The New York architect previously accused of murdering four women and leaving their bodies strewn along a coastal highway was charged Thursday with the deaths of two more women.
Rex Heuermann, 60, was due to appear before a judge to face charges for murdering Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla.
Taylor disappeared in the early 2000s. Costilla was murdered in 1993. The new charges came just days after police completed extensive searches of Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park and a wooded area on Long Island linked to the investigation into a series of deaths known as the Gilgo Beach serial murders.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney was scheduled to hold a news conference following the court hearing.
Since late 2010, police have been investigating the deaths of at least 10 people, mostly sex workers, whose remains were discovered along an isolated road not far from Gilgo Beach on Long Island’s south shore.
The victims had disappeared over a period of at least 14 years. Irritated police officers made only halting progress in identifying potential suspects. Investigators have long said it was likely that not all of the deaths were the work of the same killer. Some of the victims went missing in the mid-1990s. Investigators concluded that an 11th person who disappeared in 2010 on the island community of Oak Beach had accidentally drowned.
Heuermann, who lived across the bay from where the bodies were found, was arrested last July. Prosecutors said a new investigative task force used cell phone location data and DNA samples to link the architect to some of the victims. He was accused of killing four of the women: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Investigators who exhaustively searched Heuermann’s home and dug up his yard last summer returned to the house again last month and spent nearly a week searching for it again. They focused their efforts primarily on the basement, according to a lawyer for Heuermann’s wife.
This followed a search in April in a wooded area in Manorville, about 40 miles east of Heuermann’s home, linked to another Gilgo Beach victim.
Jessica Taylor, 20, disappeared in 2003 while working as an escort in New York City. Some of her remains were discovered in Manorville that year. Other remains were found in a 2011 search in beach brush next to Ocean Parkway, the road where the other Gilgo Beach victims were found.
In April, investigators also spent days searching a property in the eastern North Sea village of Long Island, where Costilla’s body was discovered in 1993. Costilla was 28 when she was murdered and had lived in New York City. .
A decade ago, Suffolk County prosecutors said publicly that they believed Costilla had been murdered by a carpenter who lived in the area, John Bittrolff, who was convicted of murdering two other women whose bodies had been found in the same part of Long Island. But Bittrolff was never charged with Costilla’s death due to lack of evidence. He insists that he is innocent of any murder.
Heuermann’s attorney and attorneys separately representing his wife and two adult children declined to comment.
Heuermann, who has been detained since his arrest, pleaded not guilty. He was scheduled to return to court on June 18 for a status hearing. No trial date has been set.
____
We invite you to visit us on the new NY1 Noticias channel on WhatsApp. There you will find the most relevant news about what is happening in New York, as well as other coverage about the rest of the country, Latin America and the world. click in this link to access the channel. We thank you in advance if you become one of our followers and express your reaction to what we publish with an emoji.
