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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.
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
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 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).
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 found, Fire Island, New York.
1997
- June 28, 1997: Partial remains of “Peaches” / “Jane Doe No. 3” found, Hempstead Lake State Park, Long Island, New York.
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.”