Who Is Rex Heuermann – The Gilgo Beach Murderer Suspect?

Rex Heuermann is an American architect arrested as the Gilgo Beach murderer suspect, identifying him as the notorious Long Island serial killer.

Per police, Rex Heuermann allegedly committed the Gilgo beach murders –  a series of unsolved crimes dramatised in movie The Gilgo Beach murders.

The Gilgo beach murders was a 2013 film dramatising the Long Island serial killings. The Long Island serial killer (also referred to as LISK, the Gilgo Beach Killer, the Manorville Butcher, and the Craigslist Ripper) is an unidentified suspected serial killer (later identified as Rex Heuermann) who is believed to have murdered between 10 and 18 people over a period of nearly 26 years, and to have disposed of their bodies in areas on the South Shore of Long Island, New York. Most of the known victims were sex workers who advertised on Craigslist.

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Police arrested a notable Gilgo Beach murders suspect for the first time in July 2023, an architect named Rex Heuermann.

In this article, we take a look at the man arrested as the Gilgo beach murders suspect, Rex Heuermann.

Who Is Rex Heuermann?

rex heuermann the gilgo beach murders suspect

Rex Heuermann is an American architect who was arrested in July 2023 as the primary suspect in the Gilgo beach murders.

Per police, Rex Heuermann is the Gilgo beach murders suspect, the alleged murderer dubbed the Long Island serial killer.

So who is Rex Heuermann? Rex Heuermann is a 59-year-old architect who works in New York City. 

Rex, 59, was born in either 1963 or 1964. He attended Berner High School in Massapequa, New York, graduating in 1981.

Hollywood star Billy Baldwin, revealed in a Tweet after his arrest that Rex Heuermann was his former classmate, tweeting: “Woke up this morning to learn that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect was my high school classmate Rex Heuermann. Berner High School Massapequa, New York Class of 1981. Married, two kids, architect. “Average guy… quiet, family man.” Mind-boggling… Massapequa is in shock. 23andMe strikes again???”

Heuermann lives in Massapequa Park, a Long Island neighborhood. Police raided his home early on the morning of Friday, July 14th 2023. He has been working in the New York area for decades.

“I’ve been working in Manhattan since 1987,” Rex Heuermann told Bonjour Realty in an interview posted on YouTube in 2022.

https://youtu.be/tbQOcEs3aZg

Rex Heuermann is the owner and founder of a Manhattan architecture firm, RH Consultants and Associates, according to the company website and his LinkedIn profile.

RH Consultants & Associates was incorporated in 1994 and has clients including Catholic Charities, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s sewage treatment and American Airlines, according to the company website.

Heuermann was taken into custody outside his Manhattan office and is due in court later today. Police promised more details of his arrest in a 4pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) press conference.

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Rex Heuermann’s arrest is as the primary suspect in connection to the murders of at least four women whose bodies were found along Gilgo Beach in Long Island between 2010 and 2011. 

He is believed to be the so-called Long Island Serial Killer, who has eluded the police for more than a decade. Heuermann is suspected of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who were all s*x workers who advertised their services online. They were known as the “Gilgo Four” because their remains were found wrapped in burlap sacks near Gilgo Beach in December 2010.

The Gilgo Beach murders have been one of the most notorious serial killer cases in the country, attracting media attention and public interest. The police have faced criticism for their handling of the investigation, which has been marred by controversies and delays. The Gilgo beach suspect has long eluded capture until the July 2023 arrest of Rex Heuermann.

During the press conference, police revealed Heuermann was charged with three counts of murder in the first degree and three counts of murder in the second degree. He is to be held without bail.

After he was charged, Heuermann broke down in tears in front of his lawyers and insisted on his innocence, the defense team said.

Following his arrest, the media spoke to neighbours of the Heuermann’s who said Rex was a bit of a loner and their house was ‘creepy’.

Patrica Maressa, 64, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years was stunned by the news that the man who lives next door to her was arrested in connection with the Gilgo Beach murder investigation.

“I can’t believe what’s going on,” she said today. “It’s very sad.” 

“If they’re outside, we say, ‘Hi, how you doing? That’s about it,” Maressa said.

She said Rex Heuermann lived in the home with his wife, a son and a daughter.

“He’s a tall, big, big guy. Always dressed well,” she said, but noted he wasn’t overly friendly.

Crystal Booker, 30, has regularly been delivering mail to Heuermann’s home for the last several months but said there were times she didn’t want to deliver there “because it looked creepy.”

She described the suspect’s surrounding neighborhood as “quiet” with “friendly people,” but said she never interacted with Heuermann personally.

“I probably saw him once or twice, but I never actually handed him the mail — thank God,” Booker said.

“I’m a little shaken up because I’ve done this route a few times and to hear it, it’s kind of like wow,” she added. “I’m just blessed to be here and I’m happy I’m not one of the victims.”

For now, this is what is known about the Gilgo beach murderer or suspect Rex Heuermann. Read on for more details on the Gilgo beach killings.

Who is the Gilgo beach murderer suspect?

The Gilgo beach murderer suspect is a New York city architect named Rex Heuermann who was arrested in July 2023.

The Gilgo beach murderer was arrested on Friday, July 14, 2023, in connection to the murders of at least four women whose bodies were found along Gilgo Beach in Long Island between 2010 and 2011. He is believed to be the so-called Long Island Serial Killer, who has eluded the police for more than a decade.

Heuermann lives in Massapequa Park, a Long Island neighborhood. According to Wikipedia, Massapequa Park is an incorporated village located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 17,008 at the 2010 census. 

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For many years, young ladies, primarily s*x workers have been going missing and found buried in the area. That gave rise to the Long Island serial killer who had never been identified until now.

Rex Heuermann is now believed to be the Gilgo beach murderer. Heuermann is suspected of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who were all sex workers who advertised their services online. They were known as the “Gilgo Four” because their remains were found wrapped in burlap sacks near Gilgo Beach in December 20103. 

The police also found six more sets of remains in the same area, but Heuermann is not believed to be linked to those cases.

After years of searching, the Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison launched a joint task force with the FBI and state law enforcement agencies to solve the Gilgo beach murders case In February 2022. He also released new evidence, including maps, images and Gilbert’s 911 call, to seek public assistance

The arrest of Rex Heuermann as the Gilgo beach murderer suspect is the first truly significant breakthrough in the case that could bring closure to the victims’ families and justice to the killer. 

Rex Gilgo Beach

rex gilgo beach

Police revealed stunning details about the investigation leading to the capture of Rex Heuermann as the Gilgo Beach killer.

In the examination of victim Megan Waterman’s body, a male hair was recovered from burlap used to wrap her remains. It was submitted for further DNA analysis in July 2020 and a DNA profile for the hair was created. 

Also, a witness to the disappearance of 27-year-old Amber Lynn Costello identified “a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche as the vehicle believed to have been driven by her killer,”

A renewed joint investigation into the decades-old case “led to the discovery of a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche” registered to Heuermann in March 2022.

Subpoenas and search warrants on Heuermann followed, leading to the discovery of cellphone bill records. The records allegedly corresponded with cell site locations for burner phones used to arrange meetings with three of the Gilgo Beach victims.

At a point during this surveillance, Heuerman threw out a box of pizza into the trash which police recovered and swabbed at the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory for analysis

In March, the crime lab sent the swab to a forensic lab. A month later, the male hair found on Waterman was sent to the same lab for testing.

On June 12, the lab was able to determine the “mitochondrial DNA profile(s) are the same.”  

Police finally had the evidence they needed to capture Rex Heuermann, the Gilgo beach killer.

Additionally, strands of hair of Rex Heuermann wife was found on at least three Gilgo beach victims.

A hair was recovered from the buckle of one of the belts found binding the body of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

Two female hairs were recovered on the body of Megan Waterman, who was found bound by tape. One hair was found from “outside the head area” and another from “the tape of the head area.” 

Another female hair was found on a piece of tape inside burlap wrapping found on the body of Amber Costello. 

All those female hairs were sent to an outside forensics laboratory, which in July 2022 determined they belonged to a woman who was not any of the victims. 

On July 21, 2022, an undercover Suffolk County Police Department detective recovered 11 bottles from a trash receptacle in front to Heuermann’s home. The bottles were swabbed and the samples sent for testing.

In February, the lab concluded that one of the DNA profiles generated from the bottles matched the same “mitochondrial haplogroup” as the female hairs recovered from the three victims. 

Based on the investigation and evidence, it was determined the hair belonged to Heuermann’s wife. 

However, investigators were able to determine Heuermann’s wife was out of state at the time of the three women’s disappearances and murders.

“It is likely that the burlap, tape, vehicle(s) or other instrumentalities utilized in the furtherance of these murders came from Defendant Heuermann’s residence, where his wife also resides, or was transferred from his clothing.” authorities said.

In court, Heuermann was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Costello, 27, according to his bail application.

He pleaded not guilty and was denied bail.

Rex Heuermann wife

Official details about Rex Heuerman wife has yet to be released, although we do know he is married with two kids.

Information from spokeo.com lists Elizabeth Heuermann, 62, and Victoria Heuermann, 26, as possible relatives. We would update these details once more information is available.

The Long Island Serial Killer

long island serial killer victims

New York architect Rex Heuermann has been arrested as the Gilgo beach murderer, also known as the Long Island serial killer.

The below, culled form Wikipedia, is all the details about the Long Island serial killer (LISK).

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The Long Island serial killer (also referred to as LISK, the Gilgo Beach Killer, the Manorville Butcher, and the Craigslist Ripper) is an unidentified suspected serial killer who is believed to have murdered between 10 and 18 people over a period of nearly 26 years, and to have disposed of their bodies in areas on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, United States. 

Most of the known victims were sex workers who advertised on Craigslist. The victims’ remains were found over a period of months in 2010 and 2011, after the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert resulted in a police search of the area along the Ocean Parkway, near the remote beach towns of Gilgo and Oak Beach in Suffolk County. 

The remains of four victims designated “The Gilgo Four” were found within a quarter of a mile of each other near Gilgo Beach in December 2010. Six more sets of remains were found in March and April 2011 in Suffolk and Nassau counties.

Police believe the latter sets of remains predate the four bodies found in December 2010.

Gilbert’s remains were found a year after the remains of “The Gilgo Four” were discovered. Her cause of death remains contested, with police claiming accidental drowning while an independent autopsy determined possible strangulation. A suspect, Rex Heuerman, was arrested on July 14, 2023.

The first discovery of human remains was made by the side of Ocean Parkway in Oak Beach on December 11, 2010. The investigation was prompted by the search for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old woman who had disappeared in the area in May that year after fleeing from a client’s home and making a 23-minute-long emergency call to 911, saying, “They are trying to kill me.” 

A month after her disappearance, the Suffolk County Police Department’s missing persons bureau asked Officer John Mallia to search for Gilbert with his trained cadaver dog, a German Shepherd named Blue. Over the course of summer 2010, Mallia unsuccessfully searched the gated beach community where Gilbert had last been seen.

The officer made a new attempt at a search on December 11, 2010, staying close to the shoulder of the parkway. Mallia based his choice of search area on FBI data indicating that dumped bodies are frequently found close to roadways. Despite thick vegetation and a light layer of snow, Mallia’s cadaver dog alerted to a scent which the pair tracked to a skeleton in a disintegrating burlap bag. The remains were later identified as Melissa Barthelemy’s. Police discovered three additional bodies while searching the scene for further evidence. The bodies of the four victims – Maureen Brainard, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello – were found approximately 500 feet  (150 m) from each other.

Read more about the Long Island serial killer who may have finally been identified as Rex Heuermann.

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