Gilgo Beach suspect of serial killer Rex Heuermann REFUSES to provide DNA swab as lawyer casts doubt on pizza crust linking him to murder
Serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann has refused to provide a DNA swab because his lawyer casts doubt on the pizza crust linking him to one of three murders he is accused of.
Heuermann, 59, is accused of murdering Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27.
The bodies of the three women were tied with belts or bureaucracy and wrapped in burlap.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to premeditated and premeditated murders. He is also considered a prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, whose remains were also located near Gilgo Beach.
Heuermann was linked to one of the gruesome murders through mitochondrial DNA profiling of a pizza crust and a used napkin he discarded from his Midtown Manhattan office, prosecutors said.
Rex Heuermann, 59, is charged with the murders of Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27, whose bodies were discovered off Gilgo Beach in December 2010
Heuermann was linked to one of the gruesome murders through a mitochondrial DNA profile from a pizza crust and a used napkin he discarded from his Midtown Manhattan office, prosecutors said.
He was arrested on July 13 and remains in prison awaiting trial.
The Heuermann legal team is fighting a request from Suffolk County prosecutors to get a cheek swab for DNA testing.
Danielle Coysh, representing Heuermann, argued that the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office is “a long way” from the legal standard needed to compel the architect to give the swab, Newsday reported Tuesday, citing judicial documents.
The exchange between prosecutors and the defense team focused on authorities’ evidence of discarded pizza crusts and a used napkin that they claimed linked Heuermann to one of the three murders.
“The allegations in the people’s moving documents may be construed as rising to the level of reasonable suspicion, but that is a far cry from the standard of probable cause required to justify the granting of the warrant requested by the people.” , Coysh wrote in response to Suffolk County prosecutors, as reported by Newsday.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to premeditated and premeditated murders. He was arrested on July 13 and remains in prison awaiting trial
The first victim, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was discovered by Suffolk County Police on December 11, 2010. The body of Megan Waterman, 22, was found two days later
Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old when she went missing (left). Amber Lynn Costello was 27 years old. Their bodies were found near Barthelemy’s the same day
A “great dig” took place at Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park. Pictured are state police detectives gathering evidence at the scene
A forensic photographer bends over the tray of excavated items from the backyard of the Heuermann home. Prosecutors say “nothing out of the ordinary” was discovered in the backyard
More than a week after his arrest on July 14, detectives had thoroughly searched the house
Gilbert’s body was found in a swamp nearby a year after the discovery of the bodies of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27
The response came after prosecutors filed a motion to obtain a cheek swab from Heuermann. State prosecutors are seeking further DNA testing to strengthen their case against Heuermann.
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney Michelle Haddad last week asked the court to sign off on the cheek swab because the pizza crust and napkin can only be labeled by Heuermann as “claimed to be used/touched,” according to court documents , Newsday reported.
Haddad noted in court documents that if Heuermann’s DNA from the swab doesn’t match the DNA profile of the napkin and pizza bases, “the defense would get a possible trial defense.”
“There is thus a clear indication that material and relevant evidence critical to the trial will be found,” she wrote.
In her filing this week, Coysh insisted that authorities “essentially admit” that they have no evidence to prove that Heuermann “actually ever came into contact with the pizza crust or the used napkin,” the paper reported.
“So, by the people’s own admission, the connection between the partially eaten pizza crust and the used napkin and Defendant Rex A. Heuermann is, at best, a matter of conjecture and assumption, not of fact.”