Nothing in the nondescript behavior, an erratic or even sullen point, of Rex Heuermann seemed to attract the attention of his neighbors, who do not agree to define him. But the joke, or the hunch, of two of them, who a couple of years ago commented that he looked like he had several corpses in the closet, became a macabre reality. The alleged murderer of at least three women, the latest in the long list of that style of killing so characteristic of the United States, the serial, was arrested a week ago for the death of three sex workers, and is the main suspect in that of a fourth.
The remains of the victims were found in 2010 in a short stretch of Gilgo beach, on Long Island (New York). the case of calls Four of Gilgo it is linked to the finding of at least 10 sets of human remains in the area since then. Like cherries entwined in a bowl, the eventual emergence of new evidence will determine whether Heuermann can be charged with more crimes. Through tears, the detainee assured that he had not killed anyone when he appeared before the judge. Held without bail, he awaits trial in a Suffolk County jail under the anti-suicide protocol.
Everything in the life of Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect, fell apart on the night of July 13, when he was arrested in Manhattan. An impressive police deployment surrounded his home, the same one where he grew up, in Massapequa, a few miles from where the bodies were found. His renovation company, in charge of renovating, among other things, a Trump Organization building on Wall Street and a $16 million duplex next to Central Park, shut down the website and picked up the phones. His 27-year-old marriage fell apart when his wife filed for divorce just days after his arrest. The woman alleged as the cause of the strong impression of learning that the man with whom she had a daughter, her father’s partner in the company, had maintained a hidden life for decades, the details of which were recorded by the defendant’s internet search history: thousands of pages of brutal and explicit sex, sadism, torture and child pornography, as well as contact applications.
Heuermann also looked for news about the development of the police investigation, partly eager to find out news, but also with a narcissistic point, of smugness, according to the psychological experts to which he has been subjected. “Why hasn’t the Long Island serial killer been arrested?” was the search criteria he used the most. Between May 2022 and June this year, he checked more than 200 times on Google for news about the four Gilgo women.
Heuermann has been charged with murder and manslaughter for each of the three deaths, those of Melissa Barthelemy in 2009, and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello in 2010. Six charges in total, to which two more could be added, as he is the main suspect in the 2007 disappearance and death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. All of them with the same profile: twentysomethings and sex workers with little family ties. All small, all buried similarly. The victims advertised their services on websites. The four were buried in the same way, wrapped in camouflage burlap, the kind usually used by hunters.
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The development of the case keeps viewers in suspense in a country where the genre true crime, which recreates true crimes with especially gruesome characteristics, has made a fortune. That is why not a day goes by without new details of the life of the monster, as if somehow this massive disclosure compensated for the silence of a long decade without news. The search of his home continued this Friday, for the eighth consecutive day, to determine if any of the crimes were committed there, while the investigations expanded to Las Vegas, where Heuermann had a timeshare home. Four unsolved murder cases since 2006, of prostitutes from Atlantic City (New Jersey), have been reopened after the arrest of the alleged murderer of the Four of Gilgo. Authorities are trying to determine if he is also linked to pending cases in New York.
Double life
Until his arrest, Heuermann led a double life: he used fictitious names and prepaid mobile phones – at least seven between 2021 and 2023 – as well as anonymous email accounts, to arrange sexual contacts while raising his daughter and stepson and commuting daily to Manhattan, where his office is, to work. Immersed in some vital fabrication, he racked up unpaid tax debts while filing various lawsuits accusing drivers of injuries in traffic accidents (none of the cases went to trial). A few years ago he carelessly caught several tangerines in a well-known supermarket, and was taken out of the establishment by the guards. Colorful details that draw a personality that is difficult to frame, in the antipodes of his monolithic physical presence, for being imposing, according to the images that are shown tirelessly on television.
Nicole Brass, a escort who had a date with him in 2015, recounted in a prime-time program how Heuermann talked to him non-stop about Gilgo’s crimes during their preliminary meeting, in a restaurant. “Talking about the victims seemed to make him enjoy. The way he expressed himself seemed like someone who wanted to brag about his actions, although he obviously couldn’t do it. Concerned by the behavior of her client, the young woman refused to accompany him to her house and today celebrates, she said on television, that her instincts probably saved her life.
The calls Four of Gilgo They were buried a few kilometers from Heuermann’s home without any clue leading to him for a long decade. He was identified in early 2022 as a suspect, and has since been placed under discreet surveillance. A simple dried-up pizza crust in the trash from his Manhattan office allowed investigators to obtain a DNA sample from him, identical to the hair found on the shroud of one of the victims. Fearful that Heuermann would be tipped off, or fret over the internet that the investigation had taken a significant turn, police detained him on July 13, while the two neighbors who once joked about the secrets he was hiding were, and are not, in their foreboding astonishment.
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