Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is expected to be in court next week for reasons that have not been disclosed officially, but the summons could be related to the murder of a fourth woman, Newsday reports.
Multiple, unnamed sources told the newspaper that a special grand jury has been weighing charges against the 60-year-old former architect in connection with the murder of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Baines, a sex worker from Connecticut who vanished in 2007.
Brainard-Baines’ body was found near Gilgo Beach, and investigators believe she could be the serial killer’s first victim, according to The Messenger.
Heuermann has already pleaded not guilty to charges of first- and second-degree murder for the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello and Megan Waterman. As CrimeOnline previously reported, their bodies were also found on the shoreline of Gilgo Beach not far from Heuermann’s house in Massapequa Park.
A lawyer for Heuermann told News 12 Long Island that his client is scheduled to be in court on Tuesday. Court records show he was not supposed to be in court for at least three more weeks, according to the television station.
Following years of investigation mired by internal strife inside Suffolk County law enforcement, authorities eventually took Heuermann into custody July 14 on a Manhattan sidewalk near his architectural office. He lived in a dilapidated home in Massapequa Park with his wife, Asa Ellerup, and their two adult children. Ellerup has filed for divorce against him.
Heuermann remains in jail without bond.
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[Feature Photo: Rex A. Heuermann, the architect accused of murdering at least three women near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach, appears before Judge Timothy P. Mazzei in Suffolk County Court, Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, in Riverhead, N.Y. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)]
