SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK: Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann, 59, is finally facing law after evading arrest for over a decade in the series of alleged gruesome killings along Long Island. The "demon" from Massapequa Park in Nassau County along the Long Island area is being nailed by the prosecutors in a 32-page document that details a trove of evidence collected against him after he was arrested on July 13.
Rex was charged with three counts of first-degree and three second-degree murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello, all sex workers who advertised on Craigslist. He is also the prime suspect in the death of the fourth woman Maureen Brainard-Barnes found along the same stretch in 2010. The four discoveries which rattled the country for decades are collectively dubbed as 'Gilgo Four'. Investigators are reportedly investigating Rex's link to other victims, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, an unidentified Asian man, an unidentified woman named 'Peaches' and her daughter, and another unidentified woman called 'Jane Doe No 7', besides Shannan Gilbert whose search led investigators to the gruesome discoveries as well. The police may go beyond these cases too as per some reports as new theories come forward.
Why was Rex Heuermann arrested at work and not at home?
Heuermann was taken into custody outside his office as a video showed law enforcement officers swooping in on the 59-year-old married father-of-two as he walked on the street. Before his arrest, the investigators had kept a tab on him from last year. In January, they collected his DNA from a pizza crust which they sourced from a box that he threw in the garbage bin outside his office that was matched to the hair found on at least one of the victims. His cell phone data was also linked to the three murders he has been charged for. He still owned the car that a witness saw after the killing of one of his victims in 2009.
'You'd rather take him off-premise'
In an interview on Good Morning America on Tuesday, former NYPD chief of detectives Robert Boyce said that the reason Heuermann was arrested outside his office and not home was that was the arsenal of weapons he kept at his home. As the host asked him: "What do you make of the fact that they [investigators] found an arsenal of weapons at his house?" to which Boyce responded, "It explains why they took him off like that...They didn't go to his house. You can check databases to see if he owned guns which he did, so you don't want to go into that house. You'd rather take him off-premise. It's way safer for everybody."
'They're looking at old missing persons who have never been found to see if they can put those together'
The architect businessman has reportedly 92 legally registered guns while the police have found over 200 firearms and other small weapons at his home. They were kept in a walled-off vault that could only be accessed through a metal door, a source told CNN. Boyce further told the station that he has spoken with colleagues who said they were trying to pin him now for other killings. "I made some phone calls yesterday to see what they are doing. They're looking at missing persons who have never been found to what they are doing. They're looking at old missing persons who have never been found to see if they can put those together. Not just in Suffolk, but in the tri-state area. There's also the FBI looking at national issues as well. He was free for many years."
'It’s a very good thing that we got this animal off the streets'
Heuermann lived in the home with his wife Asa Ellerup and their two adult children. Now, as per reports, they are left "disgusted" by the allegations and searches by the FBI. “It’s a very good thing that we got this animal off the streets,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told CNN. Rex has pleaded not guilty to a total of six which includes, the three first-degree and second-degree charges. While the suspect was being taken into custody, he asked cops just one thing, "Is this on the news?"
