Prosecutor’s Office says there is progress in the investigation into Rex Heuermann for the murders of the ‘Gilgo Four’
Accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann will be back in court on Tuesday to face what prosecutors have plugged as a “major development” in the investigation of the Gilgo Beach killings of four young women, all sex workers, that lay unresolved for more than a decade.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said representatives from the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force would hold a press conference Tuesday “to provide an update and announce significant progression in the homicide investigation. “
Heuermann’s court appearance comes after Tierney said a special grand jury had been convened for an indictment against the Manhattan architect for the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, believed to be the first victim of the so-called ” Gilgo Four”, whose remains were discovered near 3 other women in the marshes along Gilgo Beach.
Heuermann, 60, has been named as the “prime suspect” in Brainard-Barnes’s disappearance. In July, he was charged with first- and second-degree murder in the killings of the three women – Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. According to prosecutors, investigators linked Heuermann to the murders through DNA, cellphone site data and burner phones.
In all, 10 sets of remains, all of sex workers, were discovered in the area, with police theorizing that all died at the hands of one or more serial killers.
Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old when she went missing on 9 July 2007 after calling a friend to say she was be going to meet someone outside a Manhattan motel on an “outcall”. Three years later, on 13 December 2010, her remains were found near Gilgo Beach, during the search for Shannan Gilbert, whose death in nearby marshes has never been fully explained.
Brainard-Barnes is also the victim whose remains were strapped with 3 deceased belts, one with a unique buckle embossed with the initials “WH” or “HM” that investigators publicly connected to her killer and used 4 years ago to spark interest in what was then a bloodless case.
The initial three of Heuermann’s alleged victims were linked to the accused man using mitochondrial DNA from a pizza crust and a used napkin that were allegedly discarded by Heuermann near his Manhattan office. It was then linked to a hair found on green burlap sacking used to “restrain and transport” the remains of one of the victims.
Heuermann’s attorney, Michael Brown, said his client had denied the charges against him. The case was opened last year when investigators connected the suspect to a one-of-a-kind Chevrolet pickup truck described by a friend of Amber Costello’s.
Ahead of an upcoming trial, Brown said the DNA allegations presented through prosecutors can only position Heuermann in an organization of “thousands and thousands” of conceivable matches.
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After the Promotion
But the case continues to unsettle Long Island authorities, amid long-standing corruption allegations that have stalled the investigation. Last year, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison, who led the task force on the 14-year-old case, resigned.
It was later claimed that Harrison had replaced his vacation days with days of ill health on previously filed timesheets, but others speculated that Harrison had gotten too close to John Ray, a lawyer representing Shannan Gilbert’s family who argues that police corruption had hampered investigations into Gilgo.
In October, shortly after Harrison attended a press conference called by Ray to back up his claims, Tierney issued a complaint, saying his office would “continue to investigate this matter through the grand jury process” and “not through press conferences. “
“All lawyers representing patients or their families, by definition, are in a clash of interests and deserve not to be involved in the investigation,” Tierney added.