A New York man accused of murdering at least three women pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Friday, despite reported evidence found by investigators that have linked him to numerous Gilgo Beach murder victims.
Rex Heuermann, 59, of Massapequa Park, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, prosecutors said. On Friday afternoon, he made his first court appearance and entered a plea of not guilty to the murders, as well as additional charges linked to the deaths of the women that occurred over a decade ago.
Heuermann has also been named the prime suspect in a fourth homicide, that of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. New York Post reports that the accused killer remained “emotionless” during the court appearance.
Hair Evidence
Among the evidence discovered by prosecutors was the hairs of the suspect’s wife “on or near three of the victims,” prosecutors said, according to NBC News. Investigators found one hair on murder victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes, recovered from a belt used to bind her.
Investigators also found the wife’s hair on victims Waterman and Costello, prosecutors said.
In July 2022, the hairs were sent to a lab for analysis, where it was determined that the hair did not belong to any of the murder victims. Then, on July 21, 2022, an undercover detective with the Suffolk County Police Department found 11 bottles in a trash bin outside Heurmann’s home.
The bottles were sent for analysis, where it was discovered that DNA from the bottles matched the “mitochondrial haplogroup” of the hairs found on the three victims. Investigators determined that the suspect’s wife had been out of town when three of the victims were killed.
In July 2009, when Barthelemy vanished, the defendant’s wife was in Iceland, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. In June 2010, when Waterman vanished, cellphone billing records showed the wife was in Maryland.
In September 2010, when Costello vanished, the wife was reportedly in New Jersey.
Burner Phones
A criminal complaint stated that investigators uncovered burner phones that Heuermann used to “conduct thousands of searches related to sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography and child pornography.”
Online searches also showed that the suspect had an interest in the case and searched for:
- “why hasn’t the long island serial killer been caught”
- “why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the long island serial killer”
According to WNBC, Heuermann allegedly used a phone belonging to one of the victims to make a menacing phone call to her family.
DNA on Discarded Pizza Box
During the examination of Megan Waterman’s body, investigators recovered a male hair from the burlap material used to wrap her remains. The hair was subsequently submitted for DNA analysis in July 2020.
A surveillance team retrieved a discarded pizza box from Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on January 26, that the suspect had allegedly thrown away. The box was sent to the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory for analysis, where the leftover crusts were swabbed.
The same laboratory also received the male hair discovered on Waterman for testing and determined that the “mitochondrial DNA profile(s) are the same.”
Chevrolet Avalanche
The defendant’s Chevrolet Avalanche reportedly played a crucial role in the investigation and led law enforcement toward him being a suspect.
The bail application indicated that a witness involved in the Costello case identified “a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche as the vehicle believed to have been driven by her killer.”
In March 2022, as part of a renewed joint investigation, law enforcement discovered the same type of vehicle registered under Heuermann’s name.
Search warrants against Heuermann were then obtained, which subsequently led to retrieving his cellphone billing records. The records reportedly matched cell site locations associated with the burner phones used to coordinate meetings with three of the Gilgo Beach victims.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the investigation began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey, disappeared after leaving a client’s home in Oak Beach.
In December, as investigators searched for Gilbert, they found the remains of four more women — Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; Amber Lynn Costello, 27; and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
According to CBS News, Brainard-Barnes was abducted in 2007, Barthelemy in 2009, and Waterman and Costello in 2010. They were dubbed the “Gilgo Four” and their bodies were found wrapped in burlap sacks.
The following March, Suffolk police found partial remains of Jessica Taylor along Ocean Parkway: Other remains belonging to Taylor had been found in 2003 in Manorville, police said in 2020.
The next month, April, investigators found the body of 24-year-old Valerie Mack, who was not identified until 2020, a toddler girl, and a man. Then came the two bodies found in Nassau County.
The remains of Gilbert, whose disappearance started the grisly discoveries, were found in December 2011, a year and a half after she disappeared.
In 2022, police released a 911 call from Gilbert on the night she disappeared in which she told a dispatcher that someone was following her.
See earlier reporting from CrimeOnline about the Gilgo Beach murders.
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[Featured image: Rex Heuermann/RH Consultants and Associates]
*Additional reporting by KC Wildmoon
