Updated LISK The Long Island Serial Killer Gilgo Beach *Local architect Rex Heuermann arrested

[Kurve]

It's complicated, with body parts found at different times scattered across counties. Here's a really good timeline.

TIMELINE

Developments are ongoing with the page in the link above updated as news is released.

 

[Kurve]

* UPDATE: A 59yo architect with an office in Manhattan and living in a run down house on Long Island with his wife and two children has been arrested. Rex Heuermann has been charged with three murders this far but it's early days, suspected of many, many more.



Also known as the Craigslist Ripper or The Gilgo Beach Killer, believed to have murdered between 10 and 16 people over twenty years.

"If you're not knowledgeable about Suffolk County you think it's the Hamptons, it's not. It's the Amityville Horror."

It all started with a sex party when a girl ran screaming from a house wearing no shoes .... it was Shannon Gilbert.

On Dec. 11, 2010, authorities were searching in a weedy area off Ocean Parkway, which runs through a remote stretch of beach on a barrier island between Jones Beach and Robert Moses State Park, for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey who had been missing since May of that year. Police did not find Gilbert during that search but found the remains of a woman later identified as 24-year-old Melissa Barthelemy.

Two days later, during another search in the same area, authorities found the bodies of three more victims: Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Megan Waterman, 22, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.

Three months after that, in March 2011, the remains of 20-year-old Jessica Taylor were also located near Gilgo Beach. Other parts of Taylor’s body had been found nearly eight years before in Manorville, New York (about an hour further east).


Three more bodies -- an unidentified woman, a 2-year-old girl and an unidentified Asian male believed to be between 17 and 23 -- were found April 4, 2011.

A week later, the last two of the 10 victims were found in neighboring Nassau County, including the toddler's mom.

All of the remains were discovered in the search for Gilbert and in relatively close proximity to each other along Ocean Parkway. Some were found as close as .5 miles of one another.

Gilbert's remains were finally found in December 2011 in nearby Oak Beach, which is also along Ocean Parkway. Police do not believe her death is tied to the others because she "doesn't match the pattern of the Gilgo Beach homicides," but have also said that her death is part of the active investigation into the Gilgo Beach murders, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said at the Jan. 16 press conference announcing the newly-released evidence. Gilbert's family lawyer believes that she is a victim of the possible serial killer.

Gilbert disappeared after making a 911 call to authorities at the home of a new sex client and screamed, "they are trying to kill me,".



A new website has been created, gilgonews.com, to give the public an outlet to easily leave tips.

What we know and don't about Long Island’s suspected serial killer case

What we know and don't about the Gilgo Beach suspected serial killer case.

abcnews.go.com

‎Unraveled: Long Island Serial Killer on Apple Podcasts

‎True Crime · 2021

podcasts.apple.com

Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?​

Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.

The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.

Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.

Melissa Barthelemy, 24​

• Barthelemy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25​

• Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007.

Amber Lynn Costello, 27​

• Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello was found in December 2010 after having been last seen leaving her home that September.

Megan Waterman, 22​

• Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach.

Jessica Taylor, 20​

• Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.

Valerie Mack, 24​

• Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.” Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police. Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.”

Unidentified Asian man​

• The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be-identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth.

‘Peaches’ and her daughter​

• An African American woman’s partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler, who was about 2 years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother, “Peaches.”

Jane Doe No. 7 (Identified as escort Karen Vergata. post arrest)​

• Remains found on April 11, 2011, along with the body of the woman dubbed “Peaches” was linked by DNA to a body that was found 15 years earlier on Fire Island. On April 20, 1996, skeletal remains of a young white female were discovered in Davis Park on Blue Point Beach. Two sets of remains, collectively known as “Jane Doe No. 7,” have not been identified.

Shannan Gilbert, 23​

• Gilbert was a Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association on the morning of May 1, 2010. She spoke with two neighbors before disappearing. Her body was discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.

 

[GreyCrow]

Billy Jensen from Murder Squad podcast is doing something on this

 

[Kurve]

Billy Jensen from Murder Squad podcast is doing something on this

He's one of the reasons I linked the new pod in up top. 'Unraveled', should be a good one.

 

[Kurve]

Billy Jensen from Murder Squad podcast is doing something on this

LONG ISLAND, NY —Billy Jensen and Alexis Linkletter are both Long Island natives with careers focused on true crime and investigative journalism. They teamed up to host a new podcast series called Unraveled: Long Island Serial Killer that explores not only the Gilgo Beach murders, but the subsequent investigation and scandals plaguing the Suffolk County Police Department in the decade following the discovery of the 11 bodies on Ocean Parkway. Their podcast centers around what they claim is exclusive new information from Christopher Loeb, whose testimony put former Suffolk County Police Chief James Burke in prison.

New Long Island Serial Killer Podcast Has 'Explosive' Loeb Info

"Unraveled: Long Island Serial Killer" is a podcast that explores why the Gilgo Beach murders remain unsolved ten years later.

patch.com

 

[Kurve]

An arrest, I thought this would never be solved. So many victims, including a toddler and mother.


Police arrested architect Rex Heuermann, 59, Thursday night in Manhattan.

Friends of the suspect expressed shock at his arrest. They said he owns a Manhattan architecture firm and belonged to a New York City-based networking group known as The Dream Team.

Gilgo Beach murders: Suspect in Long Island serial killings in custody, officials say

Police arrested architect Rex Heuermann, 59, Thursday night in Manhattan.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Kurve]

Married with two children, bad tempered at work, been on the police radar for about a year. Looks nerdy in his suit and glasses, mugshot says something else.

Cooler removed from Gilgo Beach suspect’s Long Island home

State and Suffolk County authorities swarmed the home of Rex Heuermann, 59, on 1st Avenue in Massapequa Park after his arrest in the early hours.

nypost.com

Linked to four three of the murders by DNA.

 

[Piggy Smalls]

Was the suspect police chief part of the investigation?

 

[Pamcake1]

Suspect Arrested in Serial Killings of Women Near Gilgo Beach​

Rex Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect who lives in Nassau County, was charged with killing three women and is the “prime suspect” in the death of a fourth woman.
The bodies were unearthed near remote Gilgo Beach on Long Island’s South Shore more than a decade ago, terrifying residents and leaving the victims’ families bereft. In all, the remains of nine women, a man and a toddler were discovered.
Since then, investigators have tried to determine whether the killings had been committed by one person or by multiple attackers. But for more than a decade the cases went unsolved.
Then Rex Heuermann, an architect who had lived most of his life in Nassau County and worked in Manhattan, was taken into custody on Thursday, accused of killing three women and is suspected in the murder of a fourth. Before his arrest, investigators had sifted through clues as simple as a monogrammed belt wrapped around one of the victims and as sophisticated as the electronic signals of disposable mobile phones.
Mr. Heuermann was charged with three counts of first degree murder and three counts of second degree murder in the killings of Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy, whose bodies were found wrapped in hunting camouflage burlap within a quarter mile of each other on a stretch of beach. All had been in their 20s, petite and working as escorts. They disappeared between 2009 and 2010.

The remains of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who went missing in July 2007, were also found alongside their bodies and buried in a similar way.
Mr. Heuermann was not charged with the killing of Ms. Brainard-Barnes, but he “is the prime suspect in her death,” according to the bail application filed by Allen Bode, the chief assistant district attorney in Suffolk County. The evidence in her case “fits the modus operandi of the defendant.”
Prosecutors asked in the court papers that Mr. Heuermann be held without bail based on circumstances including “the serious, heinous nature of these serial murders,” the planning that went into them, the suspect’s history of firearm possession and “his recent searches for sadistic materials, child pornography, images of the victims and their relatives.”
Mr. Heuermann, who had been arrested in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday night, appeared Friday afternoon in a Suffolk County courthouse, where he spoke in a low voice only to identify himself.
Judge Richard Ambro said he was ordering him held “because of the extreme depravity of the allegations.”

Outside the courthouse, Michael Brown, Mr. Heuermann’s lawyer, said the evidence was circumstantial and that his client had wept, telling him, “I didn’t do this.”

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Handcuffed, his hair disheveled, he grimaced and sighed as District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney described DNA evidence linking him to the crime, gathered from pizza crust, bottles and human hairs.
Mr. Tierney said Mr. Heuermann had licenses for 92 guns and an “irresistible” motive to flee.
“We’re looking forward to fighting this case in a court of law, not the court of public opinion,” he said.
Investigators said they linked Mr. Heuermann to the killings using not only DNA, but technology that pinpointed the locations of disposable cellular phones they believed the killer used to contact the victims in the hours before they disappeared.

“Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks among us, a predator that ruins families,” said Rodney K. Harrison, the Suffolk County commissioner. Despite criticism over the long investigation, he said, investigators had never been discouraged.

Full news article; Suspect Arrested in Serial Killings of Women Near Gilgo Beach
Full info; https://int.nyt.com/data/documentto...-final-1-redacted-1/6ffd72d59b87aa51/full.pdf

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

Suspect Arrested in Serial Killings of Women Near Gilgo Beach​

Rex Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect who lives in Nassau County, was charged with killing three women and is the “prime suspect” in the death of a fourth woman.
The bodies were unearthed near remote Gilgo Beach on Long Island’s South Shore more than a decade ago, terrifying residents and leaving the victims’ families bereft. In all, the remains of nine women, a man and a toddler were discovered.
Since then, investigators have tried to determine whether the killings had been committed by one person or by multiple attackers. But for more than a decade the cases went unsolved.
Then Rex Heuermann, an architect who had lived most of his life in Nassau County and worked in Manhattan, was taken into custody on Thursday, accused of killing three women and is suspected in the murder of a fourth. Before his arrest, investigators had sifted through clues as simple as a monogrammed belt wrapped around one of the victims and as sophisticated as the electronic signals of disposable mobile phones.
Mr. Heuermann was charged with three counts of first degree murder and three counts of second degree murder in the killings of Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman and Melissa Barthelemy, whose bodies were found wrapped in hunting camouflage burlap within a quarter mile of each other on a stretch of beach. All had been in their 20s, petite and working as escorts. They disappeared between 2009 and 2010.

The remains of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who went missing in July 2007, were also found alongside their bodies and buried in a similar way.
Mr. Heuermann was not charged with the killing of Ms. Brainard-Barnes, but he “is the prime suspect in her death,” according to the bail application filed by Allen Bode, the chief assistant district attorney in Suffolk County. The evidence in her case “fits the modus operandi of the defendant.”
Prosecutors asked in the court papers that Mr. Heuermann be held without bail based on circumstances including “the serious, heinous nature of these serial murders,” the planning that went into them, the suspect’s history of firearm possession and “his recent searches for sadistic materials, child pornography, images of the victims and their relatives.”
Mr. Heuermann, who had been arrested in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday night, appeared Friday afternoon in a Suffolk County courthouse, where he spoke in a low voice only to identify himself.
Judge Richard Ambro said he was ordering him held “because of the extreme depravity of the allegations.”

Outside the courthouse, Michael Brown, Mr. Heuermann’s lawyer, said the evidence was circumstantial and that his client had wept, telling him, “I didn’t do this.”

​

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​

Handcuffed, his hair disheveled, he grimaced and sighed as District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney described DNA evidence linking him to the crime, gathered from pizza crust, bottles and human hairs.
Mr. Tierney said Mr. Heuermann had licenses for 92 guns and an “irresistible” motive to flee.
“We’re looking forward to fighting this case in a court of law, not the court of public opinion,” he said.
Investigators said they linked Mr. Heuermann to the killings using not only DNA, but technology that pinpointed the locations of disposable cellular phones they believed the killer used to contact the victims in the hours before they disappeared.

“Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks among us, a predator that ruins families,” said Rodney K. Harrison, the Suffolk County commissioner. Despite criticism over the long investigation, he said, investigators had never been discouraged.

Full news article; Suspect Arrested in Serial Killings of Women Near Gilgo Beach
Full info; https://int.nyt.com/data/documentto...-final-1-redacted-1/6ffd72d59b87aa51/full.pdf

Saw a report on this on Fox News this morning. In a previous non-related interview about real estate he bragged about a liking for hammers, and using a metaphorical hammer to urge someone to make a decision. The interviewer roared laughing.

 

[BFew]

The accused is accused of being a Web crime sleuth.

Maybe the accused has been reading/watching this thread.

‘A demon’: New York architect charged in serial killer investigation

Police have been investigating a long unsolved string of 11 killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders. Their breakthrough came from a discarded pizza box.

www.smh.com.au

'In recent months, Heuermann sought to keep tabs on the probe and “searched obsessively” on the internet for facts about the Gilgo Beach killings, including the names of women he’s accused of killing, as well as podcasts and documentaries about the case, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.'

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/world/long-island-serial-killer-architect-rex-heuermann-charged-over-historic-unsolved-murders/news-story/a64927f862f4ad035aeb4a5e4c22a72e

'Long Island serial killer: Architect Rex Heuermann charged over historic unsolved murders
July 15, 2023 - 1:13PM
...
Mr Tierney said the case against Heuermann was based on DNA evidence from a discarded pizza box, cellphone data linking him to the victims and a sighting of his vehicle at the home of one of the murdered women.

“For each of the murders he got an individual burner phone and used that to communicate with the victims,” Mr Tierney said. “Then, shortly after the death of the victims, he would get rid of the burner phone.”

Heuermann also performed hundreds of internet searches about the investigation into the murders, asking questions such as “Why hasn’t the Long Island serial killer been caught?”
...'

 

[BFew]

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/n...s/news-story/a64927f862f4ad035aeb4a5e4c22a72e
'Long Island serial killer: Architect Rex Heuermann charged over historic unsolved murders
July 15, 2023 - 1:13PM
...
Heuermann was interviewed last year for a YouTube show called Bonjour Realty.
“I’m a troubleshooter, born and raised on Long Island, been working in Manhattan since 1987 – very long time,” Heuermann said in the interview.'

Here we go.

 

[BFew]

More details on the accused's internet activity in the Guardian

Burner phones and search history led police to Long Island killings suspect

Charging documents released on Friday show how investigators have tied architect Rex Heuermann to 11 sets of human remains

www.theguardian.com

'Burner phones and search history led police to Long Island killings suspect​

Sat 15 Jul 2023 07.07 AEST
...
Incriminating items that police allege to have found included cellphone billing records for Heuermann that corresponded to cell site locations for “burner” – or temporary – devices Heuermann allegedly used to arrange meetings with three of the murder victims.

The billing records and cellphone site locations also were consistent with taunting calls made to a relative of Barthelemy, and a separate call a detective placed to Barthelemy’s cellphone while looking into her disappearance.

Similarly, the billing records and cell site locations also allegedly tied Heuermann to calls checking the voicemail box on Brainard-Barnes’s cellphone after she went missing.

Meanwhile, Heuermann, the victims and his phones had connections to either Massapequa Park or midtown Manhattan, where Heuermann lived and worked.

The court documents show various graphics of where Heuermann’s suspected burner cellphones had “activity”, alongside the cellular tower data nearest to that. Investigators allege Heuermann had a series of online accounts in addition to the burner cellphones, which were held under “fictitious names, and [were] used for illicit activities”. Some of those names included “Andy” – Heuermann’s middle name is Andrew – as well as “Andrew Roberts” and “John Springfield”.

On one burner email account he created, authorities alleged, he conducted “thousands of searches related to sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography”, and imagery depicting child sexual abuse.

On that same account, he purportedly conducted 200 searches between March last year and June this year that related to active and known serial killers. The searches also sought specifics about the disappearances and murders of Brainard-Barnes, Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello, and the police investigations into their killings.

Searches during that period that police noted included: “Why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the Long Island serial killer”, “Why hasn’t the Long Island serial killer been caught”, “Long Island killer”, “Long Island serial killer phone call”, and more.

Documents allege Heuermann also searched for and read news articles about the creation of the law enforcement taskforce that arrested him.
...'

 

[Todman]

I know it two years ago, Simon Whisler gives a good presentation.

 

[Kurve]

The latest, there's quite a lot of informtion in this pod condensed to around 50 minutes. Investigators found Heuermann's wife Asa's DNA in hair on three of the bodies. That might be because they were killed in the family home. His wife was in Iceland for at least one of the murders.

 

[BFew]

Investigators found Heuermann's wife Asa's DNA in hair on three of the bodies

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/07/14/us/gilgo-beach-murders-suspect-arrest/index.html

'The hairs found in 2010 were degraded and DNA testing at the time couldn’t yield results but improvements in technology eventually gave investigators the DNA answers they needed.'

If Heuermann was keeping up to date with DNA testing methods in other cases, in recent years he would probably have realised that it was likely that it was only a matter of time before he was arrested. (Assuming he is guilty of some, all or at least, what he has been charged with.

 

[Kurve]

There's a lot to read but here are the BAIL DOCS

What stands out is that he was still actively and extensively seeking sex workers when he was arrested and trying to cover his tracks. His google search history tells a story of a psychosexual sadist with a specific victim preference. Urgh.

 

[Kurve]

Was the suspect police chief part of the investigation?

Not that I've seen but they're still investigating. It looks like they're only charging him so far, with the cases they can prove with enough evidence and science to secure the charges, deny bail and move it forward.

Other charges might come later.

 

[johnymac1]

The Netflix movie "Lost Girls", the producers suggest the 4 bodies were found by accident. A police dog was let loose for a toilet break and started barking.
The movie follows Shannan's moms search for answers. Shannan's death is not officially linked to the serial killings. There is a slim possibility more than one killer was working the area.

 

[johnymac1]

Was the suspect police chief part of the investigation?

I've read that, There were four or five suspects,

 

[Kurve]

Something on the Police Commissioner here:

On December 10, 2015, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini announced that the FBI had officially joined the investigation. The announcement came one day after former police chief James Burke was indicted for civil rights violations and conspiracy. Burke, who resigned from the department in October 2015, was reported to have blocked FBI involvement in the LISK cases for years.[14] The FBI had previously assisted in the search for victims but had never officially been a part of the investigation.[15] In November 2016, Burke was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for assault and conspiracy.

Gilgo Beach serial killings - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Piggy Smalls]

Something on the Police Commissioner here:

On December 10, 2015, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini announced that the FBI had officially joined the investigation. The announcement came one day after former police chief James Burke was indicted for civil rights violations and conspiracy. Burke, who resigned from the department in October 2015, was reported to have blocked FBI involvement in the LISK cases for years.[14] The FBI had previously assisted in the search for victims but had never officially been a part of the investigation.[15] In November 2016, Burke was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for assault and conspiracy.

Gilgo Beach serial killings - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

James Burke, Ex-Suffolk County Police Chief, Is Sentenced to 46 Months (Published 2016)

Mr. Burke’s efforts to cover up the 2012 beating of a man who stole a bag belonging to him set in motion a scandal that has reverberated through Long Island politics.

www.nytimes.com

Turns out he’s a violent pervert. Not surprised he was a suspect in the murders.

 

[Wosh]

Been catching up on this one, thank goodness they got him. What a sick creep and what a coward.

 

[Wosh]

A child-sized, fair-haired doll kept in a large wooden and glass case was hauled by police out of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann’s childhood home on Saturday.
It came a day after Mr Heuermann, an architect, was charged in connection with three of the killings in the decade-old case involving at least 10 dead bodies, mostly women.
Gilgo Beach is located in Long Island, New York.
Photos of the scene, obtained by the NY Post, show two investigators, wearing gloves, carefully carrying the doll inside the case from the rundown house.
The doll appeared to be blonde, with multiple braids in its long hair. A red bow adorned the top of its head, and it was clad in a red outfit.
The item appeared to be somehow posed inside the case, which was carved with flowers.

 

[johnymac1]

Map of Lisk places of interest and dump sites

Gilgo beach is 31 minutes from the suspects home

Long Island Serial Killer (LISK): Locations and Map

This is a location guide for the Long Island serial killer and his victims. You can also use our map feature to get a better visual understanding of the case.

oddstops.com

 

[Kurve]

The doll taken from the house. Someone was leaving dolls at the memorials on the side of the road near where they were found.