Gilgo Beach murders: Man charged over deaths of three women linked to unsolved serial killings featured on Netflix documentary
A wealthy architect has been charged with murdering three women linked to the unsolved killings of 11 people, which was the subject of the Netflix film Lost Girls.
Rex Heuermann, 59, was arrested as the prime suspect in the historical Gilgo Beach murders – in which human remains were found along a New York beach highway more than a decade ago.
He is charged with the murder of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27, whose remains were discovered during the search for another missing female in 2010.
He pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
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A man has been charged with murdering three women linked to the unsolved killings of 11 people.
It is believed 11 individuals fell victim to the murders, many young female sex workers. Their remains were discovered in 2010 and 2011.
The New York-based architect lives in Massapequa, a community in Long Island around 15 miles away from where the victim’s remains were found.
Detectives who tailed the suspect recovered DNA from a pizza crust he threw away, then matched it to a hair found on a restraint used in the killings, police said.
Another key part of what led to his arrest was his car – a Chevrolet Avalanche – which a witness said the killer was driving after the disappearance of Ms Costello, according to NBC.
(L-R) Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. Pic: Suffolk County Police
Heuermann was taken into custody late on Thursday after his house was raided by police. His “first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche” was also towed away from the scene, NBC reported.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks among us – a predator that ruined families,” Suffolk County police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said.
Police also believed that the suspect was from Long Island because of a mobile phone tower ping – which came from Ms Barthelemy’s phone after her death.
A man who said he was the killer used the phone to call and taunt Ms Barthelemy’s sister after she had disappeared in 2009.
Selfies which appear to have been taken by Rex Heuermann. Pics: Suffolk County Court
The individual allegedly claimed to have killed Ms Barthelemy, related details of her murder and made sexually explicit comments down the phone.
It was previously reported that the same phone briefly pinged off a tower in the town of Massapequa – where Heuermann lives.
Heuermann was seen on CCTV at a mobile phone shop in Manhattan on 19 May 2023. Pic: Suffolk County Court
The Gilgo Beach investigation began after police launched a search for 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert following her disappearance in the coastal community of Oak Beach in 2010.
The body of a different woman – Ms Barthelemy – was then discovered by a police dog and officer during the search. Within days, three other bodies were found, all within a short distance of one another.
The victims included Ms Waterman, Ms Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
Several of the bodies were found in thickets along the sandy stretch of land.
By 2011, police had discovered four additional sets of human remains, those of Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, 24, a female toddler and an unidentified Asian man.
Ms Gilbert’s remains were finally discovered in December 2011, 5km (3 miles) east of the other discoveries.
(L-R) Shannan Gilbert, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack. Pic: Suffolk County Police
Police were left puzzled as to how the victims were killed, and in 2020, the unsolved murders became the subject of the Netflix film “Lost Girls”.
Heuermann’s charges come after a task force, made up of the FBI, New York State Police and Suffolk County authorities was set up in February 2020 to “reinvigorate” the investigation.
In May 2022, police released 911 audio related to Ms Gilbert’s disappearance. She initially called police from inside the home of a client shortly before 5am.
“There is somebody after me,” she told the dispatcher multiple times. “Somebody’s after me – please,” she said.
On Friday morning, the district attorney said there had been a “significant development in the case” but declined to comment any further.
Neighbours of Heuermann told NBC that the family “kept to themselves” and were “like loners”.
Patrica Maressa, 64, said Heuermann lived in the home with his wife, a son and a daughter. He worked at a Manhattan architecture firm and was a member of an NYC-based networking group known as The Dream Team, NBC reported.
Fears of a US-EU trade war have been reignited after Europe refused to back down in the face of fresh threats from Donald Trump.
The word tariff has dominated much of the US president’s second term, and he has repeatedly and freely threatened countries with them.
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This included the so-called “liberation day” last month, where he unleashed tariffs on many of his trade partners.
On Friday, after a period of relative calm which has included striking a deal with the UK, he threatened to impose a 50% tariff on the EU after claiming trade talks with Brussels were “going nowhere”.
The US president has repeatedly taken issue with the EU, going as far as to claim it was created to rip the US off.
However, in the face of the latest hostile rhetoric from Mr Trump’s social media account, the European Commission – which oversees trade for the 27-country bloc – has refused to back down.
EU trade chief Maros Sefcovic said: “EU-US trade is unmatched and must be guided by mutual respect, not threats.
“We stand ready to defend our interests.”
Donald Trump speaks to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday
Fellow EU leaders and ministers have also held the line after Mr Trump’s comments.
Polish deputy economy minister Michal Baranowski said the tariffs appeared to be a negotiating ploy, with Dutch deputy prime minister Dick Schoof said tariffs “can go up and down”.
French trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin said the latest threats did nothing to help trade talks.
He stressed “de-escalation” was one of the EU’s main aims but warned: “We are ready to respond.”
Mr Sefcovic spoke with US trade representative Jamieson Greer and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick after Mr Trump’s comments.
Mr Trump has previously backed down on a tit-for-tat trade war with China, which saw tariffs soar above 100%.
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Sticking points
Talks between the US and EU have stumbled.
In the past week, Washington sent a list of demands to Brussels – including adopting US food safety standards and removing national digital services taxes, people familiar with the talks told Reuters news agency.
In response, the EU reportedly offered a mutually beneficial deal that could include the bloc potentially buying more liquefied natural gas and soybeans from the US, as well as cooperation on issues such as steel overcapacity, which both sides blame on China.
Stocks tumble as Trump grumbles
Major stock indices tumbled after Mr Trump’s comments, which came as he also threatened to slap US tech giant Apple with a 25% tariff.
The president is adamant that he wants the company’s iPhones to be built in America.
The vast majority of its phones are made in China, and the company has also shifted some production to India.
Shares of Apple ended 3% lower and the dollar sank 1% versus the Japanese yen and the euro rose 0.8% against the dollar.
In the dozens of framed images and newspaper clippings covering the walls of his office in downtown New York City, Al Sharpton is pictured alongside presidents and leading protests.
He has spent decades campaigning and is perhaps the most famous civil rights activist in the US today.
Many of those clippings on the wall relate to one moment in May 2020 – the murder of George Floyd.
George Floyd was killed while under arrest in Minneapolis in May 2020
Speaking to Sky News ahead of the five-year anniversary of that moment, Mr Sharpton remembered the combination of “humiliation and deep anger” he felt seeing the footage of Mr Floyd’s death that swept the world.
“The more I watched, the more angry I felt,” he said.
Mr Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer.
Mr Floyd had been arrested after a store clerk reported he had made a purchase using counterfeit money.
Chauvin knelt on Mr Floyd’s neck for over nine minutes, while he was handcuffed and lying face down in the street.
Chauvin pressed his knee on Mr Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes, as the victim repeatedly said ‘I can’t breathe’. Pic: AP
‘A seismic moment’
For Mr Sharpton, who has marched with countless other families, this felt different because it was “graphic and unnecessary”.
“What kind of person would hear somebody begging for their life and ignore them?” he said.
“I had no idea this would become a seismic moment,” he continued.
“I think people would accuse civil rights leaders, activists like me of being opportunistic, but we don’t know if one call from the next one is going to be big, all we know is we have to answer to the call.”
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Has US changed five years after George Floyd’s death?
Trump ‘pouring salt on the wounds’
Mr Floyd’s death took place during Donald Trump’s first term in the White House.
During Trump’s second term, his administration has moved to repeal federal oversight plans for the Minneapolis Police Department – a move originally supported by Joe Biden’s administration.
Mr Sharpton believes Mr Trump and the Department of Justice have purposely timed this for the 5th Anniversary of Mr Floyd’s Death.
“It’s pouring salt on the wounds of those that were killed, and those that fought,” he said.
“I think Donald Trump and his administration is actively trying to reverse and revoke changes and progress made with policing based on the movement we created after George Floyd’s death, worldwide.”
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Mr Sharpton still supports George Floyd’s family and will be with them this weekend in Houston, Texas, where many of them will mark the anniversary.
He said the legacy of Mr Floyd’s death is still being written.
Evoking the civil rights movement of the 1960s he said: “The challenge is we must turn those moments into permanent movements, it took nine years from 1955 to 1964 for Dr [Martin Luther] King in that movement to get a Civil Rights Act after Rosa Parks sat in the front of a bus in Montgomery.
“We’re five years out of George Floyd, we’ve got to change the laws.
“We can do it in under nine years, but we can’t do it if we take our eye off the prize.”
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