RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (PIX11) -- Rex Heuermann, the accused Long Island serial killer, was waiting for a grand jury decision on a fourth murder he's been tied to, as 2023 moves to a close.
A senior law enforcement source told PIX11 News earlier in December that a decision would be announced in the murder investigation of Maureen Brainard-Barnes "close to the holidays," but there has been no press notification, so far.
In a sensational development on July 13, Heuermann, a 60-year-old married architect from Massapequa Park, was arrested in Midtown Manhattan, near his office, and accused in three of the "Gilgo 4" murders.
Three women tied up in camouflage burlap — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello — had advertised their escort services on Craigslist between 2009 and 2010. They were discovered in close proximity to each other in the brush off Ocean Parkway in December 2010.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said, when the indictment was unsealed, that Heuermann used "burner" phones to contact all of them, utilizing a separate phone in each murder.
Brainard-Barnes was the first of the four to vanish — in 2007 — and the district attorney said she was tied up with three belts when she was killed, including one that was displayed by previous police commissioner Geraldine Hart in 2020, before Heuermann became the prime person of interest.
Six other sets of remains were ultimately found in a ten mile stretch of Ocean Parkway, including some that were dismembered. Remains of a mother and her toddler were discovered on opposite ends of the parkway.
The case reached a major turning point in March 2022, when a state police investigator working on the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force entered information about a first generation Chevrolet Avalanche into a database, trying to find out if anyone in the Massapequa Park area owned one around 2010. It turned out that Heuermann once owned this kind of vehicle.
A roommate of Costello said he had told police years ago that one of her last clients owned a dark green Chevy Avalanche and the man had an "ogre-like" appearance. It was estimated that Heuermann stood about 6 feet 5 inches tall.
The task force installed cameras trained on Heuermann's home for more than a year, before arresting him. Tierney said mitochondrial DNA swabbed from bottles recovered outside the Heuermann home matched genetic material found on some of the victims. A hair at Waterman's crime scene was tied to Heuermann after lengthy tests. Three other hairs found on other victims had DNA connected to Heuermann's wife, although investigators took pains to note the wife was out of town when the murders took place.
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all the murders he's been charged with.
The district attorney has repeatedly said he believes the Gilgo case against Heuermann is "very strong." It will also rely extensively on phone and cell tower records.
The grand jury was empaneled this year, in June 2023, and it's this group that was expected to make the decision in the Brainard-Barnes murder.
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