Gilgo Beach murders: From burner phones to Tinder profile, full list of evidence cops had to arrest Rex Heuermann
SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK: On Thursday, July 13, the 59-year-old architect Rex Heuermann was arrested over suspicion of being connected to the Gilgo Beach murders. He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, three of the four women known as "The Gilgo Four," the first victims of the serial killings.
He was also named as "the prime suspect" in the murder of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Following his arrest, prosecutors released a 32-page document detailing the mountain of evidence against Heuermann that led to his arrest more than a decade after the murders. The evidences included DNA material found on victims, computer forensic evidence and cellphone data, among other things.
Cellphone records
As per court records unveiled in Suffolk County Criminal Court on Friday, July 14, the bodies of Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello, were found covered in burlap near the Ocean Parkway on Long Island's South Shore in December 2010. Barthelemy was reported missing in July 2009 while Waterman disappeared in June 2010 and Costello was last seen in September 2010.
Reports revealed that each women contacted an unidentified person using a "burner" phone shortly before their deaths. In summer 2009, an individual used Barthelemy's phone at least five times to make "taunting phone calls to Ms Barthelemy's family members." Court documents said, the calls "resulted in a conversation between the caller, who was a male, and a relative of Melissa Barthelemy, in which the male caller admitted killing and sexually assaulting Ms Barthelemy."
It is believed that the suspect used one of his burner phones to call Barthelemy's then-16-year-old sister saying, "Do you know what your sister is doing? She’s a wh*re." The calls was reportedly linked to a cellphone seen pinging in Massapequa, Heuermann's residence, and in midtown Manhattan, where his office is located. "On August 10, 2009, based upon subpoenaed travel documents, Heuermann departed for Iceland and all phone activity for the Barthelemy Phone stopped. On August 18, 2009, Heuermann returned from Iceland and phone activity for the Barthelemy Phone resumed the next day," as per legal documents.
Cellphone data from another victim also revealed that she was in the Massapequa area prior to her disappearance. "Cell site records show that the Waterman Phone traveled to Massapequa Park with the last cell site location being in Massapequa Park at approximately 3:11 am in the vicinity of the residence of Defendant Heuermann," prosecutors said in court documents.
Meanwhile, the "burner" phone used to contact the victims was later linked to Heuermann with his American Express activity at the time of the phone’s purchase. Reports suggest that cellphone bills linked to the architect hinted towards him using the burner phone to meet up with the victims. Moreover, the cellphone's usage was also traced to be in the proximity to Heuermann’s New York City office.
Additionally, Heuermann was linked to one of the cell phones after a surveillance footage showed him purchasing additional minutes for the device at a store in Midtown Manhattan. One of the burner phones was even found on Heuermann when he was arrested on July 13, the New York Post reported. Meanwhile, Heuermann personal phones also allegedly pinged in the same general location as the suspect's burner phones used to contact the victims.
Online searches
Records showed that the "burner" cellphones connected to the Long Island serial killing suspect were linked to a series of "burner" email accounts that Heuermann created to contact sex workers online. However, he also ended up using his personal cellphone to check the inbox of one of the "burner" emails. A particular email ID, referred to as the "Thawk Email Account" in the court documents, helped officials to discover a treasure trove of proof.
Reports suggest that Heuermann allegedly made "thousands of searches related to sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography and child pornography" using the burner email. Other disturbing subjects he allegedly searched on Google included, "girl begging for rape porn," "nude slave girls" and "10 year old school girl." In addition, the "Thawk Email Account" also conducted over 200 searches related to the Long Island Serial Killer between March 2022 to June 2023.
Searches during that period included queries like, "Long Island killer," "Why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the Long Island serial killer," "Long Island serial killer phone call," and "Why hasn’t the Long Island serial killer been caught," among others. The same email account was also used to search podcasts and documentaries made related to the Gilgo Beach murders investigation as well as to view hundreds of images showing the deceased victims and their immediate family members.
"Significantly, defendant Heuermann also searched for and viewed articles concerning the very Task Force that was investigating him," prosecutors mentioned. An IP address that reportedly booked flights for Heuermann and his wife on JetBlue also allegedly accessed the Gilgo News website, which is maintained by authorities to provide updates on the case.
Tinder profile
Investigators reportedly obtained records from Tinder which showed that one of the "burner" phones was linked to a fictitious Tinder account named "Andrew Roberts." The account allegedly used an email ID that Heuermann accessed from his personal cellphone. His Tinder profile, set up under the name "Andy" (Andrew being Heuermann’s middle name) showed two pictures of the man wearing a button-down shirt and smiling in a mirror.
Reports suggest that Heuermann allegedly used Google Pay to maintain his profile in the dating app via an American Express credit card. Further investigation showed Heuermann taking and sending selfies from a fake AOL account under the name Springfieldman9, as well as another fake email, Hunter1903a3@gmail.com, both of which were linked to the burner phones connected to Heuermann.
Vehicle sighting
During the investigation, a witness spoke about spotting a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche pulling up to victim Costello's West Babylon, Long Island home around the time she seen for the last time on September 2, 2010. Officials found that a similar pickup truck, distinctive because of being an early model, was registered in Heuermann's name. An identical vehicle, a Chevrolet pick-up truck was also seen getting towed from Heuermann's Massapequa residence on Friday, July 14.
Physical description
Another major evidence that led to Heuermann's arrest came from witnesses involved in the case of Costello’s disappearance. As per Rolling Stone, officials revealed in court documents that a day before Costello went missing "a ruse was executed on the client whereby a person pretended to be the outraged boyfriend of Amber Costello and the client left from the residence, while Amber Costello retained the money the client had brought to pay for her services."
Prosecutors said that Heuermann was allegedly the client who contacted Costello the day after using a burner phone. "Amber told us that he wanted to see her again, but he didn’t want to come back to the house because of her boyfriend," a witness reportedly told police at the time. The witness described the client as being a "large, white male, approximately 6'4" to 6'6" in height, in his mid-forties, with 'dark bushy hair,' and 'big oval style 1970's type eyeglasses'" who apparently looked like an "ogre".
Investigators later mentioned that the physical description of the man matched with Heuermann, who has been described as a "large, white male, approximately 6’4” in height, in excess of 240 pounds in weight, with dark bushy hair, who wears large eyeglasses and who was 46 years old when Amber Costello went missing."
DNA evidence
Perhaps the most important proof that led to officials arresting Heuermann was DNA-based evidence. Authorities revealed that a male hair found in the burlap sack containing Waterman’s remains showed a "99.96%" mitochondrial match to Heuermann’s hair. The latter was linked to Waterman's death after investigators recovered DNA "from the pizza crust abandoned" by the architect in a trash can outside his Fifth Avenue office on Janaury 26.
Officials collected the DNA after seeing Heuermann tossing the pizza in garbage. The DNA was then matched to the hair found in the burlap used to wrap Waterman’s body. The results of the lab test were reportedly confirmed in June 2023. In addition, the DNA of Heuermann’s second wife, Asa Ellerup, is also believed to have been found on the bodies of three victims.
A DNA testing conducted on a water bottle taken from outside Heuermann’s home reportedly matched the sample of a woman's hair found on the tape used to tie up Costello and Waterman as well as the belt used to bind Brainard-Barnes’ feet. Forensic examiners later matched the hair to that of Heuermann’s wife. Ellerup has not been criminally charged and investigators believe she was either out of town or out of the country during the "Gilgo 4" murders.