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Who is the Eastbound Strangler? Theory claims Rex Heuermann may actually be 'two' serial killers

Rex Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the killings in the infamous Long Island case

LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK: Rex Heuermann, an alleged serial killer who was arrested for claiming the lives of at least three women in the infamous Long Island case could also be Eastbound Strangler as fresh evidence in the Gilgo Beach murders has shed light on some similarities with the Atlantic City killings.

Heuermann, 59, was arrested Thursday, July 13, but has pleaded not guilty to the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. Authorities have also claimed that the architect is behind the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

The notorious Gilgo Beach killings

The riveting notion was first presented in Lifetime's latest movie 'The Long Island Serial Killer: A Mother's Hunt for Justice'. Both the Atlantic City and Gilgo Beach killings pose a striking resemblance where all four victims were prostitutes and were strangled to death. 

The program recounts the investigation for the killer who murdered at least 10 people whose bodies were found on Gilgo and Oak beaches in Suffolk County, New York, between 2010 and 2011. In May 2010, the Long Island Serial Killer case began when a  24-year-old sex worker, Shannan Gilbert, disappeared after leaving a client's house on foot near Gilgo Beach. A police officer and his cadaver dog came across the remains of a different woman while they were searching for Gilbert's body in a thicket near the beach. 

This was only the beginning of a gruesome incident as three other bodies were found within a few days. The number of victims climbed to 10 by the spring next year, which included eight women, a man, and a toddler. The first four victims were all women in their 20s and worked as sex workers, police said. 

Who were the victims?

On July 9, 2007, Maureen Brainard Barnes, 25, went missing. Her corpse was discovered on December 13, 2010. Megan Waterman, 22, who had a daughter, went missing on June 6, 2010. Her body was also found on December 13, 2010. Melissa Barthelemy, 24, who was living at Brox at the time, was found dead on December 13, 2010, along with Amber Lynn Costello, 27. 

Barthelemy's body was the first to be discovered. She went missing on July 12, 2009. Costello disappeared on September 2, 2010. Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney told CNN that they are confident they'll charge Heuermann for the fourth murder of Brainard-Barnes. 'We're also confident that we're going to be able to eventually charge that fourth murder", Tierney said before adding "We have a description of the last individual who saw the final victim, Amber Costello, alive that matches that of this defendant, who has a rather unique physical appearance. We have phone evidence, and we also have that DNA evidence." 

Police discovered the skull of a 20-year-old prostitute identified as Jessica Taylor in March 2011. Over the next couple of weeks, five more remains were discovered at Gilgo Beach. In December, that year, Gilbert's body was later found in the marsh in the community of Oak Beach, about three miles east of where the other 10 remains were recovered. 

The Atlantic City killings 

The first Long Island victim was found four years before the Gilgo Beach serial killings. Two women found the body of 35-year-old Kim Raffo on November 20, 2006, in a drainage ditch behind the Golden Key Motel in Egg Harbor Township. Authorities later discovered the bodies of three other women, Barbara V Breidor, 42; Molly Jean Dilts, 20; and Tracy Ann Roberts, 23, just a few yards away from Raffo.

The victims were probably killed at different times as they were each in different stages of decomposition. Their murders were displayed in the same manner, face down, pointing east, and barefoot. Police believe all four women, who were prostitutes in Atlantic City, were strangled. Unlike the Long Island case, the Eastbound Strangler still hasn't been identified even after more than a decade.