The suspected Long Island serial killer allegedly visited a New York gun club a day before one of the victims disappeared in 2003.
According to Newsday, a day planner indicated that Rex Heuermann attended a rifle training event at the Peconic River Sportsman’s Club in Manorville on July 20, 2003 — a day before Jessica Taylor vanished from a bus terminal in Manhattan. Online researchers used information about that event to uncover pictures of Heuermann training young marksmen at a similar event in 2006.
Last week, Suffolk County prosecutors charged Heuermann with Taylor’s second-degree murder. Days after Taylor vanished, her torso was discovered in a wooded area about a mile from the edge of the Peconic River Sportsman’s Club, according to Newsday.
A source told Newsday that Heuermann is linked to the private club and other “shooting clubs.” The source also confirmed that Heuermann is shown in the pictures taken at the Peconic River Sportsman’s Club in 2006.
“Mr. Heuermann was not and is not a member of the Peconic River Sportsman’s Club,” club spokesperson Kerry Goldberg told the New York Post. “Mr. Heuermann did participate in a few high-powered rifle events at the club, which were open to the public.”
In July, police arrested Heuermann in Manhattan for the 2009 and 2010 murders of three women at Gilgo Beach on Long Island. Heuermann is charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. He is the prime suspect in the death of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
The four women were reportedly wrapped in burlap and buried next to each other on Gilgo Beach.
In 2011, Taylor’s skull, hands, and forearm were reportedly discovered on Gilgo Beach — less than a mile from where the original four victims were found.
In addition to Taylor’s murder, Heuermann was charged last week with killing Sandra Costilla, 28, in 1993. Costilla’s remains were found the same year in North Sea, Long Island — and prosecutors claimed Heuermann accessed pornographic images which coincide with how Taylor and Costilla’s remains were found.
Heuermann, who has pleaded not guilty to the initial four murder charges, is due in court on July 30.
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[Featured image: James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool]
