Long Island Serial Killer Suspect Possibly Seen With Missing South Carolina Mother: Police

Authorities in South Carolina are exploring the possibility that a woman who has been missing for six years may have been last seen with Rex Heuermann, the suburban architect accused of being the notorious Long Island serial killer.

PIX 11 spoke to Investigator Scott Bonner from the Sumter County Sheriff's Office, who confirmed they received a tip from the daughter of missing mother Julia Ann Bean. Bean's daughter claims that she recognized Heuermann, 59, from news reports as the last person she ever saw her mom with.

Bean was 36 when she vanished in 2017, just before her daughter's high school graduation. Bean's friend, Heidi Kovas, drove to the sheriff's office to share the daughter's information with police.

Kovas told PIX 11 that Bean's daughter recognized Heuermann almost immediately.

Bean was last seen in the Red Bay Road area of Sumter, South Carolina, on May 31, 2017. The last time her Facebook account was used was July 12, 2017. She was reported missing more than four months later.

Heuermann, who lived with his family in Massapequa Park, has pleaded not guilty to six counts of murder. He's accused in the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, who was last seen on July 10, 2009; Megan Waterman, who went missing June 6, 2010; and Amber Costello, who hasn't been seen since Sept. 2, 2010. He is also the prime suspect in the slaying of a fourth woman, whose body was found near the others, according to prosecutors.

Kovas said the daughter recalled how Heuermann had driven her mother to a nail salon in Sumter — approximately 100 miles south from Chester, South Carolina, where he owns property.

"That was not his name," Kovas said the daughter told her. "That is not what he called himself."

The girl said the man bragged about owning lake houses and boats she could use for a party, and announced his intentions to marry her mom, who struggled with drug addiction.

"Her daughter had mentioned multiple different men giving her mom money," Kovas said. "I mean there's no doubt that she was more than likely escorting. She was a beautiful girl, she is a beautiful girl."