Long Islanders are living their own reality crime series as updates on the Gilgo murder arrest come at them almost every hour in a story that has made international headlines.
Massapequa Park neighbors of accused killer Rex Heuermann were unnerved by the sound of heavy machinery digging up his backyard as investigators searched for clues in the murder of sex workers whose bodies were found 13 years ago in the heavy brush off Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.
Inside, investigators found items that could provide insight into the mind of the alleged killer: a fair-haired, child-sized doll, a portrait of a blond woman with blackened eyes and “a lot of torture porn,” according to police reports. The Heuermann home also had between 200-300 firearms in a vault concealed in a walled-off area of the basement, including pistols, revolvers, and semi-automatic rifles.
The search of the property was considered “fruitful” so far by Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison at the scene. “We’re just doing a total investigation around the house to see if there’s anything back there that we need to take a closer look at,” Harrison said. “It will help us to be able to identify anything in that backyard that we need to take into our possession.”
Though he didn’t provide further details on what was found, Harrison noted: “I will say that we will go into every single crevice to make sure that there’s not something that we missed and things that are beneficial to this investigation.”
District Attorney Raymond Tierney, who himself arraigned Heuermann at a court appearance where he pleaded not guilty, said his investigators are interested in any trace evidence, including blood and DNA of potential victims. "Right now, we can prove these cases," Tierney said. "We're going to work all of the investigations involving Gilgo, and we're going to let the evidence dictate our next actions."
The arrest in the cold case came after months of dogged investigation by a special task force established by Tierney shortly after he took office in 2022. A break came after task force members followed up with a witness who said a man fitting Heuermann’s description visited the home of victim Amber Lynn Costello the day before she was last seen alive. He was driving a dark Avalanche pickup truck, which authorities were able to trace back to Heuermann. Once they had a name, they obtained a DNA sample from a pizza box he discarded near his office in Manhattan. It matched a hair found on one of the victims.
Strengthening their case, investigators also found a hair traced to the suspect’s wife, Asa Ellerup, from DNA found in the garbage at the family’s home. She filed for divorce shortly after her husband was taken into custody. They also matched burner phones to Heuermann that may have been used in contacting the victims and have a chilling call allegedly from the suspect taunting one of the victim’s sisters. Computer searches turned up Heuermann’s proclivity for torture and rape porn, investigators said, and an intense interest in updates about the case.
In addition to Costello, Heuermann is charged in the murders of Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman, and is also a prime suspect in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, four of the victims connected to the 11 traced to the Gilgo dumping ground.
"We brought in all of these talented people to work collaboratively together, and it worked," Tierney said. The investigation has expanded to Las Vegas, South Carolina and other areas when Heuermann owned property or was known to visit.
Complicating the infamous cold case is when and where the body parts of the dismembered Gilgo victims were found. The skull of the victim known only as “Fire Island Jane Doe” was found near Gilgo in 2011, but her legs were found about 16 miles away on Fire Island in 1996. Victim Valerie Mack’s head, hands and right foot were also found during the 2011 Gilgo search, while her torso was found 11 years earlier in Manorville, about 40 miles east of Gilgo. Similarly, Jessica Taylor’s skull, hands and one of her forearms were found in the brush along Ocean Parkway in 2011, but her torso was also found in Manorville two years later.
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In a media interview, the Long Island man whose tip investigators used to match Heuermann to the dark Avalanche pickup wondered why it took more than a decade to follow up on his lead. “I gave them the exact description of the truck and the dude,” David Schaller said. “I mean, come on! Why didn’t they use that?”
Schaller, a roommate of victim Amber Lynn Costello before she disappeared in 2010, told police at the time that the man he believed to be her abductor looked like a hulking “ogre” with an “empty gaze” who drove the distinctive dark green Avalanche. Schaller said he scuffled with the creep when the man threatened Costello, a sex worker, who locked herself in their bathroom to get away from her enraged “client.” He said a short time later, Costello went to meet the same customer and was never seen again.
“When they told me she was dead, he was the first person who jumped into my head,” Schaller told the Associated Press of the then-unknown suspect. “I’ve been picturing his face for 13 years.”
The Gilgo investigation stalled for years as a scandal within Suffolk County law enforcement made headlines and derailed the probe. Police Chief James Burke waived off federal assistance in the case and also iced investigators looking into cold cases in New York City and New Jersey. Along with District Attorney Tom Spota and his deputy, Jim McPartland, Burke was convicted of federal corruption charges in a case involving the 2012 beating of Christopher Loeb, a suspect in the stealing of a duffle bag from Burke’s unmarked police car containing pornography and other sex items. Spota made no headway in the case, nor did Tim Sini, the former district attorney Tierney bounced from office.
“At the time, there wasn't really any coherent leadership at the top. So there's no interaction between the FBI and the other agencies," Tierney said.