Gilgo Beach LISK Serial Killer, Rex Heuermann, charged with 3 murders, July 2023

[LaLaw2000]

00000000

Yes she does. I called her this morning when the news broke.

Thanks, Coldpizza. She worked so hard on this case!

 

[cuecard]

I wasn't expecting this today though I doubt many were. Massive day for the family/friends involved in this case and fair play to the LE involved.

 

[Sundog]

I guess I missed it but did they say why the car was in SC?

I assume that the truck was sold at some point and the current owner of the vehicle lives in SC. The FBI was able to seize the vehicle, the DA said at the press conference. They knew from records that RH had previously owned that vehicle and tracked it to SC and the FBI was able to seize it for the investigation.

 

[mucbetam]

I am happy for them, but also sad. Every agonizing moment will be relived. More shocking details revealed. A trial to go through. Endless publicity.
I pray that God will give them all strength in the coming months.

Speculation, amateur psychology: I think he is deeply insecure, frightened, probably sensitive and was bullied at school about his size. He weakly masks this with a faux confidence that betrays his constant guilt (see the French scarf interview). If he isn't taken out in jail prior to a trial, I could see him changing his plea this one, out of his own fear and shame of facing up to the truth of what he has done in public. A total weakling - who else would be so utterly pathetic as to go after 5 ft petite women and an Asian <modsnip: derogatory> (not on charges) as a 6'5"++ monster. One thing I think is guaranteed, jail will be a bloody hell for him. Unless he is kept away from other prisoners, I really cannot see him lasting very long at all, either that or a very slow, long and drawn out, and rather merciless series of severe bearings, tortures and violations. He is in a word, deadmeat, arguably.

 

[indicolite22]

Or changed venue.
Remember the murders of six sex workers in Atlantic City, NJ?
Similar MO's. Left on deserted beaches.
There is a thread about them on Websleuths.

Those were all found in 2006 and were killed in a 5-week span. I'd like to know what other bad deeds this perp has been involved in in the past 13 years, apart from incriminating internet searches.

 

[AndrewM71]

DNA from his leftover pizza crust? That's the most New York thing I've ever heard

I thought the crust was the best part of a good New York pie?

 

[Dhighsmith]

I'm sure the FBI techs going through the data to connect him to the crimes appreciate him compartmentalising that way, makes it nice and neat for them.

MOO

Agree

 

[Jurisprudence]

Looked at a historical pic of his home from Google Maps 2007 and it appears he had a jeep type vehicle, a pickup truck and there's an SUV parked there as well.
View attachment 434653

Is THAT the Chevy Avalanche?

 

[Synergizer Bunny]

Thanks for this article back from 2011. Bc unless I forgot, I don't remember them definitively linking NY and NJ. I thought it was just speculation. So, I guess they did make this statement.

From your article linked above

Police sources would not say what led authorities to link the New Jersey murder victims — Kim Raffo, Molly Jean Dilts, Barbara Breidor and Tracy Ann Roberts — to the first four in Long Island. But there were several common elements.

In each case, the killer dumped four prostitutes near water and in close proximity, tossing their remains off remote, desolate sections of highway. The bodies were in various stages of decomposition, suggesting he kept some for a period of time after they died.

All eight were low-level sex workers, and the four in New York used Craigslist. Each had been strangled.

He had removed the shoes from both sets of bodies, though the women in New Jersey were clothed. Those in Long Island had been stripped naked and were found without jewelry or belongings, each wrapped in burlap."

RH was married to ER in 1990 in New Brunswick, NJ. (Referenced in this link: Rex Heuermann, architect and married dad of two, busted in Gilgo Beach serial killings after DNA found on pizza box)

I haven't investigated when the NJ murders occurred or the proximity to where they lived. It will be interesting to investigate, though.



JMO.

 

[Dhighsmith]

Speculation, amateur psychology: I think he is deeply insecure, frightened, probably sensitive and was bullied at school about his size. He weakly masks this with a faux confidence that betrays his constant guilt (see the French scarf interview). If he isn't taken out in jail prior to a trial, I could see him changing his plea this one, out of his own fear and shame of facing up to the truth of what he has done in public. A total weakling - who else would be so utterly pathetic as to go after 5 ft petite women and an Asian <modsnip: derogatory> (not on charges) as a 6'5"++ monster. One thing I think is guaranteed, jail will be a bloody hell for him. Unless he is kept away from other prisoners, I really cannot see him lasting very long at all, either that or a very slow, long and drawn out, and rather merciless series of severe bearings, tortures and violations. He is in a word, deadmeat, arguably.

I agree he’ll likely plead out to avoid embarrassment to wife and daughter, he’s already crying because he’s been caught.

 

[mucbetam]

On Shannan: I am now wondering whether the "paranoid" 911 call might hold more clues now that there is a charged prime suspect whose characteristics are better known.

 

[Sundog]

At the end of the press conference when the DA spoke, IIRC he mentioned that they were still waiting for results of tests/analysis to be returned related to Maureen's murder (she is the fourth victim who was found wrapped in burlap). I think that the DA and the entire Task Force would have liked to have had this evidence ready so that they could charge RH with all four of these murders, but there were public safety concerns that RH might murder again, so they had to make their move and arrest him on the three victims for whom they had the evidence and were ready to go.

 

[Dhighsmith]

I wanted to say that I read in one of the NY Post articles that he was married to ER in 1990.
<modsnip - sleuthing non-POI> I believe that he lived in New Jersey for a while; or, at least, had ties to New Jersey.

I haven't investigated when the NJ murders occurred or the proximity to where they lived. It will be interesting to investigate, though.



JMO.

Atlantic City was 2006 just prior to his first LISK murder.

 

[Hoopsticks]

I don't believe it for a second. Her 911 call makes it seem impossible to me that she was not in danger. She had pending law issues, was breaking the law the night she called, yet she contacted the police.

Brewer, the home owner, claimed he wanted her out of the house...so he could have just called the police himself. Pak was breaking the law, but instead of just leaving when noting she was on the phone with police, silently bailing, he speaks with her to try to gain her trust and catch her.

Also, Brewer try's to gain her trust and NOT give info when she was on the phone. Iinstead of giving his address and saying, she over stayed her welcome. Please get her out.

Somebody was trying to hurt her.

MOO

I'm really conflicted on this one. When she went missing/where she went missing and where she was found are huge red flags for me, obviously.

Her phone call when taken in its entirety, however, gives me a lot of pause. Schizophrenia runs in her family, and while she may not have been schizophrenic, there's a litany of related conditions that can manifest in odd ways, but not necessarily all catastrophically negative as full-blown paranoid schizophrenia. When under the influence of alcohol, someone so afflicted can become extremely disoriented and entirely lose the thread of reality around them for extended periods and suddenly snap back without memory of the previous few minutes they were drifting. Her phone call gave me flashbacks to my first marriage, where my wife's maternal grandfather was full-blown schizophrenic. There would be little flashes of some odd lesser-known symptoms of schizophrenia here and there(difficulties with abstraction and concreteness, mostly), but nothing terribly concerning or harmful. However, when she'd been drinking, she would be unable to maintain the thread of any conversation for any extended sort of period. If the conversation changed topics, she would suddenly think we were still talking about the subject we left 5-10 minutes prior, and get frustrated and accuse me of gaslighting her when I would get confused and ask what she was talking about. This would be followed by hours of hyperactive combativeness interspersed with long stretches of near-catatonic silence.

This is just based on my personal experience, but that's what that phone call sounds like to me. I don't think anyone was chasing her or trying to hurt her. I think the phone call is evidence of a near-catastrophic mix of chemicals and neurological short-circuits. She's struggling(and largely failing) to maintain situational awareness for the entire duration of the call before panic takes hold and she bolts.

. . . But where she was found, man.

I just don't know.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Law enforcement personnel outside the suspect’s home in Massapequa Park, Long Island, on Friday.

Though the cold cases of the so-called Gilgo Four now appear to have been solved, law enforcement officials on Friday shared no additional details about the status of the investigations regarding what happened to other six people whose remains have been found around Gilgo Beach since 2010. There was also no indication that investigators believed Rex Heuermann was involved in those deaths.

“We knew that this one person would be watching and we didn’t want to give him any insight into what we were doing,” Tierney said, “and we also didn’t want him to know just how close we were getting.”

How they Caught the Long Island Serial Murder Suspect: Updates

Though officials haven’t officially named a suspect, a 59-year-old man named Rex Heuermann was reportedly taken into custody.

nymag.com

 

[GoBuckeyes]

Posting this here for reference. The Gilgo Beach 4, which news media accounts claim Heuermann is linked to, aren't the only murder victims found in the area of Gilgo Beach. It's confusing, yes.

Thank you for sharing this, Betty. It's very helpful.

 

[Dhighsmith]

For me, the press conference raised more questions than it answered. It was stated that in 2012, the FBI discovered that the 3 phones of the victims as well as a burner phone all pinged in the same area in Massapequa Park and Midtown Manhattan. IIRC it was also stated that around the same time (or perhaps earlier, the exact time LE was made aware was not clear but it sounded as if it was early in the investigation), LE learned of the 'ruse' Amber Costello ran shortly before her disappearance in which her client was a very tall and large man who was around 6'4" to 6'8" and had a 1st-gen Chevy Avalanche (as stated in the bail application).

So LE knew that the victims' phones and the burner phone were in the same areas (Massapequa Park & Midtown Manhattan) and they also had a detailed description of a client & the car he drove early on in the investigation. I understand why running the mDNA on the hairs found at the crime scene wasn't possible back then (2011-2012), but I wonder why LE didn't search for people living in Massapequa Park and/or Midtown Manhattan who fit the description and had a Chevy Avalanche registered in their name. Assuming RH has a driver's license, the NY DMV would already have his height/weight and vehicle information on file, so it seems they would've been able to identify RH as a suspect much earlier than 2022.

Obviously we are not privy to the inner workings of the investigation, but based on the bail application and the information in the press conference, I'm confused as to why LE didn't connect the puzzle pieces earlier, so to speak. MOO.

I don’t believe there was much interest in actually locating LISK back in 2011. JMO

 

[Sheila Terranova]

And Kristin Smart.

Yes, thank you! And Moscow Idaho killings and the Golden State Killer! God speed police And FBI.
all of the old crimes are being solved with our new dna technology, thank God. May all the victims rest in peace a bit easier.

 

[Jurisprudence]

I don’t believe there was much interest in actually locating LISK back in 2011. JMO

Agree. Too many powerful people who didn't want their alleged dirty laundry aired as an incidental part of an investigation that might shine a spotlight on the community and dissect it down to microscopic levels. Better to keep it low key. MOO

 

[FromGermany1]

Thank you, now I also found the line:

So I am still interested in the time of the divorce from first marriage. Probably earlier. But he is also somewhat likely to have earlier victims, IMO.

He reminds me of Bradley Robert Edwards, Perth/AUS (Claremont serial killings). Under the radar, married twice, stepchild, big strong man, inconspicuous, ....