Suffolk DA To Prosecute Rex Heuermann Himself: Gilgo Latest

MASSAPEQUA PARK, NY — Ray Tierney, the Suffolk County district attorney, will prosecute Rex Heuermann, charged with murdering three sex workers in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, his office said Wednesday.

The news comes after two current inmates reportedly told authorities they recorded conversations with Heuermann while working as escorts, and after a former employee of Heuermann said workers "began locking themselves inside" out of fear.

Heuermann, 59, of Massapequa Park, pleaded not guilty in Riverhead court on July 14 three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose remains were found along Ocean Parkway in 2010, according to court documents.

The move will mark the first time Tierney has personally prosecuted a case since he took office last January.

Tierney began his career as a prosecutor in 1992. He previously served as a federal prosecutor, trying cases in the Eastern District of New York as recently as 2021.

"He intends to prosecute this case fully and bring justice to the victims of this alleged serial killer," prosecutors said in a news release. "In addition, the DA’s office will continue to work with our Task Force partners to develop new evidence and prepare the case for trial."

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to a six-count indictment charging him with first and second-degree murder in the killings of three women who worked as sex workers and whose remains were discovered in the Gilgo Beach area in 2010 — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. Heuermann is also the "prime suspect" in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose body was found in proximity to the other three women, prosecutors have said.

The announcement comes a day after Tierney said that a search of Heuermann's Massapequa Park home had concluded.

Law enforcement officers swarmed Heuermann's small red house on the same day as his indictment. Dozens of neighbors watched, along with police and media, as investigators in protective suits gathered outside the front porch.

"The list of items is quite large," Tierney said, as investigators found multiple boxes.
He also said law enforcement found more than 200 guns in a "vault" like room in Heuermann's basement. The space was not hidden, he said, as there was enough room for people to walk into it.

Over the weekend, investigators also used technology that could look through the ground in Heuermann's backyard.

So far, officials obtained a menagerie of items from the house including: a trove of more than 200 guns; a painting of a fair-skinned, blonde woman with large, deep-set, dark eyes, a gash on her right cheek; and a childlike doll enclosed in a display case.

Law enforcement also raided an Amityville storage unit last week, in attempts to obtain evidence. It has not been confirmed who the storage unit belongs to.

While interviewing women through the Suffolk County Correctional Facility’s unique human trafficking unit, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon said the two sex workers said they previously knew Heuermann. While these women both received calls from Heuermann, they declined to take dates with him, the New York Post reported.

The sheriff's office will continue to interview the women and is trying to find others who had contact with him.

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.

Mary Shell, whose op-ed "My Boss, the Monster" was published on New York Magazine's website Tuesday, said she worked for Heuermann during the same time period as his alleged crimes.

She was hired by a small architecture firm in September 2010, who worked closely with Heuermann's business, Manhattan-based RH Consulting.

She writes that Heuermann's office was mostly staffed by women like herself who were young and petite — similar to the descriptions of Costello, Barthelemy, and Waterman.

Shell also said that most of the office knew of Heuermann's passion for hunting and that he "famously loved guns" and collected them. He would frequently invite colleagues to go hunting or shooting at the range.

In 2011, a year after Shell left the architecture business, one of Heuermann’s employees quit and started her own company, renting space in her old firm’s office.

This "enraged" him, Shell wrote. She claims her former colleagues spotted Heuermann outside the building, "gazing up into the second-floor windows" in the early evening.

"My colleagues’ minds went quickly to his gun collection, and they began locking the elevator and the doors," Shell said.

Heuermann is expected back in court on Aug. 1.