Gilgo Beach Murders: Long Island police, prosecutors vow to continue probe after NYC architect booked for 3 homicides
By Jake Offenhartz, Michael R. Sisak and Michael Balsamo, APPosted on
Crime laboratory officers arrive to 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, Friday, July 14, 2023, in Massapequa Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
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Authorities on Long Island are vowing to continue investigating a string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders after charging an architect in the deaths of three of the 11 victims.
Rex Heuermann, 59, is accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello over a decade ago. He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of another woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Their bodies were bound and hidden in thick underbrush along a remote beach highway across the bay from the Massapequa Park community where Heuermann has lived all his life. Investigators have said it’s unlikely just one person killed all the victims.
“We’re going to continue to work, investigate, and try to get a small measure of closure for all the victims’ families,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.
FILE – Crime scene investigators use metal detectors to search a marsh for the remains of Shannan Gilbert, Dec. 12, 2011 in Oak Beach, New York. A Long Island architect has been charged, Friday, July 14, 2023, with murder in the deaths of three of the 11 victims in a long-unsolved string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool, File)FILE – In this Dec. 8, 2011 photo, investigators use a backhoe to dig while searching for Shannan Gilbert’s body in different sectors of a marsh area just east of Oak Beach, N.Y. A Long Island architect has been charged, Friday, July 14, 2023, with murder in the deaths of three of the 11 victims in a long-unsolved string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders. (AP Photo/Kevin P. Coughlin, File)FILE – Law enforcement and emergency personnel examine an object on the side of the road, center, near Jones Beach on April 11, 2011, in Wantagh, N.Y. A Long Island architect has been charged, Friday, July 14, 2023, with murder in the deaths of three of the 11 victims in a long-unsolved string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)Police have a suspect in a string of unsolved killings on Long Island. (AP Digital Embed)
Heuermann, 59, was arrested late Thursday, a year and a half after authorities formed an interagency task force with investigators from the FBI, as well as state and local police departments, aimed at solving the case. He was charged Friday.
Heuermann was first identified as a suspect in March 2022, when detectives linked him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010. In March, detectives recovered Heuermann’s DNA from a pizza crust he discarded and matched it to evidence found on one of the victims, authorities said.
“They never stopped working and will continue to work tirelessly until we bring justice to all the families involved,” Suffolk County police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said.
This booking image provided by Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, shows Rex Heuermann, a Long Island architect who was charged Friday, July 14, 2023, with murder in the deaths of three of the 11 victims in a long-unsolved string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders. (Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office via AP0This photo provided by John Ray Law, Friday, July 14, 2023, shows Jessica Taylor, whose remains were found along at Gilgo Beach, on New York’s Long Island, decades ago. A man arrested in connection with a long-unsolved string of killings, known as the Gilgo Beach murders, has been identified as Rex Heuermann, an architect living across a bay from where some of the bodies were found, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press, Friday. (John Ray Law via AP)
Heuermann was ordered jailed without bail after his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf at an arraignment Friday in state court in Riverhead. In denying bail, Judge Richard Ambro cited “the extreme depravity” of Heuermann’s alleged conduct.
Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, said his client told him: “I didn’t do this.”
Investigators were continuing to search Heuermann’s home, about a 25-minute drive across a causeway spanning South Oyster Bay to the sandy stretch known as Gilgo Beach where the remains were found in 2010 and 2011.
Most of the victims were young women who had been sex workers. Their deaths long stumped investigators, and the mystery fueled immense public attention and led to a 2020 Netflix film, “Lost Girls.”
