Rex Heuermann Appears In Court For First Time Since Fourth Murder Charge
Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was back in court Tuesday.
Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, and daughter, Victoria Heuermann, did not show up to this appearance. There were few major updates, but in court the prosecution announced that more evidence – up to seven terabytes – had been turned over to the defense, including the full file on Amber Lynn Costello’s murder. Michael Brown, Heuermann’s defense attorney, said they had not had that yet.
The additional evidence turned over also included 13 years of tips on the case from when the bodies were first found in 2010.
“The defense had request that information, so we prioritized it,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters.
Brown has repeatedly said he wants to see why other suspects and persons of interest in the case had been ruled out – but he has claimed to reporters numerous times that Suffolk County Police had intended to arrest another individual from Massapequa Park.
“We were informed that there was an individual that the prior district attorney in this county was prepared to charge with these crimes,” Brown told reporters. “We haven’t received any of that documentation, we expect it to be forthcoming. But that is extremely important in this case.”
Brown declined to name that individual, or any other former suspects in the Gilgo Four murders. The only individual ever publicly named was Manorville carpenter John Bittrolff, who was convicted, in 2017, of two murders of sex workers in the 1990s. However, Tierney recently announced Bittrolff had no connection to the Gilgo investigation.
Tuesday’s date was set at his Nov. 15 court appearance, the one Ellerup attended for the first time. That was supposed to be the last the public heard about Heuermann until today – but the grand jury concluded its investigation into the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and charged Heuermann with her murder.
He had last appeared in court on Jan. 16 to be arraigned on that new count. Heuermann currently stands charged with the murders of the “Gilgo Four,” Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman, and Brainard-Barnes. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Among evidence listed in Heuermann’s bail document was DNA found on victims matching Heuermann’s wife and daughter, as well as Heuermann’s search history, which included sexually explicit searches and a seeming obsession with the Long Island serial killer investigation.
The Other Victims on Gilgo Beach
After Heuermann was charged with the murder of Brainard-Barnes, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced that the same grand jury would be looking into the other sets of human remains found around Gilgo Beach. Tierney told reporters Tuesday that there was no update in the investigation, and he did not know when that may wrap up.
Tierney did not specifically name any of those victims, but these could include Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, an unidentified Asian male, and an unidentified toddler.
It could also include Karen Vergata, whose remains were found on Fire Island in 1996 and Tobay Beach in 2011, as well as “Peaches,” the mother of the toddler, who was found in Lakeview in 1997 and Jones Beach in 2011 – although Peaches is more likely being looked at by Nassau authorities.
Those close to the case have long debated as to whether or not the bodies found were the work of one or more killers, starting with former Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer and former District Attorney Thomas Spota publicly disagreeing on the subject a decade ago.
There have been very few developments in the case since Heuermann’s Jan 16 appearance. Attorney John Ray, who represents the family of Shannan Gilbert – a woman who went missing on Oak Beach in 2010 and who police were searching for when they found the other remains – held a symposium on Jan. 30. Much of the symposium focused on claiming that Gilbert was murdered, although Ray also said that Heuermann needs to be investigated by federal authorities for murders that could be out of the Gilgo Task Force’s jurisdiction. Authorities have said her cause of death was undetermined.
