Police are searching for body parts and other potential “trophies” at a Long Island storage locker linked to accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, authorities said Monday.
Investigators executed a search warrant at Omega Self Storage in Amityville over the weekend after scouring Heuermann’s “cluttered” home in Massapequa Park — and are focusing on finding possible grisly remnants of the killings, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told WPIX11 News.
You are reading: Cops search for body parts in storage locker tied to accused Gilgo Beach killer
“He’s a monster,” Harrison said.
He added that the suspect’s home is “a very cluttered house,” saying Heuermann “was like a pack rat.”
Heuermann, 59, a married architect with offices in Midtown Manhattan, was arrested Thursday and charged with the 13-year-old slayings of three women whose bodies were found dumped in a marshy area near his home.
Readmore : Radio host Larry Elder launches 2024 presidential bid, joins Trump for White House race
He was charged with murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27, whose remains were found in 2010.
He also is the prime suspect in the death of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, with the victims collectively known as the “Gilgo Four.” Their bodies were among 11 corpses found near each other at the Gilgo Beach site.
Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?
Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.
The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.
Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.
Melissa Barthelemy, 24
- Barthelemy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25
- Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007.
Amber Lynn Costello, 27
- Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello was found in December 2010 after having been last seen leaving her home that September.
Megan Waterman, 22
- Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach.
Jessica Taylor, 20
- Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Valerie Mack, 24
- Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.” Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police. Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.”
Unidentified Asian man
- The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be-identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth.
‘Peaches’ and her daughter
- An African American woman’s partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler, who was about 2 years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother, “Peaches.”
Jane Doe No. 7
- Remains found on April 11, 2011, along with the body of the woman dubbed “Peaches” was linked by DNA to a body that was found 15 years earlier on Fire Island. On April 20, 1996, skeletal remains of a young white female were discovered in Davis Park on Blue Point Beach. Two sets of remains, collectively known as “Jane Doe No. 7,” have not been identified.
Shannan Gilbert, 23
- Gilbert was a Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association on the morning of May 1, 2010. She spoke with two neighbors before disappearing. Her body was discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.
Cops have said they have collected a mountain of evidence at the accused killer’s house, including his distinctive Chevrolet Avalanche, a child-size doll encased in wood and glass, a bookcase and a collection of rifles.
Readmore : Kim Davy’s extradition to India a ‘work in progress,’ says Denmark Foreign Minister
Heuermann, who has 92 gun permits, had a cache of weapons inside the house, police said.
The grisly murder cases tied to the architect remained dormant for years, until cops started to collect bits of evidence that led them to him.
Witnesses described a rare Chevy Avalanche vehicle near one crime scene, and Costello’s pimp provided police with a spot-on description of the 6-foot-4 accused killer.
DNA evidence found on a discarded pizza crust later proved crucial to tying him to the crimes, according to police.
Heuermann is being held without bail while police continue to search for evidence.
