Gilgo Beach Serial Killer Suspect Tied to 2 More Murders, Lawyer Says

A lawyer for the families of Gilgo Beach murder victims has shared new claims in the case of serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday with Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison, attorney John Ray said four witnesses have come forward with information that links Heuermann to the deaths of Shannan Gilbert and Karen Vergata.

Vergata was working as an escort when she disappeared in February 1996 around Valentine's Day. Her remains were found scattered on Fire Island off the coast of Long Island over a 15-year period. She was identified in August thanks to DNA.

Gilbert, a sex worker from New Jersey, disappeared in 2010 after meeting a client in Oak Beach. It was the police's search for Gilbert that led them to discover the remains of other victims along Long Island's South Shore.

Two women, whose identities have been withheld from the public, submitted affidavits about encounters with Heuermann connected to the Vergata and Gilbert cases. Two more women declined to go on record, but gave Ray permission to share their tips. 

Heuermann, of Massapequa Park, was charged in July with the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Costello, 27. Their bodies were found along a Long Island beach roadway in 2010. 

He hasn’t been charged in any other killings. Between 1996 and 2011, the remains of 11 people were recovered along the South Shore of Long Island on Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.

Authorities have declared him the prime suspect in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. Las Vegas police are also reviewing unsolved cases to see if Heuermann could be responsible since he owns a home there.

Ray told reporters that he and Suffolk police have kept it quiet that they were working together on the case. Suffolk police were initially “very resistant” to accept information from Ray but that changed when Harrison took over as top cop last year. 

“That collaboration has had fruit,” Ray said. 

Ray described two witnesses who filed affidavits. Neither of the women live in Suffolk County and have no bias or interest in the case. Harrison said his department will investigate the women’s claims. 

Robert Macedonio, an attorney representing Heuermann’s wife Asa Ellerup, told The Daily Beast that Ray’s allegations were a “desperate attempt to keep himself relevant in a case that has nothing to do with his clients.”

The first witness said she attended a sex party at Heuermann’s home in February 1996 with her sexual partner, a New York narcotics detective. The two attended sex clubs together in New York where they saw Heuermann’s home advertised for a party to swap sexual partners, Ray said. The woman said a woman she later recognized as Vergata also attended the party. 

Ellerup was home when the witness, her boyfriend and Vergata arrived to Heuermann’s home, Ray said. When they left the home, Vergata remained to play a game, according to Ray. 

As the couple left, however, they saw Vergata run outside Heuermann’s house naked.

The witness came forward after seeing pictures of Vergata and Heuermann in news reports, the attorney said. 

 “I interviewed her three times for a total of nine hours,” Ray said. “I found her story to be credible.”

Ray said the second witness who signed an affidavit was a woman who worked during the day as a banker and as a taxi driver in the evenings to support her family as a single mother. 

“This woman is not a sex worker, never was,” he said. “She’s not a switcher or swapper. She’s not involved in any sexual activities whatsoever. She has nothing to gain by coming forward.” 

The witness was dispatched to a Suffolk County motel to pick up a woman who had locked herself in the bathroom. The driver honked her horn and flashed her lights as she was instructed to and a large man left the motel room covering his face. Then, a woman who was shaking and crying left the room and got into the taxi, Ray said.

The woman is believed to be Gilbert, the attorney said. Gilbert told the driver that the man, who the witness identified as Heuermann, lured her there with the promise of $1,000. But when Gilbert checked the envelope, she found it was stuffed with paper instead of cash. 

The taxi driver said she had another run-in with Heuermann when she picked him up from a bar off Exit 59. He told the witness he wanted to go for a “long ride in the woods,” Ray said. When she refused, Heuermann threatened to kill her. 

Ray said a witness who wouldn’t sign an affidavit said she was a sex worker who slept with Heuermann in Queens. He had a pistol and threatened to kill her, the attorney said. 

The fourth witness, who wouldn’t make a statement, told Ray that Heuermann was a “serial user of sex workers” and she herself had serviced him 20 times. She claimed that Heuermann was always polite and kind to her. 

“This is something we need to investigate,” Harrison said of the claims.