A New York-based architect has been accused of the lengthy unsolved Long Island serial killings that stunned the entire globe with their savage killings of more than a dozen women. Rex Heuermann, 59, has been referred to by the police as a “demon” and a “predator” and is the main suspect in the murders that took place between 1996 and 2011.
Here’s all you need to know about the Long Island serial killings
In 2010, the Suffolk County police were looking for 24-year-old sex worker Shannan Gilbert near Ocean Parkway. Gilbert had disappeared from New Jersey. Officer John Mallia of the missing person bureau and his skilled cadaver dog Blue were searching when they came across the bodies of four women in their 20s. The women were sex workers who had previously advertised their services on Craigslist, according to the police, who discovered them close to Gilgo Beach on Long Island. According to NBC, the remains were discovered around 500 feet (150 m) apart.
They were later identified as Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, and Amber Costello. A fifth lady, an escort, was discovered dead in 2015. According to AFP, at least 11 people’s bodies, including three unidentified victims, have been discovered along the remote Long Island oceanfront since 2010. The police’s initial statement that they didn’t think all the killings were connected quickly changed. The women are the victims of a serial killer, who has become widely known as the Long Island Serial Killer, the Gilgo Beach Killer, or the Craigslist Ripper, according to prosecutors. The killings would also be the topic of the Lost Girls movie on Netflix in 2020.
One of the Gilgo Four, 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, was employed as a hired escort through Craigslist. She was a mother of two. On July 9, 2007, she vanished, and her body wasn’t found until December 2010. A 24-year-old woman named Melissa Barthelemy was also employed as an escort through Craigslist. (Valium) Sadly, she vanished on July 12, 2009. Her teen sister Amanda began getting calls from Melissa’s phone shortly after she vanished. The man who made the “vulgar, mocking, and insulting” calls informed the adolescent that her sister was dead and that he would “watch her rot.” On June 6, 2010, 22-year-old Megan Waterman, the third Gilgo Four victim, vanished.
In 1997, the dismembered torso of a murder victim named “Peaches” was discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park
Amber Lynn Costello, a 27-year-old sex worker, and heroin addict, vanished on September 2, 2010. Her family initially thought she was in a residential drug recovery facility, therefore she wasn’t immediately reported missing. Valerie Mack, also known as Melissa Taylor, vanished in Philadelphia in 2000 while serving as an escort. Her incomplete remains were found in Manorville in 2000, and further body fragments were located there in 2011. She wasn’t found out till 2020. In 2003, Jessica Taylor vanished in Manhattan. Later that year, near Manorville, her severed body was found, and further remains were located there in 2011.
In 1997, the dismembered torso of a murder victim named “Peaches” was discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park. Near Jones Beach State Park, other remains were found in 2011, and those remains were later determined to be those of “Jane Doe No. 3.” After conducting a DNA comparison between “Peaches” and “Jane Doe No. 3,” it was discovered that “Peaches” was also the mother of a young child by the name of “Baby Doe.” Near Valerie Mack’s remains were discovered the toddler’s skeletal remains. At Gilgo Beach, a young Asian man’s body was found in 2011. The victim was discovered wearing women’s attire and had died from blunt force injuries. It’s possible that he was a transsexual female. The victim’s identity is still unknown.
A set of severed legs discovered on Fire Island in 1996 were linked by DNA testing to a human skull and teeth discovered in 2011 at Tobay Beach. The victim, referred to as “Jane Doe No. 7,” was unidentifiable and had a surgical scar on her left leg. According to US District Attorney Ray Tierney, the first four victims’ bodies “were found similarly positioned, bound in a similar fashion by either belts or tape, with three of the victims found wrapped in a burlap-type material.” According to LongIsland.com, autopsies of the victims showed that they had been strangled to death.
Police also found “a lot of torture porn, and what you would consider depictions of women being abused, being raped and being killed
“For each of the murders he got an individual burner phone and used that to communicate with the victims,” Tierney said. “Then, shortly after the death of the victims, he would get rid of the burner phone.” As per Tierney, Heuermann would allegedly commit the murders when his wife and children were out of town. Rodney Harrison, the police commissioner for Suffolk County, remarked to reporters: “Ladies and gentlemen, Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks among us — a predator that ruined families.”
The suspect Heuermann was linked to the killings, according to US District Attorney Tierney, by a number of pieces of evidence, including DNA evidence discovered on a discarded pizza box, cellphone data connecting him to the victims, and a sighting of his vehicle at the residence of one of the Long Island serial homicide victims. Additionally, according to AFP, the suspect conducted countless searches on the murder investigation, including inquiries like “Why hasn’t the Long Island serial killer been caught?” Police also found “a lot of torture porn, and what you would consider depictions of women being abused, being raped and being killed” on Heuermann’s computer, revealed the US District Attorney. It was also discovered that Heuermann made “taunting calls” to the sister of one of the victims.