Man accused of Gilgo Beach killer allegedly kept crime ‘blueprint’

(RIVERHEAD, NY) – The New York architect previously accused of killing four women and leaving their bodies strewn along a coastal highway was charged Thursday with the deaths of two more after prosecutors said they gathered new DNA evidence and found a computer document he had used. to “project” their crimes.

Rex Heuermann, 60, appeared before a judge on the eastern end of Long Island to face charges that he killed Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla, two young women who had long been suspected of being victims of men who preyed on sex workers.

Taylor disappeared in 2003. Costilla was killed in 1993. The new charges came just days after police completed extensive searches of Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home and a wooded area on Long Island in connection with the investigation into a series of deaths known as serial murders in Gilgo Beach. .

In a court filing, prosecutors said they were able to use new forensic testing methods to compare hair found in the vicinity of both victims with a DNA profile that likely matches Heuermann’s. Additionally, prosecutors say they discovered a “planning document” on the hard drive found in his basement, used to “methodically plan” his deaths.

The document includes Heuermann’s concerns about leaving behind forensic evidence, guidelines for cleaning and washing bodies, and notes on how to improve “next time,” according to the bail application.

Heuermann pleaded not guilty at the hearing and was held without bail.

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Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney planned to hold a news conference after the hearing.

The charges involving Costilla, who died 30 years ago, indicate that prosecutors believe Heuermann killed victims for much longer than previously thought. Prosecutors say an entry in planning documents suggested he was involved in the death of another woman, Valerie Mack, who was found dismembered in the same neighborhood as Taylor. Heuermann was not charged in the death of Mack, who disappeared in 2000.

Since late 2010, police have been investigating the deaths of at least 10 people – mostly female sex workers – whose remains were discovered along an isolated road not far from Gilgo Beach on the south shore of Long Island.

The victims disappeared over a period of at least 14 years. Angry police officers made only progress in identifying possible suspects. Investigators have long said it is likely that not all of the deaths were the work of the same killer. Some of the victims went missing in the mid-1990s. Investigators concluded that an 11th person who went missing in 2010 from the barrier island community of Oak Beach accidentally drowned.

Heuermann, who lived across the bay from where the bodies were found, was arrested last July. Prosecutors said a new investigative task force used cell phone location data and DNA samples to link the architect to some of the victims. He was accused of killing four of the women: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

Investigators who extensively searched Heuermann’s home and dug up his backyard last summer returned to the house last month and spent nearly a week searching it again. They focused their efforts mainly on the basement, according to Heuermann’s wife’s lawyer.

This followed an April search of a wooded area in Manorville, about 40 miles east of Heuermann’s home linked to another Gilgo Beach victim.

Jessica Taylor, 20, disappeared in 2003 while working as an escort in New York City. Some of her remains were discovered in Manorville that year. Other remains were found in a 2011 search of beach brush alongside Ocean Parkway, the road where the other Gilgo Beach victims were found.

Investigators in April also spent days searching a property in the eastern North Sea village of Long Island where Costilla’s body was discovered in 1993. Costilla was 28 years old when she was killed and lived in New York City.

A decade ago, Suffolk County prosecutors said publicly that they believed Costilla had been killed by a carpenter who lived in the area, John Bittrolff, who was convicted of murdering two other women whose bodies were found in the same part of Long Island. But Bittrolff was never charged with Costilla’s death due to a lack of evidence. He insists he is innocent of any murder.

Heuermann’s lawyer and lawyers separately representing his wife and two adult children declined to comment.

Heuermann, who has been in custody since his arrest, has pleaded not guilty. He was scheduled to return to court July 30 for a status hearing. No trial date has been set.