Accused Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann to face fourth murder charge

Emma Seiwell and John Annese, New York Daily News
·2 min read

NEW YORK — Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is expected to be charged at his next court appearance Tuesday with murdering a fourth victim, according to reports.

Heuermann, 60, already is accused of murdering three young women on Long Island — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello — and prosecutors hinted in November that they would soon be charging him with the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, last seen alive on July 9, 2007.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney is expected to announce the new charges at the Suffolk County Courthouse in Riverhead, Long Island, on Tuesday, NBC News reported.

“The grand jury is continuing and that matter is continuing,” Tierney said in November about the probe into Heuermann’s possible connection to the Brainard-Barnes case.

“So as we said right from the onset, this case, the initial investigation had to do with the Gilgo Four. We’ve charged three out of the four victims, which were primarily known as the Gilgo Four. That fourth case is winding down.”

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the three slayings and remains locked up without bail. His lawyer did not return messages seeking comment Monday.

The Manhattan architect and suburban father of two was arrested in July for the long-unsolved murders of sex workers Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello in 2009 and 2010 — and named as the prime suspect in Brainard-Barnes’ murder.

Authorities recovered more than 280 firearms during a search of his Massapequa Park, Long Island, residence.

He was linked to the slayings by cellphone data, a Long Island pimp’s tip describing a vehicle he once owned and DNA lifted from a pizza crust recovered outside his Manhattan office. The sample matched a hair found on Waterman’s body, officials said.

Then-Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison last year described the pimp’s tip as the “turning point” of the investigation.

The pimp planned to rob Heuermann in September 2010 but backed off because the 6-foot-6, 270-pound accused serial killer was “the size of a mountain,” Harrison said.

A review of Heuermann’s online searches in the 16 months before his arrests included the names of the four victims and the words “Long Island Serial Killer,” officials said.