The New York City architect arrested in connection with a string of decade-old bodies found on Long Island’s Gilgo Beach is expected to be arraigned on a new murder charge later this week, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.
Rex Heuermann, of Massapequa Park, is expected to be arraigned Thursday. The Suffolk district attorney’s office confirmed the court date but declined to specify the charge. The sources didn’t immediately say to which alleged victim it pertained.
The 60-year-old was first arrested in July 2023 in the deaths of four women whose remains were found in burlap sacks along a remote stretch of Ocean Parkway more than a decade ago. The bodies of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman, were found during a search for a missing escort, Shannan Gilbert, who later was found dead in a marsh. Her case was inconclusive; it has not been linked to the others.
As officers searched for her, they found at least six additional sets of remains in addition to the four women’s bodies. Not all of those people have been positively identified. At least two were believed to be escorts who fit the victim profile.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Word of the new one comes weeks after investigators returned to Heuermann’s home with a search warrant. It wasn’t clear what, if anything, they found, but that search came shortly after another unspecified search connected to the Gilgo investigation, this time in a wooded area in Manorville.
Some of the remains discovered in Manorville years ago, when the investigation started, were linked to body parts discovered along Ocean Parkway. No arrests have been made in those cases.
When asked Monday if Heuermann’s upcoming court date is the result of those two recent searches, he said, “It’s the result of those and other investigative steps.”
