Global Courant
A deserted beach that could be the ideal place to relax. The breeze that brings the movement of the waves. The smell of the sea Calm as the protagonist. But the bushes that separate the sand from the road hid the remains of the bodies of several women: the “Gilgo four”.
On December 11 and 13, 2010, police found the remains in Gilgo Beach, 80 kilometers east of New York City, United States. But they were not the only ones. There were a total of nine corpses of women, a man and a child.
However, four bodies gathered too many similarities. Maureen Brainard-Barnes (25), Melissa Barthelemy (24), Megan Waterman (22) and Amber Lynn Costello (27) were the victims.
All four were small in build and came from out of town to work as prostitutes. Their bodies were buried in similar locations and shapes, wrapped in a burlap-like material. They were tied up, with belts or duct tape.
Already the south shore of Long Island was known for mysterious crimes that were committed in the late ’80s and early ’90s. But nobody found the culprits of the “Gilgo four”. More than 12 years have passed since the remains of the four young women were found and a suspect was arrested. The case inspired the 2020 Netflix film “Lost Girls.”
Last Thursday, July 13, the police arrested a man suspected of being a serial killer with a double life. He hid this time behind expensive suits, a successful company and his family was his type.
Rex Heuermann, the renowned architect arrested on suspicion of being the author of the crimes of the “Gilgo four”.
Rex Heuermann (59) was accused of having murdered Barthelemy in 2009, and Waterman and Costello in 2010. He is also the main suspect in the 2007 disappearance and death of Brainard-Barnes.
He is serving pretrial detention and does not have the chance to go home paying bail. Faced with the accusations, he pleaded not guilty. Only on August 1 will he have his first appointment in court.
The architect owns the consulting and architecture firm RH Consultants & Associates since 1994. The office is located on Fifth Avenue, in the heart of Manhattan. That artery, in the heart of New York, is littered with luxury apartments and historic mansions.
Officers outside the suspect’s Long Island home. Photo Reuters
In 2022, Heuermann was interviewed for the YouTube channel “Bonjour Realty”. He told about his career in architecture. He started working in Manhattan in 1987. But he was born and raised on Long Island, in southern New York State. There he lived – until he was arrested – with his wife Asa Ellerup, his daughter and stepson. He had been married since 1996 and the woman filed for divorce after her arrest.
His red and green frame house sits in Massapequa Park. A very distant place to his office on Fifth Avenue. It is difficult to imagine that the renowned architect lives in this modest property that has a garden and an orchard. Only 27 minutes by car separate his house from Gilgo beach where they found the bodies.
Forensic experts work at Heuermann’s Long Island home after his arrest. AP Photo
And although Heuermann always lived in the same place, his neighbors knew little or nothing about him and his family. In his house there was a surprising discovery. Nearly 300 weapons and various video equipment hidden inside a boarded-up vault in the home’s basement were discovered by police this week. Also, the portrait of a woman with an injured face.
Investigators believe the architect committed the murders at his home while his family was out of town.
But why, more than a decade after the femicides, was he arrested? Heuermann was first identified as a possible suspect in early 2022 after a multi-agency task force was assembled to examine cold cases involving nearly a dozen human remains found along the south shore of Long Island between 2010 and 2011, including the “Gilgo Four” case.
Rex Heuermann had a double life: an architect on Fifth Avenue in NY and a modest house on Long Island to which he took prostitutes, according to investigators.
It is that for many years the mystery surrounding their deaths mattered more than the doubt about who the victims were. The way they made a living before being murdered meant that there was not much concern about solving the crimes.
The police weren’t even looking for them. Their bodies were found during a search for the remains of another woman, Shannan Gilbert (23). She had disappeared in 2010 during an escort date in Oak Beach, almost five kilometers from where the bodies of the “Gilgo four” were. Gilbert’s remains appeared after the discovery of ten bodies in the area.
One of the photos used in the search for Shannan Gilbert, who disappeared in 2010. AP Photo
How they got to Heuermann
For more than ten years there was no trace of the suspect. However, the task force found key clues that led to Heuermann. Cell phone records, credit card bills, hair on the remains of the victims that belonged to another person, and a description of the murderer and his car were the evidence that ended up taking him to jail.
Police also found the suspect’s DNA on a slice of pizza he had dumped on Fifth Avenue. The food contained traces of the same DNA found in the sack in which the body of one of the murdered women had been transported before being abandoned.
Investigators into the Gilgo Beach crimes found an armory and videos hidden in a basement at Heuermann’s home. Photo Reuters
“I knew it was a demon.” That’s what the pimp of one of the victims said about Heuermann. He was the person who identified the suspect’s green Chevrolet Avalanche car.
The evidence is piling up. On his computer there was an Internet history that included 200 searches aimed at finding out the status of the “Gilgo four” investigation. He was looking for photos of the victims and their families.
He also consumed torture pornography and depictions of women being abused, raped, and murdered. Until his arrest last week, he lived a double life. While a respected Manhattan architect and family man, he used disposable phones and anonymous email to hire prostitutes.
Investigators maintain that the man had a new disposable cell phone before each murder. From there he called the women, according to the research hypothesis. And he went beyond that.
Detectives came to Heuermann for the cell phone records, the description of the suspect and his car and hair on the remains of the victims unrelated to them. Photo Reuters
In July and August 2009, the phone of Barthelemy – one of the victims – was used by a man to make mocking calls to the young woman’s family. The person he called told the girl’s mother that he had killed her daughter.
Another key clue was the hair of Heuermann’s wife found near the three victims. Investigators believe the suspect had his wife’s hair on his clothes and it fell on them.
Behind bars
“Is it on the news?” Heuermann asked after his arrest. He has since been on suicide watch at the Suffolk County Correctional Center. The high security measures and a strong control of the detainee were measures decided after an evaluation carried out by the medical personnel of the county.
The architect is allowed to make two phone calls a day, but it is not known if he contacted his family. He is calm, despite the serious accusations.
Rex Heuermann arrested for the crimes of the “four of Gilgo”.
After he was arrested, members of the jail’s human trafficking unit were allowed to show his photo to inmates to see if any of them had contact with him. They are also reaching out to victims of sex trafficking who are not in custody.
Meanwhile, investigators talk to prostitutes at the Suffolk County Jail, looking for anyone else who has interacted with Heuermann in the past.
Commotion in the architect’s neighborhood on the day of his arrest for the “Gilgo Beach” crimes. AP Photo
Reviewing his phone records, police realized that two sex workers serving time in jail had been contacted by him. They interviewed them and provided the audios.
The case transcends the cities. Since Heuermann had a time share in Las Vegas, the Police are looking for possible connections to unsolved crimes that occurred in that city in the State of Nevada.
MG
