The Long Island murderer suspect Rex Heuermann

The architect accused in a string of Long Island killings has been years late in paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes, repeatedly filed lawsuits accusing drivers of injuring him in car accidents, and still lives in his childhood home, according to a review of public records and court documents.

The suspect was identified in court documents as Rex Heuermann, 59, of Massapequa Park, a village in Nassau County. His arrest sent shock waves through his quiet bedroom community as neighbors described a well-dressed man who would commute to work in Manhattan as an architect, with no reason to believe he could be involved in a series of killings that have stumped investigators and drawn national attention.

Rex Heuermann, who police say murdered at least three women, lived in the same house he was raised in – a few miles across the bay from the beach where bodies were unearthed more than a decade ago – he said in a 2018 deposition.

Between 2014 and 2022, Heuermann filed four lawsuits in New York courts against drivers who he said had hit him with their cars, causing him “serious and permanent personal injuries,” court records show. Three of the cases were settled or discontinued, while the most recent one is ongoing.

Heuermann, who worked as an architectural consultant in Manhattan, was taken into custody by Suffolk County Police and state police late Thursday night. There was a large police presence Friday morning at his home in the village of Massapequa Park.

The mystery of Gilgo Beach started in 2010, when a body was found wrapped in a burlap sack on a remote stretch of marshland off Long Island’s Ocean Parkway, in the town of Oak Beach, roughly 40 miles east of Manhattan, after local police opened a search for another missing woman: Shannan Gilbert. During that search, police found the remains of three more bodies within a one-mile radius, sparking speculation the killings could be related and that a potential serial killer could be involved. The bodies of the four women were identified as Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costella and Megan Waterman. Gilbert’s remains, along with the remains of six more bodies, were found over a two-month period the following spring in Long Island’s Nassau and Suffolk counties. 

A burner phone used by the suspect, which police later obtained, included searches for "tied up and raped porn" and multiple queries for child pornography, according to the charging document filed on Friday.

The document also suggests that Heuermann used the phone to specifically Google the names of family members of Barthelemy and Waterman. Additionally, he may have sought advice on avoiding his capture by searching for terms like, "why hasn't the long island serial killer been caught."

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Sarah H

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