Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Year : 1, Issue : 19
The accused Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann has been indicted on a new murder charge in the killing of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who investigators believe was the first of the “Gilgo Four” to be killed, according to an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.
The unsealing of the indictment came after authorities announced Heuermann would face “a major development” in the investigation of the Gilgo Beach killings, which all targeted sex workers and lay unsolved for more than a decade.
The Manhattan architect’s indictment was handed up by a special grand jury that was convened to consider an indictment in the killing of Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found close to three other women in marshland along Gilgo Beach.
Heuermann, 60, had been named as the “prime suspect” in Brainard-Barnes’s disappearance. In July, he was charged with first- and second-degree murder in the killings of the three other women – Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. According to prosecutors, investigators linked Heuermann to the murders through DNA, cellphone site data and burner phones.
In all, 10 sets of remains – all of sex workers – were discovered in the area, with police theorizing that all died at the hands of one or more serial killers.
Source: The Guardian