Rex Heuermann, the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect, was charged Tuesday with killing a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Her body was found in the brush off Ocean Parkway three years after she was reported missing.
Suffolk County Judge Timothy Mazzei unsealed a grand jury indictment adding the new murder charge against the 60-year-old Massapequa Park architect who pleaded not guilty in July to killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello, who were all found dead yards from each other in Gilgo Beach in December 2010, triggering the serial killer investigation.
Brainard-Barnes, 25, a mother of two, had been a straight-A student who later fell into drugs. She left her Connecticut home to spend the day in Manhattan, the last place she was seen alive. She told her family she would return home the next day, but never did. She disappeared on July 14, 2007 —- 16 years to the day of Heuermann facing a judge after being named as a prime suspect in her murder — and was found dead on Dec. 13, 2010 near Hemlock Cove off Gilgo Beach.
Police were searching for Shannan Gilbert, a New Jersey woman who had been last seen in Oak Beach in May 2010, when they found the four women dead. That led to a larger search of Jones Beach Island that unearthed the remains of six more murder victims who Heuermann hasn’t been charged with killing. Gilbert was also later found dead in nearby Oak Beach, but authorities have suggested she may not be a victim of foul play — yet her family maintains she was murdered.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney scheduled a news conference Tuesday to discuss the development. Also slated to appear at the press conference are other leading members of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, including Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon, Jr. and acting Suffolk County Police Commissioner Robert Waring, the replacement for Rodney K. Harrison, who recently retired as commissioner.
Heuermann, who has been held without bail at Suffolk jail since his arrest, was originally scheduled to appear in court on Feb 6 before the additional pretrial hearing was added to the calendar.
