Gilgo Beach Long Island Serial Killer Suspect Is NYC Architect Rex Heuermann: Sources

A Manhattan architect has been arrested as the prime suspect in a string of serial killings on Long Island, more than a decade after the first of 10 bodies was found on Gilgo Beach.

Rex Heuermann, 59, of Massapequa Park, Long Island, was taken into custody on Thursday, law enforcement sources told The Messenger.

The sources, who worked on the investigation, confirmed to The Messenger that Heuermann had long been under suspicion in the case.

Detectives have been compiling evidence against Heuermann and the case was recently presented to a grand jury, which is expected to move today to indict, according to the sources. According to The Daily Mail, forensic teams sent inside Heuermann's home removed a freezer they took with them.

The Messenger's sources said DNA evidence was crucial in linking the architect to the bodies recovered at Gilgo Beach.

Authorities plan to formally announce Heuermann's arrest at a 4 p.m. news conference.

In 2020, then-Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart appealed for help in breaking the case and released images of a black leather belt discovered early in the probe.

The belt was embossed with the initials "WH" or "HM."

Hart said investigators believed "the belt was handled by the suspect, and did not belong to any of the victims" but wouldn't say if any DNA had been recovered

Heuermann, who was born and raised on Long Island, founded RH Consultants & Associates, Inc., in Manhattan in 1994.

His image was removed from the company's website by 10 a.m. on Friday morning.

The company's clients include Nike, Target, Bellami, Burlington Coat Factory, Cipriani, and Foot Locker.

Other clients include Catholic Charities and NYC-DEP Sewerage Treatment, as well as American Airlines and other major tenants at the JFK International Airport.

The website claims RHC has "extensive experience providing over thirty years of service dealing with the New York City Building Code, the New York State Code, the NYC Department of Buildings and all major city agencies."

Heuermann was interviewed last year by Bonjour Realty, and video from that discussion is on YouTube.

The first of the 10 bodies — eight women, a man and a toddler — connected to the killer was discovered at Gilgo Beach in Babylon in 2010. Their deaths are believed to be the work of a serial murderer. Police have also posited the killings could have been perpetrated by a group of killers, working together.

In 2010, the remains of four other victims — dubbed "The Gilgo Four" — were unearthed, all wrapped in burlap, within a quarter of a mile of each other near Gilgo Beach.

In late 2011, authorities found the body of Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old escort who vanished that May after meeting a client through Craigslist in the gated community of nearby Oak Beach.

Police had spent over a year looking for Gilbert, who'd called 911 after fleeing from her client's home. During the call, she yelled, "They are trying to kill me!"

Six more sets of remains were discovered the following March and April. Police believe the latter sets of remains were actually buried prior to the interment of "The Gilgo Four."

Four of the victims remain unidentified, including an Asian man and a female toddler between 16 and 24 months of age. The little girl's mother's body has also been recovered, and also has not been identified.