Gilgo Latest: Chilling Encounters Emerge; Heuermann On Suicide Watch

MASSAPEQUA PARK, NY — Long Island architect Rex Heuermann, who pleaded not guilty last week to murder in the deaths of three sex workers, was placed on suicide watch, Patch reported Monday, and at least two people have come forward and shared chilling interactions they said they had with him.

In the days following his arrest, investigators reportedly seized a child-like doll from Heuermann's house, according to the New York Post. A police source told The Post the doll was found in a case.

“We’re just going through his house looking to see if there’s any evidence,” a police source told The Post. “If he has any trophies.”

Heuermann home also had an arsenal of more than 200 guns, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told Fox News in an interview Monday.

"He had an arsenal in a vault that he had downstairs. It’s concerning, regarding the guns being registered or legal or not, that’s something we’re still taking a look at," Harrison told "Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade. "Anytime somebody has that type of arsenal we have some concerns."

Additionally, two searches were conducted at two Omega Storage units on Sunday and Monday, police said. On Sunday, investigators raided a unit at 505 Broadway in Amityville. On Monday, they searched a unit at 185 Sunrise Highway in Amityville, police said.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said authorities were searching a storage locker tied to Heuermann, PIX 11 News reported. Officials were looking for body parts or trophies allegedly tied to the killings, he said.

Heuermann is the first person to be charged in the Gilgo Beach killings. In a statement, defense attorney Michael Brown asserted his client’s innocence after he pleaded not guilty Friday to multiple first-degree and second-degree murder counts Friday.

"Rex Heuermann is 59 years old with no prior criminal history. He is a college graduate and is a hardworking licensed architect who has his own NYC firm," he told the TV station.

Brown added: "He has entered a not guilty plea and has insisted he did not commit these crimes. There is nothing about Mr. Heuermann that would suggest that he is involved in these incidents," he said. "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."

Since 2010, at least 11 sets of remains have been found, believed to be related to the Gilgo Beach killings. Police have searched for a serial killer ever since. At least four of the killings included strangulation, and two showed signs of blunt-force trauma. The cause of death remains inconclusive for some victims.

Google Searches Include Child Porn, Other Suspects

Tierney said that up until his arrest, Heuermann looked at child porn and engaged in an "obsessive" search on the internet — with more than 200 searches — for information not just about Gilgo victims, but also their relatives, siblings and offspring. In addition, access to the ability to own guns presented another threat, Tierney said.

One name stood out on the list of searches —John Bittrolff, or partially mispelled as John Bitroff [sic].

Bittrolff, a 57-year-old former carpenter, is serving a 50-year to life prison sentence, upstate at Clinton Correctional Facility, according to the state’s Department of Correctional Services.

He was convicted in 2017 of two counts of murder in the second degree for the deaths of Rita Tangredi, 31, of East Patchogue, and Colleen McNamee, 20, of Holbrook.

Chilling Encounters

A 25-year-old woman said she had chilling encounters with Heuermann earlier this month.

She told the New York Post that Heuermann "popped" out at her multiple times at Brady Park, near his First Avenue home in Massapequa Park.

“He had very dirty clothes on. He popped right out of the woods. Everywhere I went in the woods, he would pop out," the woman told the Post.

When she saw his picture on Friday after the arrest, she screamed, recognizing him.

Additionally, Dominique Vidal of the Hudson Valley recounted in a post this weekend how the 59-year-old architect steered the conversation to the very crimes he is accused of during a meeting at a Manhattan bar as part of a networking group.

Vidal, who described murder suspect Rex Heuermann as "a monster hiding in plain sight," told her followers the encounter left her shocked.

"He asked me if I know, I’m not making this up at all, about the Gilgo Beach murders,” Vidal said in the now viral, 8-minute-long video with nearly 75,000 likes. "And he goes on to tell me, 'Yeah, that’s a serial killer that was never caught in my hometown, my neighborhood where I live. The guy killed like ten people and might still be out there.'"

Another woman, Maureen Holpit, said she graduated in the same class as Heuermann in 1981. She told The U.S. Sun Heuermann was quiet, awkward and mild-mannered.

"It gives me such an eerie, creepy feeling because he always just seemed very quiet, unassuming, and just a little bit nerdy," she told The Sun.

See also: Photos Of Gilgo Beach Case, From Search To Faces Of Victims & Suspect

Heuermann was also bullied in high school, she said, adding that he left love notes in her locker, "but the feeling wasn't mutual."

"People picked on him quite a lot, but I was always nice to him because that's who I am, I didn't like to see people being bullied," she said.

On Friday, dozens of neighbors observed law enforcement searching Heuermann's home. The family had long kept to themselves, they told Patch.

"I passed the house all the time. I never really [saw] anybody outside," a 20-year-old neighbor told Patch, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 15 years. They did not want to be identified. "It’s just a house you don’t go to. Trick-or-treating, you just stay away. You just know that there’s danger there. Parents were always like, ‘Don’t go up the street too far.’"

Celebrity Attention

Heuermann's arrest has garnered the attention of notable New York figures, in addition to community members.

Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, drove up and asked an officer how close he could get to the home while it was being searched, TMZ reported. Giuliani, never stepping out of the car, soon drove away.

Giuliani was there to cover the Gilgo case for his new show, Ted Goodman, Giuliani’s political advisor, told The New York Post.

In addition, Billy Baldwin, actor and brother of Alec Baldwin, tweeted Friday morning that he went to high school with Gilgo Beach serial killing suspect Rex Heuermann.

"Woke up this morning to learn that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect was my high school classmate Rex Heuermann," Baldwin said, adding that he was from the Class of 1981 at Berner High School in Massapequa."

"Married, two kids, architect," Baldwin wrote. "'Average guy… quiet, family man.'" Mind-boggling… Massapequa is in shock."

Heuermann's arrest "amazed" Robert Kolker, author of "Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery," a book about the gruesome murders that was made into a Netflix film in 2018.

Kolker spoke with Patch about his feelings upon learning of Heuermann's arrest, calling it "a stunning development."

"I didn’t see it coming," he said. "Nobody tipped me off — when I saw the news Friday morning, I was amazed."

Kolker first heard about the case while working full-time for New York Magazine, focused on a string of criminal justice stories on Long Island. He and his editor discussed the story, and Kolker initially decided to hold off, thinking the case might be quickly solved.

"I was proven wrong," Kolker said, of the case that spanned years and left the families of the victims desperately searching for answers.

See also:

• What We Know About The Evidence In The Gilgo Beach Killings Arrest
• Gilgo Beach Killer Timeline: All You Need To Know Leading Up To Arrest
• Gilgo Beach Killing Suspect 'Not On Radar': Victim's Family's Lawyer
• Who Is Gilgo Beach Serial Killer Suspect Rex Heuermann?
• 'Relief They May Have Guy': Ex-Reporter Who Covered Gilgo Killings