New York architect Rex Heuermann has been charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello, who were found dead at Gilgo Beach, New York, in December 2010. Their bodies were discovered covered in burlap along a roadway. These three victims, who were sex workers aged between 22 and 27, went missing between July 2009 and September 2010.
Heuermann, 59, a married father of two, used one of his burner phones “to conduct thousands of searches related to sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography and child pornography,” court records said.
Other searches were “related to active and known serial killers,” and the disappearances of the Gilgo Beach victims. One search, according to court records, was, “Why hasn’t the Long Island serial killer been caught.”
He also allegedly searched for photos of the Gilgo Beach victims and their relatives, Tierney said.
Heuermann also searched for and viewed articles about the authorities investigating him, according to documents.
The suspect was arrested in Manhattan Thursday night, authorities said, and law enforcement was seen outside his home in Massapequa Park on Long Island Friday morning.
A series of phone calls, traced to Heuermann’s workplace, were made from Barthelemy’s phone in 2009, where the caller admitted to murdering and sexually assaulting her. Heuermann is also a prime suspect in the case of a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in 2007, although he has not yet been charged in her case. The investigation is still ongoing.
