Long Island Serial Killer Suspect to Face New Murder Charge This Week

Suspected Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann is expected to be indicted on a new murder charge later this week, CBS News reports.

No details about the charge or victim were given, though the new indictment is expected to be officially brought on Thursday, June 6. The news comes just over a week after police were clocked executing a search warrant at Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park, New York. Back in April, police also conducted a new search in Manorville, where the partial remains of two of Heuermann’s alleged victims were first found 20 years ago.

Heuermann was arrested in July 2023 and charged with murdering three of the so-called “Gilgo Four” victims, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. Charges pertaining to the fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, were brought in January of this year. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him. 

A lawyer for Heuermann did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment on the reports of the impending new charge.

It’s possible the new charge against Heuermann will expand the case against him beyond the Gilgo Four. The remains of 11 bodies were discovered on the coast of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach between 1996 and 2011, but police focused on four victims — all sex workers at the time of their deaths and wrapped similarly in burlap — whom they believed were killed by the same person. 

The case remained cold for over a decade, with investigators finally zeroing in on Heuermann as a suspect in 2022. The breakthrough came after investigators discovered that Heuermann had once owned a Chevrolet Avalanche, the same car model a witness had mentioned seeing in connection to the Costello murder. After that, police were able to connect a series of “burner” phones and email addresses to Heuermann, alleging he used these to contact sex workers. One burner account provided investigators with a trove of evidence, including internet searches related to “sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography and child pornography,” as well as over 200 searches related to the unsolved Long Island serial killer case. 

The final piece of evidence that preceded Heuermann’s arrest came from a discarded pizza crust. Investigators used it to obtain DNA evidence, which they matched to a male hair found in the burlap sack that contained Waterman’s remains.