By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, MICHAEL R. SISAK and MICHAEL BALSAMO (Associated Press)
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A Long Island architect was charged Friday with homicide within the deaths of three of the 11 victims in a long-unsolved string of killings often known as the Gilgo Beach murders after detectives pursuing a brand new lead say they matched DNA from a pizza he ate to genetic materials discovered on the ladies’s stays.
Rex Heuermann, who has lived for many years throughout a bay from the place the stays have been discovered, is charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. He can be thought of the prime suspect within the demise of a fourth girl whose physique was certain and hidden in thick underbrush alongside a distant seaside freeway, authorities stated.
Investigators have stated through the years that it’s unlikely one particular person killed all 11 victims.
Heuermann, 59, was arrested late Thursday amid a renewed investigation that first recognized him as a suspect in March 2022, when detectives linked him to a pickup truck {that a} witness reported seeing when one of many victims disappeared in 2010.
In March, detectives tailing Heuermann recovered his DNA from pizza crust in a field that he discarded in a Manhattan trash can and matched it to a hair discovered on a restraint used within the killings, authorities stated.
Heuermann’s lawyer entered a not responsible plea on his behalf Friday in state court docket in Riverhead. Judge Richard Ambro ordered him jailed with out bail, citing “the extreme depravity” of his alleged conduct.
Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, stated they only realized in regards to the costs Friday morning. Speaking to reporters after the arraignment, he stated Heuermann instructed him: “I didn’t do this.”
Heuermann, sporting khaki pants and a grey collared shirt, didn’t communicate in court docket.
Heuermann lives in Massapequa Park, a group simply north of South Oyster Bay and the sandy stretch often known as Gilgo Beach the place the stays have been present in 2010 and 2011. Most of the victims have been younger girls who had been intercourse staff. Their deaths lengthy stumped investigators, a thriller that fueled immense public consideration and led to a 2020 Netflix movie, “Lost Girls.”
Determining who killed them, and why, vexed a slew of seasoned murder detectives via a number of adjustments in police management. Last yr an interagency process power was shaped with investigators from the FBI, in addition to state and native police departments, aimed toward fixing the case.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks among us — a predator that ruined families,” Suffolk County police Commissioner Rodney Harrison stated. “If not for the members of this task force, he would still be out on the streets today.”
After connecting Heuermann to the pickup, prosecutors stated, investigators have been capable of hyperlink him to different proof, together with burner cellphones used to rearrange conferences with the slain girls, and taunting calls that an individual claiming to be the killer made to one in all Barthelemy’s kinfolk utilizing her cellphone after she disappeared in 2009.
In current months, Heuermann sought to maintain tabs on the probe and “searched obsessively” on the web for details in regards to the Gilgo Beach killings, together with the names of ladies he’s accused of killing, in addition to podcasts and documentaries in regards to the case, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney stated.
Tierney stated authorities moved to cost Heuermann now with three of the killings “out of concern for this defendant fleeing and the danger to the community.” They are persevering with to work towards charging him within the demise of a fourth sufferer, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Until his arrest, Heuermann continued to make use of burner telephones, patronize intercourse staff and search the web for sadistic supplies, together with sexually exploitative pictures of youngsters, Tierney stated. He additionally has permits for 92 weapons, the prosecutor stated.
“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,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul stated throughout an unrelated look on Long Island.
The arrest got here as a shock and a reduction to a number of the victims’ kinfolk.
“I never thought they’d find this person,” Barthelemy’s cousin, Amy Brotz, stated.
Law enforcement personnel converged Friday morning on Heuermann’s dwelling, a small pink home about 40 miles (64 km) east of midtown Manhattan. Dozens of residents mingled alongside police and media, watching as a half-dozen investigators, some in protecting fits, conferred outdoors the entrance porch, which was in disrepair, its roof propped up by 2-by-4s.
The dwelling, the place Heuermann has lived since childhood, belonged to a household that had lengthy stored to themselves, neighbors stated, noting that the dilapidated property appeared misplaced amongst rows of single-family houses and well-kept lawns.
Barry Auslander stated the person who lived in the home commuted by prepare to New York City every morning, sporting a go well with and tie and carrying a briefcase.
“It was weird. He looked like a businessman,” Auslander stated. “But his house is a dump.”
Heuermann, married with a daughter and a stepson, is a licensed architect with a Manhattan-based agency that, in accordance with its web site, has completed retailer buildouts and different renovations for main retailers, workplaces and residences.
“We’re happy to see that they’re finally active, the police, in accomplishing something. Let’s wait and see what it all leads to,” stated John Ray, the lawyer for the households of two different girls whose stays have been discovered, Shannan Gilbert and Jessica Taylor.
Gilbert’s disappearance in 2010 triggered the hunt that uncovered the bigger thriller. A 24-year-old intercourse employee, she vanished after leaving a shopper’s home on foot within the seafront group of Oak Beach, disappearing into the marsh.
Months later, a police officer and his cadaver canine have been searching for her physique within the thicket alongside close by Ocean Parkway once they occurred upon the stays of a special girl. Within days, three different our bodies have been discovered, all inside a brief stroll of each other.
By spring 2011, that quantity had climbed to 10 units of human stays — these of eight girls, one man and one toddler. Some have been later linked to dismembered physique elements discovered elsewhere on Long Island, making for a puzzling crime scene that stretched from a park close to the New York City limits to a resort group on Fire Island and out to far japanese Long Island.
Gilbert’s physique was present in December 2011, about 3 miles (5 kilometers) east of the place the opposite 10 units have been found.
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Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press contributors embody Jennifer Peltz, Bobby Caina Calvan, Michael R. Sisak and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York and Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”