Cops scouring the Lengthy Island dwelling of accused Gilgo Seaside serial killer Rex Heuermann are utilizing physique components from doubtlessly different victims to attempt to tie him to these murders, too, police sources say.
Authorities aren’t simply in search of extra hyperlinks to the deaths of the 4 intercourse employees Heuermann is already accused of butchering — additionally they are attempting to nail him on different murders that he hasn’t beforehand been publicly related to, sources advised The Put up on Tuesday.
“They’re trying to match up beforehand recovered physique components however that didn’t match any of the recognized victims,” a supply acquainted with the probe mentioned.
The stunning revelation got here as Suffolk County and state police investigators searched the 60-year-old married architect and pop of two’s raveled Massapequa Park dwelling, the place he had been dwelling together with his spouse and son and daughter, for a second straight day.
Pictures present Suffolk County cops and state troopers stacking dozens of enormous brown cardboard packing containers on the entrance porch of the house and inside two white tents erected on the entrance garden — as vans and a trailer sat alongside the curb ready to cart away the potential proof.
A coroner’s van that was on the scene Monday had not returned as of noon Tuesday.
Heuermann’s spouse and son “advised me that [cops] tore the place aside the primary time, that there was no stone unturned,” longtime next-door neighbor Etienne DeVilliers, 68, mentioned to The Put up on Tuesday.
“I don’t know what they might probably be in search of or they might discover this time,” she mentioned. “You bought to maneuver on.
“To see the youngsters going via this, it’s a tragic factor to see,” DeVilliers mentioned. “Once I see [the son] Chris strolling down the road together with his canine, even to at the present time, he nonetheless says to me, ‘My father didn’t do that.’ And I say, ‘It’s OK, Chris. It’s OK to really feel that means.’ ‘Trigger you understand, nothing is his fault.
“So I hope they acquired the unsuitable man however you understand, we’ll see.”
Authorities have been tight-lipped concerning the search warrant that despatched cops again to the home.
However a supply mentioned the brand new search additionally seeks to construct on the proof prosecutors have already got on Heuermann within the loss of life of the 4 ladies he’s charged with killing.
“The issue with the case they’ve is it’s largely circumstantial,” the supply advised The Put up.
“The bodily proof, that means the mitochondrial DNA, is just not 100%. You continue to want to have the ability to show past an affordable doubt that Rex Heuermann was with these victims at a time, a sure location, and it’s important to put him on the scene wherever that scene could also be and doing the act.
“That’s what they’re looking for, new proof for the speculation that a number of could have been murdered in his dwelling whereas his household was away,” the supply mentioned. “However proper now, that’s the piece that’s lacking.”
The supply mentioned the present concept of the crimes “lays out a roadmap,” however “it’s truly not an awesome concept.”
Investigators arrived on the single-story crimson home armed with a search warrant shortly after 8 a.m. Monday, with the operation happening whereas Heuerman”s spouse, Asa Ellerup, and their two grownup youngsters, Christopher and Victoria, are in South Carolina.
Heuermann stays within the Riverhead Correctional Facility in Suffolk, the place he’s been since his arrest in July 2022.
Police had already spent practically two weeks combing via the home and basement on the household’s property in July 2023. They discovered a concrete gun vault the place the accused killer stashed greater than 300 weapons, amongst different issues.
The search prolonged to a close-by storage locker, with cops reportedly in search of physique components.
Authorities by no means revealed what if something they discovered on the time.
The Suffolk County District Lawyer’s Workplace has declined to touch upon the brand new search.
Regardless of DNA proof, cell-phone data and years-old eyewitness identification, investigators have by no means decided the place Heuermann’s alleged victims — recognized collectively because the “Gilgo 4” — have been truly killed.
The slain ladies — Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Nicole Brainard-Smith, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22 — have been intercourse escorts who solicited purchasers on Craig’s Listing and different on-line websites.
Their our bodies have been discovered alongside a desolate stretch of waterfront alongside Ocean Parkway between 2010 and 2011, together with greater than a half-dozen different corpses whose deaths stay unsolved.
The case sat dormant for over a decade till police reopened it in 2022 and recognized Heuerman as a suspect about two months into the brand new probe.
In accordance with paperwork filed by prosecutors, the hulking Manhattan architect frequented on-line websites to solicit prostitutes and was obsessive about the progress of the Gilgo Seaside investigation.
Suffolk County prosecutors haven’t linked Heuermann to the opposite our bodies — one thing sources advised The Put up they’re trying to do now.
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