RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (TCD) — The 60-year-old man suspected of killing four women known as the “Gilgo Four” has been charged with two additional counts of murder and keeping a Microsoft Word document he used to “methodically blueprint” his plans.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney announced Thursday, June 6, that his office filed a superseding indictment charging Rex Heuermann with two counts of murder for the deaths of Sandra Castilla in 1993 and Jessica Taylor in 2003. Heuermann is already charged in connection with the deaths of 24-year-old Melissa Barthelemy, 22-year-old Megan Waterman, and 27-year-old Amber Lynn Costello.
The women disappeared and were killed over the span of at least 17 years, from 1993 to 2010.
Taylor was last seen July 19, 2003, in New York City. Tierney said records indicate that Heuermann, an architect, was also in Manhattan that day and worked near where Taylor “was known to ‘street walk.'” She last spoke with her mother July 21, 2003, and other than one outgoing call, she stopped communicating.
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On July 26, 2003, a person walking their dog on Halsey Manor Road found human remains and called police. Heuermann’s updated bail application says the victim, later identified as Taylor, was found decapitated and “lying on her back with her legs bent underneath her.” Her arms were severed below her elbows, and a tattoo on her torso was “severely obliterated by a sharp object.”
The bail application alleges Heuermann dismembered Taylor to “inhibit the identification of the victim via facial recognition, fingerprints, and/or tattoo identification.”
Taylor’s head, arms, and hands were discovered eight years later on March 29, 2011, on Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach, less than a mile from where the Gilgo Four were found in December 2010.
A witness reportedly told police that they noticed a dark-colored pickup truck near where Taylor’s body was located. The bail application says Heuermann bought a dark green Chevrolet Avalanche pickup on March 22, 2002.
Detectives discovered a hair under Taylor’s body and DNA tests showed the hair was 1.837 x 10 to the 603rd degree more likely to have come from Heuermann or someone genetically identical to him. The document says the killings all occurred when Heuermann’s wife and their children were out of town.
Castilla, 28, was discovered Nov. 20, 1993, with her arms over her head and legs spread apart. She had suffered multiple sharp force wounds to her torso, face, breasts, left thigh, and vaginal area. Detectives found hairs on Castilla’s body, and one of them was sent to a lab for testing. One of the hairs was 4.347 x 10 to the 332nd degree more likely to have come from Heuermann.
According to the bail application, since the time of his arrest, investigators seized more than 350 electronic devices from Heuermann’s home, including a “significant collection of violent, bondage, and torture pornography” that dated back to 1994. Some of the content on the videos “notably and largely coincide with how the remains of Sandra Castillo, Jessica Taylor, and Valerie Mack were discovered.”
While analyzing a hard drive found in his basement, they found what they described as a “planning document” utilized by Heuermann to methodically blueprint and “plan out his kills.” The specific document had four columns, including “problems,” “supplies,” “DS,” which stood for dump site, and “TRG,” which investigators believe is a “reference to target or victim.”
Some of the “supplies,” include “acid,” “rope/cord,” “saw/cutting tools,” “foam drain cleaner,” “body wash/wash wipes,” “tarps/drop cloths,” “large electric clips,” and more. Another part of the document included columns of “pre-prep,” “prep,” and “post-event.”
The list of items under “body prep” consisted of “wash body inside and all cavities,” “remove trace evidence [finger prints/hair],” “remove trace DNA,” “remove ID marks [tattoos, marks…],” “remove marks from torture,” “remove head and hands,” and “package for transport.”
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
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