Gilgo Beach murders: Rex Heuermann’s potential ties to Atlantic City probed as sister-in-law speaks out
Follow the latest news on the Long Island serial killer case as police continue to search for evidence implicating the Manhattan architect over string of escort deaths
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Law enforcement in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is investigating potential ties between local unsolved cases and Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermann.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told ABC News that his task force is looking into possible connections between Mr Heuermann and the murders of four female sex workers whose bodies were found in a ditch just over the Atlantic City border in 2006.
“Shame on us if we don’t look into Las Vegas, South Carolina, even Atlantic City, we’ve got to make sure if anyone has any information,” Mr Harrison said.
It comes amid comments from Mr Heuermann’s sister-in-law that she is in complete disbelief following his arrest over the deaths of Amber Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy.
“I vacillate between desperately wanting my niece and nephew’s life returned to its previous state, intact, without a father accused of being a serial killer to being pleased and secure in knowing that someone is in custody,” Dr Johanna Ellerup told NBC News.
“My ego has great difficulty processing the idea that I looked Rex in the eye and was unable to discern any murderous intentions.”
Pizza crust, burner phones and his wife’s hair: How Long Island police tied Rex Heuermann to the Gilgo Beach murders
Ten deaths, two arrests and a person of interest: Multiple potential serial killers identified in one week
More families await answers in Gilgo Beach killings – and the names of other victims
‘Hundreds’ of true crime enthusiasts visit home of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann
‘Large doll in a glass case and portrait of a woman with a bruised face’ seized from Mr Heuermann’s home
Police carted more boxes of potential evidence Tuesday out of the Long Island home of Rex Heuermann, who has been charged with killing at least three women and leaving their remains alongside a remote stretch of beach highway.
Items pulled out of Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park in recent days have included more than 200 firearms, a large doll in a glass case, a large portrait of a woman with a bruised face and a filing cabinet, according to the Associated Press.
Investigators, some dressed in “crime lab” T-shirts and protective suits, were seen Tuesday carting away a desktop computer, a large picture frame, a mirror and many other household items.
It remains to be seen whether any of those items will help authorities build their case against Mr Heuermann, an architect who was charged with murdering three women and was said by a prosecutor to be a suspect in a fourth slaying.
Mr Heuermann pleaded not guilty to the crimes on Friday.
Gilgo Beach murders suspect’s firm carried out work at Trump Building
The Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect’s architecture business was hired for a 2018 project at the Trump Building in New York City, according to unearthed records.
Rex Heuermann, 59, was arrested last week and charged with the murders of Amber Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy, who vanished between 2007 and 2010 before their bodies were found dumped in Gilgo Beach.
The suspect lived in Massapequa Park, Long Island, with his wife and two adult children and ran architecture firm RH Consultants & Associatess in Midtown Manhattan.
Now, New York City Department of Buildings records obtained by real state publication The Real Deal have revealed that Mr Heuermann’s firm was hired in 2018 by a third party for a plumbing job at the Trump Building on 40 Wall Street.
Read the full story:
Gilgo Beach murders suspect’s firm carried out work at Trump Building
New York City Department of Buildings records reveal Rex Heuermann’s firm was hired by a third party for a plumbing job at the Trump Building in 2018
Victim’s sister says Rex Heuermann’s arrest means she can finally ‘move on’
The sister of one of Rex Heuermann’s alleged victims has spoken out to say that his arrest means she can finally “move on”.
Mr Heuermann has been charged with the murder of Amber Costello, a 27-year-old sex worker who vanished in September 2010.
Her body was found dumped along Gilgo Beach later that year.
Costello’s sister Kimberly Overstreet told News 12 Long Island that she will forgive her killer because it’s what her sibling would do.
“It brings me peace to know that my sister is laying with my family,” she said.
“And that if my parents were here, if my sister was here, she would say ‘Thank you, and I forgive him.’ I forgive him and she would too. I don’t know if it makes a difference to him, but it makes a difference to me, and I can move on.”
Now, she hopes that the families of other victims whose bodies were found dumped along the Long Island shores will also get answers soon.
Rex Heuermann’s wife files for divorce six days after he’s arrested for Gilgo Beach serial killings
The wife of accused Gilgo Beach serial killerRex Heuermann has filed for divorce just six days after New York police arrested him on suspicion of murdering at least three women and dumping their bodies along Long Island.
Online court records show that Asa Ellerup – the accused serial killer’s wife of two decades and mother of his children – filed a matrimonial complaint in Suffolk County Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The filing – titled Asa Ellerup v Rex Heuermann – states that the divorce is “uncontested”.
The case records include a complaint, summons and a “notice concerning continuation of health care coverage” all filed on Wednesday, though the contents have not been made public.
Read the full story here:
Rex Heuermann’s wife files for divorce six days after arrest for Gilgo Beach killings
Shocking court documents revealed that her hair had been found on the bodies of three of the four victims – but that she was out of town on each of the occasions that her husband allegedly struck
WATCH: Moment Gilgo Beach suspect arrested in crowded New York street
How Rex Heuermann’s wife helped lead police to the accused killer
Court documents, filed as part of prosecutors’ request that bail be denied, revealed that hair belonging to Mr Heuermann’s wife was allegedly found on the bodies of three of the four victims.
Prosecutors say that two female hairs had been found on Waterman, one of them on the tape which the killer wrapped around her head. One female hair was found on tape used to wrap burlap around Costello and one hair was found in a belt buckle used to bind Brainard-Barnes – who Mr Heuermann is yet to be charged over.
To identify the female who the hair belonged to, investigators trawled through the trash at the Heuermann home in Long Island.
In July 2022, they recovered 11 bottles from the trash and they were swabbed for DNA.
Forensic testing found that the DNA on the bottles matched the female hair found at the crime scene, concluding that the hair belonged to Mr Heuermann’s wife.
The accuracy is such that more than 99 per cent of the North American female population can be ruled out, according to the court documents.
Prosecutors found that the suspect’s wife was out of town at the time of the three murders for which he has been charged but that her hair could have transferred to the crime scene through her husband’s clothing or through him using items such as tape taken from the family home.
She has not been named as a suspect and there is no suggestion that she was involved – or knew about – the murders.
What we know about Gilgo Beach murder victims:
Rex Heuermann, a New York City architect and “family man”, was dramatically arrested outside of his office in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday 13 July and charged with the murders of three women whose remains were found on Gilgo Beach, Long Island, a decade ago.
The 59-year-old was formally accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, all of whom were working as sex workers, and is also the prime suspect in the homicide of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, with Suffolk County district attorney Ray Tierney saying on Monday he is “confident” Mr Heuermann will be charged with her murder too.
In all, 11 sets of human remains were found dumped along the four-lane Ocean Parkway route running alongside the Atlantic-facing beachfront between 2010 and 2011, nine of which belonged to women, one to a man and one to a toddler. Some have still not been identified.
This is what we know about the four victims Mr Heuermann has been connected to by investigators:
What we know about the Gilgo Beach murder victims
New York architect Rex Heuermann has pleaded not guilty after being charged with killing of three women found dead near Long Island seafront a decade ago, writes Joe Sommerlad
Victim’s family fears someone else could be involved in killings
Attorney John Ray represents the families of Shannan Gilbert and Jessica Taylor. Mr Ray told The Independent on Tuesday that he has long suspected that a woman may have helped the killer lure the victims.
“We have a number of reasons to think a woman may have been involved. Nothing is certain here, [I want] to emphasize that, but there was some evidence that a woman was involved,” Mr Ray said.
The attorney said that some of the evidence that could suggest a woman was involved in the killings is the way a baby Doe’s body was found.
The child’s mother, dubbed “Peaches” for a tattoo on her torso, was found in Nassau County in 1997. Additional remains and those of her child were found years later, and the murders have been linked to the Gilgo Beach case.
“The baby was wrapped in a blanket of some kind. And that’s something, you know, if you’re a depraved murderer, as a man ... Would you take the time to do that?” Mr Ray said. “But a mother might do that. That’s just one I use that as one of several reasons why we think that, but we don’t have any dispositive evidence that it was so.”
Former escort describes eerie Rex Heuermann ‘date’ where he obsessed over Gilgo Beach murders
A former escort who claims she once went on a date with suspected Gilgo Beach serial killerRex Heuermann has described chilling comments that he allegedly made about the then-unsolved murder case.
Thirteen years after a trail of bodies were discovered in the shoreline community of Gilgo Beach, the Suffolk County Police Department made a long-awaited arrest in the case last week. Rex Heuermann, 59, was taken into custody and charged with the murders of Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman.
Long Island resident and former escort Nicole Brass has since come forward with claims that she went on a date with Mr Heuermann sometime between 2014 and 2016. Ms Brass, 34, first claimed in a TikTok video that she had met Mr Heuermann at a seafood restaurant in Port Jefferson and he then decided to bring up the Gilgo Beach murders while trying “to make it look just like someone who was very interested in the case”.
Read the story here:
Former escort claims Rex Heuermann obsessed over Gilgo Beach murders on ‘date’
‘It was almost like he was visualising it in his head and getting off to what he was saying,’ Nicole Brass says
Shannan Gilbert’s family react to news of Rex Heuermann’s arrest
The sister of Shannan Gilbert, whose disappearance in May 2010 led to the discovery of a string of human remains, also spoke out about the arrest.
“I am overwhelmed but relieved that they finally caught him. It’s been a long time coming and I never gave up hope that one day justice would be served,” Sherre Gilbert said in a statement to NBC News.
“The suspect (Rex) deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life. He destroyed many lives so while it won’t bring our loved ones back, it does help that one less monster is off the streets and he can’t ever hurt anyone else!”