long Island FBI at the time.
“The behavioural analysis unit gave a profile. They think he’s a white male, probably in his 40s. They think he’s socially competent, but very devious. He blends in very well in the community.”
But by Spring 2011, police were still no closer to identifying a killer.
Even worse, Shannan’s body still wasn’t found – but at her mother’s insistence, police widen the search.
Over March and April, they found more remains – a set of head and hands by the highway – as well as skulls, teeth, and more bodies.
By the end of the search, they were now not looking at four victims – but ten.
Map of the first six victims[/caption]
Megan Waterman was also among the first four in the grisly find[/caption]
Sandra Costillo’s murder was later linked to the other victims[/caption]
It seemed that wherever they looked, they’d find a body. But was one person responsible? And if so, was he still around?
Tragically for Shannan’s mum, Mari, her daughter’s body still hadn’t been found. Even worse, local law enforcement were trying to cast doubt on the idea it was all one killer.
But when police finally searched the nearby marshes in December 2011, they finally made the discovery Mari had been dreading.
They’d found her belongings – her ID, jeans, cell phone and shoes.
Far away from this stash, her naked body was uncovered.
“I got a phone call,” said Mari. “They told me that they think they’d found Shannan. At first I was hesitant. I’d heard it so many times.”
Despite all the other bodies of young escorts that had been discovered, the police insist her death was accidental, and had drowned in the mud.
For the families of the other victims, justice also remains elusive.
The police dithered and delayed – even placing a ban on local officers working with the FBI, despite their efforts to track the person behind the phone calls.
Sandra Costilla, 28 – Her body was found in November 1993 by hunters in a wooded area in North Sea, Long Island, approximately 60 miles northeast of Gilgo Beach.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 – One of the Gilgo Four discovered in December 2010. A mother-of-two, she disappeared on July 9, 2007.
Melissa Barthelemy, 24 – Went missing on July 12, 2009 while working as a sex worker through Craigslist.
Megan Waterman, 22 – From South Portland, Maine. Megan went missing on June 6, 2010, after placing advertisements on Craigslist as an escort.
Amber Costello, 27 – From West Babylon, New York, a small town ten miles north of Gilgo Beach. She was a sex worker who went missing on September 2, 2010.
Valerie Mack, 24 – Was living in Philadelphia and working as an escort when she went missing in 2000. Mack’s partial remains were discovered in Manorville on November 19, 2000, but were not identified until 2020.
Jessica Taylor, 20 – Jessica Taylor was living in Manhattan when she went missing on July 21, 2003. On July 26, 2003, her torso was discovered 45 miles (72 km) east of Gilgo Beach in Manorville, New York.
Karen Vergata, 34 – A sex worker from Manhattan, she disappeared in 1996, Her severed legs were found in a bag in New York’s Fire Island in April 1996 and other remains were found 15 years later.
‘Jane Does’ – The remains of three other murder victims – a young woman, a toddler and a young Asian male who was wearing women’s clothing – have not been identified.
Shannan Maria Gilbert, 24 – Although her disappearance in May 2020 sparked the search, Heuermann has not been charged with her murder.
In 2018, a new leadership team was installed in the local police department, and finally they started to make progress.
Thanks to DNA testing, they were able to identify the remaining victims – finding some were cold cases dating as far back as 1993.
But they were still no closer to finding the killer, until in 2022, a new taskforce started to comb through all the evidence and interviews from the last 12 years.
Finally, something came up.
One of the victims, Amber Costello, had met up with a client shortly before she disappeared who had left her shaken.
“There was a guy who came to the house,” recalled her friend Dave Schaller.
“She called, freaking out, she’s like ‘I’m in the bathroom hiding’. I came flying back to the house and busted the door down. I turned around and see this giant there. Literally the size of the door.
“We were trying to get him out, but instead of looking at us, his eyes were looking past me, at her. Almost like a predator.
“As he’s walking to the car, he’s looking straight at her. He’s like, ‘I’ll see you.’”
Police chief James Burke[/caption]
This unidentified victim is known as Asian Doe[/caption]
Jessica Taylor’s heart tattoo was mutilated because it took away his ‘fantasy’[/caption]
They saw him get into a distinctive vehicle – a dark-coloured Chevy Avalanche. But despite reporting it to the police at the time, nothing came of it.
Now, however, things were different.
Using the data from the burner phones, detectives narrowed down the suspect’s location to the Massapequa Park area of Long Island, and who worked in Midtown Manhattan.
Finally, a person matching the location and description who owned a truck just like this comes up – Rex Heuermann, an architect working in New York who had grown up on Long Island.
The team built up a timeline, finding that whenever Heuermann was, the burner phones were too.
They found the anonymous email addresses he had been using to contact escorts – and terrifyingly, he was still actively looking for them.
Police were sure they had their man – but they needed DNA evidence.
An undercover team was dispatched to follow him as he left his New York office.
He had lists of equipment he needed to use. Tips for doing a better job the next time. Everything from try to hit the victim a little harder, to try to get more rest so you have more time to torture your victims
Robert Kolker
They watched as he ate a takeaway pizza and discarded the box in the bin – then jumped at their chance.
Inside was a crust he’d bitten on – and it was all they needed to get his DNA.
Comparing it to hairs found on some of the victims, it was a match. Finally, on July 13th 2023, he was arrested.
Alleged serial killer Rex Heuermann appears at Suffolk County Court in February[/caption]
Heuermann’s house in Massapequa Park, New York, was searched[/caption]
Upon searching his home, cops made a chilling discovery. In his basement were at least 300 guns – and what they found on his computer hard drive horrified researchers even more.
A chilling file listed exactly how he carried out his attacks – right down to how to keep his victims silent, to the best ways to dispose of the bodies and a reminder to “get sleep before hunt” and “have story set.”
One section, titled “things to remember,” appeared to highlight lessons from previous killings, prosecutors said, such as using heavier rope and limiting noise in order to maximize “play time.” A “body prep” checklist includes, among other items, a note to “remove head and hands.”
“That planning document was jaw-dropping,” said journalist Robert Kolker.
“He had lists of equipment he needed to use. Tips for doing a better job the next time. Everything from try to hit the victim a little harder, to try to get more rest so you have more time to torture your victims.
“This was a document written by someone who was so determined not just to do it, but to do it again and again as the years go on.”
The chilling ‘dispose of’ list was found on his computer[/caption]
The attacks were meticulously planned[/caption]
But Heuermann was a family man with a wife and children – so just how was it they knew nothing about his sadistic hobby?
By looking at their credit card records, they found that Heuermann was careful to pick his time to strike.
His family were always out of town for the murders – away on holiday before Heuermann later joined them.
Other members of his family started to ask questions about how the Rex Heuermann they thought they knew was actually a sadistic murderer.
“He wasn’t an outsider in the family,” recalled Margaret, the wife of one of his cousins.
“They started talking about stories from his childhood. It was like walking on thin ice being around his father – you didn’t want to set him off because god knows how he was going to react.
“Rex actually lived in the house he grew up in as a child. His mother, for whatever reason, couldn’t leave this abusive man that everybody was traumatised by. And so the pipeline of trauma flowed from one generation to another.
“My husband went to stay at Rex’s house and he came back and said, ‘You’ll never believe this house. He’s an architect and it’s a scary horror house.’ He was really creeped out.”
I believe Mari would still be campaigning to have Shannan’s death ruled a homicide
Robert Kolker
Investigations are ongoing in other states to see if Heuermann can be linked to other unsolved murders.
A trial date has also not yet been set – and his lawyers are currently trying to argue that the DNA evidence should be excluded. He is currently charged with seven murders, for a trial that will prove once and for all if Heuermann is the Gilgo Beach serial killer.
Tragically, Shannan’s mum, Mari, passed away before she could see justice for her own daughter.
“I believe Mari would still be campaigning to have Shannan’s death ruled a homicide,” said journalist Robert Kolker.
“She would not be convinced that her death was disconnected from the others.”
“Shannan deserves justice,” said Melissa Cann, the sister of one of the other victims Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
“At the end of the day, we all are here to acknowledge that without Shannan Gilbert going missing, our loved ones would have never been found.”
Gone Girls: The Hunt for the Long Island Killer is on Netflix now.