Rex Heuermann, the Lengthy Island architect charged within the Gilgo Seashore serial homicide case, saved 279 weapons in his dilapidated house, most of them in a basement vault massive sufficient to stroll into, authorities mentioned Tuesday.
At a press convention exterior Mr. Heuermann’s ranch, the place authorities have been gathering proof because the arrest, Suffolk County District Lawyer Raymond A. Tierney mentioned his staff is ending the search after greater than every week of searches and seizures. Mr. Heuermann lived together with his household in a ramshackle one-story home with an untidy yard on First Avenue in Massapequa Park, New York, for a few years commuting to his architectural consultancy in Manhattan.
The suspect’s now estranged spouse and two grownup youngsters vacated the premises, whereas crime scene officers spent every week digging by means of the yard and eradicating gadgets starting from massive items of furnishings to small luggage of home items. Whereas they labored, the home grew to become one thing of a vacationer attraction for true crime followers and a day by day campsite for newsgroups overlaying the case.
Mr. Heuermann, 59, was arrested on July 13 and charged in reference to the murders of younger ladies whose our bodies have been dumped within the dense undergrowth of the Ocean Parkway alongside Gilgo Seashore on the south coast of the island. Mr. Heuermann was charged with the homicide of 27-year-old Amber Lynn Costello; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; and Megan Waterman, 22. He’s the prime suspect within the homicide of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
He’s in custody with out bail and pleaded not responsible.
Their our bodies have been present in 2010 about 20 minutes from their house in Massapequa Park, subsequent to one another and equally tied and wrapped in burlap. However a complete of 11 our bodies have been discovered on the miles-long stretch of South Shore seaside, and legislation enforcement businesses throughout the area are trying into chilly instances for the chance that Mr. Heuermann might be a suspect.
At Massapequa Park, investigators are turning the remnants of Mr. Heuermann’s existence inside out. Mr. Tierney mentioned at a press convention in entrance of the home on Tuesday that authorities had complied with a search warrant that allowed them to make use of floor penetration expertise to search out “a sequence of irregularities” below the yard that indicated buried objects. They’ve unearthed objects that may now be examined, mentioned Mr. Tierney, who was surrounded by a few dozen policemen below the noon solar.
“The analysts will take a while to do their job,” he mentioned, including that a lot of the search was an try to search out genetic proof linking Mr. Heuermann to the crimes.
“This can be a course of that requires a while for evaluation by specialists,” he mentioned.
Mr Tierney mentioned investigators recovered “an enormous quantity of fabric” from the cluttered house, together with an armory within the vault that contained quite a lot of lengthy weapons. Authorities mentioned the gathering exceeded the 92 authorized permits held by Mr. Heuermann.
Authorities didn’t specify how the ladies have been killed. Requested if anybody may have been killed in the home, Mr Tierney mentioned: “We do not exclude or exclude something.”
Commissioner Rodney Ok. Harrison of the Suffolk County Police Division instructed reporters that the home search was “productive.” And by the tip of the press convention, the police checkpoints and proof vans that had been standing exterior the home virtually because the arrest have been gone.
The 12-year investigation into the Gilgo Seashore murders was marked by dysfunction and disarray, however reopened in February 2022 when authorities introduced the creation of a job pressure made up of native, state and federal investigators that may give attention to cell phone information.
The 4 ladies recognized by authorities with Mr. Heuermann have been contacted on totally different disposable telephones, and investigators utilizing mapping expertise decided that the calls got here from two key places that have been ultimately related to the defendant: close to his house in Massapequa Park and close to his workplace at Fifth Avenue and thirty sixth Road in Manhattan.
The breakthrough got here in March 2022 when investigators found that Mr. Heuermann was in possession of a Chevrolet Avalanche truck on the time of the murders. It was the identical truck that the witness had seen parked within the sufferer’s driveway shortly earlier than she disappeared.
Final month, investigators matched DNA from a hair discovered on Ms Waterman’s physique with DNA taken from discarded crusts recovered from a pizza field Mr. Heuermann threw away.
Mr Tierney mentioned Tuesday that a lot of the investigation to this point has targeted on the so-called Gilgo 4. He mentioned his staff is “working to” file a fourth case, and the entire thing may take time.
“A 13-year-old case isn’t solved in weeks or days,” he mentioned.
