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Police on Long Island have arrested a suspect in a string of killings dubbed the Gilgo Beach murders as the body count rose to 11.
News 12 reported dozens of law enforcement from multiple jurisdictions were on the scene in Massapequa Park for the arrest, citing multiple sources.
Sources identified the suspect as Rex Heuermann, 59, News 12 said. The New York Post said he is the owner of RH Consultants & Associates, an architecture firm.
According to WABC, paperwork associated with the arrest will be unsealed after a court proceeding later on Friday. Authorities have scheduled a news conference at 4 p.m.
Nine of the 11 sets of remains were found along Ocean Parkway in Suffolk County, NBC News reported. Two more bodies were found in Nassau County.
The investigation began in May 2010 when Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey, disappeared after leaving a client’s home in Oak Beach. In December, as investigators searched for Gilbert, they found the remains of four more women — Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; Amber Lynn Costello, 27; and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
According to CBS News, Brainard-Barnes was abducted in 2007, Barthelemy in 2009, and Waterman and Costello in 2010. They were dubbed the “Gilgo Four” and their bodies were found wrapped in burlap sacks.
The following March, Suffolk police found partial remains of Jessica Taylor along Ocean Parkway: Other remains belonging to Taylor had been found in 2003 in Manorville, police said in 2020.
The next month, April, investigators found the body of 24-year-old Valerie Mack, who was not identified until 2020, a toddler girl, and a man. Then came the two bodies found in Nassau County.
The remains of Gilbert, whose disappearance started the grisly discoveries, were found in December 2011, a year and a half after she disappeared. In 2022, police released a 911 call from Gilbert on the night she disappeared in which she told a dispatcher that someone was following her, CrimeOnline reported.
See earlier reporting from CrimeOnline about the Gilgo Beach murders.
This is a breaking story. Check back for details.
[Featured image: Rex Heuermann/RH Consultants and Associates]
