Gilgo Beach killings suspect due in court as prosecutors tout ‘significant development’ in case

Prosecutors plan to announce a “major development” Thursday in the case of a New York architect accused of killing four women and leaving their bodies scattered in brush along a coastal highway.

Rex Heuermann, 60, will appear before a judge days after police complete new, extensive searches his home in Massapequa Park and a wooden area on Long Island, connected to the investigation into a series of deaths known as the Gilgo Beach Serial Murders.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney did not say what development he plans to announce or what the purpose of Thursday’s hearing is.

Since late 2010, police have been investigating the deaths of at least 10 people — mostly female sex workers — whose remains were discovered along a remote highway not far from Gilgo Beach on Long Island’s south shore.

The victims had disappeared over a period of at least fourteen years. Exasperated police officers made only halting progress in identifying possible suspects. Researchers have long said it was likely that not all the deaths were the work of the same killer. Some of the victims disappeared in the mid-1990s. Investigators concluded that an 11th person who disappeared from the barrier island community of Oak Beach in 2010 had accidentally drowned.

Heuermann, who lived across the bay from where the bodies were found, was arrested last July. Prosecutors said a new investigative task force used cell phone location data and DNA samples to link the architect to some of the victims. He was accused of killing four of the women: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

Researchers who had searched Heuermann’s home extensively and dug up his garden last summer returned to the house last month and found almost a week look it up again. They concentrated their efforts mainly in the basement, according to a lawyer for Heuermann’s wife.

That followed a search in April for a wooded area in Manorvilleabout 40 miles east of Heuermann’s home, linked to two other Gilgo Beach victims.

Valerie Mack, 24, who had worked as an escort in Philadelphia, disappeared in 2000 and was last seen by her family in Port Republic, New Jersey. Some of her skeletal remains were discovered in the woods of Manorville that same year. More of her remains were found in 2011 during the search around Gilgo Beach.

Mack’s remains were initially known as ‘Jane Doe No. 6’ unknown for years until genetic testing revealed her identity in 2020.

Jessica Taylor, 20, disappeared in 2003 while working as an escort in New York City. Some of her remains were discovered that year in Manorville. Other remains were found during a 2011 search of the brush along the side of Ocean Parkway, the road where the other Gilgo Beach victims were found.

Family members of Mack and Taylor declined to comment Wednesday.

Heuermann’s attorney and attorneys separately representing his wife and two adult children declined to comment.

Heuermann, who has been in custody since his arrest, has pleaded not guilty. He was scheduled to return to court on June 18 for a status hearing. No trial date has been set.

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Succeed Philip Marcelo twitter.com/philmarcelo.