How the police caught Long Island serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann

The architect, who is accused of the murder of three Gilgo Beach victims, has allegedly been linked to the crimes via distillers’ phones, fake email addresses, a Tinder account and a pizza.

Rex Heuermann, 59, of Massapequa Park on Long Island, has lived across the bay from where the remains of Gilgo Beach victims were found for decades.

He is charged with first and second degree murder in connection with the deaths of three victims, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. Authorities say he is also the “prime suspect” in another murder.

In documents filed with a Suffolk County court in March 2022, it was revealed that investigators investigating the murders linked a Chevrolet Avalanche to Costello’s murder after a witness saw the car in the area.

From there, police were able to link that car to Heuermann’s cellphone records, which linked him to locations related to the murders, which eventually led to a DNA sample.

Police say Heuermann used Melissa Barthelemy’s phone to make taunting calls to her family from the victim’s phone, calls made just steps from his swanky Manhattan office.

After Heuermann was identified as the owner of the Chevrolet, police officers issued over 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal actions to obtain more evidence.

Rex Heuermann can be seen in one of his Tinder profile pictures.  Police have traced the fictional email account he used in the profile and his burner's phone number to the case

Rex Heuermann can be seen in one of his Tinder profile pictures. Police have traced the fictional email account he used in the profile and his burner’s phone number to the case

In January of this year, after investigators had been monitoring Heuermann and his family since last March, they confiscated a pizza box he had thrown in the trash outside his Manhattan office

In January of this year, after investigators had been monitoring Heuermann and his family since last March, they confiscated a pizza box he had thrown in the trash outside his Manhattan office

Heuermann buys additional minutes for another Brenner cell phone in May of this year.  He paid cash Heuermann buys additional minutes for another Brenner cell phone in May of this year.  He paid cash

Heuermann buys additional minutes for another Brenner cell phone in May of this year. He paid cash

Through Heuermann’s American Express records, police were able to link him to a Tinder account where he used a pseudonym, his middle name, Andy. This account was linked to one of his many burner phones.

He was also linked to an email account under the name of John Springfield.

Later that year, officials said one of his phones was “used extensively for prostitution-related contacts,” including with sex workers and massage parlors.

In May 2023, Heuermann was photographed entering a T-Mobile store in Manhattan to add minutes to a burner phone.

Five months earlier, officers, pursued by investigators, recovered a pizza box that the suspect had thrown in a Manhattan garbage can. They were able to match the leftover cake’s DNA to a sample taken from the burlap sack in which the killer hid Waterman’s body.

Police say Brenner’s cellphones and the victim’s phones brought Heuermann to the area where the victims were found at the time of their disappearance and near his midtown Manhattan office when phone calls were made, including the taunting one Call from Barthelemy.

In several calls to Barthelemy’s family members from the victim’s phone over the course of just over a month between July and August 2007, a male voice admitted to killing and sexually assaulting her.

In August 2009, while Heuermann was in Iceland with his wife, Barthelemy’s phone lost connection and started again the day after his return.

Authorities also used cellphone recordings to show that Heuermann’s wife was not in Maryland at the time of Megan Waterman’s disappearance in June 2010 and was in New Jersey at the time of Amber Costello’s disappearance in September 2010.

Cell phone recordings revealed text messages supporting witness testimony that the suspect was the victim of a ruse between Costello and a man posing as her outraged boyfriend. The couple cheated Heuermann out of the money he wanted to use to pay for sex.

One person who witnessed this interaction said they saw John driving a Chevrolet Avalanche.

The pizza box from a garbage can in front of Heuermann's downtown office

The pizza box from a garbage can in front of Heuermann’s downtown office

1689399269 619 How the police caught Long Island serial killer suspect These are some of the searches performed on Heuermann's computer

These are some of the searches performed on Heuermann’s computer

A day later, Heuermann began arranging to meet Costello again, but said he would not go to her house because of her boyfriend.

Cell tower data showed that Heuermann’s actual cellphone and American Express digital records show both were active near the areas where Brenner’s cellphones were used to contact Barthelemy, Waterman, and Costello.

The credit cards and actual cellphone were never separated from the burners when in use, police officers said. Most of the calls were made just a few hundred yards from his office, not far from the Empire State Building.

One of the burners used by Heuermann showed extremely sexually graphic Internet research on sexual assault and torture.

While using an email address used by Heuermann, he regularly googled for updates on the Long Island serial killer case, including podcasts and documentaries.

The case has attracted a great deal of public attention. The mystery made national headlines for many years and the unsolved murders were the subject of the 2020 Netflix film Lost Girls.

Determining who killed her and why has irked a number of seasoned homicide detectives through multiple police leadership changes. A multi-agency task force involving investigators from the FBI, state and local law enforcement agencies was formed last year to solve the case.

Heuermann, married with two children, is a licensed architect with a small Manhattan-based firm that has performed store extensions and other renovations for major retailers, offices and homes, according to its website.

This afternoon, the suspect of Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann will be brought to trial.  Photo: NBC

This afternoon, the suspect of Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann will be brought to trial. Photo: NBC

The suspect's home is just north of Gilgo Beach across from South Oyster Bay

The suspect’s home is just north of Gilgo Beach across from South Oyster Bay

Last year, Long Island law enforcement formed a Gilgo Beach task force, demonstrating what Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison described as a renewed commitment to solving the murders.

“We’re pleased that they, the police, are finally taking action and making something happen.” “Let’s see what all this leads to,” said John Ray, attorney for the families of two of the women whose remains were found, Shannan Gilbert and Jessica Taylor.

Gilbert’s disappearance in 2010 sparked the hunt that unearthed the bigger mystery. The 24-year-old sex worker disappeared after walking out of a client’s home in the coastal community of Oak Beach and disappeared into the swamp.

Months later, a police officer and his cadaver dog were searching for her body in the thickets along the nearby Ocean Parkway when they came across the remains of another woman. Within days, three more bodies were found, all within a short walk of each other.

By the spring of 2011, that number had risen to ten groups of human remains—those of eight women, one man, and an infant. Some were later linked to dismembered body parts found elsewhere on Long Island, creating a mysterious crime scene that stretches from a park near the New York City border to a resort on Fire Island to far east Long Island extended.

Gilbert’s body was found in December 2011 about 5 kilometers east of where the other ten bodies were found.

Discussing the bodies near Gilgo Beach, investigators said several times over the years that it was unlikely that one person killed all of the victims.