The man accused of killing three women as part of a notorious serial-killing case in New York spoke briefly in a court hearing as prosecutors presented DNA evidence they argued demonstrated the man’s connection to the killings.
The hearing came months after police arrested architect Rex Heuermann in Manhattan, nearly 40 miles from his home in Massapequa Park on Long Island. Heuermann has been charged over the killings of three women in the so-called Gilgo Beach case, a case that has captivated Suffolk county residents, police and the nation for more than a decade.
Also in recent developments, Heuermann asked a Suffolk county judge last week to return the more than 280 guns that police seized during a search of his property.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty in the killings of three women: Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies were discovered near one another along Ocean Parkway at Gilgo Beach. Their remains were among nearly a dozen found at Gilgo Beach more than a decade ago, between 2010 and 2011.
Prosecutors say Heuermann is a key suspect in the killing of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in 2007. No charges have been filed in her case, though prosecutors said in a court document the investigation was expected to wrap soon, CNN reported.
On Wednesday, prosecutors told the court that a DNA swab they had taken from Heuermann’s cheek matched DNA obtained from pizza crust in a pizza box found in a Manhattan trash bin earlier this year. The pizza DNA sample had already matched male hair found inside a sack that wrapped one of the women’s bodies, they said. The Suffolk county district attorney, Ray Tierney, reportedly told the court that the latest swab sample “erases all doubt”.
Heuermann’s defense attorney Michael Brown questioned the precision of the mitochondrial DNA swab, telling CNN after the hearing that “a significant amount of people could be the source of this hair”. Brown added in court that the defense team had not received any DNA evidence as part of its ongoing discovery.
In a separate motion by the defense last week, Heuermann asked a Suffolk county judge if he could reclaim the 280 guns that police took during a search of his Long Island home.
The motion filed by Heuermann’s attorney Sabato Caponi noted that the guns, which had “significant financial value”, should return to someone “designated by Rex Heuermann, individual or licensed gun dealer, who may legally possess the items”, Newsday reported. Their sale would “provide a temporary but urgently needed respite from the financial hardships afflicting the Heuermann family”, Caponi’s motion added.
The defense team’s motion came in response to a request from Suffolk county prosecutors to send Heuermann’s guns to the police department in Nassau county, where Heuermann lived, after prosecutors concluded their analysis of the cache of ammunition, assault rifles, pistols, shotguns and antique guns. Heuermann’s attorneys argued that the court could not give the guns to Nassau police because there had not been a required motion for the guns in the county court.
Some of the weapons “appears to have been in violation” of New York’s gun laws, prosecutors said in their September motion. If they are found to be illegal, Heuermann could face weapons charges. The judge is expected to determine whether to transfer the guns to Nassau county next week, News12 Long Island reported.
Prosecutors disclosed at Wednesday’s hearing that they had given Heuermann’s defense team at least 10 terabytes of data, including 8,000 pages of court records and subpoenas. They also gave 5,000 pages of evidence related to the cases of two women killed, records from the search of Heuermann’s home, and grand jury testimony.
So far, Heuermann, who stood in court in handcuffs in a suit jacket and khaki cargo pants, reportedly told the judge that he had, on average, “two to three hours” of reviewing the evidence in his cell.
This article was amended on September 28 2023 to clarify that Heuermann was arrested in Manhattan, not at his home on Long Island, as we said originally.
