Hair of suspect’s wife also found on 3 Gilgo Beach victims
The hair of Heuermann's wife was found on or near three of the victims, prosecutors said in a bail application.
A hair was recovered from the buckle of one of the belts found binding the body of Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Two female hairs were recovered on the body of Megan Waterman, who was found bound by tape. One hair was found from “outside the head area” and another from “the tape of the head area.”
Another female hair was found on a piece of tape inside burlap wrapping found on the body of Amber Costello.
All those female hairs were sent to an outside forensics laboratory, which in July 2022 determined they belonged to a woman who was not any of the victims.
On July 21, 2022, an undercover Suffolk County Police Department detective recovered 11 bottles from a trash receptacle in front of Heuermann’s home. The bottles were swabbed and the samples sent for testing.
In February, the lab concluded that one of the DNA profiles generated from the bottles matched the same “mitochondrial haplogroup” as the female hairs recovered from the three victims.
Based on the investigation and evidence, it was determined the hair belonged to Heuermann’s wife.
As the investigation found that Heuermann’s wife was out of state at the time of the three women’s disappearances and murders, “it is likely that the burlap, tape, vehicle(s) or other instrumentalities utilized in the furtherance of these murders came from Defendant Heuermann’s residence, where his wife also resides, or was transferred from his clothing.”
Suspect used burner phones for 'sadistic, torture-related' searches, prosecutors say
Heuermann used burner phones and multiple email accounts to search for sites depicting sexual violence, to keep up with the ongoing investigation and to reach sex workers, prosecutors said.
He used fictitious names for email accounts and phones "to conduct thousands of searches related to sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography and child pornography," according to a criminal complaint filed against him.
Search terms often focused on violent sexual acts involving underage girls.
His online search records also showed an interest in the case itself, with queries such as "why hasn't the long island serial killer been caught" and "why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the long island serial killer.'
DNA from discarded pizza crust used to identify Heuermann as suspect
Heuermann was in part identified as the suspect in the notorious Gilgo Beach murders by DNA left on pizza crust he threw out in a Manhattan trash can, according to his bail application.
In the examination of victim Megan Waterman’s body, a male hair was recovered from burlap used to wrap her remains. It was submitted for further DNA analysis in July 2020 and a DNA profile for the hair was created.
Following the discovery of the Chevrolet Avalanche registered to Heuermann and the probe into his cellphone billing records, he was observed by a surveillance team.
On Jan. 26, a surveillance team recovered a pizza box he threw into a garbage can on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The box was sent to the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory for analysis where the leftover pizza crust was swabbed.
In March, the crime lab sent the swab to a forensic lab. A month later, the male hair found on Waterman was sent to the same lab for testing.
On June 12, the lab was able to determined the “mitochondrial DNA profile(s) are the same.”
Suspect's wife was out of state when 3 Gilgo Beach victims disappeared
Travel and cellphone billing records show that Heuermann’s wife was out of state when three slain Gilgo Beach victims disappeared, prosecutors say in his bail application.
A bail application filed by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said that Heuermann’s wife was out of the country in Iceland when Melissa Barthelemy vanished in July 2009.
Then in June 2010, cellphone billing records show she was in Maryland when Megan Waterman vanished. Waterman was last seen June 6, 2010.
Again in late August to early September 2010, she was in New Jersey when Amber Costello disappeared, last seen Sept. 2, 2010.
Suspect’s Chevy Avalanche linked him to slayings
Heuermann’s Chevrolet Avalanche was a key part of what led investigators to hone in on him in connection with the Gilgo Beach murders.
A witness in the disappearance of 27-year-old Amber Lynn Costello identified “a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche as the vehicle believed to have been driven by her killer,” a bail application filed today in Suffolk County court said.
A renewed joint investigation into the decades-old case “led to the discovery of a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche” registered to Heuermann in March 2022.
Subpoenas and search warrants on Heuermann followed, leading to the discovery of cellphone bill records. The records allegedly corresponded with cell site locations for burner phones used to arrange meetings with three of the Gilgo Beach victims. They were also allegedly linked to taunting calls made to a relative of slain victim Melissa Barthelemy and voicemails to victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes' phone.
Heuermann to be charged with 3 counts of first-degree murder
Heuermann will be charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Costello, 27, according to his bail application.
They are three of the “Gilgo Four,” whose remains were found in December 2010 along Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach, Suffolk County.
The document said that though Heuermann was not charged with crimes in connection with the disappearance and murder of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, the fourth member of the "Gilgo Four," he is the "prime suspect in her death" and the investigation is ongoing.
The application shares graphic details of the serial murders and alleges the suspect searched for sadistic material online. He also allegedly used fictitious names, and burner email and cellphone accounts. It asks that Heuermann be remanded without bail.
Cell tower clue led authorities to focus on Long Island
Law enforcement felt strongly that the Gilgo Beach serial killer was from Long Island because of a cell tower ping clue, two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the case said.
The ping came from the Massapequa area from a phone belonging to one of the victims after her death, the sources said.
Officials believed the alleged killer used Melissa Barthelemy’s cellphone to call her teen sister repeatedly soon after Melissa disappeared in 2009.
The alleged killer made explicit sexual comments, claimed to have killed Melissa and related details of her killing that only the murderer would know. Police believed the caller was a white male and the calls came from midtown Manhattan.
It was previously unreported that the same victim’s cellphone briefly pinged off a tower in the Massapequa area around the same time. It was that potential clue that led officials to believe the suspect could one day be found in that area.
The suspect’s house is a little more than a 15-mile car ride from Gilgo Beach.
Neighbor says suspect's family members were 'loners'
A next-door neighbor of Heuermann says the suspect's family members "kept to themselves" and were "like loners."
Patrica Maressa, 64, has lived in the neighborhood for more than 20 years and was stunned by the news that the man who lives next door to her was arrested in connection with the Gilgo Beach murder investigation.
“I can’t believe what’s going on,” she said today. “It’s very sad." She added that she felt bad for both the families of the victims and the family of the suspect.
She said that she had minimal conversation with the neighbors in the now infamous one-story "red house," which stood out from the neighborhood of well-kept white and beige two-story homes. Some people in the area were "creeped out" by the home, she said.
“If they’re outside, we say, ‘Hi, how you doing? That’s about it,” Maressa said.
She said Heuermann lived in the home with his wife, a son and a daughter.
“He’s a tall, big, big guy. Always dressed well,” she said, but noted he wasn't overly friendly.
She said the last time she saw him was about a week ago when he was working in his yard.
“It seems like they were starting to redo the front of the house because they put in a new door and put in new windows," Maressa said.
She noted they live in a quiet area, where "at night, you could hear a pin drop.”
Truck towed from suspect's home
'The day has finally come': N.Y. governor says
“The day has finally come,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said today in response to news that a suspect was arrested in connection with the Gilgo Beach killings.
“Hopefully after further news is unveiled today the answer will be yes, yes, the day has finally come when someone so deprived, depraved of heart, would kill individuals, innocent individuals in the prime of their young lives, is finally brought to justice,” she said at an unrelated news briefing.
Hochul said she hopes the news will bring justice and “peace to the families.”
The governor also took a moment of silence for the victims in the slayings.