How a Manhattan architect is now prime suspect in the Gilgo Beach serial-killer mystery

New York police have arrested the prime suspect in a twisting serial-killer murder mystery, taking huge steps to bring justice to the families of up to 18 victims.

Manhattan architect Rex Heuermann, 59, was arrested on July 13, more than a decade since police started building their case on the harrowing discovery of mutilated sex workers around the Gilgo Beach area on Long Island, east of the city.

Authorities are now sweeping a storage unit owned by the suspect, following a deep search of his home – just 20 minutes from the beach – on Sunday.

Detectives say the ‘turning point’ in the case – itself the focus of a 2020 Netflix film – was Heuermann’s connection to a Chevrolet pick-up truck last year, as described by a witness way back in 2010.

But some are now asking why it took so long for police to join the dots and make an arrest, with Heuermann reportedly fitting the FBI’s profile of the killer.

As police finally appear to make progress in one of America’s most infamous serial-killer mysteries, MailOnline 

On May 1, 2010, 24-year-old sex worker Shannan Gilbert made an anxious 23-minute phone call to police. ‘They are trying to kill me,’ she said, before vanishing.

Police spent the summer searching the beach area where she had last been seen, but ultimately turned up nothing.

At the end of the year they tried again. And finally, under a thin sheet of snow a German Shepherd found the body of a decomposing female.

But it was not Shannan Gilbert under the snow. Police had uncovered the remains of Melissa Barthelemey, a 24-year-old woman advertising as a sex worker on Craigslist.

She had disappeared the summer prior, also leaving behind little for investigators to go on.

But as police widened the search to the area around Gilgo Beach, they made a series of horrifying discoveries.

On December 13, 2010, authorities recovered the remains of sex workers Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Megan Waterman, found within 500ft of each other. 

The discoveries prompted an even wider investigation, and as the snow thawed the remains of even more missing people were found.

On March 29, 2011, the partial remains of 20-year-old sex worker Jessica Taylor were found, seven years since her disappearance, on nearby Cedar Beach.

Taylor was already known to police, her mutilated torso found 45 miles east of the beach in Manorville, New York, way back in 2003. 

The discovery of her head and hands potentially added years to this complex case as it spilled open. 

And then, a week later, the remains of Valerie Mack, an Asian male (John Doe) and ‘Baby Doe’ (a female toddler) were found in the area.

Again, partial remains of Mack had already been found in Manorville years before, in November 2000. Her right foot had been cut off above the ankle.

The Asian male, also unidentified, was found to have died from blunt trauma, wearing women’s clothing, dead for five to ten years.

Police continued to make horrifying discoveries in the area as they searched and searched – still without having found missing Shannan Gilbert.

A week later, on April 11, 2011, the remains of another potential victim – referred to as Jane Doe 3 – were recovered near Jones Beach State Park. 

She was later identified as the mother of the child found a week prior, and in 2016 matched with a torso found in Lakeview as long ago as 1997.

The remains of another woman, Jane Doe 7, were also found at nearby Tobay Beach. 

The discoveries slowed by the end of the year, some 12 months since the first tragic discoveries were made.

On November 29, 2011, police said they believed that one person was responsible for the apparent murders of Gilbert, Barthelemy, Costello, Brainard-Barnes, Waterman, Taylor, Mack, Jane Doe #3, Jane Doe #7 and the toddler ‘Baby Doe’.

But it was another two weeks before police finally found the remains of Shannan Gilbert, the missing person whose phone call to police prompted the investigation.

Found in a marsh at Oak Beach, Suffolk County medical examiner ruled that Gilbert drowned accidently after taking drugs. 

Unconvinced, her family sued and sought a second opinion. An independent autopsy in 2014 found evidence she might have been strangled.

The 24-year-old’s neck had been broken before she was killed and had a puncture hole in it that could have been caused by a drill, according to her family’s attorney. 

Police did not immediately change their stance. 

Before getting any closure, Gilbert’s mother was found murdered in her house in Ellenville, her daughter charged with stabbing her to death, in July 2016.

The case slowed. In 2016, Suffolk Police’s Chief of Department James Burke was imprisoned for assaulting a suspect who had allegedly stolen his duffle bag containing sex toys and porn videos in 2012.

He served time between 2016 and 2019 as his boss, former District Attorney Thomas Spota, also went inside for obstruction of justice related to the case.

The story took a turn as that year a sex worker said that they had seen Burke at sex parties in Oak Beach. Burke had previously faced a scandal involving activity with a sex worker who used crack cocaine in his car while he was in uniform.

An attorney for the family of Shannan Gilbert later called for Burke should be investigated, bringing forward a Long Island escort who said she had an aggressive encounter with him in 2011.

Police struggled to make progress until newly elected Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney pulled together a crack task force to look into the murders in February 2022.

Eleven months later, hair found on a piece of burlap used to wrap one of the victims was matched with DNA found on a pizza box thrown away by Heuermann, authorities said. 

And last month, police revealed that they were aware of an email address linked to Heuermann being used to trawl through pages on the investigation’s progress.

He had also reportedly been searching for sadistic materials, child pornography and images of the victims or their relatives.

But it was the discovery of a black Chevy Avalanche that became a ‘turning point’ in the mystery.

Police recalled a conversation with a witness, urging them to look into a car of the same description that had been parked on Costello’s drive before she vanished.

Searches revealed a car like the one described was linked to Heuermann, who also fit the FBI’s profile of the killer, at the time a number of women went missing.

A witness had also told police they should be looking for a large, white male around 6ft 4 or 6ft 6, in his mid-40s with dark, bushy hair and glasses, looking ‘like an ogre’, court papers revealed. 

On July 13, 2023, police gathered enough evidence to arrest and charge 6ft 6 Rex Heuermann, charged over the deaths of Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Melissa Barthelemy. 

He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. 

Heuermann pleaded not guilty.