Accused Gilgo beach killer Rex Heuermann charged with two more murders – NBC New York

The New York Metropolis architect arrested final 12 months in reference to a string of chilly case our bodies discovered on Lengthy Island’s Gilgo Seaside has been charged with homicide within the deaths of two extra victims, together with one whose identify hadn’t been publicly related to the investigation previous to Thursday, in response to a superseding bail software.

Accused serial killer Rex Heuermann pleaded not responsible to the brand new expenses, his lawyer stated. They embrace the killings of Jessica Taylor, whose arms and forearm had been discovered alongside Ocean Parkway years after her torso turned up within the Manorville woods; and Sandra Costilla, who allegedly died a violent dying by his arms in November 1993.

He’s suspected of killing a seventh girl, Valerie Mack, prosecutors stated; no expenses have been filed in that case.

A superseding indictment unsealed Thursday provides second-degree homicide expenses involving Taylor and Costilla to an inventory already accusing Heuermann of murdering 4 different girls greater than a decade in the past.

“His intent was to find these victims, hunt them down carry them below his management and kill them,” Suffolk District Lawyer Raymond Tierney stated throughout a press convention.

The DA additionally revealed for the primary time that it was attainable Heuermann allegedly dedicated among the murders inside his Massapequa Park dwelling he shared together with his spouse and children.

Learn the bail software

The 60-year-old was first arrested in July 2023 within the deaths of three of the so-called “Gilgo 4,” whose stays had been present in burlap sacks alongside a distant stretch of Ocean Parkway in 2010. Heuermann was later charged with the fourth.

The our bodies of Maureen Brainard-Barnes Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman had been found throughout a seek for a lacking escort, Shannan Gilbert, who later was discovered lifeless in a marsh. Her case was dominated an unintentional drowning, although attorneys for her household maintained the post-mortem was inconclusive.

Investigators say Gilbert’s case will not be tied to the others.

Further units of stays turned up in that seek for Gilbert, too. Jessica Taylor was an escort just like the others.

The brand new expenses come after two current searches tied to the case, which baffled investigators for greater than a decade. Investigators returned to Heuermann’s single-family Massapequa Park dwelling not lengthy after they scoured a wooded space in Manorville in reference to the case. A lawyer for Heuermann’s spouse stated investigators targeted totally on the basement once they returned to the house with a search warrant final month.

In line with the bail software, that is the place they discovered a tough drive. They needed to make the info on it accessible (after Heuermann allegedly tried to delete it) and as soon as they did, they found a doc to “plan out” kills. The invention of that doc, viewable within the court docket submitting above, is what prompted the brand new search of the woods final month, in response to the bail software. Learn the complete bail software.

The all-caps doc, which prosecutors described as Heuerman’s “blueprint” for homicide, was allegedly written between 2000 and 2002. It reads like a grocery listing with disturbing duties to finish earlier than, throughout and after killings. One chilling word reads, “extra sleep and noise management equals extra play time.”

Below the heading “issues to recollect,” it reads “will get sleep earlier than hunt” and “take into account a success to the face or neck subsequent time.” A “physique prep” guidelines features a word to “take away ID marks [like] tattoos” and “take away head and arms.” One other part lists potential “issues,” citing issues like DNA, tire marks, finger prints, attainable witnesses and “hair.”

Nothing was present in that April 2024 search, main investigators to imagine the “kill plan” had been supposed for Taylor, in response to the bail software.

Suffolk DA Tierney stated at a information convention Thursday that he hoped the households had obtained some measure of justice. He thanked a number of companies at numerous ranges of presidency for his or her collaboration and stated the investigation, with some deaths nonetheless unsolved, could be ongoing.

“Each individual that was tragically murdered in Suffolk County is in play,” Tierney stated. “We will not cease. We owe it to the victims.”

Prosecutors stated Heuermann is accountable for the murders of Jessica Taylor in 2003 and Sandra Costilla a decade earlier, bringing the whole variety of murders he has been charged with to 6. The DA added that it is attainable the murders might have been dedicated inside Heuermann’s Massapequa Park dwelling. NBC New York’s Pei-Sze Cheng reviews.

Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, stated outdoors court docket that he could not instantly focus on the brand new expenses.

“Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, entered a not-guilty plea on behalf of his shopper. Outdoors of court docket, Brown stated he couldn’t instantly focus on the brand new expenses, however stated Heuermann is “clearly in a nasty place by way of the brand new expenses.”

“It’s onerous for me to remark with out paperwork and with out talking to my shopper and looking out into the proof,” Brown advised reporters. “It wouldn’t be truthful for me to remark at this time limit…You’ve already made that assumption that he’s the one who drafted it, he’s the one who put it out. I don’t know that.”

Heuermann has been held with out bail since his preliminary arrest and was remanded after his arraignment Thursday. No trial date has been set.

Who’s new Gilgo sufferer Sandra Costilla?

In late November 1993, two individuals out looking in a wooded space of Southampton, close to Outdated Fish Cove Street and North Sea, discovered the stays of Sandra Costilla. The sufferer, who was 28 on the time, was mendacity on her again together with her arms outstretched over her head. There have been indications of sexual assault. She additionally had a number of sharp-force accidents.

A Trinidad and Tobago native, Costilla had been dwelling in New York previous to her disappearance and dying.

Three hairs, together with a male hair, had been recovered from her physique through the investigation. After excluding one other native now-convicted assassin, John Bittrolff, through DNA proof, investigators used DNA proof generated from Costilla’s case in 2014 and in contrast it to DNA proof related to the Gilgo case.

The lab decided that 99.96% of the North American inhabitants may very well be excluded as a contributor of the male hair on Costilla. Heuermann wasn’t in that group, the bail software says.

Suffolk District Lawyer Raymond Tierney stated at a information convention Thursday that he hoped the households had obtained some measure of justice.

One other lab independently confirmed the findings.

As within the different circumstances, the alleged killing occurred whereas Heuermann’s household was away, giving him “unfettered time to execute his plans for every sufferer” with out worry of being caught by his spouse or youngsters, in response to prosecutors.

If the costs are true, Costilla is the primary identified sufferer.

Costilla’s household could not instantly be reached for remark.

What occurred to Jessica Taylor?

Jessica Taylor, 20, vanished in July 2003 whereas working as an escort in midtown Manhattan. Her mom reported her lacking when she did not present up for a deliberate get-together in Poughkeepsie. A girl strolling her canine within the Manorville woods discovered a few of Taylor’s stays that very same 12 months. Her head, arms and forearm had been lacking.

In 2011, eight years later, Taylor’s lacking physique elements had been discovered alongside Ocean Parkway simply east of Gilgo Seaside, on the identical aspect of the street and fewer than a mile from the place the “Gilgo 4” had been discovered a number of months earlier, in December 2010. All 5 of the our bodies had been dumped inside 50 ft of the sting of the parkway, in response to the bail software.

Taylor had been decapitated, and somebody tried to mutilate considered one of her tattoos. Investigators allege Heuermann was making an attempt to hide her identification within the occasion of facial recognition, fingerprints or tattoo identification. They are saying he labored in the identical space the place Taylor was identified to “road stroll” on the time. Information present Heuermann was additionally in midtown Manhattan on July 25, 2023, the day Taylor disappeared, in response to the bail software.

Courtroom papers point out he would have been in possession of a car matching the outline of 1 a witness reported on the scene, by the dump website, that July night time. As soon as Taylor’s physique was discovered, Heuermann allegedly tried to cowl up an web seek for a brand new pick-up truck, regardless of the very fact his car was barely over a 12 months.

A male human hair was recovered on Taylor — on a surgical sheet her torso had been on. On the time, in 2003, all investigators knew was that it possible belonged to a white man. Final 12 months, investigators examined that hair towards Heuermann’s. As within the Costilla case, 99.96% of the North American inhabitants could be excluded. Heuermann, nonetheless, can’t be excluded, the bail software says. His household was out of state on the time Taylor disappeared.

Taylor’s household was in attendance for Tierney’s press convention on Thursday. They’re being represented by Gloria Allred.

“This 12 months has been 21 years since she was taken from us, longer than the possibility that she obtained to be alive. I can not specific what this present day means after ready and hoping for solutions,” stated Jasmine Robinson, a cousin of Jessica Taylor.

Heuermann’s two grownup kids had stated, by an lawyer, that they had been awaiting phrase on Thursday’s improvement. They are saying they stand by their father. They’d no rapid remark after Thursday’s listening to.

The lawyer for Heuermann’s spouse Asa Ellerup stated that the newest indictment “additional illustrates that [she] has no involvement in any of the alleged crimes that her estranged husband” has been accused of.

“Ms. Ellerup married Rex Heuermann in 1996. She was not residing with Rex Heuermann within the Massapequa Park domicile in 1993, the 12 months Ms. Costilla was murdered,” lawyer Robert Macedonio wrote in a written assertion. “On the time of the dying of Ms. Taylor, Ms. Ellerup was, as soon as once more, not within the jurisdiction. As we now have beforehand said, if Mr. Heuermann dedicated these homicides, he was dwelling a double life that Ms. Ellerup was unaware of.”

The lawyer famous that his shopper nonetheless maintains Heuermann “will not be able to committing these heinous acts.”

Chopper 4