The Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office reported that Rex Heuermann, 59-year-old local architect and the prime suspect as the Gilgo Beach serial killer, has been taken off suicide watch at the Yaphank Correctional Facility, on Long Island, pursuant to a mental health staff’s evaluation.
Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. said in a statement on Monday, “He will continue to be evaluated periodically. His housing and security protocols have not changed”.
Mr. Heuermann has been held in solitary confinement at the Yaphank facility since mid-July when he was arrested as the prime suspect in the murder of three young women whose bodies were found at Gilgo Beach in 2011. After more than a decade, the investigators have finally identified him as a possible culprit through DNA detected from the pizza crust left in a box outside Mr. Heuermann’s office.
Last week, Suffolk County Supreme Court Judge Timothy Mazzei ordered him to provide a DNA swab as “probative material evidence” after one of his attorneys, Danielle Coysh, had contended it was not necessary. Mr. Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the murder of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. Her body was found a few miles away from the other victims at a later date. Charges have not yet been brought against him in this case, but Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said this case may be part of a larger picture.
So far, Mr. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty. He is awaited in court on Tuesday.
