Gilgo Beach murder probe expands with new search of wooded area in Long Island

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State and local law enforcement have launched a new search in a wooded area of Long Island, as part of the ongoing investigation into the grisly Gilgo Beach murders.

Officers descended on an area of Long Island's Manorville on Wednesday, according to a law enforcement source with knowledge of the situation who spoke to NBC New York. Exact details on the search site, including the precise location and what investigators were searching for, were not provided.

Manhattan architect Rex Heuermann has been charged in connection with the deaths of four women – now known as the “Gilgo Four” – whose bodies were found near the beach more than a decade ago. He was arrested in July 2023.

The women have been identified as Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found covered in burlap in December 2010, according to court records.

Mr Heuermann, 60, was initially charged with killing Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello. He was charged with killing Brainard-Barnes, in January of this year.

The four women’s remains were found along a quarter-mile stretch of parkway in the Gilgo Beach area of Jones Beach Island in 2010. Additional searching turned up the remains of six more adults and a toddler. No arrests have been made in the deaths of the latter victims.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the four killings he is charged with and is awaiting trial in jail.

Manorville was home to the site where two sets of remains of young women, Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor were found more than 20 years ago – in 2000 and 2003, respectively. Both women were sex workers at the time of their disappearance.

Further remains of both women were also during a parallel search along Gilgo Beach’s Ocean Parkway in 2011.

The new investigations come after Heuermann’s estranged wife last month said she did not believe he was capable of the crimes he is accused of and she visits him in jail weekly despite pending divorce proceedings.

Asa Ellerup filed for divorce in the days after Heuermann’s arrest, but told outlet Newsday in a statement issued through her lawyer that she would “listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of trial.”

Ms Ellerup added, “I have given Rex the benefit of the doubt, as we all deserve.”