Gilgo Beach murders suspect being investigated over ‘similar’ NJ killings of sex workers in Atlantic City: police
Suspected Long Island murderer Rex Heuermann is also being investigated over a series of “similar” unsolved slayings of sex workers around Atlantic City by a person dubbed the Black Horse Pike Strangler.
Detectives had already long looked at possible ties between the Gilgo Beach murders and New Jersey’s Black Horse Pike serial killer even before the 59-year-old architect’s arrest last week, Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told WABC.
Although it initially suggested there was “not a connection,” the commissioner said: “We want to revisit that investigation.”
It makes it at least the fourth state where the “ogre”-looking Heuermann is being eyed in connection to unsolved crimes.
His DNA is already being used to search a database of cold cases across New York, and investigations have already been launched in South Carolina and Sin City in Nevada, both where Heuermann has property.
“Shame on us if we don’t look into Las Vegas, South Carolina, even Atlantic City,” Harrison told the local outlet.
“We’ve got to make sure if anyone has any information.”
The still-unfound New Jersey serial killer was dubbed “the Black Horse Pike Strangler” and the “Eastbound Strangler” because all four victims — Kim Raffo, 35, Tracy Ann Roberts, 23, Barbara Breidor, 42, and Molly Dilts, 20 — were found lying face-down with their heads pointed east toward the city’s casino high-rises.
“It was a strange, strange case,” local gas station manager GG Henning told 6ABC News this week.
The bodies were dumped close to the Bay Drive Motel, whose owner, Janak Dand, immediately thought of the 2006 crimes when news broke a week ago of Heuerman’s arrest for the Gilgo Beach slays.
“There were strange circumstances with this current case as well as what happened back then,” Henning said, without elaborating.
The Atlantic County Prosecutors Office said Thursday that it “continues to investigate the 2006 Black Horse Pike homicides as we do all unresolved matters, and we follow all leads.”
“Since this remains an open investigation, we cannot comment further due to its potential to compromise the investigation,” a spokesperson told WABC — adding: “We have no comment on the Gilgo Beach investigation.”
Heuermann pleaded guilty last Friday to three counts of murder in the deaths of Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22. He has also been named “prime suspect” in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
All four women were found strangled.
