Last summer police arrested New York architect Rex Heuermann in connection with a string of murders. Bodies of multiple women had been found on a barrier island off Long Island more than a decade ago. Police had long suspected the crimes were linked but it took some advances in DNA testing before they could prove it. Heuermann was initially charged with four murders but today he was charged with two more. One of the crimes goes all the way back to 1993.
Mr. Heuermann, 60, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges in connection with the deaths of the six women, has remained in jail for nearly a year awaiting trial. In the meantime, investigators turned to the six other victims — four women, a man and a toddler — whose remains, like those of the first four women, were found along Ocean Parkway by Gilgo Beach.
On Thursday, Mr. Heuermann was charged with killing one of them: Jessica Taylor, whose partial remains were found near Gilgo Beach in 2011 and then linked to other partial remains found eight years earlier in a remote wooded area in Manorville, a 45-minute drive east.
He was also charged with killing Sandra Costilla, a 28-year-old New York woman whose remains were found in 1993 in the Hamptons. Her long unsolved murder had not previously been associated with the Gilgo Beach investigation...
At a news conference after the hearing, Mr. Tierney said the charges relating to Ms. Costilla indicated that Mr. Heuermann might be tied to an unknowable string of murders outside the Gilgo case.
Today we also learned about a "planning document" allegedly maintained by Heuermann which included a kind of list of lessons learned from his crimes.
According to a bail application filed by prosecutors Thursday, Heuermann maintained a secret digital record titled “HK2002-2004” on his computer since at least 2000, keeping precise notes on the murders.
The digital document was broken up into specific sections like “Problems,” “Supplies,” “TGR,” which prosecutors said are believed to be potential targets, and “DS,” allegedly for “dump sites.”...
One section notes to “remove head and hands,” which the DA’s office said is consistent with the remains of Taylor and another Gilgo body, Valerie Mack, which has not been officially tied to Heuermann...
“Hit harder too many hit to take down,” the planning document says, according to prosecutors.
You can read more of the document at the link. It's clearly written by someone who planned to be in the business of murdering women for a long time. Heurmann's lawyer, Michael Brown, continues to claim his client is innocent and suggested to the NY Times that Heuermann may not have been the author of the document.
Heuermann's wife filed for divorce last year after his arrest but she said earlier this year that she's not convinced he's the Gilgo Beach serial killer:
"She said to me that she didn't think he did this," said Etienne DeVilliers, a retired FDNY member who lived next door to the Heuermanns for 28 years. "That house is a mess and he was spending a fortune on hookers. I told her to her face and she said no he wouldn't. I said yes he was. He was spending a fortune on call girls and wouldn't drop a dime on that house."
Ellerup, in her statement, said, "I will listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgement until the end of trial. I have given Rex the benefit of the doubt as we all deserve."
Maybe Ellerup wasn't very observant and missed a few things? That or she just can't face the idea that she may have been married to a man who stalked and murdered women for several decades. I guess we'll have to wait and see what a jury decides.
