Arrest In Long Island Gilgo Beach Killings Depicted In ‘Lost Girls’ – Deadline

UPDATE: Rex Heuermann, the suspect in a minimum of a few of the “Lost Girls” murders alongside Gilgo Beach in New York’s Long Island has been charged by a grand jury with six counts of homicide, in accordance with data from the Suffolk County District Attorney.

The prices are linked to the deaths of three – Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman – of the so-called “Gilgo Four,” girls whose our bodies have been found alongside the Ocean Parkway in 2010. Heuermann has pleaded not responsible to the costs, and was remanded with out bail.

In courtroom filings by the Suffolk County D.A., Heuermann is referenced because the prime suspect within the disappearance and loss of life of the fourth lady, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. (In all, the stays of 9 girls have been ultimately found within the Gilgo Beach space, in addition to the our bodies of a person and a toddler, although solely 4 have, thus far, been allegedly linked to the suspect or associated to the case).

District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney and different regulation enforcement officers are anticipated to carry a information convention as we speak at 4 p.m. ET.

PREVIOUS, 7:52 a.m. PT: A suspect within the so-called Long Island Serial Killer case – a collection of murders close to Gilgo Beach on New York’s Long Island South Shore depicted within the 2020 Netflix movie Lost Girls – has been arrested, greater than 10 years after the primary physique was discovered.

Police sources have confirmed to native media that the Suffolk County Police Department had one suspect in custody in reference to 4 of the murders. A big police presence had gathered on the suspect’s house in Long Island’s Massapequa Park final evening and remained on web site as we speak.

Rex Heuermann of Massapequa Park was taken into custody final evening and can be arraigned as we speak. The New York Times reviews that Heuermann, an architect, has lived most of his life in Nassau County – the placement of Massapequa Park – however labored in Manhattan. Heuermann was taken into custody by police Thursday evening close to his Midtown Manhattan workplace.

Law enforcement sources say the suspect has been tied to 4 of the murders.

Addressing reporters throughout a regionally televised stay information convention this morning, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison stated the suspect will face a grand jury as we speak and an indictment is predicted later this afternoon.

District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney and different regulation enforcement officers introduced this morning {that a} new convention can be held at 4 p.m. ET.

Actor Billy Baldwin offered a little bit of background on the suspect, tweeting that the 2 have been classmates at Berner High School, Class of 1981. “Woke up this morning to learn that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect was my high school classmate Rex Heuermann,” Baldwin writes, including, “Married, two kids, architect.
‘Average guy… quiet, family man.’ Mind-boggling… Massapequa is in shock.”

In 2010, 24-year-old intercourse employee Shannan Gilbert of New Jersey was reported lacking after she had traveled to Long Island’s Oak Beach, a gated neighborhood close to Gilgo Beach, for an escort job. Over the subsequent yr, 4 our bodies of younger girls have been discovered within the thick brush of the Gilgo Beach space. In all, the stays of 9 girls have been ultimately found, in addition to the our bodies of a person and a toddler.

Gilbert’s stays have been present in December 2011.

The killings have been extensively believed to be the work of a serial killer focusing on feminine intercourse staff, though households of some victims have disputed that characterization.

Last yr a multi-agency regulation enforcement process pressure was shaped after native police had made little progress within the case. Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone on the press briefing this morning thanks all the assorted departments which have labored the case over time, together with Suffolk County, the NYPD and the FBI. “We never stopped working on this case,” Bellone stated.

In addition to quite a few documentaries and episodes of true-crime TV collection, the case impressed the 2020 Netflix drama Lost Girls, directed by Liz Garbus from a screenplay by Michael Werwie and based mostly on the e book Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker. Amy Ryan starred because the real-life activist Mari Gilbert, mom of the murdered Shannan Gilbert. (Mari Gilbert died in 2016).

The movie premiered on the 2020 Sundance Film Festival was launched the identical yr on Netflix.