Police identified Rex Heuermann as the suspect in custody in connection with the Gilgo Beach murders during a Friday press conference in New York.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison stated that 59-year-old Rex Heuermann was arrested Thursday night and was scheduled to be arraigned on Friday.
“We anticipate an indictment later on this afternoon,” Harrison said, according to NBC News.
Additional details concerning the arrest are expected to be revealed after 4 p.m., during a press conference, following the indictment, at the Riverhead District Attorney’s Office.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, dozens of law enforcement from multiple jurisdictions were on the scene in Massapequa Park to arrest Heuermann, who has been identified as a New York City-based architect.
The investigation began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey, disappeared after leaving a client’s home in Oak Beach.
In December, as investigators searched for Gilbert, they found the remains of four more women — Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; Amber Lynn Costello, 27; and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
According to CBS News, Brainard-Barnes was abducted in 2007, Barthelemy in 2009, and Waterman and Costello in 2010. They were dubbed the “Gilgo Four” and their bodies were found wrapped in burlap sacks.
The following March, Suffolk police found partial remains of Jessica Taylor along Ocean Parkway: Other remains belonging to Taylor had been found in 2003 in Manorville, police said in 2020.
The next month, April, investigators found the body of 24-year-old Valerie Mack, who was not identified until 2020, a toddler girl, and a man. Then came the two bodies found in Nassau County.
The remains of Gilbert, whose disappearance started the grisly discoveries, were found in December 2011, a year and a half after she disappeared. In 2022, police released a 911 call from Gilbert on the night she disappeared in which she told a dispatcher that someone was following her.
See earlier reporting from CrimeOnline about the Gilgo Beach murders.
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[Featured image: Rex Heuermann/RH Consultants and Associates]
*Additional reporting by KC Wildmoon*
