A Manhattan architect from Massapequa Park has been charged in the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach serial killer case with murder in the killings of four women whose remains were discovered on Long Island.

Long Island

Crime

Gilgo Beach Killings

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Newsday Staff

A Manhattan architect from Massapequa Park was charged Friday in the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach serial killer case with first-degree murder in the killings of three women, partly solving the mystery that has vexed investigators, left heartbroken families and haunted Long Island for over a decade. 
 Rex A. Heuermann, 59, pleaded not guilty to three counts each of first- and second-degree murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello — three of the four victims whose remains were found in December 2010 in a wooded area along Gilgo Beach — during his arraignment in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead Friday. 
 Authorities also called him the “prime suspect” in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose body was also found at the time in the same area. All of the women worked as sex workers, authorities have said. 
 In a 32-page bail document filed in court and released Friday, prosecutors detailed the evidence against Heuermann, including DNA lifted from a pizza box he allegedly discarded outside his office that authorities said linked him to one of the victims and cellular phone site data that investigators said also linked his whereabouts to the victims at key times. 
 State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro ordered Heuermann, a married father of two who neighbors said appeared to be an everyman professional, held without bail, saying it was due to “the extreme depravity of the allegations.” He was arrested Thursday night outside of his midtown Manhattan office, authorities said. 
 “Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks among us, a predator that ruined families,” said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison, at a news conference Friday afternoon. 
 Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who in a rare move personally handled the arraignment, told the judge that police made the arrest even though the investigation was ongoing because investigators were concerned that Heuermann, who owns houses in South Carolina and Las Vegas and continued to use the services of sex workers, might attempt to flee — or attack again. 
 Heuermann used seven burner phones over a 14-month period to search more than 200 times about the Gilgo Beach investigation — even visiting the website Suffolk police created in 2020 as a clearinghouse for information and tips — and for photos of the victims and to learn about family members of the victims, including siblings and children, Tierney said. 
 The seventh burner phone was recovered during Heuermann’s arrest. 
 His Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck, which authorities said helped crack the case after a witness described it as being driven by a man who paid for services from Costello the day before she went missing, has been recovered by FBI investigators in South Carolina. 
 “For each of the murders, he got an individual burner phone and he used that to communicate with the victims and then shortly after the death of the victims, he then would get rid of the burner phone,” said Tierney, later speaking at a news conference. 
 Tierney, who credited the collaboration of the Gilgo Beach Task Force consisting of personnel from his office, police department, state police, FBI and sheriff’s office, declined to say if investigators believe Heuermann may be implicated in any of the other killings, which are still publicly unsolved. 
 Defense attorney Michael J. Brown of Central Islip, speaking outside the courthouse after the arraignment, said the case against his client is “extremely circumstantial in nature.” 
 “I can tell you what he did say, as he was in tears, was, ‘I didn’t do this,’” Brown said. “Everyone is presumed innocent in our country.” 
 Asked about a motive for the killings, which prosecutors are legally not required to prove in court, Tierney mentioned Heuermann’s alleged online activity, which included “thousands of searches related to sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography and child pornography,” according to the bail document. 
 “I think when you look at his internet searches, that provides a little insight into his state of mind,” said Tierney. 
 Heuermann, who married the former Elizabeth Ryan in 1990 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, graduated from the then-Alfred G. Berner High School, which is now a middle school, and New York Institute of Technology in Westbury with a degree in architectural technology, according to a wedding announcement published at the time in a central New Jersey newspaper. 
 Heuermann’s wife declined to comment to a Newsday reporter outside the courtroom Friday morning. 
 “Please leave me alone. I will not be saying anything,” she said after identifying herself as his wife to court personnel. 
 In a nearly 20-minute video posted Feb. 17, 2022, on the YouTube page of “Bonjour Realty,” Heuermann spoke about his dealings — and supposed expertise — with the city’s Department of Buildings, indicating someone who was not in hiding. 
 “I’m an architect. I’m an architectural consultant. I’m a troubleshooter. Born and raised on Long Island. Been working in Manhattan since 1987 — a very long time,” Heuermann said by way of introduction to the host. 
 Heuermann’s home on First Avenue in Massapequa Park garnered attention from neighbors for its unkept appearance, but residents there who gathered outside to gawk at the law enforcement and media presence Friday, expressed shock that someone who lived in their neighborhood was accused in one of Long Island’s most infamous serial killings. 
 Retired New York City firefighter Etienne de Villiers, who lives next door to Heuermann, said he was quiet. Heuermann grew up on the block with his parents, he said. 
 “He’s been a quiet guy,” de Villiers said of the suspect. “We just say hello in the mornings and afternoon pleasantries … Nothing special. We never associated in any way.” 
 Police tape blocked large portions of First Avenue where federal, state and local law enforcement from Nassau and Suffolk conducted a search of Heuermann’s home. Law enforcement was seen removing potential evidence from the home, including towing a vehicle from the driveway of the suspect’s home. 
 “It’s a shocker,” said Massapequa Park resident Richard Harmon. “It’s a real eye-opener. Living here for 29 years, this is the worst case I’ve ever seen … Nobody suspected this.” 
 Many local residents gossiped among themselves, hoisting cellphone cameras high in the air to try and capture the surreal scene. 
 Michael McManus, a Massapequa Park resident who lives near the house in question, co-hosts a Gilgo serial killer podcast and has closely monitored the case during the past decade. 
 “I’m very happy for the families,” he said, crediting Harrison for the increased focus and intensity of the investigation in recent years. “But the fact that it’s in this exact town is kind of alarming.” 
 Harrison said the arrest was made by members of the Gilgo Beach Task Force at around 8:30 p.m. Thursday at 35th Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan before the suspect was transported to police headquarters in Yaphank. 
 Outside of the Manhattan building where he works, Suffolk County crime lab workers could be seen Friday going in and out, some officers carrying crowbars and sledgehammers. Several NYPD officers&nbsp;stood outside the front door and would not allow a reporter to enter. 
 Investigators said they linked Heuermann to Waterman’s body through DNA, according to a detailed account in the bail document. A hair found at the “bottom of the burlap” that Waterman’s body was wrapped in, according to authorities, was linked to Heuermann after investigators surveilling him “observed and recovered” a pizza box he allegedly threw in a garbage can in front of 385 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan — the office for his architecture and consulting firm. 
 The DNA was degraded because it was exposed to the elements from being outside, but Tierney said advances in technology in mitochondrial DNA helped investigators. 
 “While 99.96% of the North American population can be excluded from the MALE HAIR ON WATERMAN, it is significant that Defendant Heuermann cannot be excluded from the male hair recovered near the “bottom of the burlap” utilized to restrain and transport Megan Waterman’s naked and deceased body,” the document said. 
 Additionally, investigators said they found human hair belonging to a woman believed to be Heuermann’s wife on or near the bodies of the victims, though they said records show the wife and children were on vacation at the time the victims disappeared. 
 Investigators said Costello was bound by three pieces of clear or white duct tape and the hair was found on a piece of the tape near Costello’s head inside the burlap wrapping. 
 Waterman’s body was also bound by clear or white duct tape and two female human hairs were recovered, one “from outside the head area” and the other from “the tape of the head area,” the document said. 
 Investigators said Brainard-Barnes, the first of the four Gilgo Beach victims whose bodies were discovered, was restrained by three leather belts, one of which was used to tie Brainard-Barnes’ feet, ankle and legs together. A female human hair was recovered from a buckle of one of the belts, authorities said. 
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 While Heuermann has not been charged in her death, police said he is the prime suspect in the killing of Brainard-Barnes. 
 “As such, 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 wrote, pointing out that Heuermann’s wife was out of town when the victims went missing. 
 A key breakthrough in the case came on March 14, 2022, when a New York State Police investigator mined a database and identified Heuermann as a suspect, Tierney said. 
 A witness had described a “thickly built” white man with dark hair standing between 6 feet 4 inches and 6 feet 6 inches as a man who had been driving a Chevrolet Avalanche when he paid Costello for services the day before she died. Tierney said Heuermann is 6 feet 4 inches and matches the description. 
 The customer whom investigators believe was Heuermann left Costello’s home after someone who “pretended to be the outraged boyfriend of Amber Costello,” and Costello kept the money. 
 A witness told investigators that a Chevrolet Avalance with a unique triangular ornament between the cab and the bed was parked in Costello’s driveway, Tierney said. 
 Heuermann, according to investigators, later sent a text message to Costello’s phone that said, “That was not nice do I credit (sic) for next time.” 
 Heuermann contacted her on the night of Sept. 1, 2010 — the last day she was seen alive — and a witness spotted a dark pickup truck pass the house, prosecutors said. 
 Tierney said the task force executed more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants into Heuermann, as well as surveilling him and getting DNA samples from him and his family members. 
 Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone said his 12-year tenure in office has centered around bringing closure to the families affected by the slayings. 
 “The message to the public is we never stopped working on this case,” Bellone said. “There are Suffolk police officers who started working on this case that have retired. Their efforts, their dedication has never stopped putting more resources into this case … But the work is not done here. But this is a major step forward in achieving the goal that we have had from the beginning. And that is to bring closure to these families and to bring justice to the victims.” 
 Gov. Kathy Hochul noted the arrest during an unrelated appearance Friday at Jones Beach. 
 “This is a day that has been a long time coming and hopefully it will bring peace to the families and peace that’s long overdue,” Hochul said. 
 The saga of the Gilgo Beach killings began in December 2010, when four sets of human remains were found while Suffolk police searched for Jersey City, New Jersey-based sex worker Shannan Gilbert, who went missing on May 1 of that year in Oak Beach. 
 An officer and a cadaver dog conducting a “routine exercise,” found a set of badly decomposed remains on Dec. 11, 2010. Two days later, the remains of three more women were discovered, wrapped in burlap, all near one another in the thick vegetation north of Ocean Parkway. 
 Six more sets of remains were found eventually as detectives searched the area along the Ocean Parkway. The 10 are known collectively as the Gilgo Beach homicide victims. 
 Gilbert’s remains were not found until the following December and authorities have said they don’t believe Gilbert is a homicide victim. The Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the cause and manner of Gilbert’s death undetermined. 
 The first victim found was Brainard-Barnes, 25, of Norwich, Connecticut, who was last seen alive in Manhattan on July 9, 2007. 
 Police identified the other victims as Waterman, 22, of Scarborough, Maine, who disappeared on June 6, 2010, after traveling to Long Island to meet clients; Barthelemy, 24, of the Bronx; and Costello, 27, of North Babylon, who was last seen alive Sept. 2, 2010, in North Babylon. She was never reported missing. 
 By March 2011, police had expanded the search area into Nassau County and ultimately found another six victims, including the partial skeletal remains of Jessica Taylor, found near Gilgo Beach on March 29, 2011. Some of the partial remains matched body parts found dating back to the 1990s and early 2000s. Some of Taylor’s remains had also been found in Manorville in 2003. 
 Suffolk police found more remains at Jones Beach on April 11, 2011, identified initially by investigators only as Jane Doe No. 3. Those were later linked by investigators to the remains of a child, Baby Doe, a girl between the age of 1 and 4 whose remains were found near Cedar Beach on April 4, 2011, near those of a man dressed in women’s clothing. 
 A hiker had discovered Jane Doe No. 3’s torso in 1997 at Hempstead Lake State Park in Rockville Centre. It was stuffed into a large, black garbage bag that had been placed in a plastic container and dumped in the woods, police have said. The woman, whom police referred to as Peaches because of a tattoo of the fruit she had on her chest, was the mother of the child, according to investigators. 
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 In 2020, a flurry of activity occurred in the investigation under then-Suffolk Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart, a former FBI official. 
 In January 2020, Suffolk County police released an image of a black leather belt believed to have been handled by a potential suspect in the Gilgo Beach killings. The belt, embossed with the letters WH or HM, was found about nine years ago at one of the crime scenes along the parkway. Hart called it a “significant piece of evidence.” 
 Suffolk police announced in May 2020 it had positively identified remains that were found on Gilgo Beach in 2011 and in Manorville in 2000 as Valerie Mack. 
 The remains, which were previously identified as Jane Doe No. 6, were found near a Manorville sump discharge basin on Nov. 19, 2000, in a heavily wooded area about a half-mile west of Halsey Manor Road and north of the Long Island Expressway, police have said, but it wasn’t until police found other parts of Jane Doe No. 6’s body off Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011 that her killing was linked to the others.

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Gilgo Beach serial killings: Rex Heuermann charged with 3 murders

Suspect arrested and charged in Gilgo Beach killings, police commissioner says

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Anthony M. DeStefano

Suffolk County Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Carter&nbsp;was on an afternoon run near his home in West Islip last Thursday afternoon when he got a call from his boss, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison. 
 It was a message Carter said he knew was coming at some point in the Gilgo Beach serial killer&nbsp;investigation. 
 “It is happening,”&nbsp;Carter said&nbsp;Harrison told him. 
 That terse message meant that a suspect in the infamous longtime mystery case was about to be arrested. 
 So the 49-year-old Carter, who in February 2022 — at Harrison' direction — had helped set up the multiagency task force to solve the case, turned around and ran back home.&nbsp; 
 “I think I sprinted two miles,” Carter said&nbsp;in an interview with Newsday over the weekend. 
<h2> Inside the Gilgo&nbsp;task force 'war room' </h2> 
 After showering and donning a suit, Carter said he drove to the Hauppauge office of Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney — which was serving that day as a&nbsp;temporary war room — where Harrison and other members of the task force, including the FBI and New York State police,&nbsp;nervously spent&nbsp;tense hours waiting for&nbsp;suspect Rex A. Heuermann of Massapequa Park to be taken into custody. 
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 &quot;Most of us were standing, I don't remember anyone sitting down,&quot; Carter said. 
 Months of investigation by the task force, using advanced DNA technology, extensive cellphone tracking and FBI data crunching had come to focus on Heuermann, 59, as the suspect&nbsp;police believed had carried out three&nbsp;Gilgo killings and was a prime suspect in a fourth. He was charged with six counts of murder on Friday and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead. 
 Married with children,&nbsp;Heuermann works as an&nbsp;architect with an office in Manhattan and that's where investigators chose to take him in, Carter said. 
 Authorities knew Heuermann&nbsp;had permits for 97 firearms, Carter said, but investigators didn’t know how he might react —&nbsp;if he might be armed. 
<h2> Suspected Gilgo killer 'in custody' </h2> 
 But once confronted by the arrest team on a Manhattan street on Thursday evening,&nbsp;Heuermann offered no resistance and accompanied officers&nbsp;for the ride back to Suffolk. 
 &quot;We waited … with small talk. Then, the word came, 'In custody,'&quot; Carter said. 
 With those words, Harrison, Tierney and the&nbsp;others in the room let out a collective sigh of relief. 
 There was no celebration, Carter said. 
 The secrecy surrounding Heuermann’s arrest — even Carter had no advance warning — was necessary he said because the suspect had been monitoring Gilgo developments through internet searches and news accounts. A leak of an imminent arrest could lead to the suspect taking flight, investigators&nbsp;feared. 
 The arrest of Heuermann, who has pleaded not guilty to a total of six murder charges, was seen as a vindication of the task force effort, Carter said. 
 Both Harrison and Tierney supported the task force concept and, Carter said, Harrison directed him to pull together the group when he took office as commissioner in 2022. 
 Both Harrison, who had been chief of department of the NYPD as well as its chief of detectives, and Carter, who rose to the rank of inspector, worked together in the city. Harrison all but put his reputation on the line when he seemed to promise to solve the case. 
 “I am feeling confident we are closer to making an arrest,”&nbsp;Harrison said in early 2022 in a television interview. 
<h2> Task force&nbsp;worked out of&nbsp;police academy </h2> 
 Carter said Harrison wanted all the law enforcement agencies to come together in one place — a large war room at the police academy in Brentwood — to combine efforts and crack a case which in&nbsp;nearly 13 years&nbsp;had gone unsolved. 
 Carter said he was asked by Harrison to help pull together a multiagency team as a way of focusing resources and exploiting new technology to give a fresh look to the investigation. Prior to Harrison taking over as commissioner, the Gilgo investigation didn’t have dedicated office space or personnel assigned to the investigation from other agencies, Carter said. 
 “The goal wasn’t to move the case forward, it was to solve it,”&nbsp;stressed Carter. 
 Tierney, who took office around the same time as Harrison, also said he promised to do a&nbsp;new kind of investigation employing a task force approach to use&nbsp;the power of a grand jury. By Feb. 1, 2022, the task force was officially launched. 
 “It was a team effort,” recalled Carter. ”When we told the people our goal was to solve the case, there was excitement in the room.” 
 There was some initial resistance to the task force idea of a combined effort, but it was overcome, especially with Tierney on board, Carter said.&nbsp; 
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 In terms of the Suffolk police, Carter said he suggested that Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer, commander of the homicide squad, be in charge. 
 Beyrer had an encyclopedic knowledge of the Gilgo investigation and didn’t even have to use notes when questioned for about an hour by Harrison, recalled Carter. 
 “This is my man,” Harrison finally said about Beyrer, remembered Carter. 
<h2> Investigators focused&nbsp;on&nbsp;team work </h2> 
 The task force got off to a fast start, Tierney said last week at a news conference announcing Heuermann’s arrest. 
 On March 14, 2022, an investigator with the New York State Police,&nbsp;using a special&nbsp;vehicle database, determined that a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche which showed up at the home of Gilgo victim Amber Costello in early September 2010 was linked to Heuermann. 
 With Heuermann as a subject of interest,&nbsp;the task force focused on him, tying important cellphone activity to his various burners and personal devices. The phones served as a&nbsp;tracking device which tied Heuermann’s movements to key dates and times linked to the disappearance of his alleged victims, Tierney said. 
 The sophisticated DNA analysis of human hairs found at the various crime scene also linked Heuermann to the victims, according to Tierney.&nbsp; 
 “DNA was a game changer,” Carter said. 
 Searches of Heuermann’s office and home will keep investigators busy for a while as they look for additional evidence to buttress the case,&nbsp;Carter said. 
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 Carter said he believes that the break in the Gilgo case proved the value of cooperation among police&nbsp;and prosecutors.&nbsp;Harrison&nbsp;agreed. 
 “The blueprint for making this arrest was a whole team effort,” Harrison acknowledged at last week’s news conference.&nbsp;“Everybody left their egos at the door.” 
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Inside the Gilgo task force war room

Sandra Peddie

The watershed moment in the Gilgo Beach investigation came on March 14, 2022. 
 That was the day a New York State investigator linked a Chevrolet Avalanche to Massapequa Park resident Rex A. Heuermann. Witnesses had seen a customer of sex worker Amber Lynn Costello in that kind of pickup the day before she was killed. 
 The investigator made the link just six weeks after newly elected Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney formed a task force, which met secretly away from the district attorney's&nbsp;office to not attract attention.&nbsp;Members of the task force&nbsp;—&nbsp;who hailed from the Suffolk Police Department, New York State Police, FBI, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office and the Suffolk District Attorney's&nbsp;Office&nbsp;—&nbsp;got a breakthrough after&nbsp;nearly 12 years of headlines about the unsolved murders at Gilgo Beach. 
 The investigation that followed was built piece by painstaking piece. The task force tracked burner phones, triangulated cell site data, used advanced DNA testing on single strands of hair found on the victims’ bodies, surveilled Heuermann&nbsp;and picked up his DNA from a leftover pizza crust in a box he discarded in a garbage can on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, according to court papers. 
 As they continued to gather evidence over the next 14 months, investigators gained critical insights into Heuermann. Authorities said&nbsp;in court papers&nbsp;that he&nbsp;viewed torture pornography and watched videos of women and girls being raped and murdered. He made more than 200 internet searches seeking updates on the Gilgo Beach investigation, specifically how the task force was looking into cellphones related to the case, court papers said. 
 He also looked up photos of the victims and their families, Tierney said. 
 And he continued to contact sex workers, court papers said. Task force members feared what that could mean. 
 There was tension within the task force, over the need to gather as much evidence as possible and keeping the public safe. It’s the kind of tension that exists in every investigation, Tierney said. 
 The FBI’s surveillance of Heuermann gave them some comfort,&nbsp;but by Thursday, the balance had tipped “in favor of public safety,” Tierney said. Authorities cut short their investigation and arrested Heuermann, an architect by trade. 
 At a packed news conference Friday at the sheriff’s office in Yaphank, the more than 35 assembled task force members evinced both a quiet pride in the arrest and a grim determination about what they still have to do. Heuermann was charged with only three of the killings&nbsp;— those&nbsp;of Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. He is a “strong suspect&quot; in the case of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, but that case remains unsolved. So are&nbsp;the cases of the six other victims tied to Gilgo Beach. 
 “We’re not done,” Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison said. 
 Harrison on Friday referred to&nbsp;Heuermann as &quot;a demon that walks among us, a predator that ruined families.&quot; 
 Heuermann's attorney,&nbsp;Michael J. Brown of Central Islip, said on Friday that the case against his client is “extremely circumstantial in nature.”&nbsp;Brown said&nbsp;Heuermann, while in tears, told him: &quot;I&nbsp;didn’t do this.” 
<h2> The Gilgo 4 </h2> 
 The first meeting of the task force was held on Feb. 1, 2022. Tierney told investigators they had to strip down any previous investigative work and start from scratch. 
 They focused on the Gilgo 4 — Barthelemy, Waterman, Costello and Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found in December 2010 along Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach. Barthelemy’s remains were found after a Suffolk police officer was conducting a routine exercise with a cadaver dog. Police found the other three sets of remains two days later. 
 Authorities theorized from the beginning that their deaths were linked. Their bodies had been placed close to one another, all within 33 feet of the parkway. The women were all petite and ranged from 22 to 27 years old. They were similarly bound at the head, chest and legs with belts or duct tape and were wrapped up in burlap. Although there has been speculation that the burlap came from a landscaping company, it actually was camouflage burlap, the kind used in duck blinds for hunting, Tierney said. 
 The women were all sex workers who were missing clothing and personal possessions. 
 And in what would turn out to be a critical clue in the investigation, each of the women had been contacted before their disappearances by someone using a burner phone, which is a temporary phone with prepaid minutes and is not associated with a verified identity. The point of a burner phone is to remain anonymous, although it is possible to track them with specialized tools. 
 In the early years of the Gilgo investigation, around 2012, the FBI analyzed cellphone tower data. By comparing where the victims’ phones pinged off cellphone towers with where the burner phones pinged, analysts were able to narrow the pings to a confluence of four cell towers. They called the area of interest “the box.” They had a box in Massapequa Park, where the victims were believed to have disappeared from, and a box in midtown Manhattan, where a taunting call to Barthelemy’s sister had been made, according to Tierney and court papers. 
 At the time, Suffolk police zeroed in on a person of interest in Massapequa Park, someone who had a business in Manhattan. He also fit the FBI profile, which described a white, middle-aged, married man. But it stopped there. They were unable to gather enough evidence to make a case, according to a source familiar with the investigation. The person of interest at the time was not Heuermann. 
 In the ensuing years, the Gilgo investigation stalled, as a scandal within Suffolk law enforcement made international headlines. Police Chief James Burke went to prison in 2016 for covering up his beating of a man who stole a duffel bag with sex toys and pornography from his car. Five years later, after a highly publicized trial, his mentor, former District Attorney Thomas Spota, and his friend, top Spota deputy Christopher McPartland, were sentenced to five years in prison for assisting in the cover-up. 
 Timothy Sini became district attorney in 2018 after serving as Suffolk police commissioner. He announced with fanfare that he would ramp up the Gilgo Beach investigation. He ran for reelection in 2021, but lost to Tierney.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 
<h2> Investigation's secrecy paramount </h2> 
 When Tierney took office in January 2022, he said he vowed to the victims’ families that he would take a fresh look at the case. In a swipe at Sini, who was known for his frequent news conferences, Tierney said he told the families they wouldn’t see him “calling up the media and showing up at the beach with a giant magnifying glass.” 
 Secrecy was paramount. “We knew the person who did the murders would be looking at us,” Tierney said. 
 In January, Sini, who is now in private practice, gave an interview to Newsday about the Gilgo Beach case. The interview alarmed Tierney, law enforcement sources said. Letters went out to Sini and retired investigators who had worked on the case, warning them not to talk about it, recipients of the letters said. 
 Electronic surveillance of Heuermann showed that he viewed the Sini interview, sources familiar with the investigation said. 
 Meanwhile, investigators focused on clues found at the beginning. On Sept. 1, 2010, Costello got a call from a burner phone. A man seeking to buy sex entered her house. She executed a ruse: She took the money, and then a man posing as her boyfriend showed up, enraged. The client backed off, saying he was “just her friend.” A little later, around 1:18 a.m., she received a text from the burner phone: “That was not nice so do I [sic]&nbsp;credit for next time.” 
 The same client contacted her the next night. Costello agreed to meet him. She left her house and&nbsp;left her cellphone. She was never seen alive again. 
 A witness described the man to police. He was a large, white male, about 6-foot-4&nbsp;or 6-foot-6, in his mid-40s, with dark, bushy hair and glasses, like an “ogre,” according to court papers. 
 In addition, a witness said he saw a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche parked in Costello’s driveway,&nbsp;Tierney said. 
 A New York State investigator did what Tierney described as a “lawman search” through databases. It is a search only specially trained personnel can do, and it involves hours of tedious searches aimed at winnowing the information to glean something usable. Finally, the investigator had a hit: A first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche&nbsp;was linked to a man named Rex Heuermann&nbsp;at the same time the women disappeared. The FBI later discovered the&nbsp;Chevrolet Avalanche in South Carolina. 
 Investigators checked further. Heuermann lived in the Massapequa Park “box” and worked in the midtown Manhattan “box.” As a white, middle-aged professional who was married, he fit the FBI profile. And at 6-4&nbsp;with a bulky build and dark hair, he matched the description a witness gave years earlier to police investigating the Costello case. 
 The district attorney's&nbsp;office empaneled a grand jury and used it to issue more than 300 subpoenas. Further analysis of evidence obtained through those subpoenas found that his personal cellphone was in proximity to the target phones, according to court papers. 
 They had a viable suspect. 
<h2> DNA advances </h2> 
 At the time the victims’ remains were found, their bodies were too degraded to attempt DNA matches. Investigators had to wait. They needed DNA technology to advance enough to attempt a match. It finally did. 
 A single female hair had been found on Brainard-Barnes and two each on Waterman and Costello. Investigators sent them to an outside lab, which determined in July 2022 that those hairs belonged to a woman who was not any of the victims, according to court papers. 
 On July 21, 2022, detectives retrieved 11 bottles from a garbage can outside Heuermann’s home. Further testing at a lab specializing in mitochondrial analysis linked the hairs to Heuermann’s wife. Yet she couldn’t have been near the women because travel records showed she was out of state when Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello disappeared, according to court papers. 
 The lab then examined a male hair found in the burlap around Waterman’s remains. After comparing the DNA on that strand of hair to the DNA on a discarded pizza crust that investigators pulled from the garbage on Jan. 26, they had a match: It belonged to Heuermann, according to court papers.&nbsp; 
 Heuermann used a fresh burner phone before each murder&nbsp;and used fictitious names and emails, according to court papers. The grand jury issued subpoenas for his Google searches. Investigators checked the fake names and email accounts and turned up more than two dozen chilling searches. They included phrases like “pretty girl with bruised face porn,” “nude slave girls,” and “crying teen porn,” according to court papers. 
 Heuermann's Google searches revealed what Tierney called an obsessive preoccupation with the Gilgo Beach case. Among those searches were, “why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the Long Island serial killer” and “8 Terrifying Active Serial Killers [We Can’t Find].” 
 Investigators also found it significant that he viewed articles about the task force investigating him. 
 As momentum in the case was building, rumors started to leak that the Gilgo Beach murders would be solved soon. But they remained just that, rumors. The task force was determined to preserve secrecy. 
 “We also didn’t want him to know how close we were getting,” Tierney said. 
 Heuermann, who is 59 and married with&nbsp;children, was arrested outside his Manhattan office on Thursday night. He was arraigned on Friday in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead and is being held without bail. Heuermann pleaded not guilty to three counts each of first- and second-degree murder.

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How the Gilgo task force got Rex Heuermann: a Chevrolet Avalanche, pizza crust and burner cellphones

How a special task force got Rex Heuermann: a Chevrolet Avalanche, pizza crust and burner cellphones

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A Chevrolet Avalanche, a pizza crust and burner cellphones proved to be the critical evidence that led investigators to Rex Heuermann as a suspect in at least three of the Gilgo Beach killings. NewsdayTV&#39;s Shari Einhorn and Sandra Peddie report.

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Crucial evidence led to arrest of Gilgo killings suspect

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Crucial evidence leads to arrest of Gilgo killings suspect

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Long Island Serial Killings

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Rex Heuermann: Neighbors, colleagues describe accused Gilgo Beach killer's conflicting personas

Accused Gilgo Beach killer's neighbors, colleagues paint a complex picture

Rex&nbsp;Heuermann, 59, is accused of killing at least three women&nbsp;in connection with the Gilgo Beach case. Neighbors share their experiences dealing with the Massapequa Park man.&nbsp;NewsdayTV&#39;s Macy Egeland reports.

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Who is alleged Gilgo killer Rex Heuermann?

Nassau

Suffolk

Old Westbury

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East Massapequa

Massapequa

North Massapequa

Farmingdale

East Farmingdale

South Farmingdale

Oceanside

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Nicholas Spangler

From the thicket’s edge, it's easier to see the water towers on Long Island’s South Shore, some 2&frac12;&nbsp;miles to the north, than it is to see the well-kept homes of Gilgo Beach, half a mile west up&nbsp;Ocean Parkway.&nbsp; 
 The trees along the parkway&nbsp;are Japanese black pine, the thicket itself a hip-high mess of beach plum, sumac and poison ivy that crowds an upland strip before the land dives down to the marsh and the Great South Bay. 
 It was here, nearly 13 years ago on a windswept barrier island&nbsp;at suburbia’s end, that authorities started finding the victims: one, then three more, then six more farther east over the course of nearly a year. 
 After the Dec. 13, 2010, discovery of the three — all women, wrapped in burlap in a stretch of a little more than a tenth of a mile —&nbsp;police said they could be hunting a serial killer. On July 13 of this year, they said they had caught him:&nbsp;Rex A. Heuermann, a 59-year-old Massapequa Park man&nbsp;charged with murdering Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, and&nbsp;identified as the&nbsp;“prime suspect” in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose body was found nearby.&nbsp;Heuermann has pleaded not guilty.&nbsp;Police in Atlantic City and Las Vegas have said they are looking for connections to unsolved cases there.&nbsp;&nbsp; 
 Why was this area used as a dumping ground? 
 Perhaps because it was relatively isolated and inaccessible to passersby, and overgrown. Another hypothesis, made&nbsp;by a&nbsp;former NYPD cold case investigator,&nbsp;is that it was simply convenient:&nbsp;“I would say he’s from close by,&quot; Joseph Pollini, a former New York City police cold case investigator,&nbsp;told Newsday in 2011, describing the profile of a&nbsp;suspect whose identity was then still unknown. “He knows the area, he feels comfortable in the area, he keeps coming back to dump bodies there.&quot; 
 The most direct driving route from Heuermann's Massapequa Park home to Gilgo is less&nbsp;than 20 miles,&nbsp;a half-hour trip down the Wantagh State Parkway. 
<h2> Residences not far from dumping ground </h2> 
 Jones Beach Island is roughly 18 miles long. Police found most of the remains along a 2.65-mile stretch east of Jones Beach,&nbsp;near Gilgo Beach, one of six residential communities in the area&nbsp;that are&nbsp;part of Babylon Town. Under a long-standing agreement rooted&nbsp;in centuries-old harvest of the area's marsh grass for livestock fodder, the town owns the&nbsp;land in those communities; residents hold land leases with the town but&nbsp;own their houses and associated improvements. Much of the land north of the parkway, where the bodies&nbsp;were found, is state-owned. 
 Of the&nbsp;2,234 acres in those communities, just 149 acres contained residential and commercial uses, according to a 1994 environmental study commissioned by the town. There are now 407 houses, about half of which are vacant in the winter. 
 Gilgo Beach State Park&nbsp;drew 188,761 people in 2022, but some of that&nbsp;park's biggest draws, like a stretch of beach where four-wheel driving is permitted, are on the ocean side, separated from the thicket by a massive dune and by the parkway.&nbsp; 
 Construction of the 10-mile long section of the shared-use path along the north side of the parkway from Tobay Beach to Captree State Park did&nbsp;not start until after 2019. The first remains were found Dec. 11, 2010. 
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 “It’s not an inviting area,” said Brian Zitani, Babylon Town’s waterways management supervisor, referring to the thickets where bodies were found.&nbsp;“The only reason I venture close to those areas is because I’m paid. Nobody goes in there on their own.” 
 Zitani advised police on terrain during the early searches for bodies and evidence.&nbsp;The distance from the mowed roadside swale to the place where the remains of the three women were found was less than 30 feet, Zitani said.&nbsp;“You go just a couple feet into there, it’s just a mess,&quot; he said.&nbsp; 
 There is no roadside lighting along that section of the parkway now. Zitani said the lights&nbsp;started to disappear in the 1990s, knocked down when vehicles crashed into them. They were&nbsp;not replaced. 
 New York State Department of Transportation spokesman Stephen Canzoneri wrote in an email that “the lighting on Ocean Parkway was installed during the mid-20th century and was removed as it fell into disrepair.” 
 Offseason, aside from the residents, visits drop sharply: “There’s really no recreational purpose for going out there with the exception of a handful of fishermen,” Zitani said.&nbsp; 
 “If it was 2 in the morning and you pulled over and turned your lights off, nobody most likely would notice,” he said.&nbsp; 
<h2> Killings mar&nbsp;'environmental wonderland' of Gilgo </h2> 
 News accounts of the stretch where the 10 victims&nbsp;were found often describe it as “desolate,” a word that might make one wonder why anyone would want to visit the barrier beach, let alone live there.&nbsp; 
 But those who know the place say the description is incomplete. Dorian Dale, director of sustainability for Suffolk County and a full-time West Gilgo resident since 1998, said that nearby Hemlock Cove “has always been a destination for folks from the South Shore with boats,” and that the shore breaks on the ocean side attract surfers.&nbsp;Moreover, he said, full-time residents of Gilgo and West Gilgo “drive that road all the time.” Those communities had 185 residents in 2020, according to the Census, which did not specify full- or part-time residence.&nbsp; 
 Wayne Horsley, the former general manager of the Long Island State Parks Commission, knows the area well. He called it “an environmental wonderland.” The Babylon Town report documented at least 180 species of birds on the islands, with 28 species of shellfish and crustaceans in the Great South Bay and 29 species of finfish spawning in the island shallows. 
 “It’s diverse, it’s beautiful, it’s quiet and it’s a shame that the Gilgo name was marred,” he said. 
 People have lived in the Gilgo Beach area&nbsp;since at least the 19th century, when the only access was by boat, said Mary Cascone, Babylon Town historian. The families of men who worked lifesaving stations built at intervals along the beach were among the first residents, she said. According to the Babylon Town environmental report, Gilgo Beach likely developed around that time as a summer community for residents from the Amityville area. 
 Starting in the 1930s, construction of three bridges connecting to the mainland, along with the parkway — a pet project of Robert Moses — made it easier to reach most of the beach communities. According to Robert Caro's biography of&nbsp;the powerful planner, Moses&nbsp;had envisioned a continuous road from the Rockaways to Montauk, selling the public and business interests with the promise of beach access and ballooning land values. When two sisters who were major Fire Island landowners refused to go along, he settled for an alternative that linked the parkway to the Southern State Parkway via the causeway at Captree that now bears his name. 
 Today, many of the barrier island summer cottages have been replaced with newer, grander homes. According to real estate site Zillow.com, four area homes are for sale: three for under $800,000 and one, on Captree Island, for $2.4 million.&nbsp; 
 Homeowners pay property taxes and, under the town lease, $4,000 a year in rent, a sum that will increase every five years through 2065.&nbsp; 
 Homeowners include Long Islanders, New York City residents and even New Englanders. “Some of the families have three, four generations out there,” Cascone said. “There are people who went there as children with their grandparents and they bring their own children.”&nbsp; 
 But the area lacks some of the conveniences of mainland life. Residents complained for years about spotty Internet service and aging copper landlines and 911 calls with so much background noise it was sometimes hard to hear. The land is a special flood hazard zone devastated intermittently by major storms, and the property lots are just 50 by 150 feet. 
 “This is not the Hamptons,” said Paul McDuffie, a teacher who sits on the executive board of the local civic association and&nbsp;co-owns&nbsp;the Gilgo Beach Inn, a popular restaurant and bar that is one of the area’s few businesses. “It’s rooted in people that enjoy the outdoors and what the environment gives us.” 
 McDuffie, who started visiting the barrier beach as a child in the 1970s, said the relative isolation meant “a bit of a frontiersman vibe”: taking stock of supplies before driving to the mainland, watching the weather.&nbsp;“When winter rolls around, you put the boat away, put the summer things away, tie things down … If it’s breezy on the mainland, it’s honking here.”&nbsp; 
 Morgan Berk, an event producer, moved out from Brooklyn in 2020 for the surfing. Her home is surrounded by white sandy beaches and marshland, sea turtles and “birds galore.” She has come to appreciate a “tight-knit” community and its sensible customs: “If someone needs something from the store, we get it if we’re going in the same direction.”&nbsp; 
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 Police found seven other sets of remains&nbsp;near those linked to Heuermann, but some law enforcement sources&nbsp;have said they could be the work of another killer because they were disposed of in a haphazard fashion over a wider range of territory.&nbsp; 
 Over the years, Dale said the killings&nbsp;had become a go-to topic for conversation, with people offering theories as soon as they learned he lived in Gilgo Beach.&nbsp; 
 He never minded it, he said. But Berk, who has had to shoo photographers away from her house, said many of her neighbors were “genuinely happy&quot; an arrest was made.

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Gilgo Beach killings: Ocean Parkway thickets masked dumping ground

'It's not an inviting area': Ocean Parkway thickets masked dumping ground in Gilgo Beach killings

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Victims of the Gilgo Beach killings were found along a stretch of Ocean Parkway on a windswept barrier island&nbsp;at suburbia&rsquo;s end. NewsdayTV&#39;s Drew Scott reports.&nbsp;



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Painting a picture of area where first Gilgo bodies were found

Babylon Town

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Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann engaged in “disturbing” activity while investigators tailed him in the months leading up to his July arrest in the slayings of three women whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach 13 years ago, Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison said Wednesday. 
 “I can’t talk about if he was preparing to kill again …” Harrison said in an interview at Newsday’s Melville headquarters. “He’s somebody that was still engaging in activity that was disturbing, be it his internet searches, be it engaging in other activities that he shouldn’t be engaging in. That’s something I was very, very passionate about, regarding ‘we need to see what his lifestyle is.’ ” 
 Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect from Massapequa Park, has pleaded not guilty to first- and second-degree murder charges in the killings of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and&nbsp;Amber Lynn Costello,&nbsp;&nbsp;whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach in 2010. Prosecutors have also called Heuermann, who was arrested July 13, the “prime suspect” in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were&nbsp;found near the other three victims. All four of the women were sex workers, officials said. 
 Investigators linked Heuermann to the killings through DNA obtained from discarded pizza crust and a “used napkin” as well as cell-site data and a green Chevrolet Avalanche he used to own, prosecutors have said. Heuermann’s defense team has said their client, who has no prior criminal record, has professed his innocence. 
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 Heuermann attorney Michael J. Brown did not respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday. 
 Harrison, however, expressed confidence in the strength of the case and defended public comments he made in which he called Heuermann a “demon that walks among us, a&nbsp;predator&nbsp;that ruined families” during a news conference after the&nbsp;arrest. 
 “I’m very confident that Mr. Heuermann’s our subject,” Harrison said Wednesday. “Because of my confidence, I’m gonna call him what I wanna call him — somebody that ruined families, somebody who’s a predator, somebody who shattered lives. And not just one, several, and there may be more. I didn’t say that there is, but there may be more. If the family members have a problem with me calling him a demon, then I’ll apologize.” 
 Harrison, in a wide-ranging interview about the Gilgo Beach serial killer investigation, said he formulated the task force to concentrate on trying to crack the long-unsolved series of killings after getting a briefing from his homicide chief, Det. Lt. Kevin Beyrer, shortly after he became commissioner and learning that only one homicide detective was assigned to the case. 
 Harrison, a 30-year NYPD veteran who left that agency as chief of department to become Suffolk’s police commissioner in December 2021, said the detective wasn’t working exclusively on Gilgo, but was also juggling other assignments, a situation that “didn’t allow us to put a dragnet over the case.” 
 “When I found out that there was one investigator assigned to this case, I was like, ‘this case is never gonna be solved like that, especially if this person, this detective, is also catching other cases,’ ” said Harrison, who said he increased the number of investigators to four. “ … We’re going to take these individuals and put them in a place where they’re only looking at Gilgo.” 
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 Heuermann was first identified as a suspect on March 14, 2022, after a state police investigator ran through a law enforcement database the description of a Chevrolet Avalanche that was described by a witness as being seen at Costello’s home on the day before she was last seen alive, prosecutors have said. 
 The Suffolk County Police Department didn’t have access to that database, Harrison said. 
 From that time, to his arrest on the night of July 13 outside his midtown Manhattan office, authorities surveilled Heuermann in “a host of different ways,” Harrison said. 
 It was FBI Special Agent Craig Matteo, according to court papers filed by one of Heuermann’s defense attorneys, who retrieved the pizza crust and napkin purported to have been used by Heuermann from a garbage can. On Wednesday, State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei ordered Heuermann&nbsp;<a href="https://www.newsday.com/long-island/crime/gilgo-beach-killings-rex-heuermann-cheek-swab-x9sc37fc">to provide a cheek swab</a> for further DNA testing in the case. 
 The FBI almost didn’t join the task force, Harrison said. 
 “They were reluctant at first,” Harrison said. “They were concerned about, I guess, some past relationships where they weren’t necessarily part of being inside the loop of the case. So I reassured them, ‘that’s not something you have to worry about any further. I need you, I need your expertise.’ ” 
 Harrison said he “didn’t ask too many questions regarding what happened in the past,” but “They were like, ‘we’re not joining the task force.' ” 
 Collecting the DNA sample was “instrumental” to arresting Heuermann, Harrison said. 
 “Once we got Rex in our sights, we had to figure out how to collect his DNA,” Harrison said. “That was something that they really had a major role in, gave us some guidance in sending us to the right labs. … Once we got those matches, I don’t think I need to tell you anything else, that was really a place where we went from reasonable suspicion to probable cause.” 
 Harrison installed a sergeant and three detectives to work full time on the task force, which in addition to the FBI and state police also includes the sheriff’s office and investigators and prosecutors from the office of “our pit bull district attorney&nbsp;Ray Tierney,” as Harrison put it. The task force meets daily at the Suffolk County Police Academy in Brentwood. Harrison declined to identify by name the Suffolk police department members. 
 Since Heuermann’s arrest and the subsequent search of his home, storage units and former vehicle, dozens of officials from the medical examiner’s office, the state police and the homicide squad have joined the investigation to process all of the potential evidence that was seized, Harrison said. Authorities have declined to detail the potential evidence, other than 279 firearms that were taken from inside a vault at Heuermann’s home. 
 Harrison also offered a definitive statement on Shannan Gilbert’s connection to the case. 
 Efforts to find Gilbert, who was a missing sex worker, led authorities to the remains of 10 other victims — including those of Waterman, Barthelemy, Costello and Brainard-Barnes. 
 “It’s a horrible accident and as of right now, myself and the investigators assigned to the homicide squad still believe it was just an incident where she ran into the marsh and unfortunately drowned on that horrible day,” Harrison said. 
 Gilbert’s autopsy concluded her cause of death was “undetermined,” and police have previously said they considered her death to be an accident, though the lawyer representing her estate maintains Gilbert&nbsp;was a homicide victim, citing a second autopsy conducted at the behest of Gilbert’s family that determined her death was “consistent with homicidal strangulation.” 
 Meanwhile, Harrison said investigators are not only continuing the investigation into the killings in the current indictment, but whether Heuermann could be involved in the other Gilgo killings — or other unsolved slayings in Suffolk County. 
 “We were able to bring comfort to three families, we’re very close to a fourth one, but we still have more work to do to identify the subject or subjects that were involved with the other bodies that were discovered,” he said. 
 Should Long Islanders be worried that a serial killer responsible for some or all of the other six killings is still at large? 
 “I wish I could give you an answer,” Harrison said. “I can’t tell you at this time. Is Rex Heuermann going to be held accountable for the other bodies on Ocean Parkway? Time will tell.” 
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Gilgo Beach Serial Killings

Gilgo Beach serial killings

Suspected Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann engaged in 'disturbing' activity in months before his arrest, Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said 

Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer engaged in 'disturbing' activity in months before arrest, Suffolk's top cop says

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Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison came to the NewsdayTV studios for a one-on-one interview on the state of the investigation with Newsday&#39;s&nbsp;Joye Brown.

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Gilgo Beach killings: Exclusive interview with Suffolk County police commissioner

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Gilgo Beach serial killing victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ remains were bound with a distinctive belt embossed with the initials “WH” or “HM,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a Newsday interview Thursday — the first time authorities have disclosed that detail publicly. 
 The belt, images of which Suffolk police released during a news conference in 2020 in an attempt to drum up investigative tips in the case, was one of three belts used to bind Brainard-Barnes, whose killing was not part of the indictment of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann, though prosecutors have named him as the “prime suspect” in her slaying. The police previously said the belt was &quot;handled&quot; by the suspected killer. 
 “There was a question hair that is still being tested that was removed by the buckle of the belt,” said Tierney, referring to one of the other belts, without any initials, used to bind her legs. “One had 'WH' on it. One had the distal end of the belt cut off, meaning the end of the belt furthest from the buckle and it was cut off, and that would have been the section where, had there been initials on it, that’s where those initials would have been.” 
 Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect from Massapequa Park, was charged with killing three women — Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and&nbsp;Amber Lynn Costello — whose remains were found in 2010 near Gilgo Beach in the same vicinity of Brainard-Barnes’ remains. All four women were sex workers. 
 A Suffolk County grand jury is currently empaneled to hear evidence in the case through next month, and Tierney said it possibly could be extended. 
 Tierney, in a more than hourlong interview with Newsday on Thursday to discuss the ongoing Gilgo Beach homicide investigation and the efforts that culminated in the indictment and arrest of Heuermann more than 13 years after the first victims’ bodies were discovered, also revealed that authorities likely will be able to identify the remains of three of the total 10 victims whose remains were found in the vicinity of Gilgo Beach. 
 Those victims — a woman whom investigators have nicknamed “Peaches” because of a tattoo she had, a toddler who was found with her and those of a man who was found separately — have remained unidentified. 
 “I think we’re getting closer with regard to all of those profiles,” said Tierney, who confirmed that the identifications would be made by the FBI using genetic genealogy, “among other things.&quot; The FBI used genetic genealogy to positively identify another of the 10 victims tied to Gilgo Beach: Valerie Mack, in 2020. 
 “We’re honing in on that, and I think we’ll have information on that — on some of the identifications shortly,” Tierney said. 
 Asked to specify if that meant weeks or months, Tierney replied: “Real shortly.” 
 Tierney has so far declined to say whether investigators believe Heuermann may be responsible for any of the other killings, saying he is concentrated on prosecuting the July 14 indictment charging him with killing Waterman, Barthelemy and Costello. But he said it appears that Heuermann worked alone. 
 “We have no evidence that this defendant conspired or acted with any other person,”&nbsp;Tierney said. 
 The district attorney’s office plans to hold&nbsp;a news conference Friday morning with members of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force, which was created in 2022 by Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison, to provide an update in the case. Tierney declined to discuss what officials plan to announce. 
 The three belts found with Brainard-Barnes’ remains, dark in color, were identical except that only one of the belts was embossed with lettering. The belt bearing the initials was bound around her chest area, Tierney said. 
 One of Heuermann’s grandfathers was William Heuermann, who died in 1964 at the age of 76 in Copake, according to a brief obituary published in Newsday at the time. 
 Asked about the possibility that the belt had belonged to the grandfather, whose initials were “WH,” Tierney dismissed it as speculation. 
 “Yes, there was 'WH'&nbsp;or 'HM'&nbsp;on the belt,” Tierney said. “The last name is Heuermann. There are ancestors with WH, so assign to that what you will.” 
 A copy of William Heuermann’s will, located in Columbia County Surrogate’s Court, shows he bequeathed all of his personal property to his wife, Gertrude. 
 Gertrude Heuermann died in October 1976, according to an online obituary. Her will is not on file in Columbia, Nassau or Suffolk counties, where she maintained residences, officials said. 
 Theodore Heuermann, the couple’s son and Rex Heuermann’s father, died one year before his mother in November 1975, according to an online obituary. 
 Rex Heuermann’s attorney, Michael J. Brown, did not respond to a message seeking comment Thursday. After his client appeared in court Tuesday, Brown said he has maintained his innocence, denying he had committed the crimes. 
 Asked if there was any discussion of a plea deal, he said, “There’s no plea deal.” 
 Brainard-Barnes, 25, of Norwich, Connecticut, was last seen alive in Manhattan on July 9, 2007.&nbsp;Her remains were found on Dec. 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach. Police have said she is believed to be the first victim in what is known as the “Gilgo Four.” 
 The search in the thick vegetation near the beach began that month as police searched for another then-missing sex worker from Jersey City, New Jersey, named Shannan Gilbert, who had gone missing from Oak Beach. 
 Efforts by law enforcement to locate Gilbert in late 2010 and early 2011 ultimately led authorities to the remains of 10 other victims in one of the country's most notorious serial killer cases. Police have said they believe Gilbert’s death was accidental and not a homicide. Her cause of death after an official&nbsp;autopsy was&nbsp;&quot;undetermined.” 
 Investigators made a major breakthrough in March 2022, when a New York State Police investigator working as part of the task force&nbsp;first identified Heuermann as a possible suspect. The investigator, whose name has not been revealed, reviewed a witness statement that said a man who prosecutors said fit the description of Heuermann was seen driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche — a pickup that Heuermann owned previously and was now registered to his brother, who lives in South Carolina — the day before Costello was last seen alive. 
 Tierney said using the grand jury process, which is conducted in secret, was also key to not tipping off Heuermann, who prosecutors said searched the internet for details of the case more than 200 times. 
 But still, Tierney said, he was always worried that Heuermann’s name could leak to the news media, tipping off the suspect and creating a potentially dangerous situation. After authorities raided his home following his July 13 arrest, they found 279 firearms there. 
 Tierney confirmed that Heuermann’s name was only revealed to members of the grand jury toward the end of the process. 
 “We wanted to sort of do it, set the stage, and toward the end, backload the information with regard to the defendant,” Tierney said. “We felt that would minimize the chances of leaks.” 
 Even among the members of the task force — which includes investigators and prosecutors from the district attorney’s office, police homicide detectives, and personnel from the FBI, state police and sheriff’s office — Heuermann’s name was not uttered. 
 “When we were investigating the case, we never mentioned the name, even among ourselves,” Tierney said. “It was always the subject. At most, it was RH.” 
 Tierney, in the interview, also dismissed the notion that the victims, whose deaths have been attributed by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s office to “homicidal violence,” died after being shot. Prosecutors said in court documents filed this week that initial autopsies conducted in December 2010 concluded that each victim died from “homicidal asphyxia” or strangulation, but a recent independent review of the findings resulted in Suffolk County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Odette Hall ruling the cause to be “homicidal violence.” 
 “That would be highly unlikely because getting shot with a gun is a very violent thing, which almost invariably causes damage to your skeletal system, and since there was no damage to the skeletal system …,” Tierney said. 
 Prosecutors have said they connected&nbsp;Heuermann to one of the victims though mitochondrial DNA lifted from a pizza box and a “used napkin” he allegedly discarded outside his Manhattan office that authorities said linked him to one of the victims, as well as cellular phone site data that investigators said&nbsp;linked his whereabouts to the victims at key times. 
 Prosecutors, who have turned over to the defense more than 2,500 documents as part of the discovery process, are looking to collect a cheek swab from Heuermann to test against a mitochondrial DNA profile developed from the&nbsp;pizza crust and napkin, which prosecutors have said was matched to a hair sample found at the bottom of burlap used to “restrain and transport” Waterman and the remains. 
 Tierney called that move to more definitively link Heuermann to the crimes through DNA a “routine” practice. 
 Tierney, who has said he plans to lead the prosecution team during Heuermann’s trial, said he couldn’t predict when it would start, noting the voluminous amount of evidence collected over 13 years that will have to be reviewed by Heuermann’s defense counsel. 
 “It’s going to be a lengthy process,&quot; Tierney said. &quot;It would have been a fairly lengthy process if this was just a three-count murder indictment, but when you overlay 13 years of investigation, it’s a monumental amount of material, especially given the work that went into it.&quot;

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Gilgo Beach killings: Maureen Brainard-Barnes' remains bound with belt embossed with the initials 'WH' or 'HM,' DA says

Gilgo Beach victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes' remains bound with distinctive belt embossed with initials, DA says

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Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney came to the Newsday studios for a one-on-one interview on the state of the investigation with Newsday columnist Joye Brown.

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Gilgo Beach killings: Exclusive interview with Suffolk district attorney

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The Gilgo Beach murders investigation

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