By News 12 Staff
A Long Island, N.Y. resident has been charged with the murders of three women whose bodies were found in the Gilgo Beach serial killer case.
Police officers arrested Rex Heuermann in connection to the murders Wednesday night in New York City. He has been charged with first- and second-degree murder for the murders of three victims: Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.
Heuermann pleaded not guilty and is due back in court August 1.
Heuermann's neighbors in Massapequa Park tell News 12 they saw law enforcement on their street around 11 p.m. Wednesday.
According to neighbors, Heuermann lives at the home on 1st Avenue with his wife, and children and would commute to work in New York City.
Neighbors also say Heuermann went to Berner High School and had five or six siblings.
The deaths of 11 people whose remains were found in 2010 and 2011 have long stumped investigators. Most of the victims were young women who had been sex workers. Several of the bodies were found near Gilgo Beach.
The mystery attracted national headlines for many years and the unsolved killings were the subject of the 2020 Netflix film “Lost Girls.”
This year a surveillance team observed and recovered a pizza box thrown out by Heuermann into a garbage can in Manhattan on or around Jan. 26, according to the bail application form. A swab was taken from the leftover pizza crust and sent to the Suffolk County Crime Laboratory on or around March 23.
The DNA from the swab excluded 99.96% of the North American population from the male hair found on Waterman's body. Authorities say it is significant that the defendant could not be excluded from the male hair recovered near the "bottom of the burlap" utilized to restrain and transport Waterman's naked and deceased body.
Updated with the latest information.
