The Gilgo Beach Murders – Current True Crime
By: Nitzaliah Festinger
Just this week a man named Rex Heuermann has been scheduled to stand trial shortly after labor day, for the murder of at least seven women.
Back in 2011 police began discovering bodies along the shore of Gilgo beach, in Long Island, New York. In the initial findings, they found four bodies which are referred to as the Gilgo four, and eventually they found a total of ten bodies. After discovering the Gilgo Four, police immediately began investigating, and searching for the serial killer. Until, they found the remains of Shannan Gilbert, in the marsh near the beach. At the time, they believed she had accidentally fallen in and died of either drowning or hypothermia.
After this finding, the case stalled for a long time. Nearly a decade, actually. While the families and friends of these victims mourned with no answer as to what happened, the local police had already moved on. Until, “a new task force was formed by Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison and Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.” (CBS News) Six weeks later, Rex Huereman was found as a potential suspect.
The new task force carefully studied all of the old clues, and interviews from the initial investigation, when they connected some dots to lead themselves to Hueremann. They realized that three of the victims had been in contact with a burner phone the nights of their disappearances. The police tracked the number to four different cell towers that created a radius of a couple blocks in Massapequa Park, Long Island.
At this point, police were keeping a very close eye on Huereman. They tracked his phone records and discovered that his phone was in the same area as the burner phone when the victims were contacted. After this they even went as far as to collect his DNA from a trash can, and it was a match to a male hair found on victim Megan Waterman’s body. To confirm this was in fact Hueremann’s DNA, the police collected a cheek swab sample, which matched the rest of the DNA.
In the past three years Rex Hueremann was charged with multiple counts of murder seven separate times. He pleaded not guilty to every accusation and somehow, his attorney dismissed the relevance of his DNA samples. Hueremann was taken into custody and resided in the Suffolk County jail (Riverhead Correctional Facility) without bail while awaiting his trial.
The defense is attempting to dismiss some evidence found in Hueremann’s home, all DNA evidence, as well as all counts of the murder of Sandra Costilla. Hueremann’s attorney has claimed the evidence backing these counts, as well as the evidence found in his home and on his body is “insufficient”. “This evidence, even if accepted as true, does not establish that Mr. Heuermann killed Sandra Costilla, nor that he acted with the intent to cause her death,” attorney Coysh stated. He also highlighted the fact that “The prosecution presented no eyewitness testimony, surveillance footage, digital evidence, phone records, fingerprint impressions, confession, or murder weapon linking Rex A. Heuermann to this crime.”
As stated earlier Rex Hueremann’s trial is scheduled in early September. The judge gave the Suffolk County district attorney’s office until March to respond to the defense’s requests.(abc News) Additionally, Hueremann has been suspected of murdering more bodies found near Gilgo Beach, but has not yet been named a suspect. He will most likely be detained for at least a few years after his upcoming trial, but for now, there is no way of knowing what will happen with the case.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgo_Beach_serial_killings
https://abcnews.go.com/US/gilgo-beach-suspect-rex-heuermann-stand-trial-shortly/story?id=129176737
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/long-island-serial-killings-investigation-timeline-48-hours/
https://people.com/who-are-the-gilgo-beach-victims-11711611