RIVERHEAD, N.Y. – Law enforcement officials are preparing to make a significant announcement in their ongoing investigation into a series of suspected serial murders of women whose bodies were discovered along a coastal highway near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach. The anticipated announcement comes following the arrest and subsequent court appearance of Rex Heuermann, the prime suspect in at least three of the killings.
The Suffolk County District Attorney, Ray Tierney, is scheduled to make the announcement after a court hearing in the case in Riverhead, New York. Heuermann was charged in July with the murders of three women whose bodies were found buried along a remote beach parkway. Investigators also suspect him in the death of another woman who went missing in 2007.
Heuermann, a 60-year-old architect, pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been held without bail at Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead. He was identified as a suspect in 2022 after detectives linked him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared. Subsequent investigation led to the recovery of his DNA from discarded pizza crust, which was then matched to a hair found on a restraint used in the killings.
The arrest of Heuermann comes more than a decade after police searching for a missing woman found 10 sets of human remains hidden in the thick underbrush near Gilgo Beach. The unsolved deaths had sparked widespread public attention on Long Island and beyond, even inspiring a 2020 Netflix film called “Lost Girls.”
Authorities have long suspected a serial killer was responsible for some of the deaths, but have emphasized that not all the victims were necessarily killed by the same person. The majority of the killings remain unsolved, leaving a lingering sense of unease in the community and among law enforcement officials.
Heuermann, who worked as a licensed architect with a Manhattan-based firm, lived in a suburb close to the spot where the bodies were discovered. The investigation into the suspected serial murders has been a lengthy and complex process, and law enforcement has worked diligently to bring justice to the victims and closure to their loved ones.