MASSAPEQUA PARK, Long Island (WABC) — The wife of alleged Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann has filed for divorce.
Until her arrest last week, prosecutors say Heuermann was living a double life: using hot phones and anonymous email accounts to arrange sex and look for child pornography while raising a daughter and stepson and commuting to New York City. York to work.
On Wednesday, Heuermann’s wife filed for divorce in Suffolk County Superior Court. The filing says the divorce will be “uncontested.”
It comes as investigators continue to expand their search for evidence as they continue to search his home in Massapequa Park, a week after his arrest.
Heuermann is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello and leaving their remains along a remote stretch of Beach Road. He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Gilgo Beach murder cold case investigators caught suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann by revisiting an old clue: pizza crust.
In the case, officials said Wednesday that the investigation into Heuermann includes interviews with incarcerated sex workers.
Investigators have been speaking with sex workers about possible interactions with the suspect as authorities work to develop a more complete picture of his movements and methods.
Two sex workers currently in the Suffolk County Jail had prior contact with Heuermann and have audio recordings of him, according to the sheriff’s office.
The two interacted with him through various social media platforms.
“He had contacted them for sex,” Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon said. “They had received the calls but luckily they didn’t meet him.”
Investigators are also talking to other sex workers at the Suffolk County Jail, looking for anyone else who may have interacted with Heuermann in the past. This could expand to jails in neighboring counties and beyond.
Once Heuermann was identified as a suspect in the Gilgo Beach deaths, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office shared his distinctive physical description with inmates they knew were involved in sex trafficking. They could not share a photo of him at the time, due to the sensitivity of the investigation.
They also reviewed Heuermann’s phone records and realized that the two sex workers serving time in prison had been contacted by him previously. They were interviewed and provided the audio recordings.
After Heuermann was arrested, members of the prison’s human trafficking unit were authorized to show his photo to current inmates to see if any of them had contact with him. They also reach out to victims of sex trafficking who are no longer in custody.
READ ALSO | Woman shares chilling voicemail left by Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann
Two of Heuermann’s Chevy Avalanches are also being examined for evidence.
The first, a newer black Avalanche, was towed from his Massapequa Park property on Friday. The second, an older Green Avalanche, was recovered on his property in South Carolina and towed by a New York State Police plan to New York, where it arrived at the County Crime Lab. Suffolk at 4am on Wednesday.
Suffolk County Sheriff Rodney Harrison says Heuermann gave the green light to his brother, who lives in South Carolina, around 2015. Harrison says Heuermann owned the vehicle at the time of the murders of three women whose bodies were dumped on Gilgo beach.
He says they are looking for anything that will help authorities connect the victims to this vehicle.
“Anything from hair, trophies, memorabilia, jewelry,” Harrison said.
LOOK | Rodney Harrison delves into the Gilgo Beach murder investigation
Authorities in Nevada are also investigating a connection between the accused Long Island serial killer and Las Vegas.
Cops are trying to determine if they should be searching places in Las Vegas and what those places might be.
Investigators were also checking to see if Heuermann’s DNA, obtained from the pizza crust he removed and matched to genetic material found in the remains of a Gilgo Beach victim, connected him to other unsolved cases in Nova York.
Heuermann has denied killing the women, according to his attorney, Michael Brown.
Since his arrest, Heuermann has been on suicide watch at the Suffolk County Correctional Facility, according to a sheriff’s office spokesman. The designation, which requires “elevated security measures” and close observation, came after an evaluation by county medical staff, according to spokeswoman Vicki DiStefano.
Toulon spoke to Heuermann inside the penitentiary.
“I’ve spoken to him once. He’s very calm, all 3 times, he’s been lying on his bunk, very nondescript without showing any emotion,” Toulon said.
The charges against Heuermann were a remarkable development in one of New York’s most notorious mysteries.
Shannan Gilbert’s disappearance in 2010 sparked the manhunt that exposed the biggest mystery. A 24-year-old sex worker disappeared after walking out of a client’s home in the waterfront community of Oak Beach and disappeared into the marsh.
Harrison, who led the creation of an interagency task force last year to solve the Gilgo Beach murders, has vowed that authorities will “work tirelessly until we bring justice to all the families involved.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
MORE: Who are the ‘Gilgo Four?’
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