Police have arrested a suspected serial killer over the notorious Gilgo Beach murders in Long Island.
According to police, Rex Heuermann, 59, a married architect at a New York City firm, was arrested after being matched to DNA. Officers surrounded his home on 1st Avenue in Massapequa Park to make the arrest.
According to another source, the suspect is currently due in court today, Friday, July 14.
The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010, and not the other six who were later eyed as possibly being connected.
State and Suffolk County police, both at the scene since the early hours, did not officially confirm the arrest Friday but teased upcoming press conferences.
Heuermann is the owner and founder of Midtown architecture firm RH Consultants and Associates, which counts Catholic Charities, NYC-DEP Sewerage Treatment and American Airlines as clients.
In an interview posted to YouTube channel Bonjour Realty, Heuermann said he was “born and raised on Long Island.”
“I’ve been working in Manhattan since 1987, very long time,” he said.
On Friday investigators joined officers in surrounding Heuremann’s home and removed a cooler at one point.
“He seemed like a regular neighbor,” said Barry Auslander, 72, who lives down the block. “I never thought he was anything but a businessman, average guy who had a family and went to work.”
Fears of a serial killer emerged when the body of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was found along Ocean Parkway on Dec. 11, 2010, with the remains of three other women found in the following days.
The so-called “Gilgo Four”, Barthelemy along with Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, were found whole, wrapped in burlap about one-tenth of a mile apart from each other on the beach.
Numbers of bodies continued to grow to 10 by Spring of 2011, this included eight women, an unidentified man, and a toddler.
The bodies were found during a search for missing Jersey City-based sex worker Shannan Gilbert, whose body wasn’t found until December 2011, a year after the Gilgo Four.
John Ray, an attorney for Gilbert’s family, said, “I have had a very strong and credible tip that they were about to close in on an arrest around a week ago.”
“We’re pleased if they actually managed to find somebody that can be tagged for this,” said Ray, who also represents Jessica Taylor, another of the deceased women not included with the initial four. “We’re pleased that something is finally occurring, because we’ve been frustrated.”
Friday’s arrest came after Suffolk County’s new police commissioner created a special Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force in February last year.
It included help from state police, local sheriffs, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office as well as the FBI.
“I believe this case is solvable and identifying the person or people responsible for these murders is a top priority,” Commissioner Rodney Harrison, the NYPD’s former chief of department, said.
