Law enforcement investigators are looking into possible connections between suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann and unsolved murders around the country, including the slayings of four women in 2006 near Atlantic City.
Since Heuermann’s arrest seven days ago on first- and second-degree murder charges in the slayings of three of the initial Gilgo Beach victims whose remains were discovered in 2010, the investigation into Heuermann has extended beyond Suffolk County to South Carolina and Nevada, where Heuermann also has connections.
“Investigators are looking into him in connection with cases around the country, including Atlantic City,” a spokesman for the Suffolk County Police Department said Thursday.
Gilgo Beach homicide investigators have previously looked into whether there might be a connection between the Long Island murders and the 2006 murders of four women, who also worked as sex workers.
In 2020, then-Suffolk Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart, in announcing that investigators had positively identified the remains of “Jane Doe No. 6” as Valerie Mack, also said investigators found no link between Mack and the four murders of women, suspected of being the work of a serial killer, in the Atlantic City area. Hart said then that his department has been in contact with law enforcement in New Jersey regarding possible connections.
A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, which includes Atlantic City and surrounding areas, said in a statement Thursday in response to a request for comment: “Our office continues to investigate the 2006 Black Horse Pike homicides as we conduct all matters not solved and we are following up. all leads. Since this remains an open investigation, we cannot comment on the questions you asked due to their potential to compromise the investigation. We cannot comment specifically on the Gilgo Beach murders case or any suspects in this case, since we are not involved.”
Meanwhile, Suffolk County police, state troopers and crime lab analysts continued to search Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home and storage unit Thursday.
At his home on First Avenue, police have blocked off the street with mobile command vehicles obstructing views while a white tent stands at the front of the house and a box truck is backed up in the driveway.
Detectives were seen entering the home for a seventh day and police have given no indication of when the search might end.
On Wednesday, Heuermann’s wife filed for divorce, according to court records and her attorney.
Robert Macedonio confirmed that his client Asa Ellerup, Heuermann’s wife, filed for divorce against the jailed architect in Suffolk County Superior Court on Wednesday.
“I can confirm a subpoena and a complaint has been filed,” Macedonio, based in Islip Terrace, said by phone Wednesday afternoon. “We have no further comment.”
Ellerup has declined to comment since authorities arrested her husband last week.
Also Wednesday, the green Chevrolet Avalanche that investigators have called critical evidence against Heuermann was brought back to Long Island to the Suffolk County Crime Lab in Hauppauge after the FBI seized the vehicle in South Carolina last week.
Heuermann, 59, of Massapequa Park, has pleaded not guilty to first- and second-degree murder charges in the slayings of three women who authorities say worked as escorts: Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. The women’s remains, along with those of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, were found near an area of thick vegetation on Gilgo Beach.
Heuermann has not been charged in Brainard-Barnes’ murder, although prosecutors called him a “prime suspect.”
Prosecutors said they linked Heuermann to the victims through DNA, recorded phones and triangulated cell site data.
The remains of six other victims were also found, but authorities have not linked Heuermann to those murders.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said a witness noticed a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche parked in the driveway of Costello’s residence in West Babylon on Sept. 1, 2010, the day before he was last seen alive, and saw a man inside that fit. Heuermann’s physical description.
The Avalanche driver also contacted Costello the night she disappeared, according to court documents filed in Heuermann’s case, which said a witness also told police the person observed a dark truck pass the house shortly after Costello left.
Tierney said a New York State Police investigator, part of the multi-agency “Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force” convened by Harrison in 2022, first identified Heuermann as a suspect by identifying him as to owner of a Chevrolet Avalanche. Heuermann’s physical appearance — he’s 6-foot-4 and weighs more than 240 pounds, according to authorities — also matched the witness’ description, Tierney said.
After the task force linked a Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck to Heuermann, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office shared his physical description and the locations they identified through cell phone triangulation that they called “the box” with the inmates who knew they were trafficked to see if they had. I had contact with him. At the time, they could not share any photos of him, Sheriff Errol Toulon Jr. told Newsday on Tuesday.
In 2018, at the behest of federal prosecutors, Toulon created a human trafficking unit at the Suffolk County Jail to screen inmates who may have been trafficked. The unit directs those inmates to services, but also collects information for law enforcement, Toulon said.
They did not gather additional information through these initial interviews, but later checked phone records. They discovered Heuermann had contacted two sex workers by phone but never followed up with them, Toulon said.
After Heuermann’s arrest, members of the human trafficking unit have been showing his photo to current inmates to see if any of them have had contact with him and are reaching out to sex trafficking victims who they are no longer in custody, Toulon said.
Toulon, who said he had experience with high-profile inmates John Gotti and Bernhard Goetz when he worked in New York City corrections, said the prison is taking special precautions to ensure Heuermann’s safety. He is being housed in a special unit, Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Vicki DiStefano said.
Heuermann is being held at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead, according to jail records. Only authorized personnel have access to this unit, and it is being watched and videotaped 24 hours a day. There he will be imprisoned through the legal process. Heuermann can see authorized visitors, but Toulon is also taking steps to screen other visitors who can be there at the same time, he said.
Also, when Heuermann is being moved from one place to another inside the prison, “all movement stops,” Toulon said. “This means all inmate movement is halted.”
Heuermann remains under surveillance for suicide, authorities said Wednesday. As the jail continues to observe COVID-19 protocols, he is in quarantine for 10 days, DiStefano said. He is in a standard cell with access to a television in the hallway. He is allowed out of his cell for showers and phone calls, she said.
The storage unit is five minutes from Heuermann’s home, where police said Tuesday that investigators seized more than 200 guns from a vault inside.
Police have declined to provide more details about the weapons seized or whether Heuermann had permits for them. Tierney said last week that Heuermann had permits for 92 firearms.
With Sandra Peddie and Grant Parpan
