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Rex Heuermann has now been charged with killing four women whose bodies were discovered bound with belts or duct tape and wrapped in burlap along a stretch of Gilgo Beach on Long Island in 2010.
Heuermann, a married father accused by authorities of leading a double life, had faced three counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of Melissa Barthelemy in 2009, and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello the following year, according to the prosecutor's office. Suffolk County District. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.
The 60-year-old New York architect has also been charged in the disappearance and murder of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found near the same location, prosecutors said Tuesday. He had been identified as the main suspect in the murder since his arrest in July.
Heuermann pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning to the superseding indictment charging him with second-degree murder in Brainard-Barnes' death.
Heuermann “has maintained his innocence from day one,” his defense attorney said after being charged with the fourth murder.
“He said, 'I'm not guilty of these charges,'” said defense attorney Michael Brown. “He is looking forward to fighting these charges and we are doing so. “We are going to continue preparing.”
Heuermann was first identified as a possible suspect in early 2022, shortly after a multi-agency task force was formed to examine unsolved cases involving nearly a dozen sets of human remains found throughout the area. south coast of Long Island between 2010 and 2011, including the “Gilgo Four.” .”
“The grand jury investigation into the so-called Gilgo Four has ended. It has been concluded,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Tuesday, noting that the same panel will continue to investigate other murder cases.
Gloria Allred, a victims' rights attorney representing members of the Barthelemy, Brainard-Barnes and Waterman families, said “justice is long overdue for vulnerable women who are missing and murdered.”
Allred said it is up to the jury “to decide whether this defendant will be found guilty of Maureen's murder and the murder of other women for which the defendant has been charged.”
Here's what we know about the deaths of those four women:
Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old and believed to be a sex worker when she was last seen on July 9, 2007. She had called a friend in Connecticut, where she lived, and told her she had a “call,” according to Suffolk . County police.
The young woman was reported missing by a friend to the Norwich Police Department in Connecticut on July 14. Her remains were found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach.
She is believed to be the Gilgo Four's first victim.
Authorities identified Heuermann as a suspect in early 2022 using cell phone data, witness descriptions and other information, and obtained a sample of his DNA from the remains of the crust of a pizza box he threw away.
Investigators found Heuermann's wife's DNA on a leather belt that was used to restrain Brainard-Barnes, according to the indictment.
The prosecution alleges that they had restrained her with three leather belts, one of which served to bind her feet and ankles.
Heuermann's wife and two children were in Atlantic City at the time of Brainard-Barnes' murder, according to a bail request.
Tierney described victim Brainard-Barnes as “intellectual” and “artistic.”
“She was a devoted sister, a devoted mother, a devoted daughter, and she is deeply missed by those who loved her,” Tierney said.
Brainard-Barnes' family called the latest indictment “an important chapter in the long search for justice.”
“It's been 16 years since I last saw my sister, 16 years since I heard her voice, because 16 years ago she was silenced,” Melissa Cann said after Tuesday's court proceedings.
Cann, 39, described her sister as a loving mother, sister and friend.
“Maureen would never get the chance to show the world how talented she was,” her sister said, her voice breaking. “My family will never have the opportunity to know who Maureen would be today because her life was tragically taken.”
Nicolette Brainard-Barnes was only 7 years old when her mother was killed. She said his loss changed the trajectory of her life.
“While the loss of my mother has been extremely painful for me, the grand jury indictment has brought hope for justice for my mother and my family,” said Nicolette Brainard-Barnes, now 24.
Cann told CNN in 2011 that he desperately tried to solve the mystery of his brother's disappearance, reviewing his emails and phone records, and keeping in touch with the families of the other victims.
Cann said her sister worked a seasonal telemarketing job and turned to escort services in desperation when she became unemployed and faced eviction.
Barthelemy was 24 when she was last seen on July 12, 2009, in the basement where she lived in the Bronx, according to the Suffolk County police website on the Gilgo murders.
The night she was last seen, Barthelemy, a sex worker, told a friend she was going to meet a man and would return in the morning, according to the police website.
Barthelemy's mother reported him missing on July 18. His cell phone records showed activity in Manhattan, as well as Freeport, Massapequa and Lindenhurst on Long Island.
More victims could be linked to Gilgo Beach murder suspect
In July and August 2009, according to a bail application for Heuermann, a man used Barthelemy's phone to make taunting calls to the victim's family.
Steve Cohen, who was an attorney for Barthelemy's mother at the time, told CNN that the caller said he killed his daughter.
“Do you think you'll ever see her again?” The unidentified person asked Barthelemy's sister on August 26, 2009, according to Cohen. “You will not do it. I killed her,” she said and hung up.
In another phone call just days after Barthelemy disappeared, Cohen said the unidentified man referred to the victim as a “whore” in a brief conversation with her sister, who was 15 at the time.
In one call, the man described in graphic detail to the victim's sister what he had done sexually to Barthelemy, according to Cohen.
Barthelemy's remains were the first set of female remains found in bushes along an isolated strip of seafront property. At the time, authorities were searching for another missing woman, Shannan Gilbert, a 23-year-old from Jersey City, New Jersey, who had not been seen since May 2010.
“I still don't sleep at night thinking about all this,” Lynn Barthelemy, the victim's mother, told CNN in 2011.
He said he wrote down everything he learned about the case in a notebook and spoke regularly with families of other victims.
Investigators believe Barthelemy was the second woman killed.
Waterman was 22 years old when she was last seen on June 6, 2010.
Waterman, a Maine resident, was last seen by her family boarding a Concord Trailways bus headed from Maine to New York, according to Suffolk County police.
She was a sex worker, police said. According to police, at 1:30 a.m. on June 6, she left the Holiday Inn Express on Long Island to meet a customer.
Waterman was reported missing in Maine on June 8. Relatives said it was unusual for her not to check on the daughter Waterman had left in her care.
His body was found on December 13, 2010, near Gilgo Beach.
At one point, Waterman's family used funds from a nonprofit human rights organization to hire a team of private investigators to help search for her.
Dottie Laster, a member of that team, told CNN in 2011 that Waterman seemed dazzled when she called her mother to boast that her clients included doctors, lawyers and law enforcement officers.
Costello was 27 years old and living on Long Island when she was last seen. She battled heroin addiction and worked as an escort to help support her habit, according to Suffolk County police.
She was last seen leaving her home on September 2, 2010 to meet a client. Her remains were found on December 13, 2010, near Gilgo Beach. She is believed to be the fourth victim.
Witnesses told investigators that the client she met on the day of her disappearance had been at her home previously. They described the man as “a large, white man, approximately 6'4” to 6'6” tall” with “large oval style glasses.” A witness also said the man looked like an “ogre.” Heuermann's bail application noted that the description of these witnesses in 2010 matched Heuermann.
Costello's sister, Kim Overstreet, told CNN in 2011 that she took out an ad in hopes of catching the killer. The ad implored other women who work as escorts to call Overstreet. She wanted them to tell her if they ever encountered a client who was threatening or just wasn't feeling well.
“What happened to Amber eats at me every day,” Overstreet said at the time. “Finding out who did this consumes me. “I stay up all night investigating and trying to retrace his last steps.”
Witnesses also said the man was driving a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche, a key clue that prosecutors say helped lead them to Heuermann.
This story has been updated with additional information.
