Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was back in court Wednesday. New evidence was turned over from the prosecution to the defense – and Heuermann's defense attorney, Michael Brown, is now questioning if the former Suffolk County Police Chief played a role in the case.
www.longislandpress.com
By
Michael Malaszczyk
Posted on
April 16, 2024
Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is due back in court Wednesday.
It’s Heuermann’s first appearance since Feb. 6, which was a regular conference that saw additional evidence being turned over from the prosecution to Heuermann’s attorneys.
Rex Heuermann’s Case: From Then Until Now
Rex Heuermann was identified as a suspect by the Gilgo Beach Task Force in 2022, and was arrested in July 2023. He was immediately charged with the murders of Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy, and Megan Waterman, and named a suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. These four women have been called “The Gilgo Four.”
Heuermann pleaded not guilty to all three.
On Nov. 15, Heuermann’s estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, attended his court appearance – shortly before it was revealed she had a $1 million documentary deal with Peacock. Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after Heuermann’s arrest, but appeared to smile at him in court that day, and has since said she does not believe Heuermann was capable of the murders.
Heuermann was charged with Brainard-Barnes’s murder on Jan. 16, and pleaded not guilty to that as well. His ex-wife as well as his daughter Victoria Heuermann
attended that court appearance. Several family members of victims, represented by attorney Gloria Allred, also attended and gave statements afterwards.
Michael Brown, Heuermann’s defense attorney, has made several statements to the media attempting to cast doubt on the DNA evidence allegedly linking Heuermann to the Gilgo Four.
Other Developments in the Case
There are up to six other victims – possibly more – linked to the Gilgo Beach murders. Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor’s dismembered, partial remains were found in Manorville in 2000 and 2003, respectively, and were then both found in 2011 on Gilgo Beach. Also found in 2011 on Gilgo Beach were an unidentified Asian male known as “Asian Doe,” and an unidentified toddler.
The toddler was revealed to be the daughter of
“Peaches,” an unidentified female whose dismembered, partial remains were found at Hempstead Lake State Park in 1997, and on Jones Beach in 2011. She was nicknamed Peaches due to a distinctive tattoo of a bitten peach on her remains. As recently as 2022, the FBI was seeking relatives of an Elijah Howard, or Howell, of Mobile, Alabama in connection to Peaches’ identity – but there have been no developments since then.
The dismembered, partial remains of “Fire Island Jane Doe” were found on Fire Island in 1996 and on Tobay Beach in 2011. Fire Island Jane Doe was
revealed to be Long Island native Karen Vergata in August, roughly two weeks after Heuermann’s arrest.
Miller Place-based attorney John Ray has a sworn affidavit where a witness claims
Karen Vergata had been last seen at Rex Heuermann’s Massapequa Park residence.
Heuermann has not been charged with any of the murders outside of the Gilgo Four. Due to a clear difference in modus operandi – the Gilgo Four were all bound and wrapped in burlap, and the others were dismembered – many have speculated through the years if Long Island has more than one serial killer.
However, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney has said that the same grand jury that indicted Heuermann for the Gilgo Four is investigating the other murders on Gilgo Beach. He has not specifically named any of the victims, nor has Heuermann been officially named a suspect.
A Cross-Country Killing Spree?
Heuermann has been anecdotally linked to several murders not officially tied to the Gilgo murders. Lt. P.J. Trujillo, of the Mamaroneck Police Department in Westchester, has speculated if Heuermann is responsible for the murder of “Cherries,” another unidentified woman, nicknamed for a tattoo, whose partial remains washed up in both Mamaroneck and Oyster Bay – although Trujillo told the
Press in January there were no updates in that case.
It’s been just over 20 years since the partial remains of Andre Jamal Isaac, a drag performer known professional as “Sugar Bear,” were found dismembered and scattered in both Far Rockaway and Center Moriches. His case appears on a
hidden page on the Task Force’s official website, gilgonews.com, although police told the
Press his case was used as a test when they were launching the website and they do not believe he is connected to the Gilgo murders.
The family of Carmen Vargas, a woman who was murdered in 1989 and found near the Meadowbrook Parkway in Freeport, has spoken out saying Heuermann may be responsible for her murder. They initially believed her to be a victim of Joel Rifkin, another Long Island serial killer who killed up to 17 women and was arrested in the 1990s, but said Rifkin – who has confessed to all of his murders – denied involvement.
Heuermann has been linked to several murders out-of-state, including in South Carolina and Nevada where he may have owned property, but there have been no updates or charges in any of those cases.
Shortly after his arrest, Heuermann was ruled out as the “Eastbound Strangler,” an unidentified serial killer who murdered four women in the Egg Harbor Township close to Atlantic City. Because those victims were bound similar to the Gilgo Four, many had speculated for years if the Eastbound Strangler and the Gilgo Beach killer were the same individual – but authorities in New Jersey said there was no connection.
www.crimewatchers.net
out of for stealing his porn and other sex toys stuff. The FBI might be working on those, but I bet a lot of evidence was destroyed.