A year after the arrest of Rex Heuermann, a New York City architect accused of living a double life in the family-friendly Massapequa Park suburb, a task force is still pulling new evidence out of the trove of items seized during a 12-day search of his house.
On July 13, 2023, Suffolk County police arrested Heuermann, now 60, outside his Manhattan office in three cold case murders — the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27, in 2010.
Over the next 12 months, they tacked on charges in four additional slayings. First, they charged him with killing Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, whose remains were near the other three. Then they filed charges for the alleged murders of Jessica Taylor in 2003 and Sandra Costilla in 1993.
He remains the prime suspect in at least one more murder, the killing of Valerie Mack, whose remains were also dismembered and scattered across two locations, the brush east of Gilgo Beach and the woods of Manorville. Investigators in at least three other states where Heuermann had ties are also examining cold cases in their jurisdictions for potential connections.
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Heuermann’s suspected victims were all notably petite, many barely 5 feet tall. In a gruesome note to self recovered from one of his computers by forensic investigators, Heuermann allegedly wrote that “small is good.”
The computer file, known as “HK2002-04,” had been deleted but was still accessible by law enforcement. In it, Heuermann allegedly kept a list of “problems,” “supplies,” targets and dump sites.
When he wasn’t designing buildings or preying on women, prosecutors allege Heuermann read up on other serial killers and studied the work of John Douglas, a former FBI profiler who wrote the influential book “Mindhunter.”
REX HEUERMANN’S FAMILY KEPT GRUESOME PIECE OF EVIDENCE, SOURCE SAYS
He even listed page numbers from the book in the HK document and kept a running list of traffic cameras along the two highways between his home and the two known dump sites in Manorville and North Sea toward the eastern end of Long Island.
The file, in part, led police to search those locations and to return to Heuermann’s house for a second look, months after they spent nearly two weeks scouring through it.
Four of Heuermann’s alleged victims are referred to as the Gilgo Four, whose remains were all discovered near one another just east of Gilgo Beach south of Long Island’s Great South Bay.
Both Taylor and Costilla were dismembered, and police found parts of their remains near Gilgo Beach and parts in eastern Long Island.
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Police found 11 bodies along Ocean Parkway, east of Gilgo Beach, in 2010 and 2011, after Shannan Gilbert placed a panicked 911 call begging for help in the neighboring community of Oak Beach.
An investigation into most of the deaths remains ongoing, although Gilbert’s demise has been ruled an accidental drowning, a finding disputed by a private autopsy conducted by Dr. Michael Baden, who found evidence of strangulation.
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According to the filings, police have now received reports of Heuermann’s old Chevy Avalanche from two witnesses in two separate murders. They have decades of phone records and internet searches. They have his DNA.
As the case against Heuermann has progressed, his family has struggled to get by.
His wife, Asa Ellerup, filed for divorce shortly after his arrest and then revealed she was fighting cancer.
Her attorney, Bob Macedonio, told Fox News Digital this week her life remains upside-down.
“Every day after July 13, 2023, has been a new normal,” he said. “She’s in remission now. Her and her children are adjusting to life the best they can.”
Ellerup, who previously said she does not believe her estranged husband was capable of the horrific crimes he’s accused of, has continued to visit him in jail but is reserving judgment until the outcome of his trial.
