Back in 2018, the Joseph James DeAngelo, a.k.a., the “Golden State Killer,” was arrested and later convicted for a string of murders that spanned decades. This had finally happened after new analysis of DNA information and largely due to the dogged determination of author Michelle McNamara, whose true crime masterpiece, I’ll Be Gone In the Dark, was completed after her 2016 death (by Billy Jensen and Paul Haynes) at the behest of her then-husband Patton Oswalt. Fast forward several years, and DNA may have sealed the deal again for another long-pursued murderer, the Gilgo Beach serial killer.
The New York Post reports that a 59-year-old NYC architect, Rex Heuermann, who was named as a person of interest in four murders about a year ago, was nabbed in an unusual way. The publication notes that he was finally “caught after DNA from a hair of victim Megan Waterman matched that of his, taken by investigators from a discarded pizza crust in January.” On Thursday, he was arrested as a suspect:
The suspected serial killer arrested over the notorious Gilgo Beach murders in Long Island had been pinned as a person of interest more than a year ago after a DNA match, sources told The Post Friday.
Rex Heuermann, 59, was taken into custody over the slayings of four women who were found wrapped in burlap and dumped within days of each other in late 2010, multiple sources said.
The married father-of-two’s arrest marks the culmination of what appears to be a slow and methodical probe by investigators, which saw them eventually arrest him at his office in New York City on Thursday evening, the police said.
Heuermann had a home on Long Island in the hamlet of Massapequa. Actor Billy Baldwin was shocked to hear the news, given that he went to his school with the suspect. Baldwin took to Twitter:
Woke up this morning to learn that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect was my high school classmate Rex Heuermann.
Berner High School
Massapequa, New York
Class of 1981Married, two kids, architect.
“Average guy… quiet, family man.”
Mind-boggling… Massapequa is in shock.
23andMe strikes again???
Heuermann was arrested in conjunction with the 2010 murders of four women (Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes), who were aged 22-27 at their time of death. He is expected back in court sometime on Friday.
(Via New York Post)