NYC Architect Nabbed in Notorious Gilgo Beach Serial Killings

Authorities on Friday arrested a suspected serial killer accused of killing at least three female sex workers whose unsolved deaths were part of Long Island’s infamous Gilgo Beach murders.

Rex Heuermann, a New York City architect, was identified as the suspect, a law enforcement source confirmed to The Daily Beast. It’s unclear what led to a break in the case after 13 years but the New York Post reported that Heuermann, 59, was arrested after a DNA match was established.

He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder, though he is also reportedly considered the prime suspect in the murder of a fourth. He has not yet been charged in that case due to missing phone records, according to court records cited by the New York Post.

Heuermann has owned his own architectural firm, RH Consultants & Associates, since 1994, and was reportedly arrested at his Manhattan office on Thursday night. An employee, Jaime Ovalle-Motta, told The Daily Beast on Friday morning, “Shocked. I’m in total shock. That’s all I can say.”

In an interview with a real estate agent posted on YouTube last year, Heuermann described himself as an “architectural consultant” and “troubleshooter” who was born and raised on Long Island and has worked in Manhattan since 1987.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison confirmed in a short press conference that a man had been arrested and was expected to be indicted later Friday after a grand jury had convened. He said more details would be released at 4 p.m. after the court appearance.

Heuermann’s unassuming home in Massapequa Park was swarming with Suffolk County and New York State cops on Friday morning. In a 2018 deposition in a car-accident lawsuit, Heuermann said he had lived in that home his entire life, most recently with his second wife, daughter, and stepson.

In the deposition, he described a typical day. In the mornings, he said, he dressed in his “standard button-down shirt” with black jeans and no suit jacket before his wife dropped him at the Massapequa Park train station so he could commute into Manhattan. He described his hobbies as cycling, woodworking, and rifle shooting.

The New York Post reported that Heuermann is specifically being looked at in connection with the “Gilgo Four,” the first bodies found by authorities in the area, and not the other six who were later suspected of being connected. The four women—Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25—were sex workers whose bodies were discovered within days of each other in late 2010.

The first to be found was Barthelemy, an escort who had disappeared from the Bronx in 2009. Her body—like those of the other three—was found wrapped in burlap.

By 2011, a total of eight women had been found plus a toddler and an unidentified male. The toddler was later found through DNA analysis to be the child of one of the deceased women.

In a chilling twist, Barthelemy’s sister began receiving phone calls from a mystery man shortly after Barthelemy disappeared but before a body was found. The man would taunt her, calling her sister “a whore” and other insults.

According to a New York Post article from 2011, cops traced the calls back to locations in Times Square, Madison Square Garden, and Massapequa—but the calls suddenly stopped in August 2009 when a TV station revealed their existence.

Bodies started turning up as authorities were searching for Shannan Gilbert, 24, a Craigslist escort who had also gone missing. Last year, police released a recording of a 911 call Gilbert made in the early hours of May 1, 2010. “There’s somebody after me,” Gilbert said as she banged on doors in Oak Beach. “They’re trying to kill me.” Her body was found in a marsh in December 2011 though cops now think her death may have been an accident.

Bringing in the FBI was a “key moment” in pinning Heuermann as a suspect, ABC 7 reported Friday, as Suffolk Police had initially resisted outside help. The feds were able to crunch a vast amount of phone records to zero in on the suspect’s Massapequa Park home, the outlet reported.

Heuermann had been on law enforcement’s radar “for months” and had been under surveillance recently, ABC 7 reported.

Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD cold case detective who teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and has been following the case closely, said Suffolk County law enforcement got a “complete makeover” about a year ago.

“They got a new police commissioner and a new D.A.,” he told The Daily Beast. “Those fresh sets of eyes, and the motivation to get this case closed, was important. They both made public statements that this case was priority number one.”

Maureen Boyle-Holpit, a former classmate of Heuermann’s at Berner High School in Massapequa, told The Daily Beast on Friday that she was “shocked” by the arrest.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, I think he’s the same guy who used to leave me love notes on my locker. Like, little high school notes: ‘I like you, I hope you like me,’ different kind of stuff,” she said. “And then someone posted his yearbook picture on Facebook, and I was like, “Yeah, that’s him.’”

She said Heuermann “never seemed violent” and was “very gentle, well-mannered” but was tall, a little nerdy, and “may have been picked on a little.”

John Ray, an attorney representing Gilbert’s family, told News 12 Long Island on Friday he heard a “very strong, credible tip” less than a week ago that authorities were “about to close in on an arrest.”

“We’re pleased if they’ve actually managed to finally find somebody that can be tagged for this,” Ray said. He also represents the family of Jessica Taylor, 20, one of the women whose partial remains were found as part of the Long Island investigation, but not one of the “Gilgo Four.”

“There’s a lot more to learn about this,” Ray continued. “We have 11 victims that we know of.”

He cited the reported discovery of the remains of a man on Thursday. A driver on the Southern State Parkway in West Islip got off the ramp to the Robert Moses Causeway and pulled over when he noticed something in a nearby wooded area. The driver called 911 after finding what was later confirmed to be skeletal remains.

Ray called the discovery a “very odd” development at a place near where the arrest took place, though police have not confirmed if there is a connection.

—With additional reporting by Michael Daly, Josh Fiallo, and Rachel Olding.