The suspect arrested in connection with the Long Island Gilgo Beach murders has an older brother who killed a police captain in 1988 after hitting him with his car while he was using cocaine.
Rex Heuermann, 59, was arrested in dramatic fashion outside his Fifth Avenue architectural office last night in midtown Manhattan, 13 years after the bodies were found.
Heuermann’s brother Craig, 57, fell through the median of a local freeway near Rex’s Long Island home at over 60 miles per hour in 1988.
This resulted in a head-on collision with then-51-year-old Winnion Buskey and the police chief for the city’s housing department, the New York Post reported.
Buskey was pronounced dead at the scene, while Heuermann was taken to hospital with facial injuries before being taken into custody.
Rex Heuermann (pictured), the suspect arrested in connection with the Long Island Gilgo Beach murders, has an older brother who killed a police captain in 1988 after hitting him with his car while intoxicated with cocaine
The judge in the case cited police files that said Heuermann was “in a drunken and ‘coked’ state at the time.”
Craig Heuermann pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol.
It is unclear what punishment Heuermann received. Records show that Heuermann now resides in South Carolina.
Rex Heuermann is suspected of killing the “Gilgo Beach Four” – four prostitutes whose remains were found on a Long Island beach in December 2010.
Today, the six-foot-tall suspect was charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello and Megan Waterman.
On his first appearance in court, he appeared smug – he puffed out his cheeks and nodded as some of the charges were read out. He pleaded not guilty to all six counts — three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder.
After the hearing, his attorney said he cried to him: “I didn’t do that.”
This afternoon, the suspect of Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann will be brought to trial. Photo: NBC
Heuermann will be placed in a police van today to take him to the courthouse. Photo: fox
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told the court his teams intended to pursue Heuermann, whom they had been monitoring since last year, but feared he would leave the country.
He and other police officers later said at a press conference that he “continues to patronize sex workers.”
“That obviously made us nervous,” Tierney said sadly.
“The FBI was monitoring the defendant, this individual who continued to minister to sex workers 24/7, continued to use fictitious identities and burner phones as we worked through the case and got closer and closer, suddenly the balance is turning in favor of public safety.”
“We wanted to continue with that, but we felt it was time to take him off the road.”
He was named a prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainar-Barnes and is also under investigation for the murders of six other women who were found dead near the beach in 2011.
Before his appearance, prosecutors released their bombshell evidence against him, including:
- His wife’s DNA was found on three of the victims’ bodies
- One of his own hairs was found on one of the victims’ bodies
- Cell phone calls to victims made from a burner phone were traced back to his office
- A call made to one of the victim’s sisters after her death was traced to his office
- His Tinder profile with photos of him was linked to the burner phone
- His Chevrolet pickup was seen by a witness to a victim’s disappearance
- It matches the description of an “ogre”-like man seen with a victim before it disappeared
- Heuermann conducted a graphic search for child pornography and images of women being sexually abused
- He also scoured Google for updates on the case and asked, “Why couldn’t law enforcement trace the Long Island serial killer’s calls?”
The evidence was set out in a 32-page letter from the Suffolk County prosecutor, which explained why he should not be granted bail.
It details how a new task force set up by the Suffolk County District Attorney last year came across his name within months of the investigation, raising questions as to why previous investigative units failed to apprehend him.
Heuermann’s first connection to the case is through the Chevrolet Avalanche truck he owned in 2009 and 2010 when the women were murdered.
The vehicle was seen with at least one of the victims the day before they disappeared.
Heuermann also fits the description of an “inhuman,” like a man who visited one of the victims the night before they died.
In this case, he is said to have arranged a meeting with Amber Costello for sex at her home.
Costello and a male friend performed a “trick” in which the male friend pretended to interrupt their affair and claimed he was an angry friend.
The man who paid for the sex had to leave with his money on the table.
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
Heurmann in another photo he used on the dating app. He is said to have sent the photos to women who asked him for sex
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
The pizza box from a garbage can in front of Heuermann’s downtown office
These are some of the searches performed on Heuermann’s computer
These are the nasty Google searches performed on Heuermann’s computer
Heuermann buys additional minutes for another Brenner cell phone in May of this year. He paid cash
He then texted Costello saying, “That wasn’t very nice,” and requested a “credit” toward his next service.
Costello met with the client again the following evening, but she insisted on doing so outside of her home.
The witness said the customer was between 1.80m and 1.80m tall, had a broad build and wore glasses.
He lived nearby in Massapequa Park, where he still resides with his family, but his Icelandic wife was out of town when the killings happened.
Not only were police able to determine that the car matched the vehicle seen at the victim’s home, but they also traced calls made to the victim from a burner phone to arrange a rendezvous in the area around his Manhattan home and office agree.
After her disappearance, another call was made to one of the victim’s relatives. This call was traced to his office.
He also used fictitious email accounts and other burner phone numbers for a Tinder profile, where he posted photos of himself years later.
In addition to the hard evidence linking him to the specific murders, Heuermann also conducted incriminating research on the internet.
Among them were search terms like ”
He also conducted vile Google searches for child pornography and violent sexual images of tortured women.
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.
His DNA from one of the crusts was a 99.6 percent match for a male hair found at the bottom of the burlap sack in which one of the victims was found.
Prosecutors also found unidentified female hair on three of the victims.
They were initially able to link Heuermann to the case by matching a description of his Chevrolet truck to the vehicle he owned at the time of the murders.
The car was seen at the home of Amber Costello, one of the victims who disappeared on September 2, 2010.
The street in Massapequa Park, Long Island, where a suspect in connection with the Gilgo Beach killings was arrested this morning
Heuermann’s truck was removed from the home this afternoon
Representatives from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York exit Rex Heuermann’s office building
Representatives from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner for the City of New York exit and re-enter the Rex Heuermann office building at 385 5th Avenue in New York City on July 14, 2023 with additional supplies and gloves
There are chilling similarities between Heuermann, a married father of two, and the killer described in a 2011 FBI profile of the Gilgo Beach killer. This profile described a “sadistic but charming average person” who could blend in unnoticed with any environment.
Heuermann led a seemingly normal, average Joe life until yesterday.
The profilers told the New York Times that the suspect is likely financially stable and intelligent.
“He may have been treated at a hospital for a poison ivy infection.” “As part of his work or interests, he has access to or a supply of burlap sacks,” the profile reads.
Raised in Massapequa Park, he attended high school with Billy Baldwin and began working in Manhattan in 1987.
Heuermann was married once in 1990 and again years later to his current wife Asa Ellerup, who is of Icelandic descent.
He and Asa have an adult daughter, Victoria, who works with Heuermann at his architectural firm, and a stepson, Asa’s son from a previous marriage.
His responsibilities included negotiating between the New York City Building Authority and private architects.
In a 2022 video, Heuermann boasted about his career as an architect with the New York City Building Authority.
“I was born and raised on Long Island and have worked in Manhattan since 1987. A very long time!” he told Bonjour Realty.
The suspect’s home is just north of Gilgo Beach across from South Oyster Bay
Forensic teams are working at Heuermann’s house on Friday. A freezer was also among the confiscated items
Residents of Massapequa Park watch in disbelief as police search the home on the quiet residential street
Heuermann’s yearbook photo
Sherre Gilbert, the sister of Shannan Gilbert, one of the victims, told NBC News she was “relieved” that there had been an arrest.
“I’m overwhelmed but relieved they finally caught him.”
“It has taken a long time and I have never given up hope that one day justice will be served.”
“The suspect deserved to rot in prison for the rest of his life.”
“He destroyed a lot of lives. Even if it doesn’t bring our loved ones back, it helps that one less monster is off the street and can never harm anyone else again.”
Heuermann runs a small architecture office in the city.
On the company’s website, he claims to have worked on projects such as JFK Airport, projects for American Airlines, and some Catholic charities.
Long Island architect Rex Heuermann, 59, was arrested today in connection with the Gilgo Beach serial killings in a major police breakout.
Heuermann was arrested outside his midtown Manhattan office last night
“Gilgo Four”: These photos show the first four victims found near Gilgo Beach, Long Island, a decade ago as part of an investigation into a serial killer
Partial skeletal remains of Valerie Mack were found in a wooded area in Manorville in September 2000. Partial skeletal remains of Jessica Taylor, an escort working in New York City, were found July 26, 2003 in a wooded area in Manorville
A suspect has been arrested in connection with the notorious Gilgo Beach murders on Long Island. Victims included Shannan Gilbert, who was found dead in a swamp in Oak Beach in 2011 — about a quarter mile from where she was last seen alive.
A map shows where the victims’ remains were located along the barren section of the Ocean Beach Parkway in Gilgo Beach on Long Island’s south shore
John Ray, a lawyer representing the families of two of the victims, told they were warned a week ago that an arrest was imminent.
“We had an indication about a week ago that they were going to do this. “We have two names, but of course we don’t want to mention them unless we’re 100% sure.”
He confirmed to that Heuermann’s name was among those being investigated.
Ray believes the discovery of a man’s remains today may have been the trigger for the arrest.
Ray said that while the suspect arrested today was a man, he and his clients “always had an outside theory” that a woman might have been involved.
No one has ever been arrested in connection with the murders.
Heuermann in an interview about his architectural office
Heuermann’s daughter Victoria works with him at the architecture firm where he was arrested last night
Heuermann’s first marriage in 1990. He has since remarried
The decades-long investigation has been described as one of the “most intense and prolific” hunts for a serial killer.
In 2020, a true crime podcast aroused suspicion about former Suffolk County Police Commissioner James Burke.
Burke, who was jailed for assaulting a local during his tenure, was the chief constable from 2011 to 2015.
Among the victims was Shannan Gilbert, who was found dead in a swamp in Oak Beach in 2011 – about a quarter mile from where she was last seen alive.
According to her family’s lawyer, the 24-year-old’s neck had been broken before she was killed and it had a puncture hole that could have been made by a drill.
The first victims were discovered in December 2010.
They were Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Costello, 27.
The bodies, known as the “Gilgo Beach Four,” were found in burlap sacks.
Some of the four had been missing for three years when their bodies were found.
All were sex workers who advertised their services on Craiglist, leading police to believe this was the way the killer had first contacted them.
Some had also told friends that they had scheduled a meeting with a client the day before they disappeared.
Four other bodies, including that of an infant, were found in the same area in March and April 2011.
It was Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack and an unknown woman named “Peaches” or “Jane Doe No. 3”.
Peaches’ little daughter was also murdered.
Two more remains were found in the weeks that followed.
One belonged to an “Asian man” believed to be a transgender sex worker who had been dead five or six years, and Jane Doe No. 7, whose remains were found on a beach in the popular tourist town of Fire Island .