For 30 years he thought his neighbor was ‘creepy’. Then he learned he’s the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday

Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy

For 30 years, he just thought his neighbor was “creepy”.

Then he learned he was the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect.

It was almost exactly one year ago today when police came knocking on the door of FDNY firefighter Etienne de Villiers’ home.

At first, officers just asked him to move his car, and wouldn’t reveal any clues as to the huge police presence along the quiet street in Massapequa Park, Long Island, he told The Daily Beast.

He then turned on the news and couldn’t believe what he saw.

“I went outside and said, ‘Rex is the Gilgo killer?’” de Villiers told the outlet. “The guy looked at me and said, ‘That’s why I can’t talk.’”

On July 13 2023, investigators swooped on Manhattan architect and married father-of-two Rex Heuermann and arrested him for a string of murders that had terrorized the Long Island community of Gilgo Beach for the past decade.

Heuermann was initially charged with the murders of three women: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.

In January, he was also charged with the murder of a fourth victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

The four women, together known as the “Gilgo Four”, all worked as sex workers and disappeared between 2007 and 2010 after going to meet a client. Their bodies were found in December 2010 within one-quarter mile of each other, bound by belts or tape and some wrapped in burlap – all dumped along Gilgo Beach.

Then, this June, Heuermann was charged with two more murders – the 2003 murder of Jessica Taylor and the 1993 murder of Sandra Costilla. Taylor’s partial skeletal remains were found in a wooded area of Manorville in 2003, before further remains were found along Ocean Parkway in 2011. The body of Costilla, who unlike the other victims was not working as a sex worker at the time, was found in a wooded area in North Sea in 1993.

These latest charges allege that the suspected serial killer began preying on victims more than three decades ago, with Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney revealing that the case – and potential charges – are far from over.

It’s a new, shocking timeframe that now has his next-door neighbor reflecting on their interactions all those years ago.

De Villiers told The Daily Beast that he and his wife Patricia had moved in next to Heuermann in 1995 – two years after he allegedly murdered Costilla and one year before he married his wife Asa Ellerup.

He recalled how, not long after they moved in, Patricia had told him their new neighbor was “creeping her out”.

De Villiers said that Heuermann, who had lived in the property his whole life, would peer over the fence at her and try to make small talk while she was sunbathing.

“Every time she’s out there and I’m at the firehouse working, Rex would hang over the fence, talking to her,” de Villiers said.

“She finally told me that he was creeping her out.”

Initially, de Villiers said he asked him politely to stop, but Heuermann allegedly continued, leading the firefighter to admit he “literally threatened the guy”.

De Villiers said he was surprised by Heuermann’s calm reaction.

“Not only did he stop, he didn’t get mad,” he said. “He didn’t come back at me, which kind of surprised me. He said, ‘I won’t do it no more,’ and he backed off immediately. So I went, ‘okay.’”

After that, he said their relationship was friendly.

Though they didn’t hang out socially, de Villiers said he was pretty much the only person in the neighborhood who would speak to Heuermann.

But now, Heuermann’s behavior towards his wife has taken on new meaning.

During the latest search of Heuermann’s home this spring, prosecutors said they uncovered a twisted planning document on a deleted hard drive in which the accused serial killer methodically plotted his kills.

Prosecutors allege it includes a “targets” list, with the description: “Small is good.”

De Villiers told The Daily Beast that he now thinks how this descriptor could match his “petite” wife.

“It’s scary now, when you stop and think that the girls all look like my wife,” he says.

While Heuermann is now charged with the murders of six women, there are six other victims tied to the Gilgo Beach serial killer case that remain unsolved.

In total, 11 victims’ remains were found along the shores of Long Island in 2010 and 2011 after Shannan Gilbert vanished in mysterious circumstances on leaving a client’s house near Gilgo Beach, sparking a police search.

During the search, police discovered a set of human remains. Within days, four victims had been found and by spring 2011, the number of victims rose to 10.

Gilbert’s body was then found in December 2011.

Until this June, Costilla’s murder was never considered to be the work of the Gilgo Beach serial killer.