Who is Katherine Shepherd? Interior decorator says Rex Heuermann had a secret locked room in the basement
LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK: Gilgo Beach serial killings suspect Rex Heuermann had a large locked basement and appeared to be nervous when an interior decorator sought to get inside the room as he told her it was filled with weapons. Katherine Shepherd who visited his residence as she was required to measure the home recalled the suspect's odd reaction.
Shepherd now doubts whether Heuermann hid the women in the secret locked room in the 12'x15' space. "I didn't understand why he was being so weird about it, and now I'm thinking 'What was he hiding?' It was a big room. What was happening in that room? Is that where he took the women?" she said, reported Daily Mail.
Who is Katherine Shepherd?
Katherine Shepherd is an interior designer who has worked with the alleged killer for five years. For a 2005 renovation project, the 47-year-old spent three hours assessing Heuermann's home in Massapequa Park, New York. Recalling her working relationship with the married father-of-two that ended a couple of years before the murders, she said he once taught her to fire a 9mm handgun at a firing range in the Bronx.
She also revealed that Heuermann took her to a hospital when she slipped on ice and accompanied her back to her Manhattan apartment. He also gave her medicines when she was taken back to her home.
From 2002 to 2007, Shepherd worked with the alleged killer on-and-off. For two of those years they worked together, she shared office space in Manhattan with Heuermann where his architectural company operated.
'He's just like Dexter'
As a freelance interior designer, Shepherd traveled with Heuermann to job sites and she found him socially awkward but described him as a smart and mostly friendly person. She compares him to the 'Showtime' character 'Dexter' who was a serial killer and lived a double life.
"He's just like Dexter. You'd never know if you met him. Dexter was also super normal and then he had that other side," she said. Shepherd explained that she did not know of the Gilgo Beach murders until she learned of Heuermann's arrest which an old boss notified her of on Saturday by sharing the news through text message.
"I googled his name and, Jesus, there he was. There was this picture of my colleague that I remembered dearly," said the interior designer. "I then spent the next eight hours reading every article I could find. I was shocked. How could this be the same man?" shared Shepherd and added, "I'm like shaking right now."
Heuermann pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the first degree and three counts of murder in the second degree in connection to the deaths of Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy, and Megan Waterman.