The moment plainclothes NYPD officers apprehended serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann on a busy street in Midtown Manhattan was captured on camera.
Heuermann, 59, was taken into custody and later charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello more than a decade ago.
He is also believed to be the prime suspect in the death of another woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
The arrest took place near his architecture office, steps away from where investigators say he made the phone calls in which he arranged to have sex with the victims and also called and taunted the families of the deceased women.
Meanwhile, neighbors from the middle-class community where Heuermann lived all his life in Massapequa Park, close to where the victim’s remains were found, have described him as a menacing figure whose home was avoided by children Halloween, who once left the house. was thrown. a Whole Foods for stealing oranges and owed thousands in back taxes.
“We were going to cross the street. He was someone you don’t want to approach,” said neighbor Nicholas Ferchaw, 24 the New York Times.
Long Island serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann walks carefree down the street in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday night
Quickly, the plainclothes policemen following his movements confront him
Eventually, the 59-year-old architect is surrounded by agents and taken into custody
The recently released video showing Heuermann’s arrest shows him walking down a busy street at dusk during rush hour with a bag slung over his back. He seems unaware that he is being chased by police officers.
Eventually, a group of suit-wearing cops pull up and surround Heuermann. The arrest took place around 8:30 p.m. Just over 12 hours later, he was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder in a Long Island courtroom.
An old colleague of Heuermann told the Times he spoke to the suspect on Thursday evening and noted that he was joking. “That must have been right before he left the office and they arrested him,” Steve Kramberg told The Times.
The suspect’s neighbors were wary of the mysterious architect for a long time. One of them, Mike Schmidt, said he often shared beer with another neighbor and pointed to Heuermann’s house and remarked, “He probably has bodies there,” according to the Times.
Schmidt said last Halloween he finally decided to break the long-standing tradition by taking his kids trick-or-treating at the Heuermann home, where he lived with his wife, daughter and stepson. The house where the suspect lived as a child.
He said that hulking architect opened the door for the kids and gave them each a plastic pumpkin full of candy. Schmidt added that when he told his wife where the candies came from, she forced him to throw them away.
Previously, in interviews with DailyMail.com, neighbors described the suspect’s home as “creepy” and “dungeon-like.”
In his professional life, some portrayed Heurmann as an arrogant character. Paul Teitelbaum, who worked with Heuermann on a project for a building in Brooklyn Heights, noted that he had a “swagger” about him.
“I’m the expert, you’re lucky to have me,” was Heuermann’s attitude, according to Teitelbaum.
Heuermann is charged with three murders attributed to the Gilgo Beach serial killer and is the prime suspect in the murder of a fourth victim
In 2022, Heuermann was involved in a freak incident where he was accused of stealing clementines intended for children from a bowl at a Whole Foods supermarket.
“He took three and put them in his pocket, then he took more. I said, “Sir, those are for the kids,” store associate Tara Alonzo told the Times. Alonzo said Heuermann got so angry that a manager had to escort him out.
Alonzo said the next time she heard about Heuermann was when she saw his face on TV after his arrest. “My colleague said, ‘That’s the orange man.'”
Over the past decade, Heuermann has been involved in a series of lawsuits in which he has taken people to court, accusing them of hitting him with their car and inflicting “serious and permanent injury” on him. CNN.
The network’s report says the cases are “closed or discontinued,” with a recent case still open.
During a statement involving one of those suits, Heuermann said the only sport he participated in was “competition rifle.”
CNN also revealed that Heuermann is in trouble with the IRS, at one point owing more than $425,000 in back taxes dating back to 2005. As of October 2022, he paid back $215,078.
He and his wife also owe more than $81,000 to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.
He is also believed to be the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose body was bound and hidden in dense undergrowth along a remote beach road.
Also among the victims were Shannan Gilbert (left) and an unidentified Asian man, who police say is a transgender sex worker. Heuermann is suspected, but not charged, of both deaths
Heuermann was first identified as a suspect in March 2022, when detectives linked him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010.
In March, detectives recovered Heuermann’s DNA from a pizza crust he had thrown out and compared it to evidence found on one of the victims, authorities said.
“They have never stopped working and will continue to work tirelessly until we bring justice to all families involved,” said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison.
Heuermann was sentenced to prison without bail after his attorney pleaded not guilty on his behalf during a Friday arraignment in state court in Riverhead. In denying bail, Judge Richard Ambro cited “the extreme depravity” of Heuermann’s alleged conduct.
Heuermann’s attorney, Michael Brown, said his client told him, “I didn’t do this.”
Investigators continued to search Heuermann’s home, driving about 25 minutes on a causeway that spans South Oyster Bay to the sandy stretch known as Gilgo Beach, where the remains were found in 2010 and 2011.
Most of the victims were young women who had been sex workers. Their deaths puzzled investigators for a long time, and the mystery generated massive public attention and led to a 2020 Netflix release, Lost Girls.
The pizza box from a garbage can outside Heuermann’s downtown office
“We are continuing to work, investigate and try to get a small degree of closure for all the families of the victims,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Friday.
That night, detectives were still at work at Heuermann’s house, looking for evidence and clues in his yard.
A series of tarpaulins and white-suited workers littered his eerie property, which had clearly fallen into disrepair.
A family refrigerator was among the items seized, and officers said they are still looking for 92 firearms registered to Heuermann but not currently accounted for.
At least one expert speculated that Heuermann could be behind an even higher number of murders.
Katherine Ramsland, an expert in forensic psychology, said the alleged killer’s death trail could extend far beyond what he was charged with.
She said NewsNation that people “don’t know” if he ever stopped killing, adding that “all we know is what he’s suspected of at this point.”
When asked why he may not have already been linked to other remains found in the area, Ramsland said it was possible another serial killer was still on the loose.
“The other[murders]don’t seem to have been handled the same way,” she said. Serial killers don’t always do the same thing.
“There are many differences in the way some of those victims were treated and then left. So I’m not sure if he’s attached to it. I couldn’t rule it out, but they don’t look the same as the things we see on the four victims we’re talking about.’
Investigators have noticed a series of “red flags” in Heuermann’s behavior that eventually led them to his home on Long Island, which is about a 25-minute drive from Gilgo Beach.
This included blatant Google searches asking why police couldn’t trace calls from the serial killer, who was known to taunt his victim’s families.