RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (1010WINS/WCBS 880) – Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was charged Tuesday in the murder of a fourth woman, whose killing he had previously been called the "prime suspect" in.
A grand jury returned a superseding indictment charging Heuermann with second-degree murder in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who went missing in July 2007, according to court documents.
Warning: The court document contains graphic details.
In court, Heuermann wore a dark suit and did not say anything during the proceedings. He will continue to be held without bail. The judge set the next court date for Feb. 6.
Investigators found hundreds of electronic devices during their lengthy search of Heuermann’s home last summer, according to court documents released Tuesday. Prosecutors say the devices contained a collection of bondage and torture pornography.
Heuermann has maintained his innocence from “day one” and looks forward to defending himself in court, attorney Mike Brown said. He entered a not guilty plea on the latest charges. Brown said he is still reviewing new information presented by prosecutors in court documents Tuesday morning.
Prosecutors said Heuermann also searched the internet for phrases that suggested he was afraid of getting caught including “How does cell site analysis work,” “Gilgo news,” "How cell phone tracking is increasingly being used to solve crimes,” and phrases with the term “Long Island Serial Killer.”
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney and other law enforcement officials planned a news conference Tuesday following Heuermann's court appearance.
Prosecutors had previously called him a "prime suspect" in Brainard-Barnes' killing, but they held off in charging him after his July 14, 2023, arrest as they worked to gather more evidence.
Brainard-Barnes, 25, who was once employed as a dealer at the Foxwoods Resort Casino, left her hometown of Norwich on July 9, 2007, and headed to Manhattan for sex work, with plans to return the following day, according to friends who became concerned when she uncharacteristically stopped using her phone. She never returned.
Heuermann has already been charged with first-degree murder in the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.
The bodies of all four women—now known as the "Gilgo Four"— were found buried along the same quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in 2010 and 2011. Brainard-Barnes was the first of the four women to disappear.
Heuermann previously pleaded not guilty to the other murder charges. He has been held without bail at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead.
The arrest of Heuermann, a 60-year-old architectural consultant who worked in Midtown and lived in Massapequa Park, came more than a decade after police searching for a missing woman found 10 sets of human remains hidden in the thick underbrush along Ocean Parkway.
Heuermann was first identified as a suspect in 2022 when detectives linked him to a Chevy Avalanche pickup that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared.
The following year, detectives tailing Heuermann recovered his DNA from pizza crust in a box that he discarded in a Midtown trash can and matched it to a hair found on a restraint used in the killings, authorities said.
Investigators have said Heuermann, who lived across the bay from where the bodies were found, was probably not responsible for the deaths of all 10 people, some of whom disappeared in the mid 1990s.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.