The person charged in the Gilgo Beach front serial killings may perhaps have commenced preying on younger gals before than very first believed — and not just on the South Shore of Prolonged Island.
Rex Heuermann was 29 and 3 a long time absent from obtaining his architecture license when the continues to be of Sandra Costilla, just one of two ladies he was billed Thursday with killing, was found in 1993 on the east finish of Extended Island, in a wooded spot of Southampton in close proximity to Fish Cove Road.
The stays of the 5 other females that Heuermann has been billed with killing were all located from about 2010 or afterwards in and close to Gilgo Beach front, which is some 70 miles west of Southampton.
The reality that Heuermann has now been billed with a much more than 30-yr-old murder is an ominous indicator to expert criminologists like Joseph Giacalone, an adjunct professor at the John Jay Higher education of Prison Justice and a retired New York Law enforcement Office sergeant who after ran the chilly situation squad in The Bronx.
“Before all this is around, he could turn out to be a single of the most prolific serial killers ever on Very long Island,” Giacalone reported. “There may be as several as 50 a lot more unsolved murder conditions that could be connected to him primarily based on this time body and his M.O. [modus operandi].”
Heuermann is also below investigation in the 2000 dying of another girl, Valeria Mack, in accordance to his indictment.
Heuermann, 60, experienced been living a silent existence with his family members, commuting from his residence in Massapequa Park to his business office in Manhattan considering that 1987, police claimed.
“It’s like they say, beware of the silent ones,” Giacalone said. “He was coming and heading and making an attempt not to draw interest to himself. And in the meantime, women were disappearing.”
The Costilla case is the oldest murder that prosecutors have hung on Heuermann. They say the 28-12 months-outdated female was killed either on Nov. 19 or 20, 1993, when hunters found her terribly battered and mutilated overall body. They say DNA from hairs discovered on her human body matched Heuermann’s.
Costilla, according to Heuermann’s indictment, was a indigenous of Trinidad and Tobago who had been residing in New York Metropolis. But the doc lose tiny else in the way of details about her.
At the time of her disappearance, law enforcement said Costilla experienced been dwelling on Gates Avenue in the Ridgewood area of Queens, a borough of New York Town, and sometimes made use of the last title Cutello. She was arrested in 1992 for leaping a subway turnstile, so her fingerprints have been on history, Newsday described at the time.
But reporters who frequented Costilla’s block in Queens at the time could not locate any people who realized her.
“Till somebody who cares about her arrives ahead, which is what we’re stuck with,” Detective Lt. John Gierasch, then-commander of Suffolk’s Homicide Squad, was quoted as saying. “We do not have any the latest deal with on her nor do we have any info on where by her relatives may possibly be.”
Heuermann was also charged Thursday with 2nd-diploma murder in the killing of 20-12 months-aged Jessica Taylor, who disappeared in July 2003 even though operating as an escort in New York Metropolis. Her dismembered and mutilated entire body was uncovered in 2011 in the scrub near Ocean Parkway, just east of Gilgo Beach front on the south shore of Prolonged Island. His hairs were being also located on her entire body.
Taylor, according to the indictment, experienced been a sex employee in the Midtown place of Manhattan and spoke with her mom by cellphone right before leaving for what would be her closing day. She experienced organized to head to Poughkeepsie, New York on July 25, 2003, for her mother’s birthday.
“When her daughter failed to get there at her Poughkeepsie home or remedy any cellphone calls, Ms. Taylor’s mother notified regulation enforcement,” the indictment states.
Final 12 months, Heuermann was charged with the extensive-unsolved killings of a few woman sex personnel whose bodies had been discovered dumped on a Long Island seaside — Melissa Barthelemy, 24 Megan Waterman, 22 and Amber Lynn Costello, 27.
Previously this yr, Heuermann was also charged in the killing of 25-calendar year-aged Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Taylor’s overall body and Mack’s overall body had been observed in the vicinity of the other gals, who have been dubbed the “Gilgo 4,” in accordance to the indictment.
The hunt for the Gilgo Seashore killer commenced in 2010 right after the lookup for a lacking sex employee led to the discovery of the remains of 11 other folks in and about the beach on Long Island’s South Shore.
But the case immediately stalled amid accusations that detectives had been dragging their ft because of a cultural bias against intercourse personnel. It was not revived right up until 2022 when Suffolk County’s new police commissioner, Rodney Harrison, assembled the Gilgo Beach front Murder Investigation Undertaking Pressure, which was produced up of federal and point out investigators, as perfectly as community detectives.
In the meantime, Heuermann was, on the area at the very least, just an normal Very long Island family gentleman minding his possess business. The architect lived with his wife, Asa Ellerup, his daughter, Victoria, and stepson, Christopher Sheridan ,in the modest residence he grew up in. He rarely interacted with his neighbors.
Other than an job interview accomplished at his Manhattan business that was posted on YouTube in 2002 by Bonjour Fact, Heuermann retained a low-profile professionally as nicely.
Heuermann, who documents present became a licensed architect in 1996, spoke in the video about the ins and outs of currently being a expert who assists customers navigate New York City’s arcane setting up codes. He also talked about how he learned to create furnishings with his father in their workshop.
In a part of the interview that now will come across as specially chilling, Heuermann described his beloved resource — a cabinet maker’s hammer.
“It is persuasive plenty of when I want to persuade a thing,” he can be read saying.
“Not someone?” the interviewer asks.
“Something,” Heuermann replies. “And it constantly yields superb final results.”
Heuermann also had a different interest that wasn’t revealed until soon after police searched his property — a fascination with unsolved murder circumstances.
In his workplace, according to the indictment, law enforcement discovered a copy of a guide by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker titled “The Cases That Haunt Us.”
