World Courant
It was a collection of grotesque, unsolved murders that captured the general public’s consideration and put the residents of Lengthy Island, New York, on edge.
Now, on Friday, authorities in the USA introduced they’ve charged a suspect in at the least three of the deaths, providing doable solutions to a long-standing thriller.
Investigators have charged Nassau County architect Rex Heuermann, 59, with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.
He stays an occasion in a fourth homicide, that of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. She was discovered tied up and hidden within the undergrowth subsequent to a seashore highway in 2010.
“Girls and gents, Rex Heuermann is a demon that roams amongst us — a predator that ruins households,” stated Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison. “If it weren’t for the members of this activity power, he would nonetheless be out on the road at present.”
Nonetheless, lawyer Michael Brown stated Heuermann advised him, “I did not do that.” Heuermann has entered a plea of not responsible via his lawyer.
Rex Heuermann has been charged with three murders and is an individual of curiosity in a fourth (Suffolk County Sheriff’s Workplace/AP Picture)
Given the “excessive depravity” of the case, Suffolk County Choose Richard Ambro ordered that Heuermann be held in jail with out bail.
The investigation started greater than a decade in the past, in Could 2010, when 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert disappeared after calling 911 in a panic.
“Somebody’s after me,” she stated within the recording, leaving a home on Oak Seaside, Lengthy Island, the place she had been employed for intercourse work.
Her disappearance sparked a police investigation that lasted for months. However in December of that yr, on a distant seashore off Lengthy Island’s south coast, an officer got here throughout a set of stays: Barthelemy’s.
Extra our bodies had been found within the following days, belonging to Costello, Brainard-Barnes and Waterman. The ladies had been all younger – of their twenties – and all labored in prostitution. Their stays had been discovered wrapped in burlap-style camouflage material.
Because the search continued into 2011, the physique rely would rise to 11, with one other 4 girls, a person and a toddler. Police say they think a number of persons are accountable.
Crime scene investigators seek for our bodies in Oak Seaside, New York, in 2011 (File: James Carbone/Newsday by way of AP Pool)
Based on investigators, Heuermann lived throughout the bay from the crime scene on Gilgo Seaside, in an space referred to as Massapequa Park.
Detectives started specializing in him as a suspect in March 2022, after they found he had owned a Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck much like the mannequin a witness had recognized across the time of the disappearances.
A surveillance staff adopted Heuermann later that month when he threw out some leftover pizza crust whereas in Manhattan. Detectives then collected the crust and swabbed it for DNA, which linked him to hair recovered from among the many victims’ our bodies.
Police arrested Heuermann late Thursday, and by Friday morning detectives had been sweeping his little pink home in Lengthy Island.
Suffolk County District Legal professional Ray Tierney advised reporters Friday that Heuermann had “obsessively searched” for info on-line in regards to the Gilgo Seaside murders.
Till his arrest, Tierney stated the architect used burner telephones to contact intercourse employees. He additionally famous that Heuermann reportedly had licenses for 92 weapons.
“This case shouldn’t be over,” Tierney stated at Friday’s press convention. “It is only the start.”
Legal professional John Ray, proper, and Jasmine Robinson, middle left — the cousin of Jessica Taylor, whose stays had been additionally discovered close to Gilgo Seaside — go away a courtroom in Riverhead, New York, on July 14 (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AP Picture )
The Gilgo Seaside murders have attracted lots of public consideration lately, within the wake of the Netflix collection Misplaced Ladies and true crime podcasts dissecting the case.
Visiting Lengthy Island on Friday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul stated she hoped the arrest would assist shut the victims’ family members.
“This can be a lengthy overdue day and hopefully one that can carry peace to this group and the households – lengthy overdue peace,” she stated.
Pizza crust DNA results in arrest in US Gilgo Seaside murders | Crime information
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