Rex Heuermann, the suspect in the Gilgo Beach killings in the US, is expected to be indicted today or overnight on new murder charges in the killings of two additional women.
The former New York architect was taken into custody in July and has already been charged with murder in the deaths of four women who have come to be known as the “Gilgo Four”.
Law enforcement officials told CNN the new murder charges are related to two additional victims, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack, and come from a sweeping expansion of the investigation into Heuermann following his arrest last summer.
Heuermann’s arrest kicked off a media frenzy, with many wondering whether police had finally caught what the Gilgo Beach community had long feared was a serial killer responsible for a string of unsolved killings that took place over decades.
At least 11 sets of human remains have been found on Long Island’s Suffolk County, including the four women Heuermann has been charged with killing: Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Heuermann was charged with three deaths in 2023 and with the death of Brainard-Barnes in January.
He has pleaded not guilty to all murder charges and is being held without bail.
His attorney, Michael Brown, told reporters in January that Heuermann maintains his innocence and is looking forward to fighting the charges.
CNN affiliate WABC reported police recently searched Long Island’s Manorville and North Sea in connection with the investigation, where the remains of three women were found years ago.
Investigators uncovered evidence in the searches of Manorville and Heuermann’s home earlier this year that helped advance the investigation, according to the law enforcement sources.
The remains of Taylor and Mack were found in Manorville, according to police.
Manorville, a community in eastern Long Island, is about 65km north-east of where the bodies of the “Gilgo Four” were discovered.
Mack was a 24-year-old Philadelphia mother who went missing in 2000 and whose partial remains were discovered in the Manorville woods later that year.
More remains that matched her DNA were recovered along the marshy area of Gilgo Beach in 2011.
Partial remains belonging to 20-year-old Taylor were found in Manorville in 2003, and additional remains were found on Gilgo Beach in 2011.
John Ray, a lawyer who represents Taylor’s family, previously said he did not know whether Heuermann was connected to Taylor’s death.
The search in North Sea â roughly 105km north-east of Gilgo Beach â was related to the unsolved killing of 28-year-old Sandra Costilla, whose body was found in a wooded area of North Sea in 1993, the law enforcement sources told CNN.
Suffolk County Police are investigating to see if Costilla’s death is connected to Heuermann, the sources said.
According to officials briefed on the investigation, detectives believe there may have been more killings â a belief that spurred investigators to expand their case, re-examine dump sites and conduct further searches at Heuermann’s home, as well as go over unsolved missing persons cases.
“We are not near the end of this investigation,” said one law enforcement official involved in the sweeping case.
“We are very much at the beginning.”
Inside the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer’s home
After Heuermann’s arrest last summer, police said the investigation was far from over.
They zeroed in on the Massapequa home where he had lived quietly for years with his wife, daughter and stepson.
Investigators used police dogs and ground-penetrating radar to search the home in July, uncovering over 280 firearms, more than 40 of which were possessed illegally, police said.
Authorities also looked into areas in Las Vegas and South Carolina where Heuermann owned property.
Tierney told reporters last summer that investigators were working with “a flood of evidence.”
A few weeks ago, police once again searched the Massapequa home and were seen carrying boxes out of the house.
Robert Macedonia, the attorney of Heuermann’s estranged wife Asa Ellerup, confirmed that police had a warrant for the search.
Ellerup filed for divorce days after Heuermann’s arrest last year, but still visits him weekly, according to a statement released by her attorneys in March.
She maintains that Heuermann is not capable of the crimes he’s accused of, the statement said, adding that her sympathies go out to the victims and their families.
“Nobody deserves to die in that manner,” Ellerup said in the statement.
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