Police believe they have the Long Island serial killer in custody more than a decade after remains belonging to at least 10 people were discovered near Gilgo Beach, N.Y.
Rex Heuermann, a 59-year-old man from Massapequa Park, was arrested on July 13 in connection to the murders of three women, according to officials. He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder, pleading not guilty to all at an arraignment on the following day, per NBC News.
“Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks amongst us, a predator that ruined families,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said at a press conference July 14. “However, even with this arrest, we’re not done. There’s more work to do in the investigation in regards to the other victims of the Gilgo Beach bodies that were discovered.”
Heuermann’s arrest comes 13 years after the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey who vanished in May 2010 after leaving a residence in Oak Beach.
In the police’s search for Gilbert, investigators uncovered other human remains along a remote highway adjacent to Gilgo Beach, including those belonging to Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
