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New York architect, Rex Heuermann, was indicted on Friday, July 14, on six charges of murder connected to the deaths of at least four women killed between 2007 and 2010. The victims' bodies were found alongside 11 human remains strewn along the Gilgo Beach in Long Island in 2010.
The victims were reportedly all s*x workers in their twenties who mysteriously disappeared without a trace between 2007 and 2010. The investigation into the killings began with the disappearance of Maureen Brainard Barnes in 2007, but the case only gained momentum when Shannan Gilbert vanished in May 2010 after she met a client at nearby Oak Beach. Gilbert supposedly made a 22-minute 911 call in which she said:
“They are trying to kill me.”
Shortly after, in a case that grabbed the nation's attention, the bodies of 11 women were found bound in burlap bags and discarded along Gilgo Beach in 2010. The discovery led authorities to believe that a serial killer was on the loose. The decade-long investigation into the case that stoked fears through the shoreline community of Gilgo Beach culminated with the arrest of Rex Heuermann, a quiet suburban dad of two from Long Island, on Thursday, July 13.
While authorities were unable to link all the 11 deaths to the suspect, they gathered sufficient evidence to connect Rex Heuwermann with the murder of at least four women who were dubbed the "Gilgo Beach Four" in court documents.
Rex Heuwermann has been charged in the deaths of Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes after their bodies were found near one another in 2010.
Rex Heuermann allegedly used burner phones to communicate with victims before the murder
Court documents released on Friday detailed a sprawling investigation into Rex Heuermann, who was linked to the killings through cellphone evidence and surveillance.
Heuermann was first linked to killings in 2022 after investigators discovered that a Chevrolet Avalanche registered to the suspect was spotted by a witness to Costello's disappearance. Shortly after, investigators obtained search warrants and uncovered cell phone billing records for burner phones.
A burner phone is an inexpensive disposable mobile phone designed for temporary anonymous use. It can be purchased with prepaid minutes without getting into a contract with a cell phone provider. However, although burner phones provide a high degree of anonymity, they are not completely untraceable.
Burner phones that go through a cellular carrier or virtual number operator can be traced using location, call logs, and data usage, which can be obtained through the carrier companies.
Heuermann reportedly used a burner phone to make taunting calls to the relative of a victim, identified as Melissa Barthelemy. Investigators uncovered Heuermann’s involvement after cell activity from the cell phone tower data revealed that calls to the victim's family were placed from the Midtown Manhattan area, where the suspect’s architecture business is located.
The incriminating phone billing records also revealed that Heuermann used the burner phones to arrange meetings with three of the murder victims. The cell phones were reportedly bought and used under fictitious names, including “Andy.” The name was deemed suspicious as Heuermann’s middle name is Andrew, and one of the names used to buy a burner phone was “Andrew Roberts.”
Documents said that Heuermann was a client of Amber Costello, who had seen her at least once prior to her death. The witness who spotted the suspect in Costello's disappearance described the "client" as “a large, white male, approximately 6’4" to 6’6” in height, in his mid-forties, with "dark bushy hair."
The witness who characterized the suspect as an "ogre" said the client drove "a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche." The witness's description matched the suspect's countenance.
Rex Heuermann used dummy email accounts to conduct suspicious sadistic searches online
In addition to the burner phones, the suspect also used burner email accounts where he conducted “thousands of searches related to s*x workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography.”
Court documents revealed that under the fictitious email account, he purportedly conducted 200 suspicious searches between March 2022 and June 2023. The queries were deemed suspicious as they showed a singular obsession with Long Island serial killers. Some of the searches read:
“Why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the Long Island serial killer”, “Why hasn’t the Long Island serial killer been caught”, “Long Island killer”, “Long Island serial killer phone call.”
Rex Heuermann's DNA helped authorities narrow down the suspect
There was DNA proof linking Rex Heuermann to the murders. Documents stated that a hair found on burlap material used to wrap Waterman’s corpse was a match to the suspect or his wife.
The DNA from Rex Heuermann was obtained through a dough crust from a discarded pizza box by a team surveilling the suspect’s home.
While the DNA was a perfect match with the suspect or his wife, investigators ruled out the latter's involvement in the incident. Documents said that cellphone records showed Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, was out of town when the murders took place.
