The grim reality of Rex Heuermann, suspected as the notorious Gilgo Beach Serial Killer, has started to unravel as insiders reveal his morbid fascinations and his concealed life as a suburban architect, father, and alleged murderer. Law enforcement sources contend that Heuermann, a 59-year-old father of two, had an unnerving predilection for child and torture pornography and exploited sex workers who were around the same age as his own daughter. Even more chillingly, he appeared to take perverse pleasure in taunting the grieving families of his victims.
Charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27, Heuermann is currently at the epicenter of a wide-reaching investigation. He's also a leading suspect in the death of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Police believe that Heuermann may have perpetrated at least 11 murders over a span of 15 years, all while maintaining his normal life as an architect and a family man in full public view.
Currently, Heuermann faces formal charges for three of the killings. All victims were sex workers, killed between 2007 and 2010, mirroring the age of his own daughter, Victoria, a 26-year-old animation art graduate working at Heuermann's company, RH Consultants & Associates.
"He's a demon that walks among us. A predator that ruined families," was how Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison characterized the alleged killer.
The victims' bodies were found along a secluded stretch of Gilgo Beach on Jones Beach Island, Long Island, an accessible distance for Massapequa Park resident Heuermann. His frequent sightings in the area, in his Chevrolet Avalanche pickup, raised further suspicion.
In a profiling study from 2011, Heuermann ticks every box of the Gilgo Beach Killer’s profile: middle-aged, white, educated, and financially secure. Even details such as his profession, his car, and his potential contact with burlap sacks lined up eerily with the profile. “This is someone who can walk into a room and seem like your average Joe,” says serial killer expert Scott Bonn, an assistant professor of sociology at Drew University.
Despite his seeming normalcy, the tall, bulky Heuermann has been described as resembling a monstrous ogre. Investigators found evidence of his secretive, ghastly activities when he contacted sex workers through disposable phones and searched for disturbing content online. DNA collected from discarded pizza crusts at his office reportedly matched hairs found on bindings used on victims.
The cruel twist in Heuermann's tale is his alleged sadistic enjoyment of taunting the victims’ families. Prosecutors claim he made callous calls to the teenage sister of one victim, Melissa Barthelemy, using the missing woman's cell phone and callously claimed to have killed her. Despite his current predicament, Heuermann maintains his innocence.