Rex Heuermann charged with three Gilgo Beach murders as burner phones and truck tie him to serial killings
The 59-year-old architect is accused of murdering Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello
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New York architect Rex Heuermann is facing charges in the murders of three Gilgo Beach victims, court documents released by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office revealed.
Mr Heuermann, 59, is accused of murdering Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello — all women in their 20s who were working as sex-workers and who disappeared in the Long Island area before their bodies were found during a separate missing person investigation in 2010.
The women’s remains along with the body of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who is also believed to be one of the “Gilgo Four,” were found within one-quarter mile of each other, similarly positioned and bound in a similar fashion by either belts or tape.
The unsolved murders sent fear through the shoreline community of Gilgo Beach but for more than a decade, few developments were made in the case. Last year, the Suffolk County Police Department, New York State Police, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI revamped the probe into the killings that ultimately led to Mr Heuermann’s bombshell arrest outside his Midtown office on Thursday.
A bail application released by the Suffolk County District Attorney revealed that Mr Heuermann was linked to the serial killings through cellphone evidence and surveillance.
Mr Heuermann has not been charged with Brainard-Barnes’ murder but is also the prime suspect in that investigation. Prosecutors noted in the application that records for the burner phones used to contact Brainard-Barnes were not obtained at the time she went missing and no longer exist.
Prosecutors have argued that no bail should be set for Mr Heuermann due to his recent searches for “sadistic materials, child pornography, images of the victims and their relatives.”
Mr Heuermann was first linked to the cold case in March 2022 after investigators discovered that a Chevrolet Avalanche registered to Mr Heuermann was possibly the one spotted by a witness in Costello’s disappearance. Mr Heuermann, a married father of two and lives in the Massapequa Park area, where the victims were last seen.
As law enforcement closed in on Mr Heuermann, they served more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants that uncovered cellphone records for burner phones used to arrange meetings with three of the “Gilgo Four” victims before they went missing.
Further analysis also allegedly linked Mr Heuermann to taunting calls made to family members of the victims, according to investigators. The calls were made from the Midtown Manhattan area, where the offices of Mr Heuerman’s architecture business are located.
Among the evidence linking Mr Heuermann to the murders was a hair found on burlap material used to wrap Waterman’s corpse, according to court documents. DNA analysis had not been possible in the early stages of the investigation, but new technology allowed testing in July 2020.
A team surveilling Mr Heuermann collected a discarded pizza box that then confirmed a DNA match with the suspect on 12 June.
Records also show that several online accounts under fictitious names linked to Mr Heuermann were used for illegal activities. Mr Heuermann allegedly used those accounts and burner phones to contact women for prostitution services, as well as making chilling online searches.
The searches included sadistic, torture-related pornography, child pornography and disturbing content. Mr Heuermann is also accused of searching “why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the long island serial killer,” “why hasn’t the long island serial killer been caught” and “new phone technology may be key to break in case.”
“Defendant Heuermann also searched for and viewed articles concerning the very Task Force that was investigating him,” investigators noted in the bail application.
More forensic analysis revealed that female hairs found in the three crime scene locations belonged to Mr Heuermann’s wife. However, authorities have determined through cellphone records that Mr Heuermann’s wife was out of state when the murders took place.
At the time Barthelemy went missing in July 2009, Mr Heuermann’s wife was in Iceland. She visited Maryland around the time Waterman disappeared in June 2010, and also travelled to New Jersey when Costello was last seen in September of that year.
“It is likely that the burlap, tape, vehicle(s) or other instrumentalities utilized in furtherance of these murders came from Defendant Heuermann’s residence, where his wife also resides, or was transferred from his clothing,” prosecutors explained.