The most damning evidence linking Rex Heuermann to the Gilgo Beach murders: Chevy truck, burner phones, sick Google searches
Suffolk County investigators spent 18 months painstakingly building a case against suspect Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann – the married dad of two who allegedly left a trail of damning evidence behind linking him to the so-called “Gilgo Four” slayings.
The probe uncovered the following key pieces, according to court documents:
Distinctive car
A witness reported seeing a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche pull up to slay victim Amber Costello’s West Babylon, Long Island home around the time she was last seen on Sept. 2, 2010.
The same type of pickup truck, down to the make and early model, was later determined to be registered to Heuermann – and a similar-looking vehicle was seen getting towed from the architect’s Massapequa home on Friday.
Ogre-looking guy
Witnesses in Costello’s disappearance also described her killer looking like an “ogre” – a “large, white male, approximately 6’4” to 6’6” in height, in his mid-forties, with ‘dark bushy hair,’ and ‘big oval style 1970’s type eyeglasses,’” according to court documents.
Investigators note that that description matches Heuermann – a “large, white male, approximately 6’4” in height, in excess of 240 pounds in weight, with dark bushy hair, who wears large eyeglasses and who was 46 years old when Amber Costello went missing.”
Burner phones and taunting calls
Cellphone bills linked to Heuermann revealed that he used a burner phone to meet up with three of the four victims. He was also linked to one of the cell phones on a surveillance video that showed him purchasing additional minutes for the device at a store in Midtown Manhattan.
The suspect was also allegedly in the same general location as the burner phones used to contact Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Costello.
Who is Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann?
A suspected serial killer has been arrested over the notorious Gilgo Beach murders in Long Island, The Post can confirm.
Rex Heuermann, 59, a married dad of two and architect at a New York City firm, has a home on 1st Avenue in Massapequa Park, sources told The Post.
His arrest is tied to the “Gilgo Four,” four women — Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 — found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in 2010.
The body of Barthelemy was first found along Ocean Parkway on Dec. 11, 2010, sparking fears of a serial killer in the area.
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By spring 2011, the number of bodies had climbed to 10, including eight women as well as an unidentified man and toddler.
Heuermann’s arrest comes after Suffolk County’s new police commissioner created a special Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force in February 2022.
Heuermann’s phone records showed him in the same location around the same time he was allegedly using Barthelemy’s phone to call her family.
The Long Islander allegedly used one of his burner phones to make a disturbing call to Barthelemy’s then-16-year-old sister and taunting, “Do you know what your sister is doing?” he said. “She’s a whore.”
One of the burner phones was found on Heuermann at the time of his arrest on Thursday night.
Tinder, pseudonyms and selfies
Records obtained from Tinder revealed a burner phone was linked to a fictitious Tinder account for “Andrew Roberts” using an email that Heuermann also accessed from his personal cell phone.
Heuerman allegedly used Google Pay to fund the dating app via an American Express credit card.
The probe also uncovered selfies Heuermann took and sent from a fake AOL account under the name Springfieldman9, as well as another fictitious email, Hunter1903a3@gmailcom. Both were linked to his alleged burner phones.
Sick Google searches
Heuermann allegedly used an email under the pseudonym Thomas Hawk to look up disturbing subjects on Google including “girl begging for rape porn,” “nude slave girls” and “10 year old school girl.”
He also researched his own slayings, court documents show, conducting more than 200 searches between March 2022 and June 2023 including, “why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the long island serial killer,” “unsolved serial killer cases,” “inside the Long Island Serial Killer and Gilgo Beach,” as well as the names of Brainard-Barnes, Barthelemy and Waterman.
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He used the same Thawk email account to search for podcasts and documentaries related to the probe and looked at hundreds of pictures of his alleged victims and their families.
An IP address used to book flights for Heuermann and his wife on JetBlue also accessed Gilgonews.com, a website maintained by authorities to share updates on the murder case.
When the wife’s away…
Heuermann allegedly killed three of his victims, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Costello, when his wife, who is not identified in court filings, was traveling to Iceland, Maryland or New Jersey in 2009 and 2010.
Hairy situation
Heuermann’s wife’s DNA was believed to be found on three of the victims’ bodies. DNA testing on a water bottle from outside Heuermann’s home was determined to be a match to a sample of a woman’s hair found on tape used to tie up Costello and Waterman, as well as the belt used to bind victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ feet. His wife has not been criminally charged.
Pizza of the puzzle
Investigators most shockingly linked Heuermann to the death of Waterman – after recovering DNA from leftover pizza crust he’d tossed into the trash on Fifth Avenue on Jan. 26 and matching it to a hair found in the burlap used to wrap Waterman’s body.
