Rex Heuermann, the 59-year-old suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer, was arrested in Manhattan in New York City on Thursday night, police say.
Heuermann is a married father of two and an architect living in Massapequa Park, on Long Island, and working in Manhattan.
He has been variously described as “quiet” and as one who “doesn’t bother anyone,” and as the “neighborhood creep”, “a recluse”, and as a man who was “too much himself,” and his house as rundown.
Now we also know that he was a classmate of actor Billy Baldwin, a Massapequa native. “Woke up this morning to learn that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect was my high school classmate Rex Heuermann,” Baldwin tweeted on Friday, saying they went to Massapequa’s Berner High School and graduated in 1981.
“Mind-boggling,” he said. “Massapequa is in shock.”
Posts on the Berner High School Alumni Facebook page seem to verify Baldwin’s claims. One former student posted a photo of Heuermann’s yearbook portrait.
Another former classmate says, “He used to leave me little love notes in my locker,” one former classmate wrote on the page. “…I was always kind to him. So sad and scary.”
Despite the fact that his neighbors saw him as an oddball, they are in shock.
Hours after his arrest, law enforcement arrived to start searching his home in Massapequa Park, a mere 25 minutes from where 11 sets of human remains were found along a suburban beach highway in 2010 and 2011.
In a February 2022, YouTube video interview with Bonjour Realty, Heuerman describes himself as an “architect,” “architect consultant” and a “troubleshooter.” A lot of the information that we have learned has come either from this video or from his neighbors.
Heuermann described himself as a problem solver and trouble shooter in the video. “…When a job that should’ve been routine suddenly becomes not routine, I get the phone call.”
At one point in the video, the interviewer asked Heuermann what his job has taught him and the alleged serial killer seems to highlight his people skills.
“I think this job has taught me more about how to deal with people,” Heuermann responded, “because dealing with the technical aspects is something a person can learn. … but it’s the people, how they’re all so different, and how you deal with the people, [that] is one of the more interesting aspects that comes out of all this.”
One of his neighbors, Michal Musto, said, “I understand he was an architect in the city. I used to see him on the train cause I take the train to the city every morning, as well. He would walk past my house. I would see his wife driving a beat-up, green, Dodge Charger. I never really thought they were involved in something crazy like this. Not every day you wake up and see every time of law enforcement agency and news channel on your front lawn,” he told Fox News Digital.
There is still no insight on the motive for the alleged murders.
