Photo of Mr. Heuermann, the suspected Long Island serial killer.
For over a decade, investigators struggled to connect a suspect to the remains of ten bodies — nine women and one toddler— found on Long Island’s South Shore in 2011. Now, there’s a suspect in the Long Island serial killer case.
Today, Rex Heuermann, an architect living in Nassau County, was arrested and put into custody. He has been charged with three killings and remains a prime suspect in a fourth. The bodies of these four murders have been tied to the killer, given they were disposed of similarly, tied with a burlap sack with distinctive taping.
The killings, which occurred more than ten years ago, terrorized the Long Island community for years and dominated national headlines.
Investigators used cellphone mapping technology to trace the signals and discover multiple disposable phones they believed were used to call the victims. Then, they mapped the calls of these phones from years back to determine they were all used to contact victims in the same vicinity, Hueuermann’s office in Midtown Manhattan.
By all accounts, Rex Heuermann appeared ordinary, working as an architect and architectural consultant and never drawing much attention from neighbors. There is a 19-minute YouTube video of an interview with the Bonjuer Reality channel on his work that takes place in his office. The only thing unusual about him was his house, which neighbors called a “dump” and “creepy.”
How Long Have the Murders Been Under Investigation
The first discovery of a victim of the Long Island serial killer came in May 2010. Shannan Gilbert, 24, was reported missing and later found dead on Long Island, near Gilgo Beach. The search for Ms. Gilbert resulted in the discovery of four more bodies, each wrapped in a burlap sack and found within a three-mile radius of where Ms. Gilbert was buried.
The remains of Ms. Gilberts were discovered in 2011, but investigators were hesitant to link her death to the serial killer. Over the next few months, authorities discovered ten more bodies.
Although drawing national headlines, the initial investigations led to little headway over the first ten years. And those involved in the investigation constantly doubted that all ten bodies were linked to the same killer.
Finally, in 2020, investigators linked a piece of evidence—an embossed black belt— to a photograph. The investigators now feel they’ve built enough of a case to charge Rex Heuermann for at least three of the murders that occured over a decade ago.
