Long Island serial killer case's most disturbing 2023 updates after biggest suspect breakthrough in decades this summer
Olivia Shea
Published Sep 30, 2026
THE alleged Long Island Serial Killer was finally arrested in 2023 for a series of murders that left New York on edge for years.
Rex Heuermann, 59, a New York City architect, has been charged with three counts of first and second-degree murder after three women were found dead around Gilgo Beach in Long Island, New York.
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In total, 10 bodies have been found on Gilgo Beach, but Heuermann is currently only charged with killing three women.
Heuermann, the founder and principal of RH Consultants & Associates, LLC, was arrested in July 2023.
He was taken into custody near his office in Midtown Manhattan as cops swarmed his home in Massapequa Park, located just 17 miles north of Gilgo Beach.
'KILLER' FINALLY CAUGHT
The hunt for the killer of the Gilgo Beach victims first started in 2010, when police dogs discovered skeletal remains in the brush by Ocean Parkway.
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They belonged to Melissa Barthelemy, 24.
The harrowing discovery was made while authorities were searching for missing 23-year-old escort Shannan Gilbert, who vanished in March of that year.
Days later, the remains of three women were found near the first location.
The women included Megan Waterman, 22; Amber Lynn Costello, 27; and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
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Heuermann is charged with the murders of Megan, Amber, and Melissa, all sex workers in their 20s.
Their bodies were all wrapped in burlap, and a hair was found on one of the victims, a key piece of evidence in the case.
DNA MATCH
Investigators were able to arrest Heuermann after they recovered his DNA from a discarded pizza box, according to a police report.
Cops have said that they were onto Heuermann for a while after tracking the location of burner phones used to call multiple victims.
The locations were allegedly traced to Heuermann’s home and his New York City office.
Police also gleaned information from the suspect's Tinder and American Express accounts ahead of the arrest.
Heuermann allegedly made several Google Pay transactions for a Tinder account in January 2011, according to American Express records that were obtained from a subpoena.
The account owner used the name "Andy," with Andrew Roberts also showing up associated with the Tinder profile.
Andrew is Heuermann's middle name, according to court docs.
The email address used for the Tinder profile was under the name "John Springfield" and had a zip code from Astoria, Queens in New York City.
A search warrant was obtained to investigate the email address, which turned up several selfies that appeared to have been taken by Heuermann.
The photos were allegedly sent to people in the hopes of soliciting and arranging hookups, which investigators believe links Heuermann to the "John Springfield" email address and Tinder profile.
Additionally, prosecutors allege that Heuermann made a series of strange and incriminating internet searches.
Among the searches listed in the document are: "Why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the Long Island Serial Killer" and "Why hasn't the Long Island Serial Killer been caught."
Heuermann also searched for child pornography and explicit videos depicting rape, prosecutors said.
ERRIE PHONE CALLS
John Ray, an attorney for families of two murdered women linked to the Long Island Serial Killer, received strange and threatening phone calls for months.
The phone calls ended a week before Heuermann was arrested.
Each of the calls was connected in some way and often followed the same pattern, Ray said.
"The same language is used, the same tape recordings are used, it’s the same eerie voices and crazy sounds that are used in every one of those calls," he said.
"They play news reports from the Shannon Gilbert case from sometime around 2011 or 2012 and make noises in the background at the same time.
"Then they say some nasty things or weird things to let us know that, whoever it was, they wanted to make sure we connected the call to the Gilgo situation."
Ray said the caller made threats against him on numerous occasions and appeared to be watching him.
"One time they called us, and I had just got home at nine o'clock and we were eating a later dinner, and the phone rang and they said, 'I hope you're enjoying dinner.'
"Then this person, a few seconds later, said, 'I hope you enjoy your pizza.'
"Within seconds, our doorbell rang, and - we live up in a dark area up on a hill - there was the guy delivering three pizzas. And we didn’t order the pizzas.
"So we call the Pizza Hut where they were coming from. We called the police, and the Pizza Hut person who took the order said it was a woman with a man in the background pretending to choose toppings that had made the call," he recalled.
NEW POSSIBLE VICTIM
Another bombshell in the case came in August, when the identity of a woman whose body was found at Gilgo Beach 27 years ago was finally confirmed.
A plastic bag containing the victim's legs was first uncovered at Davis Park on Fire Island's Blue Point Beach on April 20, 1996.
A skull was later found at Tobay Beach on Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in 2011 and it was confirmed to belong to Karen Vergata, 34.
Vergata was identified by the FBI after taking a DNA swab from a relative.
She vanished on February 14, 1996, but a missing persons report was never filed.
At the time, the 34-year-old lived on West 45th Street in Manhattan and was an escort.
Heuermann has not been linked or charged with her murder.
EX-MRS. HEUERMANN
Questions have swirled around Heuermann's wife, Asa Ellerup, 59, ever since his arrest.
She filed for divorce just days after she found out about her husband's alleged involvement in the LISK case.
Investigators said that Ellerup's hair was found on or near three of the victims but stressed that she wasn't suspected of any wrongdoing.
Cops immediately said that she was out of town when the first three women were believed to have been murdered, citing cellphone data.
For months, attorney Ray has called for investigators to thoroughly investigate Ellerup, believing they ruled her out as a potential suspect too quickly.
In October, he unearthed new witness testimony alleging that Ellerup knew of Heuermann's frequent patronizing of sex workers and was even complicit in some of the exploits herself.
According to one of Ray's sources, sex workers would enter the couple's small Massapequa Park home - sometimes two at a time - while Ellerup was allegedly present.
A second woman claimed to have attended a sex party at the home in the mid-1990s.
"The problem is, and I’ve been saying this from the start, is nobody knows when these girls were specifically murdered, and nobody knows how long their bodies were kept before they moved - so the hair thing could still connect her [to the murders]," said Ray.
"She’s not necessarily away. Her cell phone is away [...] but again we don't know exactly when the women were killed and when their bodies were moved.
"So why would the DA put out a statement right away that she’s not under suspicion because she was away and on vacation when these events occurred?"
Through her attorney, Bob Macedonio, Ellerup has continued to deny any involvement in the murders.
She told The U.S. Sun in September that she was left so shocked and disorientated by her husband's arrest that she "didn't know" where she was for weeks on end afterward.
Heuermann's wife has also been battling skin and breast cancer for several years.
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She is currently filming a $1 million Peacock special about the case, but lawmakers are trying to block her from receiving any of the money.
Heuermann's next hearing is set for February 6.
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