MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. (1010 WINS/WCBS 880/AP) -- A New York City architect from Nassau County was charged Friday with multiple counts of first-degree murder in the unsolved Gilgo Beach serial killer case that has gripped Long Island for more than a decade, according to officials.
Court documents identified the defendant as Rex Heuermann, 59, of Massapequa Park. He owns a small Manhattan-based architecture firm in Midtown, where he was arrested Thursday night.
Heuermann was arraigned Friday afternoon in state court in Riverhead. A bail application form shows he was charged with first-degree murder and second-degree murder in connection with the killings of three women: Melissa Barthelemy in July 2009, Megan Waterman in June 2010 and Amber Costello in September 2010.
Authorities said he's also the “prime suspect” in a fourth killing—among at least 10 killings in the Gilgo Beach case.
He was held without bail after prosecutors laid out the "serious, heinous nature of these serial murders, the planning and forethought that went into these crimes," as well as Heuermann's alleged search of "sadistic materials" online, including sexually exploitive images of children and photos of the victims and their relatives, among other allegations.
“This is a day that is a long time in coming, and hopefully a day that will bring peace to this community and to the families — peace that has been long overdue,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said at an unrelated news conference at Jones Beach.
Suffolk County D.A. Raymond Tierney announced a 4 p.m. news conference to discuss the charges.
Detectives set their sights on Heuermann in March 2022 after a joint task force was formed between local authorities and the FBI. The task force did a "comprehensive review of every item of evidence and information," which led them to a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche that was registered to Heuermann at the time of the murders. It was a breakthrough in the case, as a witness to the disappearance of victim Amber Costello had identified that model of car as the one driven by the killer. The discovery led to "over 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain evidence," according to court docs.
Further investigation linked Heuermann to "taunting calls" made to the family of one of the victims, as well as to burner cellphones "used to arrange meetings with three of the four victims," prosecutors alleged. Connections to Heuermann continued to be made from there, court docs show.
Heuermann was actively looking for more sex workers at the time of his arrest, according to prosecutors, who said the investigation was cut short so he could be arrested amid fears he may strike again or try to flee.
A swarm of state police and county police from Nassau and Suffolk descended Thursday night on First Avenue, near Michigan Avenue, in Massapequa Park. Investigators were seen carrying evidence boxes out of the house in a quiet neighborhood across the bay from where the bodies were found. The suspect has lived there since he was a kid, neighbors said.
Police were focusing on a small, red-colored house where neighbors said a man with a wife and two kids has lived all his life. A neighbor next door said he's known him for decades and has had no issues with him.
"There's never been a problem at all—not a scream, not a yell, nothing," he said. "We've been here for about 30 years, and the guy's been quiet, never really bothers anybody. We're kind of shocked to tell you the truth."
Hundreds of stunned residents came and went throughout the day to watch the investigation unfold on an unassuming street.
"It's crazy, it's mind-blowing—you know, it's quiet Massapequa Park," a woman said.
The apprehension is in connection with the Gilgo Beach murders, a long-unsolved case involving the remains of 10 people—many of them missing women—found along Ocean Parkway more than a decade ago.
The first sets of remains were found in 2010, with more victims discovered in 2011.
The case has attracted national headlines for years, and the killings were even the subject of the 2020 Netflix film “Lost Girls.”
Most of the victims were young women who had been sex workers. Several of the bodies were found near the town of Gilgo Beach, leading to the case being known as the Gilgo Beach murders.
Determining who killed them, and why, has vexed a slew of seasoned homicide detectives through several changes in police leadership. Last year, an interagency task force was formed with investigators from the FBI, as well as state and local police departments, aimed at solving the case. Police even set up a website to track the case, gilgonews.com.
Shannan Gilbert's disappearance in 2010 triggered the hunt that exposed the larger mystery. A 24-year-old sex worker, she vanished after leaving a client’s house on foot in the seafront community of Oak Beach, disappearing into the marsh.
Months later, a police officer and his cadaver dog were looking for her body in the thicket along nearby Ocean Parkway when they happened upon the remains of a different woman. Within days, three other bodies were found, all within a short walk of one another.
By spring 2011, that number had climbed to 10 sets of human remains -- those of eight women, one man and one toddler. Some were later linked to dismembered body parts found elsewhere on Long Island, making for a puzzling crime scene that stretched from a park near the New York City limits to a resort community on Fire Island and out to far eastern Long Island.
Gilbert’s body was found in December 2011, about 3 miles east of where the other 10 sets were discovered.
Police have said they believe Gilbert’s death near Gilgo Beach was a “tragic accident” unconnected to the 10 other remains. “Based on the evidence, the facts, and the totality of the circumstances, the prevailing opinion in Shannan’s death, while tragic, was not a murder and was most likely noncriminal,” Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said last year.
Gilbert’s family has been skeptical of the police account. An independent autopsy performed for Gilbert’s family in 2016 concluded her death was “consistent with homicidal strangulation,” family lawyer John Ray said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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