A killer or killers roamed the locality, luring in escorts and sex workers and brutally murdering them. Body after body was dumped along the shoreline, hidden for months and even years without being discovered. Then, in , a chilling call made by a woman in fear for her life led police to search the area.
Over the next year, the remains of 11 victims β mainly female escorts β were discovered dumped in the area, plunging the Suffolk County community into terror. But, the case went cold and no arrests were made, no suspects were named and there was no justice for the victims and their families. In July, there was a sudden break in the case when local married father-of-two Rex Heuermann was arrested on suspicion of being the infamous serial killer.
The year-old was charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello and is also the prime suspect in the murder of a fourth woman Maureen Brainard-Barnes β who was last seen alive in New York City in early June He also worked as an architect in Manhattan, where some of the women were last seen alive. Does this mean that the hunt for the Gilgo Beach serial killer is finally over?
For more than a decade, the Gilgo Beach murders stumped law enforcement officials in Suffolk County who believed it could be the work of one or more serial killers who targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies along the remote beaches on Ocean Parkway.
During a search for Gilbert in dense thicket close to the beach, police discovered the remains of another woman. By spring , the remains of a total of 10 victims had been found β eight women, a man, and a toddler. However, an independent autopsy commissioned by her family ruled that she died by strangulation and her mother believes she was murdered. Several theories have been considered over the years but no one had ever been charged with the killings.
