Reaction on Heuermann plea muted at Gilgo Beach, resident says

Dorian Dale, Suffolk County’s former sustainability chief who has lived year-round on West Gilgo for decades, said reaction to Heuermann’s anticipated guilty plea was muted amongst barrier beach residents.

“I don’t think this has been a topic of conversation for some time,” he said. “Once Heuermann was apprehended, most people jumped to the conclusion that he was the fellow principally responsible.”

Dale played a minor role in the Gilgo investigation, he said: in 2010, not long after the first bodies were found in the Gilgo Beach thicket, his springer spaniel, Shaman, found a Barbie doll wrapped in burlap near his house. Dale said he phoned police and was visited by a uniformed patrolman who took the doll, but “I never heard anything about it again.”

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.