A police search of the Massapequa Park home of suspected Gilgo Beach killer Rex A. Heuermann “has been fruitful” for investigators, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison said Monday as authorities continued to search the suspect’s yard.
“I’m optimistic,” Harrison said, speaking to reporters near Heuermann’s First Avenue home. “As you can see, we’ve got people from the coroner’s office, the state police, the Nassau police, and so everybody’s working together. I want to believe we should be done sometime tomorrow [Tuesday] or later this week…But again, this investigation will continue once we leave Massapequa.”
Harrison would not disclose what potential evidence investigators have found, other than a cache of firearms, and could not say whether any of the killings may have taken place inside the home.
Harrison spoke as investigators spotted ground-penetrating radar on Monday after digging up the home’s backyard on Sunday.
“We’re just doing a full house investigation to see if there’s anything back there that we need to take a closer look at,” Harrison said. “It will help us identify anything in this backyard that we need to get our hands on.”
By Monday morning, the area of the backyard that police dug up on Sunday was covered in dirt, Newsday drone footage showed.
The search of Heuermann’s home entered its 11th day on Monday.
Police and crime scene investigators dig in the backyard of Rex A. Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park Monday. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
Heuermann is accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, sex workers whose remains were found in a wooded area along the road near Gilgo Beach in December 2010. Investigators also consider him a “prime suspect” in the slaying of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose body was found along with the others.
Residents of the Massapequa Park neighborhood that became a crime scene Sunday were taking the disruptions around them in stride.
Robert Musto, of Michigan Avenue, which intersects First Avenue near the home Heuermann shared with his wife and two children, praised Suffolk police and state troopers for being helpful and understanding to residents.
“I think most people here are patient,” said Musto, who has lived a handful of houses away from Heuermann’s for 40 years. “The police have been excellent. And I know the reporters have a job to do.”
As police could be seen driving past the large law enforcement vehicles that mostly block the view of the home where Heuermann, 59, has lived since childhood, Musto marveled at how many people have visited what is now a true crime landmark.
“It’s the people who come here to be interviewed, they don’t even live here. … it’s crazy,” Musto said of the scene, which has been unfolding since the July 14 announcement of Heuermann’s arrest.
Musto said people stop and take pictures with their cell phones, even though it’s hard to decipher what’s happening on the property just a few feet away.
“You can’t even see anything,” he said.
Cathy Huber, who grew up in Massapequa, returned from North Carolina last weekend for her 40th class reunion, where Heuermann’s arrest was on everyone’s mind. Huber graduated from Berner High School two years after the alleged killer did in 1981.
“I must have gone to two years of high school with him, but I didn’t know him,” she said.
Huber said that while most of the meeting was spent catching up and sharing family photos, talk of the arrest couldn’t be avoided.
“There was a lot of shock and awe,” he said.
Local resident Gabriella Hansen, 23, stopped while running through the neighborhood Sunday afternoon. He said it was quiet compared to another recent day, when nearly two dozen spectators were outside. After news of the dig, more onlookers returned, some trying to catch the researchers’ efforts on video.
“It’s kind of crazy,” Hansen said of the activity. “But I’m sure most people understand.”
Huber said the residents he spoke to weren’t worried about the streets being closed or anything else happening outside their homes, understanding the importance of the work to be done.
“Take your time, get everything you need if you can get justice for these women,” Huber said.
Harrison told reporters Saturday that the “24-hour, seven-day-a-week operation” at the house will likely end this week.
“The team’s effort is helping us get to a place where we can present him to Ray Tierney, the district attorney, and put this gentleman away for a very, very long period of time,” he said.
Heuermann’s next appearance will be before state Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei in Riverhead on Aug. 1. The suspect is being held at the neighboring correctional facility.
With Lisa L. Colangelo, Grant Parpan and Darwin Yanes
By Nicole Fuller and John Asbury
Nicole Fuller is Newsday’s senior criminal justice reporter. John Asbury covers the city of Hempstead and the city of Long Beach.
