Who is Rex Heuermann, suspect arrested in the Gilgo Beach murders?

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MASSAPEQUA PARK, N.Y. – New York authorities on Friday named Rex Heuermann as the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer.

Heuermann, 59, is accused of killing four women whose bodies were discovered along a suburban Long Island beach highway between 2010 and 2011. He is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder in connection with the murders of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.

Heuermann is a married father of two and architect living on Long Island and working in Manhattan at his firm, RH Consultants & Associates. 

Neighbors described the suspect to Fox News Digital as the "neighborhood creep" as police vehicles swarmed his Massapequa Park home Friday morning. 

INFAMOUS LONG ISLAND SERIAL KILLER SUSPECT BEHIND GILGO BEACH MURDERS IN CUSTODY: OFFICIALS

Rex Heuermann, 59, is tied to at least 11 murders after New York authorities discovered 11 sets of human remains strewn along a suburban Long Island beach highway between 2010 and 2011. (Jeffrey Simon Architecture & Design)

Former neighbor Carol Bergen told Fox News Digital that Heuermann once asked her brother if he cried at their father's funeral after he died.

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Massapequa Park is a clean-cut neighborhood where residents keep up with manicured landscaping and hang American flags off their front porches. Several homeowners in Heuermann's neighborhood are local police officers, and a closed police academy is located down the street from the suspect's home.

Suffolk County police stationed outside a home in Massapequa Park, New York, Friday, July 14, 2023. The home is believed to be occupied by a suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)

Neighbor Michael Musto, who has lived in Massapequa Park for 40 years and took the train into Manhattan with Heuerman for work, described the 59-year-old suspect as a "recluse" and kept "to himself."

"I understand he was an architect in the city. I used to see him on the train cause I take the train to the city every morning, as well. He would walk past my house. I would see his wife driving a beat-up, green, Dodge Charger. I never really thought they were involved in something crazy like this. Not every day you wake up and see every time of law enforcement agency and news channel on your front lawn," Musto told Fox News Digital.

Suffolk County police stationed outside a home in Massapequa Park, New York, Friday, July 14, 2023. The home is believed to be occupied by a suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders. (Michael Ruiz/Fox News Digital)

"It's disgusting. All these people here — just the fact that your neighbor's involved in something heinous like this — it's unconscionable," he added. "You never know who's your nextdoor neighbor. It's like Jeffrey Dahmer." 

A 23-year-old man who lives across the street from Heuermann said his home has been in disarray for years. Musto also described Heuerman's house as "rundown." 

Heuermann was a 1981 graduate of Berner High School in Massapequa, according to locals and yearbooks.

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Heuermann was a 1981 graduate of Berner High School in Massapequa, according to locals and yearbooks. (Tom Conigliaro)

In a February 2022, YouTube video interview with Bonjour Realty, Heuermann describes himself as an "architect," "architect consultant" and a "troubleshooter."

Residents try to take a look as police officers search the house where a suspect has been taken into custody on New York's Long Island in connection with a long-unsolved string of killings, known as the Gilgo Beach murders, Friday, July 14, 2023, in Massapequa Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez))

"Born and raised on Long Island. Then working in Manhattan since 1987," Heuermann says in the video. "…When a job that should've been routine suddenly becomes not routine, I get the phone call."

At one point in the video, the interviewer asked Heuermann what his job has taught him. "I think this job has taught me more about how to deal with people," Heuermann responded, "because dealing with the technical aspects is something a person can learn. … but it's the people, how they're all so different, and how you deal with the people, [that] is one of the more interesting aspects that comes out of all this."

Heuermann also said his father was an aerospace engineer and built satellites and furniture at home.

"And I still build it in the exact same workshop," he said.

Gilgo Beach is seen on July 14, 2023 in Babylon, New York. A suspect in the Gilgo Beach killings was arrested in the unsolved case tied to at least 10 sets of human remains that were discovered since 2010 in suburban Long Island. ?The suspect Rex Heuermann is expected to be arraigned after his arrest Thursday night. ? (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Heuermann used fictitious names and online accounts to solicit and arrange sexual activity, according to a bail application. 

"A search warrant conducted on the fictitious Springfieldman9 AOL Account further revealed ‘selfie’ photographs that appeared to have been taken by Defendant Rex Heuermann of himself (see below) and sent to other persons to solicit and arrange for sexual activity," the application states.

Rex Heuermann used fictitious names and online accounts to solicit and arrange sexual activity, according to a bail application. (Suffolk County DA)

How many murders took place at Gilgo Beach?

The women Heuermann is accused of killing are four of 11 victims found deceased along Gilgo Beach some 13 years ago. The identified victims have been named as Barthelemy, Costello, Waterman and Brainard-Barnes, as well as Shannan Gilbert, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack. 

Most of the Gilgo Beach murder victims were identified as sex workers in their 20s, although two sets of remains belonged to a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian male.

Authorities discovered the 11 bodies during a search for Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker who ran away from a client's home on Long Island and knocked on several residents' doors asking for help before she disappeared. 

As police searched an area east of Gilgo Beach for Gilbert, they found numerous other bodies in a heavily wooded area on the north side of Long Island. The first body police found belonged to Melissa Barthelemy, who was located on Dec. 11, 2010. Gilbert’s wasn't recovered until two days later on Dec. 13, 2011. Police would go on to find nine more bodies in the same area.

Police found more than 10 bodies in the area after beginning their search for Shannan Gilbert in 2010. (Suffolk County Police Department)

Some of the victims were wrapped in burlap before they were discarded along Gilgo Beach.

How was the suspected Gilgo Beach killer found?

Heuermann's DNA was tied to one of the murders through a discarded pizza box, according to a bail application.

Rex Heuermann's DNA was tied to one of the murders through a discarded pizza box, according to a bail application. (Suffolk County District Attorney)

The DNA left on the pizza box matched "a male hair from the ‘bottom of the burlap’ used to wrap [Megan] Waterman by her killer," the bail application states.

"[I]t is likely that the burlap, tape, vehicle(s) or other instrumentalities utilized in furtherance of these murders came from Defendant Heuermann’s residence, where his wife also resides, or was transferred from his clothing," Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierny wrote.

Rex Heuermann is led into Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Complex in Riverhead, NY on Friday, July 14, 2023. The 59-year-old is being charged with three counts of murder in relation to the deaths of victims found on Gilgo Beach. (Matt Agudo/Splash for Fox News Digital)

Investigators also linked Heurmann to four burner phones that were activated before the three murders he is accused of committing and shut off after the murders. 

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Suffolk County Police and prosecutors are expected to provided an update on the Gilgo Beach case late Friday afternoon. 

Fox News' Greg Norman contributed to this report.