The suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer, Rex Heuermann, is expected to be indicted this week on a fifth murder charge. Heuermann was arrested last year in connection with three out of the 11 victims linked to the Gilgo Beach Murders on Long Island, New York, and was then indicted on a fourth murder charge earlier this year in January.
News of the fifth indictment follows searches by the Gilgo Beach Task Force, including a second search at the suspect’s Massapequa Park home that focused on the basement and a wooded area of Manorville where two bodies of women linked to the serial killings that occurred between 1996 and 2011 had been found.
The dismembered remains of Valerie Mack were located in Manorville in November 2000. In July 2003, the dismembered remains of Jessica Taylor were found in the same wooded area. In March 2011, more of Taylor’s remains were found on Gilgo Beach, and a month later, more of Mack’s remains were discovered, though she wouldn’t be identified until 2020.
“The primary focus again is in that basement, in that vault where the guns were kept and also that little room,” said Attorney Bob Macedonia, Heuremann’s ex-wife Asa Ellerup’s lawyer. “I think this time they went back in more with a forensic approach to see if they could obtain any kind of DNA or any kind of forensic evidence linking directly to any of the bodies that had been reported in media as missing over the last 10 to 15 years.”
Heuermann, has pleaded not guilty to killing four women- Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes- whose remains were all discovered near Gilgo Beach along Ocean Parkway. “There were a number of investigative steps that were taken. Thursday you’ll see the fruits of that investigation,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney reported to ABC7.
Details about what has led to the new charge are unclear, but it is believed to be DNA forensic evidence.
Heuermann was previously scheduled to appear in court on June 18 but is now expected to be arraigned on the new charge this Thursday.
