Inside detectives' big break in the Gilgo Beach murders | Nightline

for 13 years this community lived in fear four bodies and Counting employees are worried they have a serial killer on the loose after four bodies wrapped in burlap were dumped in a marshy area along this Long Island beach in 2010 the bodies all found within a quarter mile of each other everyone's gonna have to go the case went cold in the so-called Gilgo Beach serial killer remained on the loose for the next 13 years their cases went unsolved until today Rex did you do it but last week that changed police arresting a Suburban dad and architect charging him with murdering women authorities say he secretly solicited for sex prosecutors say 59-year-old Rex heuerman a New York City architect and father of two killed three women Melissa Bartholomew Megan Waterman and Amber Costello and he's now the prime suspect in the death of a fourth Maureen Brainerd Barnes the women in their 20s petite sex workers she didn't deserve this just like nobody else's mother or sister or daughter deserves this she really was a fabulous person just lost in life human was taken into custody at 8 30 PM Thursday outside his Fifth Avenue Architecture Firm in Manhattan detectives spent the weekend pulling evidence from his home including trash bags in a filing cabinet prosecutors say huerman had 92 gun permits and more than 200 guns some of the weapons seen in this dailymail.com photo how concerning is that that he had that kind of an Arsenal well I mean I think it's it's it was concerning and concerning enough where we didn't want to have the arrest at the house we wanted to take him into custody somewhere else outside of the house because of access to those weapons prosecutors also say hewerman was living a double life the public saw a father and architect who commuted into New York City serial offenders they are able to lure kidnap torture kill dismember a victim turn around an hour later be at home make breakfast for their kids make breakfast for their wife I'm an architectural consultant I'm a troubleshooter Born and Raised on Long Island appearing in this YouTube video a year ago around the time investigators formed a new task force and began to suspect he could be a killer saying they zeroed in on him using DNA technology his car and cell phone data prosecutors said the killer contacted his victims using burner phones and later took the victim's cell phones those cell phone records narrowed the area where the suspect could be tracking them to locations near his office in Midtown Manhattan and heuermann's Home in Massapequa Park detectives then looked to see who in that area owned a distinctive vehicle allegedly tied to one of the murders a Chevrolet Avalanche reducing the pool of possible suspects from thousands to dozens this trash can outside the office is where police say they then found Pizza crusts they used to take a DNA sample matching it to DNA from a hair found on one of the victims by the time the FBI and the Suffolk County Police uh were attempting to get DNA they were on to their guy but they needed his DNA so that's why they formed a surveillance team and basically fouled with him until he ultimately ate something and then threw it into a public trash can and they grabbed it at that point prosecutors say eyewitnesses gave them a description of human he's a big guy he was described as a six four or six six uh you know all you know 250 250 plus pounds and just not a a like a muscle-bound person but it's just a very large human being and that's you know that that's who he is you use the word ogre in court yeah uh well that was one of the witnesses uh uh used utilized that term ogre meaning a very thick uh you know thick framed individual court documents reveal he allegedly used fake names to sign up for multiple emails which he used to search for sex workers child and torture pornography and he even had a Tinder profile looking for dates or hookups hewerman also allegedly searched why hasn't the Long Island serial killer been caught and Long Island serial killer update in a statement hiramin's defense attorney said Rex heuerman is a loving husband and dedicated father he has entered a not guilty plea and has insisted he did not commit these crimes nothing would suggest he is involved in these incidents once we we establish him as a suspect at march on March 14th of 2022 the case started to really go fast and then it just kept on getting faster and faster and faster culminating in in you know the the end of the the of the grand jury and the takedown in the town of Massapequa Park where human lives neighbors were uncomfortable around his home we saw this guy just standing there chopping wood you know looking very strange and um we made a joke we were like this guy's definitely a serial killer you know because you know he looks like a serial killer James Pagano went to school with human well he had a nickname which everybody probably gets a nickname in high school but his was Herman Munster because she was so big Dominique Fidel said she was recently in a networking group with huerman when the topic of podcasts and True Crime came up he asked me if I knew about the Gilgo Beach murders she says he left her a voicemail in February hey this is Rex sharing it with our station WABC I had a question for you um Ken also on the touch base hope you're doing good hope to talk to you soon the Gilgo Beach murders became a source of morbid Fascination we don't have law enforcement agencies working together there is nobody trying to connect the dots you know it's human nature to want to know what's going on and to delve into the darkest parts of humanities Josh Seaman is the director of The Killing season in a e documentary series on the murders it was always the idea that he was a commuter uh the first uh victim Raynor Barnes disappeared from Penn Station uh a lot of the cell phone pings came from Massapequa another victim was last seen going to Massapequa so we knew that Massapequa was an important point we also knew that Penn Station was an important point and if you know Long Island from Long Island you know it's it's a commuter a total of 10 bodies were found at Gilgo Beach some of them remain unidentified Megan Waterman was one of the victims who was identified and the arrest was bittersweet for her family her sister told our Portland Maine affiliate wmtw now I put the face to the details of the death so I don't necessarily like having that closure but it is such a relief that we do know who it was and that it will come to an end eventually the investigation is really just beginning police now have entered humerman's DNA into a Statewide database as they check to see if he's a link to any other unsolved murders humid is being held without bail and we've learned he's on suicide watch but for the loved ones of the victims there is also compassion for the young women caught up in the sex industry thank God that the narrative has changed nothing was going to change for these women in the industry if the narrative hadn't changed they are victim nobody wants to be doing what she was doing she didn't seek doing that she was a vulnerable naive drug addict girl who was very easily influenced by this monster of a man [Music] hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 286,580

Keywords: Beach, Gilgo, Island, Long, New, York, abc, abcnews, arrest, case, cold, crime, investigation, murders, p_cmsid=2494279, p_vid=news-101395245, suspect, us

Id: -lCMLh_25AU

Length: 8min 18sec (498 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 18 2023