Gilgo Beach murders: How serial killer turned Long Island shore into graveyard

For around two decades, the sands and marshes of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach kept a dark secret.

A killer or killers was at large, luring in escorts and sex workers and brutally murdering them.

Body after body was dumped along the shoreline, hidden for months and even years without being discovered.

Then, in 2010, a chilling 911 call made by a woman in fear for her life led police to search the area.

What they discovered was far more horrifying than anyone could have imagined.

Over the next year, the remains of 11 victims – mainly female escorts – were discovered dumped in the area, plunging the Suffolk County community into terror.

But, the case went cold and no arrests were made, no suspects were named and there was no justice for the victims and their families.

That is, until now.

On Thursday, local married father-of-two Rex Heuermann was arrested on suspicion of being the serial killer.

The 59-year-old appeared in court on Friday and pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the first degree and three in the second degree over the deaths of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.

Long Island native Mr Heuermann lives close to Gilgo Beach, where the killer dumped his victims. He also works as an architect in Manhattan.

While neighbours react with shock, the question is: now an arrest has been made, is the hunt for the Gilgo Beach serial killer finally over?

The murders

For more than a decade, the Gilgo Beach murders stumped law enforcement officials in Suffolk County who believed it could be the work of one or more serial killers who targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway.

The case began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker, vanished after leaving a client’s house on foot near Gilgo Beach.

She called 911 for help saying she feared for her life and was never seen alive again.

In the chilling call, released last year, Gilbert is heard repeatedly telling the 911 operator that “somebody’s after me”.

She is also heard arguing with a man – who she refers to as Mike – who appears to be trying to encourage her to get back inot a car and at one point, she is heard asking if he is “going to kill” her.

“These people are plotting to kill me,” she tells the dispatcher.

During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman.

Within a matter of days, the remains of three more victims were found close by.

By spring 2011, the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found including eight women, a man, and a toddler.

Gilbert’s body was found in December 2011. Her cause of death is widely contested with authorities long claiming that it is not connected to the serial killer or killers but that she died from accidental drowning as she fled from the client’s home.

However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered.

Like Gilbert, most of the victims targeted were sex workers.

Several theories have been mulled over the years but no one had ever been charged with the killings.

Authorities have previously said they believe that three separate serial killers could be responsible for the slayings over a period of around 20 years.

The case appeared to go cold for several years until last year when Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison vowed to finally close the case and bring the killer or killers to justice.

The newly-appointed commissioner said that, with “a set of fresh eyes”, he had faith that he could get the cold case “across the finish line”. He launched a dedicated taskforce for the case.

The arrest

On Thursday, there was a huge breakthrough in the case when suspect Mr Heuermann was finally arrested on suspicion of the murders.

Police sources told The Associated Press that an individual had been taken into custody on Thursday night in connection with the unsolved murders which terrorised the community in Suffolk County more than a decade ago.

Suffolk County Police would not confirm the arrest on Friday morning, but have announced a press conference for the afternoon citing a “significant development” in the high-profile case.

It is not clear what led to the sudden breakthrough in the case over a decade after bodies began being dumped along remote beaches.

However it comes just one day after the skeletal remains of a man were found in a wooded area off the Southern State Parkway in Islip, Long Island.

An attorney representing two of the victim’s families told News 12 on Friday morning that they learned around a week ago that an arrest was imminent.

John Ray, who represents the families of Shannan Gilbert and Jessica Taylor, said they “had a very strong, credible tip that they were about to close in on an arrest”.

But, he said that they were not too optimistic – given the case has rumbled on for more than a decade – and had not been told anything official.

“We’re pleased if they actually managed to find somebody that can be tagged for this,” he said.

“We’re pleased that something is finally occurring, because we’ve been frustrated.”

The investigation

Last year, the Suffolk County Police Department, New York State Police, Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office and the FBI revamped the probe into the killings that ultimately led to Mr Heuermann’s bombshell arrest outside his Midtown office on Thursday.

A bail application released by the Suffolk County District Attorney revealed that Mr Heuermann was linked to the serial killings through cellphone evidence and surveillance.

Prosecutors have argued that no bail should be set for Mr Heuermann due to his recent searches for “sadistic materials, child pornography, images of the victims and their relatives.”

Mr Heuermann was first linked to the cold case in March 2022 after investigators discovered that a Chevrolet Avalanche registered to him was possibly the one spotted by a witness in Costello’s disappearance.

As law enforcement closed in on him, they served more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants that uncovered cellphone records for burner phones used to arrange meetings with three of the “Gilgo Four” victims before they went missing.

Further analysis also allegedly linked Mr Heuermann to taunting calls made to family members of the victims, according to investigators. The calls were made from the Midtown Manhattan area, where the offices of Mr Heuerman’s architecture business are located.

Among the evidence linking Mr Heuermann to the murders was a hair found on burlap material used to wrap Waterman’s corpse, according to court documents. DNA analysis had not been possible in the early stages of the investigation, but new technology allowed testing in July 2020.

A team surveilling Mr Heuermann collected a discarded pizza box that then confirmed a DNA match with the suspect on 12 June.

Records also show that several online accounts under fictitious names linked to Mr Heuermann were used for illegal activities. Mr Heuermann allegedly used those accounts and burner phones to contact women for prostitution services, as well as making chilling online searches.

The searches included sadistic, torture-related pornography, child pornography and disturbing content.

Mr Heuermann is also accused of searching “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” and “new phone technology may be key to break in case.”

More forensic analysis revealed that female hairs found in the three crime scene locations belonged to Mr Heuermann’s wife. However, authorities have determined through cellphone records that Mr Heuermann’s wife was out of state when the murders took place.

At the time Barthelemy went missing in July 2009, Mr Heuermann’s wife was in Iceland. She visited Maryland around the time Waterman disappeared in June 2010, and also travelled to New Jersey when Costello was last seen in September of that year.

“It is likely that the burlap, tape, vehicle(s) or other instrumentalities utilized in furtherance of these murders came from Defendant Heuermann’s residence, where his wife also resides, or was transferred from his clothing,” prosecutors explained.

Mr Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who is believed to be one of the “Gilgo Four.” Prosecutors noted in the application that records for the burner phones used to contact Brainard-Barnes were not obtained at the time she went missing and no longer exist.

The suspect

Sources confirmed to News 12 Long Island and NBC News on Friday that Manhattan architect and married father-of-two Rex Heuermann was the suspect arrested in the case.

On Friday morning, swathes of New York State and Suffolk County police officers were seen searching his home on First Avenue in Massapequa Park – which is located just a 20-minute drive from Gilgo Beach where the killer dumped the bodies of his victims.

Neighbours told The Independent that he was a quiet family man who lived in the close-knit community with his wife and two children.

One neighbour, who has lived a stone’s throw from the Heuermanns for more than two decades, said that the family is “a very quiet family” who made “no imprint at all” on the neighborhood.

“Basically, we never had any contact with him… living here 22 years and never said two words to him,” the long-time Massapequa Park resident said, adding that “one bad apple doesn’t spoil the bunch” in a “great neighbourhood”.

One woman told News12 that it was “ming-boggling” that the “quiet” 59-year-old could be involved in the horrific case while another said that he was known to do outdoor activities such as woodwork.

Mr Heuermann works in Manhattan – where some of the Gilgo Beach victims were last seen alive – as the president of architecture firm RH Consultants & Associates.

According to the company website, he founded the company in 1994. It has since worked with the likes of Catholic Charities, NYC-DEP Sewerage Treatment and American Airlines and other major tenants at the JFK International Airport.

A company page called Meet The Team and featuring his photo appeared to be taken down on Friday morning as news of his arrest broke.

In an interview posted on YouTube by Bonjour Realty last year, the father-of-two said that he was “born and raised in Long Island” but had been “working in Manhattan since 1987… [a] very long time”.

Mr Heuermann is only charged with the murders of three of the victims whose bodies were found in the Gilgo Beach area.

The victims

The remains of at least 11 victims’ were found in the Gilgo Beach area though it remains unclear if they are all the work of the same killer. Many were sex workers who offered escort services on Craigslist or worked in New York City.

The first victim found was Melissa Barthelemy whose remains were discovered along Ocean Parkway on 11 December 2010 during the search for Shannan Gilbert – a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey who vanished after visiting a client in Oak Park and making a chilling 911 call where she revealed fears for her life.

Two days later on 13 December, the remains of three other victims – Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello – were found close by.

All three women were known to advertise escort services on Craigslist.

Brainard-Barnes – known as one of the Gilgo Beach Four – was last seen alive in early June 2007 in New York City while Costello was last seen leaving her North Babylon home one day in early September 2010.

Waterman was last seen alive in early June 2010 at a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge.

Seven months later, on 26 July 2011, the remains of Jessica Taylor were found in a wooded area in Manorville during the ongoing search for Gilbert. Taylor worked as an escort in New York City.

Valerie Mack also worked as an escort but was last seen alive in Philadelphia in 2000. Her remains were found on two separate occasions in Manorville in 2000 and in Oak Beach in 2011 but she was only identified in 2020 through the use of genetic genealogy.

Some of the victims have never been identified.

The skeletal remains of an Asian male, aged between 17 and 23 years old, around 5 feet 6 inches tall and with poor dental health, were found along Ocean Parkway in April 2011. He is believed to have died around five to 10 years earlier.

That same day, the remains of a female toddler were discovered. She was later identified as the daughter of the also-unidentified female victim dubbed “Peaches” whose remains were found in Nassau County.