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The Gilgo Beach serial killings were a series of killings between 1996 and 2011 in which the remains of 11 people were found in Gilgo Beach, located on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, United States. Most of the known victims were sex workers who advertised on Craigslist. The perpetrator in the case is known as the Long Island Serial Killer (LISK).

 

Rex Heurmann is  a demon  that walks  among us, a predator that ruined  families.

 

It took nearly  13 years…..

….to  track down the accused Gilgo beach  serial Killer.

over 300 subpoenas, search warrants , the amouunt of evidence  that wehere gathering is massive

A married father of two living in  the house  he grew  up in ….

Now  he´s tied to multiple murders. 

where a serial  killer investigation was  launched more than a dozen years ago.

four dead women who came  to known as Gilgo 4 where discovered here in the ocean park way  in december 2010.

Now Police say they  finally found the murderer.

 

He was living  a double ,wife ,two kids , nice job as an achitect.

 

And rex Heuermann 59,was probably   never  expected to be surrounded by cops in midtown. as he left work on  a thursday evening.

 

 

Still wearing the same khakis , the towering  suspect was  accused of being  the Gilgo  Beach long island serial  killer.known as   Lisk  ,who  eluded law enforcement for more than a dozen years

 

While investigators in white suits immediately descended   …

on Heuermann´s lifelong home in massapequa  Park, armed with with search warrants.

The suspect was initially charged  with  murdering  three of the Gilgo 4.

 Melissa barthelemy,megan  waterman amd amber castello 

 

All petite online escorts,who were discovered dead in 2010 with anothert escort…  maureen brainard- barns. in the brush of Ocean psarkway.

 

M.Brown : the only thing  i can tell you that he did say  as he was in tears  was ” i didn´t do  this .”

 

Three of the sex workers  were bound in burlap

and Heuermann was  named the prime suspect  in the murder of the fourth,brainard-barnes

 

 forensic psychiatrist Dr Park dietz talk  about  Heuermann´s arrest

 

dr park dietz:” the most  common sexual motive for serial  killings is sexual sadism becoming the god to that victim is the offender´s  Primal goal

 

The  architect´s  neighbors  on first awenue in masapequea park were stunned that the hulking Heuermann hide  the alleged crimes for  so long.

A  map showing wantagh parkway near his home  reveals how easily he could  have drive  to Ocean parkway close to the jones beach  exchange

 

neighbor-He  grew up there from  as a kid with his parents.

 

many thought that  Rex Heuermann house was an eyesore

Detectives said they  found hundreds  of guns locked in a  vault in the house and fairly soon they were searching storage  facilities,  nearby.

 

R.harrison : are they   body parts or  things that we need  to  take a look at are the trophies of some  of  the victims that uh…unfortunately that he stored  in that location.

 

The crucial break in the case had  come  last year from a new interview with amber costellops´s roommate and pimp who said john  had come to their house in babylon ion september 1st 2010

The day before she vanished  and the  client described this Oger like  was driving  a green chevy. avalanche.

six  weeks late on march 14 th 2022 the name Rex Heuermann was first mentioned as a  suspect in  the Gilgo Case.

 

Ray Tierney: Not  only  did he own the chevy avalanche but he matched the physical description.

 

During a  google search of old Maps investigators  discovered a  green chevy avalanche parked Heuermann´s  house in plain sight

 

 

 and now a  former escort coming forward to say  she talked about true crime  investigations  with  Rex Heuermann   during a date.

 

Long  island stylist,nicole brass  appeared  on Cuomo .

 

nichole:  and i said  well have  you heard of the Gilgo beach murderse., like his body language kind of change and like his eyes  were like as if  he was in a different place , like  he was picturing it all , over again .it was weird , he almost kind of made the victims like he  seemed like people who didn´t matter.

 

Rex Heuermann wife has now filed  divorce papers,which were not  contested.

The wife´s sister johanna spoke  briefly to pix 11 news from her long island home .

 

Johanna: we don´t know anything ,we are  hearing about  most of it on the News  ourself  so we´re just going to refrain f rom saying anyhing”

 

And rhere are more revelations  about   the people Rex Heuermann did work for aside frp, cpmtracts with new york  and Target documents

He received two hundred thousand  dollars from former president  donald Trump´s   company to  renovate office  space at a downtown building.

Rex Heuermann and Donald Trump. PHOTO: SUFFOLK COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE; JAMES DEVANEY/GC IMAGES

The revelations  just reinforce investigatiors  beliefs that the serial  killer suspect lived two lives.

Dr Dietz  said   he  would like to know if the  burley Heuermann  was bullied in his childhood .

law enforcement wants to know  if   the suspect is  connected …

..to six other Ocean parkway victims, some of them dismembered

 

 

Dr Dietz:“it could be that they are linked or that  summer  linked it , it would b e quite a coincidenceto have a  another  serial killer working in the same area at the same time but it´s happened before.

 

Families of the victims who lived in upstate cities or out of state   had to  fight to get  the attention of law  enforcement ,because  the women were   categorized as sex workers. 

relatives of the victimes ofthen held vigils here and  demanded they  get treated with dignity

Now they´ve seen the face of the   accused killer .

amber costello´s aunt  watched the serial killer case unfold from her home in north carolina.

 

Bonnie:it just looks like a cold monster  and inhis eyes  i mean you can  just see that it´s …like a sociopath.

 

Other families somberly followed district attorney Ray Tierney into court  wjen the gruseome indictment was unsealed

one of them was the younger sister of   melissa  barthelemy  ,the  sister  was just  15  according to family when the accused  killer made taunting phone calls in  2009,using  barthelemy cell phone.

 

Megan waterman´s  daughther was just 3, when her mother  disappeared.

This surveillance   shows megan watherman just 22 iu the early hoiurs of  june 6  2010 shortly before before she ledt t he hoiliday Inn.Exress in Hoppb  hog long island to meet a client.

prosecutors say that ” john” was the architect Rex Heuermann  based on calls  from a burner phone he allegedly bought the day before waterman met her demise .

Ray Tierney:  and for each of the murders  he got an individual burne phone and used that to communicate with the victims.

Amber castello 27 was the last  of the Gilgo 4 to  disappear

court papers indicate  her roommate and pimp tried to act like an outrage  boyfriend when the suspect allegedly showed up  at their  babylon rental on on september  1st  2010 looking for sexual services. they wanted to rip him off.

Rex Heuermann allegedly texted amber , castello saying that was not so nice do i get  credit for next  time , amber´s  roommate watched her leaving the  house next day , taking nothing with her 

 

Bonnie: he was  really  worried because when she went out the door she didn´t take her purse or cell phone he was like, you´re forgetting them and she  said i´m  not going to need them .

 

 

Amber costellos´body was discovered three month later with  the Gilgo 4 on  ocean  parkway.

 

Bonnie: he´s  huge  ,none of these girls stood a chance against  him.

 

The long island serial killer investigation involved painstaking phone analysis the search for better DNA technology  and the hope  that  a tip would come  in that  would chancge everything.

Gilgo -beach task force tracked Rex Heuermann for more than a year…

…with physical and digital  surveillance

 

a 32-page court affidavit

claimed prosecutors had images of Heuermann buying extra minutes  on  his  burner phones,hoping they weren´t traceable, but  experts did eventually  trace  his burners ,they say  and some victims phones.

To sell sites near Heuermann place of work in midtown Manhattan   

and four cell towers  in massapequea park that  were   cloise to his home .

and that was mapped out that was called the box.

once  Heuermann was identified as the person of  interest . over 300   subpoenas search warrants pertaining to this imdividual

that allowed the task force  to check Heuermann phone and his online activity and a 14 months  period he  had  over 200  searches pertaining. to the Gilgo  investigation

and by  usinga fake online profiles.

And  by using fake online profil Heuermann  also alledgely search   for six   subjects like  torture or porn and child porn

The  affidavite reveald that Heuermann was  nailed with his own DNA and that of his wife after collecting  11 bottles from family trash in 2022 Investigators swapped them for Genitic material

Lab  results this  year  indicated femalehairs   found on three victims bodies  likely came from female DNA in  the Heuermann household or car.

the linchpin that sealed the casewhen cops snatched  a pizza  boxthat Rex Heuermann allegedly tossed sin the trasch can  near his mid town office. when scientists  tested the DNA reovered  from uneaten pizza crust ,

they  say it matched DNA  from  the burlap used tio wrap  vitctim  megan waterman.

 

In -depth look at  the decade -long search for the long island  serial killer and how the disappearnce of a young  sex worker exposed the crime 

The Gilgo beach serial killer

 

Pix11 news  have followed the case every step of the way as professional and amateur detectives  tried to solve it .

The Bodies of four young women all seriously decompose in fact in skeletal were discovered over threw dsays .

The reporter mike sheehan told pix 11  news about the discovery of the Gilgo 4 in december 2010.

Police K-9 Finding the first victim melissa barthelemy in a brush of  Ocean parkway and the others by 

Investigators initially believed  the crime scene could be connected  to another mystery.

detectives  are now  comparing  these murderes to the grizzly discovery of  rour  young women found in Atlantic City several  years  ago .

Cops in Gilgo were looking for a missing sex worker  from jesrsey  city shannon gilbert.

When they came upon  the remains of  maureen brainerd -barns, megan waterman  ,melissa  barthelemy and amber castello. 

 Who had also adertised escort services online

when  police announced they´d found more remains  in the area  between Oak beach and  Gilgo beach .

Investigators ultimately found 10 sets of remains

one victim was  a tottler and her mother  was  fond in another section of  Ocean  Parkway

and there were body parts tied to a femal torsos that had  turned up 40 miles  to the east in manorville

shannnon Gilbert´s  remains were found a year

afer the Gilgo four were discovered in  marsh in Oak beach

 

-it´s deep , you step  in you can sink , sink way down 

 

police commissioner:If it  wasn´t for  shannon Gilberts disapearance we may never found the remai9nds of the  other victims.

Nearly  three years later  a father of two from manorville was arrested  for the cold case murders of two other sex workers in  in the early 90´s not  far from his home

It was natural to question if carpenter john bichrov xouls   be lisk , the long island serial killer.

Former district attorney Tom spota  insisted there was no  investigative  link.

This is  when pix 11  news kick-started its coverage of Gilgo  looking at the first known case of body parts connected to the elusive serial killer.

taking a boat to the eastern end of fire island davis park .

 

In 1994  two female legs where found  in here   davis park wrapped in plastic. 

 

Years later during the serial killer  investigation a skull that was found in toby beach was tested  for  DNA and that DNA  was  matched later to  the  legs  here in  davis park.

 still nagging questions about the four women killed in new jersey

after learning one victim i kim rafo had  spent  time at a long Island hotel  before her death.

On november 20th 2006, two women came upn the body of 36 -year old kim rafo face down in  a muddy ditch  here in west Atlantic City

about 50 yards  away  from the golden key motel.police arrived on the scene made more grisly discoveries. three other dead women all of them like rafo  barefoot but fully clothed

and all of  their head facing East toward the casinos  of Atlantic City .

 do the police think there migt be a connection between  Gilgo Beach  long island killer and what happened in atlanta city .

Police  are not prepared to discuss that ,there have been instances over the years  where we reached out to law   enforcement authorities in the midwest and  i think also in Canada

 

More developments in the Gilgo beach investigation happened when james burk the  former suffolk county chief of  departement was arrested  for beating a  drug-addicted burglary suspect  who had stolen a bag from burk´s police vehicle, embarrassing sex toys were found in the bag and it emerged  that burk had been investigated for doing drugs with  a sex worer in the  the  1990s not securing s his gun in the process

But the original chief of detectives in the Gilgo Case dominic farone  did not believe burke was involved  in the serial killings .

 

In  2o20  during  the pandemic then suffolk county police commissioner Geraldine hart  announced in as phone call that police had finally  identified a jane Doe in the Gilgo case

 

-“today we are announcing that Jane Doe number six has been positiviely identified as   valerie mack .

valerie mack a young mom last seen 17 miles from atlantic city . er torso was found  in  manorville in 2000 and it took genetic genealogy to identify her 20 years later .

Pix11news  once again asked authoritites  about a potential Atlantic City Connection

$100pp – **PREMIUM EXCLUSIVE**Person Of Interest Rex Heuermann Is Spotted Being Walked Out Of The Suffolk County Police 7th Precinct In Connection For The Gildgo Beach Murders.

and now they finally have a Gilgo suspect who allegededly kuilled when his wife was out of town. it remains to be seen whether rex heuermann took his own out of town trips.

 

shannon Gilbert a missing  sex worker from jersey city shed the light on the exsistence of a  serial killer

Her family believed she was murdered while  trying to escape a dangerous situation 

 but suffolk county detectives don´t agree .

Police waited a  dozen  years before they  released shannon Gilbert´s frantic  911 – call 

from  a john´s house on the fairway in Oak  beach.

cops have long believed she was having a mental health episode when stared banging on doors before running into sa dark marsh

Gilberts body   wasn´t discovered until a year later 

but the  Gilbert  family attorney said  an independent autopsy  report showed ,

the dead escort had crushed  huyoid bone

 

Gilbert´s attorney; the question becomes is there  a killer or killers?

 

 

The search for evidence  connected  to the suspected Gilgo beach serial killer is quickly expanding beyond long island.

 

  with the arrest of the suspected Gilgo beach serial killer more evidence came to light taking law enforcement across state lines .

Now the investigation is National in scope  with police paying close attention to properties in south carolina and Nevada.

 

 

New york  state police traveled across  state lines to haul away this vehicle that´s been tied to accused  serial killer.Rex Heuermann

The car impounded by the sheriff in chester county south carolina .

The  chester county sheriff´s office was requested by the Gilgo  beach task  force to assist in  gathering  evidence the chester  county  sheriff´s office assisted the Gilgo  beach task force in  obtaining a court order to seize a vehicle in south carolina .

It´s now  part of the ongoing  investigtion into  the long  island murders.

Neighbors say the SUV is a green chevy Avalanche

A witness description of this kind of vehicle possibly the same one  was the crucial tip

that led to  Rex Heuermann being identified  as  a suspect.

 

meantime police may also  looking  into this home in south carolina Heuermann  reportedly bought it in 22022 ,with the goal of retiring there near his brother .

One neighbor said he had a strange encounter with the accused murderer

 

 

neighbor: i wasn´t  allowed to walk  the street.

 

And Nevada records show  Heuermann   also  owns a timeshare in Las vegas police there say   they are reviewing unsolved cases for any possible connection to him.

 

The Gilgo beach task  force is also meticulously combing through two storage units in Amityville  Long Island.

 

As the Investigation continues in multiple states Heuermann  is due back in suffolk county court  in August.

The mystery remains who killed  the six other victims found around Gilgo  beach .

Investigators scoured Ocean parkway after the Gilgo  4 were discovered in december  2010. 

eventually finding  a total of 10 sets of remains including  a toddler.

police are now focused on  six cases that remain unsolved along this strech of roadway

Obe if the enduring mysteries in the  Gilgo Beach serial killer  investigation is the identity of peaches.

the woman´s  torso was discovered in a green rubbermaid  cooler in hempstead lake state park in 1997, she had  a peaches tattooo above her left breast.

14  years later when investigtors  were searching for additional  victims of the Gilgo beach killer they discovered  extremities tied to peaches in the nassau county  section of Ocean parkway .

 It  turned out her gold jewelry matched jewelry on a female toddler

 who was discovered 10 mile to the east on ocean parkway in Oak beach .

DNA  confirmed  this victim was  the daughter of  peaches 

police are still seeking to identify the only man was discovered during their search  a  victim who was dressed in women´s clothing

suffolk county established a Gilgo News Website several years ago

which is still seeking tips  about the six victims eho were found after the Gilgo 4.

 

The  mystery surrounding the  Gilgo beach serial killer   persists because police are still seeking justice for additional victims who was found  on Ocean parkway.

 

More details

The Gilgo Beach serial killings were a series of killings between 1996 and 2011 in which the remains of 11 people were found in Gilgo Beach, located on the South Shore of Long IslandNew York, United States. Most of the known victims were sex workers who advertised on Craigslist. The perpetrator in the case is known as the Long Island Serial Killer (LISK).

 

Profile of killer

The media had speculated about a profile of the killer, referred to by police as “Joe C” (unknown subject). According to the New York Times, the perpetrator was most likely a white male in his mid-twenties to mid-forties and very familiar with the South Shore of Long Island and had access to burlap sacks used to hold the bodies for disposal. He may have a detailed knowledge of law enforcement techniques, and perhaps ties to law enforcement, which have thus far helped him avoid detection. According to investigators, there may be more than one killer.

 

In May 2012, the Suffolk County medical examiners ruled that Gilbert accidentally drowned after entering the marsh. They believe that she was in a drug induced panic and have concluded that hers was “death by misadventure” or “inconclusive.” Her family believes she was murdered.On November 15, 2012, a lawsuit was filed by her mother, Mari Gilbert, against the Suffolk County Police Department in the hopes of getting more answers about what happened to her daughter the night she went missing.

 

In July 2023, Rex Heuermann, a resident of Massapequa Park in Long Island, was arrested in Midtown Manhattan and charged in the murders of three of “the Gilgo Four” victims: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, and Amber Costello. He was also named as the prime suspect in the murder of the fourth of the “Gilgo Four”, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

 

Timeline

1996

  • February 14, 1996: Karen Vergata last seen.
  • April 20, 1996: Partial remains of Karen Vergata foundFire Island, New York.

1997

2000

  • 2000: Valerie Mack last seen by family members in spring or summer, Port Republic, New Jersey.
  • November 19, 2000: Partial remains of Valerie Mack found, Manorville, Long Island, New York.

2003

  • July 2003: Jessica Taylor last seen, Port Authority Bus Terminal, Manhattan, New York.
  • July 26, 2003: Partial remains of Jessica Taylor found, Manorville, Long Island, New York.

2007

  • July 9, 2007: Maureen Brainard-Barnes last seen, Manhattan, New York.
  • July 2007: A friend of Brainard-Barnes’s, Sara Karnes, receives a phone call from a man claiming that he had just seen Brainard-Barnes and that she was alive and staying at a “whorehouse in Queens.”

 

2009

  • July 12, 2009: Melissa Barthelemy last seen at her apartment, 1149 Underhill Ave in the Unionport section of the Bronx, New York.
  • July 17, 2009 – August 26, 2009: Amanda Barthelemy, sister of Melissa Barthelemy, receives a series of “vulgar, mocking and insulting” calls from a man using Melissa Barthelemy’s cell phone. There are additional calls on July 23, Aug. 5, Aug. 19 and Aug. 26. The caller eventually tells Amanda Barthelemy that her sister is dead.

2010

  • May 2, 2010: Shannan Gilbert makes a panicked phone call to 911 at 4:51am after fleeing a client’s house; she bangs on doors of several neighboring houses and disappears, Oak Beach, Long Island, New York.
  • June 6, 2010: Megan Waterman, 22, who had traveled to Long Island from Maine for sex work, last seen at a motel, Hauppauge, New York.
  • September 2, 2010: Amber Lynn Costello last seen at her residence, West Babylon, New York.
  • December 11, 2010: Remains of Melissa Barthelemy found along Ocean Parkway, Long Island, New York.
  • December 13, 2010: Remains of Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes found along Ocean Parkway, Long Island, New York.

2011

  • March 29, 2011: Further partial remains of Jessica Taylor found along Ocean Parkway, Long Island, New York.
  • April 4, 2011: Remains of Valerie Mack, “Asian Male” and “Baby Doe” (the 16-24-month-old daughter of “Peaches”) found in brush area along Ocean Parkway, Long Island, New York.
  • April 11, 2011: Further partial remains of “Peaches” / “Jane Doe No. 3” found near Jones Beach State Park, Long Island, New York.
  • April 11, 2011: Further partial remains of Karen Vergata found, Tobay Beach, Long Island, New York.
  • December 13, 2011: Remains of Shannan Gilbert found in a marsh, Oak Beach, Long Island, New York.

2016

  • December 2016: “Peaches” and “Jane Doe No. 3” positively identified as the same person.

2020

  • May 2020: Police announce forensic identification of formerly unidentified remains of Valerie Mack.

2023

  • July 2023: Rex Heuermann charged in relation to the murders of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, and Amber Costello, and named as a suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
  • August 4, 2023: Police announce forensic identification of formerly unidentified remains of Karen Vergata.

 

The investigation into the Long Island serial killer focused on cell phone use from the beginning, according to investigators. The victims, known as the “Gilgo Four,” posted advertisements on Craigslist and then used their own cell phones to connect with clients.

The police claim the killer, meanwhile, used separate burner phones to contact each victim – and, in doing so, gave them their first clue.

The authorities claim the killer also used the cell phone of one of his victims, Melissa Barthelemy, to make a series of taunting phone calls to her family in Buffalo, N.Y., in the summer of 2009. Those calls allegedly pinged from towers near New York’s Penn Station and other areas of Manhattan.

“I’m watching your sister rot,” the killer said to Barthelemy’s younger sister, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the phone calls.

 

Since his arrest, Heuermann has been held at Suffolk County Jail in Yaphan as investigators search his Massapequa Park home on Long Island for evidence.

Authorities on Long Island are vowing to continue investigating a string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders after charging an architect in the deaths of three of the 11 victims.

Rex A. Heuermann, the architect accused of murdering at least three women near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach, appears before Judge Timothy P. Mazzei in Suffolk County Court on Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Riverhead, N.Y. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)

Prosecutors in Gilgo Beach killings are giving Rex Heuermann’s defense a vast trove of evidence

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was ordered jailed without the possibility of bail in his first court appearance in mid-July.

 

August 1, 2023

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — Weeks after charging a Long Island architect in a string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders, prosecutors said Tuesday that they’ve begun providing his lawyer with reams of evidence including autopsy findings, DNA reports and crime scene photos.

Suffolk County prosecutors said at a brief court hearing that they’ve given Rex Heuermann’s lawyer at least 8 terabytes of material — equivalent to about 2,500 pages of records, along with about 100 hours of surveillance video recorded outside Heuermann’s home and office prior to his July 13 arrest.

District Attorney Ray Tierney said that’s a fraction of the evidence amassed since the bodies of four women were found buried along a remote beach highway in 2010 and 2011. More evidence will be turned over on a rolling basis, he said. This kind of evidence sharing, called discovery, is routine in criminal cases and is intended to help ensure a fair trial.

“You’re talking about 13 years of investigation,” Tierney said. “It’s a massive amount of material.”

Heuermann, 59, is charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who disappeared over a 14-month span prior to the discovery of their bodies.

Prosecutors say Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007. Her remains were found in the same quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway as the other women, across a bay from the town where Heuermann grew up and lived for decades in his childhood home.

Heuermann did not speak at the hearing, which began about a half-hour late as prosecutors met his lawyer and the judge, Timothy Mazzei, behind closed doors. Tierney said afterward that they had been discussing the logistics and timetable for turning over evidence.

Prosecutors and Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, also reached a confidentiality agreement that prohibits sharing copies of the evidence with the public. Some of the evidence includes sensitive photographs of the women’s remains as they were found, wrapped in burlap and buried in thick underbrush on a barrier island off Long Island’s southern coast.

Heuermann, wearing a charcoal sport coat and blue button-down shirt, was brought to court through an underground tunnel from the jail across the street, where he’s been held since his July 13 arrest. He pleaded not guilty at his first court appearance and was ordered jailed without the possibility of bail. His lawyer said Heuermann denied committing the crimes.

“The press has convicted my client without seeing a shred of evidence,” Brown told reporters after the hearing, suggesting that prosecutors “very well could have the wrong guy.”

Brown said he received the first wave of evidence before Tuesday’s hearing — five manila envelopes, each containing a 2 terabyte hard drive — and that he has yet to review any evidence collected in the investigation.

“Today was the first time I was handed any evidence in this case and it was in the form of terabytes,” Brown said. “I can’t read terabytes with my hands or my eyes.”

Heuermann is due back in court on Sept. 27.

All of the women Heuermann is accused of killing were sex workers whose remains were discovered near each other. Investigators say they cracked the case with the help of sophisticated cell phone location data analysis, DNA evidence and an old tip about a vehicle seen parked outside the home of one of the victims.

Investigators spent nearly two weeks combing through Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park, across a bay from where the remains were found, yielding yet more evidence that will eventually be turned over to his lawyer.

The search included digging up the yard, dismantling a porch and a greenhouse and removing many contents of the house for testing.

Robert Macedonio, an attorney for Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, said the home was essentially “destroyed” along the way, with investigators cutting through the bathtub, ripping up floors, and leaving cat litter strewn around the house.

Ellerup filed for divorce after her husband was arrested. She and her two adult children, who also live at the house, returned last week after bouncing between relatives’ homes and a rental car, where they were forced to spend multiple nights, according to the lawyer.

“These people are also innocent victims in this,” Macedonio added. “They’re the unknown victims because no one cares about them.”

An attorney for the adult children, Vess Mitev, said his clients were considering legal action against police for the “deplorable and roughshod handling of the investigation.”

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