Detectives investigating the long-unsolved murders known as the Gilgo Beach killings searched a storage facility in the Long Island community of Amityville over the weekend as his attorney on Monday disputed claims about his client.
Suffolk County police confirmed Monday that detectives executed a search warrant at Omega Self Storage on Sunrise Highway related to the investigation that led to last week’s arrest of Rex Heuermann, a married architect with children who worked at a Manhattan office. Mr. Heuermann was charged in the murders of three women and is suspected to be the killer of a fourth woman in a case where 11 victims’ remains were found buried along a beach highway.
His attorney, Michael Brown, told news outlets that Mr. Heuermann has denied the killings. In a statement, his defense attorney said that he is a “loving husband” and “devoted father” and also suggested the Suffolk County task force involved in the investigation is ignoring “stronger leads,” without elaborating.
“Rex Heuermann is 59 years old with no prior criminal history,” Mr. Brown said in a statement to local channel News 12 Long Island. “He is a loving husband to his wife of over 25 years and an involved and dedicated father to his daughter and stepson.”
“There is nothing about Mr. Heuermann that would suggest that he is involved in these incidents,” the statement continued to say. “And while the government has decided to focus on him despite more significant and stronger leads, we are looking forward to defending him in a court of law before a fair and impartial jury of his peers.”
Mr. Heuermann, who has lived for decades across a bay from where the remains were found, was first identified as a suspect in the killings in March 2022, when detectives linked him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010, officials said in court papers.
Mr. Heuermann was arrested on July 13 outside his office and was charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. Their bodies were found in 2010 in a marshy, remote area along Gilgo Beach. He is also suspected in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who was also found in the same area around the same time.
The flurry of activity on Monday comes as a district attorney revealed that the suspect’s arrest occurred faster than they had anticipated.
In a comment about the case on Monday morning, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told Fox News that he believes the suspect didn’t expect to be taken into custody in Manhattan several days ago—despite him allegedly closely monitoring the investigation via the Internet. The district attorney said the arrest came because officials were “able to maintain that secrecy” during an investigation.
“I think he was extremely surprised,” Mr. Tierney said Monday, adding that Mr. Heuermann was apparently monitoring the investigation into the killings through Google searches. “I think we utilized the grand jury because we wanted to maintain investigative secrecy. We were concerned about that all along.”
According to the district attorney, Mr. Heuermann was allegedly asking questions via Google including, “What is the phone evidence in the Gilgo case,” and why officials can’t “trace the phones in the Gilgo case.”
It means that the suspect was “asking specific questions with regard to our investigative means,” Mr. Tierney said. “He was also making searches of the victims, looking at pictures of the victims online, and he was running searches of the victims’ siblings and, in one instance, admitted that he was the killer,” he added. “He had some disparaging things to say about the sister and said he was going to come find her.”
In court papers, police said they linked the suspect to the crimes via witness tips, cellular phone records, burner phones, and DNA that was taken from pizza crust. Officials also said the killer provided clues, including strands of hair, the burlap used to wrap the bodies, and a belt embossed with possible initials. They also linked Mr. Heuermann to a dark green Chevy Avalanche pickup truck.
Suffolk County Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Carter told reporters described the crimes as horrific and the “worst I’ve ever seen,” describing the killer as a “demon” multiple times last week.
“It’s really hard to get into the mind of somebody that’s capable of committing the crimes that he committed,” Mr. Carter said. “He intended to commit these crimes. He intended to cover up these crimes, and the acts that he committed were the worst I’ve ever seen,” he said.
If convicted on all charges, Mr. Heuermann would face multiple life sentences without the possibility of parole.
