A Long Island woman is speaking out about a hair-raising encounter she allegedly had with accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann, the New York Post reports.
After news spread on Friday about Heuermann’s arrest, a 25-year-old woman named Ally realized that the murder suspect appeared to be the same man whose disturbing actions at a park on July 3 led her to alert police.
“My mom showed me the picture and I started screaming. I got so nervous because I realized that that was him,” Ally told the Post.
According to Ally, who declined to provide her last name, she was riding her bike at Brady Park when the man came up from behind her and inquired about the time.
Brady Park is just a short drive from Heuermann’s home in the Long Island village of Massapequa Park.
“He was trying to compliment me. Asking me if I came here often. Asking me my name,” Ally told the newspaper. “He had very dirty clothes on. He popped right out of the woods. Everywhere I went in the woods he would pop out somewhere.
“The first time he came up behind me I felt like breathing behind me. Then he asked me what time it was and he saw the picture of me and my boyfriend on my phone. So he was just asking me questions.”
The man continued to approach Ally during her outing in the park, so she called her sister and asked her to pick her up. Ally then reported the incident to police.
Authorities have charged Heuermann with first- and second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of three women whose remains were found near Gilgo State Park in 2010. He is the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman whose remains were also discovered at the beach.
Heuermann, 59, an architect and married father of two, has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer said Friday that he has denied the allegations.
Meanwhile, the mother of one of the victims said Heuermann should be tortured the same way he brutalized her daughter.
“I’d like him to suffer at the hands of other inmates,” Lynn Barthelemy told NBC News. “Let him receive what the girls received.”
In addition to killing Barthelemy’s 24-year-old daughter Melissa Barthelemy, Heuermann also is accused of making taunting phone calls to the woman’s family using her phone.
“Death is too good for him. It’s too easy,” Lynn Barthelemy added, according to NBC News.
See earlier reporting from CrimeOnline about the Gilgo Beach murders.
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[Featured image: Rex Heuermann/RH Consultants and Associates]