Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann allegedly used the phone of one of his victims to call her loved ones, according to prosecutors. Why did he do that?
A former FBI profiler says Heuermann likely wanted to hear just how scared they were of him.
“I think he found that to be sexually arousing,” Mary Ellen O’Toole told Fox News. “Part of what we’re seeing here is someone that wasn’t trying to ease her pain, not trying to apologize, not trying to explain away his behavior. He wanted to hear the fear, the anxiety, the horror, the heartache in her voice.”
The 59-year-old Heuermann was arrested Thursday night in Manhattan near his office, where he ran an architectural firm. He is facing charges of first- and second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found buried on Long Island in 2010.
He is also the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman.
Authorities allege that Heuermann used Barthelemy’s phone to call her family five times in July and August 2009. He allegedly said on the phone that he sexually assaulted and killed Barthelemy, who was 24 when she vanished.
Heuermann also allegedly called Barthelemy’s 16-year-old sister.
“Is this Melissa’s little sister?” Heuermann is said to have asked the girl, according to Fox News.
“Yes,” the sister replied.
“Do you know what your sister is doing?” Heuermann allegedly said. “She’s a w***e.”
O’Toole told Fox News that Heuermann, a married father of two, “wanted to hear the fear and the horror in the sister’s voice.”
Heuermann was in court on Friday for arraignment and pleaded not guilty to the charges. A judge ordered that he remain held without bail citing the “extreme depravity of the allegations,” according to WABC-TV.
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[Feature Photo: This booking image provided by Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, shows Rex Heuermann, a Long Island architect who was charged Friday, July 14, 2023, with murder in the deaths of three of the 11 victims in a long-unsolved string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders. (Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office via AP)]
