Psychiatrist: Accused Gilgo Beach Killer Appears To Be ‘Sexual Sadist’

MASSAPEQUA PARK, NY — Gilgo Beach serial killing suspect Rex Heuermann, charged with six murder counts in the deaths of three sex workers in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, could be "a sexual sadist." That's according to a California forensic psychiatrist, who told Patch this week there is "so much that fits together in what has come out."

Based on evidence that has surfaced this week, Dr. Carole Lieberman, a Los Angeles-based psychiatrist who went to Stony Brook University, told Patch she found it troubling that Heuermann, according to prosecutors, kept a close eye on the victim's families.

“He was compulsively searching pictures of the victims, but not only pictures of the victims — pictures of their relatives, their sisters, their children, and he was trying to locate those individuals,” Ray Tierney, the Suffolk County district attorney, said Friday.

Heuermann even went a step further — calling at least one of those distraught family members, Fox News reported.

"He continued the torture of the women to the torture of the families," Lieberman said. "He needed more satisfaction of his sadistic urges."

Heuermann, 59, cried after his arrest: "I did not do this," according to the New York Post. In a statement, defense attorney Michael Brown asserted his client’s innocence after pleading not guilty.

"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 News 12.

Brown said Heuermann is a loving husband to his wife of over 25 years and an involved and dedicated father" to his daughter and stepson.

"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."

As for Lieberman, she thinks if Heuermann is found guilty, that his modus operandi fits that of someone who has “low self-esteem in regards to his own sexual prowess.”

Having a sex worker eliminated “the whole courtship aspect,” where his behavior could be scrutinized, she said.

Heuermann regularly searched online for torture sites, prosecutors alleged.

"Chances are, he did inflict some torture because that's what he's obsessed with," Lieberman said.

Lieberman questioned his ability to maintain a "double life" while working at his architectural firm in Manhattan and having a home life with his wife in Massapequa Park.

"How does a woman not have any suspicions of anything?" she said. "I think that she's just been trying to be in denial and not know that her husband might be up to no good."

Heuermann's second wife attended Farmingdale High School and worked for Long Island Jewish Medical Center.