Rex Heuermann was arrested on July 13 for murdering three people on a secluded Long Island coastal highway.
A panoramic view of Gilgo Beach in its entirety. (Source: Rolling store)
Heuermann Accused Suspect of the Dead Bodies in Gilgo Beach as DNA Found Match
In court Wednesday, prosecutors said DNA from Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann’s cheek swab matches DNA from a pizza crust that linked him to one of the victims. Heuermann, 60 years old, was arrested on July 13 on murder charges in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello, three of the women whose bodies were found along a secluded Long Island coastal route. He is also the leading suspect in the death of a fourth woman. He’s been jailed without bond at Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead after pleading not guilty.
Heuermann was arrested when prosecutors linked DNA from a pizza crust he threw in a Manhattan garbage can to Waterman’s body hairs. The court subsequently allowed prosecutors to collect Heuermann’s cheek swab DNA to prove his connection to Waterman’s murder. “The buccal swab erases all doubt,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told the judge, Newsday reported. Thirteen years after police hunting for a missing lady recovered 10 sets of human remains buried in the bush at Long Island’s lonely Gilgo Beach, architect Heuermann was arrested.
Authorities have long thought a serial murderer committed some of the deaths, but they do not believe all were killed by the same person. The majority of murders are unsolved. On Wednesday, prosecutors told Suffolk County Court Judge Timothy Mazzei they gave Heuermann’s defense hundreds of documents. The judge was informed that Heuermann spends two to three hours a day analyzing the material against him. Heuermann’s counsel questioned the DNA sample’s importance. “There is nobody on the face of the earth that is credible is going to say that hair is my client’s hair,” defense counsel Michael Brown told the New York Post outside the courthouse.
READ ALSO: Los Angeles District Attorney Imposes Additional Charges to Salazar After a Deputy Being Killed
