After a 13-year investigation, Long Island police have arrested a suspect in the famous “Gilgo Beach” serial killer case.
Rex Heuermann, 59, a married architect who owns RH Consultants and Associates, an architecture firm in Midtown Manhattan, was taken into custody on Thursday at his Massapequa Park home, roughly 17 miles from where his alleged victims were found.
Heuermann was arrested for the murders of four women referred to as the “Gilgo Four.” At least six other bodies, which include an unidentified Asian male and a toddler, were found in the same area. A HazMat team was at his home on Friday morning.
Police recovered the skeletal remains of a male on Thursday in the woods along Long Island’s Southern State Parkway, ten miles from Heuermann’s home, though it is not known at this time if Heuermann is involved in that case.
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The “Gilgo Four” are all women reportedly working as Craigslist prostitutes. Their bodies were discovered in 2010 as police were looking for the body of Shannan Gilbert, a prostitute from Jersey City, N.J., who cops began looking for after she made a troubling call to 911 and went missing.
Gilbert’s body wasn’t found until December 2011
The four victims Heuermann is accused of murdering are:
- Melissa Barthelemy, 24
- Megan Waterman, 22
- Amber Lynn Costello, 27
- Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25
All four were found whole and wrapped in burlap within a tenth of a mile of each other.
The six other bodies — some dismembered — were found along Ocean Parkway, with parts of two located elsewhere on Long Island.
FACT-O-RAMA! All 10 Gilgo Beach bodies were found in the dense thicket alongside Ocean Parkway, the roadway that runs along Long Island’s southernmost beaches.
The Gilgo Beach case went cold, but Suffolk County’s new police commissioner, Rodney Harrison, established a special Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force in February 2022.
“I believe this case is solvable and identifying the person or people responsible for these murders is a top priority,” Commissioner Harrison declared at the time.
“We’re pleased if they actually managed to find somebody that can be tagged for this,” stated John Ray, who represents the families of Shannan Gilbert and Jessica Taylor, 20, another dead woman found along Gilgo Beach but who is not part of the “Gilgo Four.”
“We’re pleased that something is finally occurring because we’ve been frustrated,” Ray continued.
Police established a website, gilgonews.com, to keep the public apprised of the famous investigation and to collect tips.
Heuermann is expected to face a judge Friday afternoon.
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