A suspect in the Gilgo Beach, New York, killings was identified Friday and arrested after more than a decade of Long Island authorities trying to find him.
Update: Hairs found on or near some of the victims were sent for testing and later determined to belong to a woman other than any of the victims in the case. In fact, they belonged to Heuermann’s wife, NBC News reported Friday.
The outlet also noted that “Heuermann was in part identified as the suspect in the notorious Gilgo Beach murders by DNA left on pizza crust he threw out in a Manhattan trash can, according to his bail application.” In addition, the suspect’s car also helped lead investigators to him. “A witness in the disappearance of 27-year-old Amber Lynn Costello identified ‘a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche as the vehicle believed to have been driven by her killer,’ a bail application filed today in Suffolk County court said,” the outlet reported. Officials have charged Heuermann with three counts of first-degree murder.
Original story continues below:
The suspect was identified as 59-year-old Rex Heuermann, an architect from Massapequa in Nassau County, according to NBC News.
The arrest happened after a Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson said officials had a “significant development in the case.”
Heuermann is married with two children and has made his home in Massapequa Park his whole life, residents told News 12.
Shannan Gilbert was the first of 11 victims found killed, and her sister expressed her feelings after the arrest, stating she was relieved officials took Heuermann into custody.
“The suspect (Rex) deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life. He destroyed many lives so while it won’t bring our loved ones back, it does help that one less monster is off the streets and he can’t ever hurt anyone else!” Sherre Gilbert told NBC News.
The outlet said authorities found 11 sets of human remains on a highway in Suffolk County once law enforcement launched a search for Gilbert, a “sex worker,” who disappeared in 2010.
Crime laboratory officers arrive at the house where a suspect has been taken into custody on New York’s Long Island in connection with a long-unsolved string of killings, known as the Gilgo Beach murders, on July 14, 2023, in Massapequa Park, New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Officials later found the remains of 24-year-old Melissa Barthelemy, 22-year-old Megan Waterman, 27-year-old Amber Lynn Costello, and 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
They eventually found the partial remains of a woman named Jessica Taylor on Ocean Parkway in March 2011. The NBC report noted, “Eight years earlier, remains also belonging to Taylor were found in Manorville, police said in 2020.”
Authorities found three other sets of remains — identified as 24-year-old Valerie Mack, a girl toddler, and a man — in April 2011 before finding two more bodies in Nassau County.
Articles about the recent discovery of bodies near a Long Island, New York, beach as seen in April 6 issues of Newsday and the New York Daily News newspapers on April 7, 2011, in New York. AFP PHOTO/Stan HONDA
In May 2022, law enforcement released the 911 call from Gilbert, who said, “There’s somebody after me,” the Associated Press (AP) reported at the time:
The suspect arrested in connection to the “Gilgo Four” slayings spoke about his career during an interview posted in 2022, the New York Post reported Friday.
In the clip, Heuermann talked about his work with his architecture firm and said he had been working in Manhattan since 1987:
“The clip was posted on Feb. 17, 2022, more than 11 years after the bodies of four women were found wrapped in burlap along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in December 2010,” the Post article said.
The outlet named the “Gilgo Four” as Barthelemy, Costello, Brainard-Barnes, and Waterman, noting the victims had been strangled.
The NBC report said Heuermann is expected to be arraigned at a later date.
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