NEW YORK — A Long Island pimp’s tip, coupled with chilling web searches and pizza crust DNA, steered authorities to serial killing suspect Rex Heuermann before his arrest in the notorious Gilgo Beach murders ended years of mystery in the long-cold case.
The unidentified pimp for murder victim Amber Lynn Costello didn’t know the suspect’s name, but described his car to authorities as a green Chevrolet Avalanche during a spring 2022 meeting with investigators — adding “you might want to look at him,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told The New York Daily News in a Saturday interview.
“The turning point was the car,” said Harrison, who made the investigation a priority last year. “Once we got that car, who it connected to, that’s when the investigation got legs.”
The pimp crossed paths with Heuermann in September 2010 during a planned robbery of the now-accused murderer, but quickly backed off because the 6-foot-6, 270-pound suburban dad was “the size of a mountain,” said Harrison.
The pimp also described the serial killer suspect as “being into prostitutes.”
For more than a decade, Heuermann was hiding in plain sight: Walking from his Long Island home to catch the train and working in his Manhattan office, his gruesome secrets untold as the years passed without suspicion — much less an arrest.
But once police connected the vehicle to Heuermann, the investigation intensified, Harrison said. Court papers detail how investigators used cellphone site data to track the defendant’s whereabouts during the times of the slayings, and discovered burner phones employed by Heuermann to arrange his meetings with the victims.
Heuermann’s DNA was also found on a pizza crust pulled from the defendant’s garbage, and authorities linked the suspect to a hair found in a piece of burlap used to move the corpse of victim Megan Waterman, officials said.
A review of Heuermann’s online searches in the last 16 months revealed a terrifying litany of subjects, including the names of the four victims and the words “Long Island Serial Killer.”
“We had to treat him as a maniac,” said Harrison. “There are people who have a family, then go out and do all types of horrible things. That’s what serial killers do. They lead two lives.”
The hulking 59-year-old suspect was finally arrested on a Manhattan street this past Thursday for the killings of three suburban sex workers in 2009 and 2010, with authorities saying charges in a fourth murder were likely.
Their remains were all discovered in Gilgo Beach, Long Island, and Harrison would not rule out Heuermann as a suspect in the murders of another six women whose bodies were found in the remote stretch of the suburbs.
A high-ranking New York Police Department source said city detectives will now investigate whether the accused multiple-murderer was connected with any unsolved homicides in the five boroughs. Police will specifically run his DNA for any potential matches, the source told the Daily News.
Harrison recounted his emotion-packed meeting with relatives of three victims before the arrest was announced on Friday.
“They were very, very grateful,” he said. “Tears in their eyes, very happy to have a sense of closure.”
A Bronx neighbor of victim Melissa Barthelemy recalled recognizing her face on television after the arrest, remembering how the young woman was often seen heading out for cigarettes or coffee in the mornings before her disappearance and death.
“I was so happy when I heard the news,” said Martha Lameda, 64, about the arrest. “I told my sisters, ‘Come on, breaking news, they got the guy who killed the woman down the block.’ And everybody was like ‘Thank goodness, what a creep.’”
Court documents allege the accused killer made taunting calls to Barthelemy’s sister after the murder.
The case of the fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, was pending, with criminal charges expected in her death, officials said. In three of the murders, Heuermann’s wife and children were out of state and he was left alone at home, officials said.
Stunned colleagues of Heuermann were still reeling from his arrest near his Midtown architecture office, with the suspect still behind bars for the three murders. The accused killer pleaded innocent Friday to all charges in the high-profile prosecution.
“I was throwing up all morning,” one longtime associate told the Daily News. “I can’t believe it. He was a normal guy. His daughter worked in the office, she was there every day as a receptionist.”
The man said police grabbed his computer as they seized evidence from the office.
A former client of the architect recalled his first meeting 12 years ago with Heuermann, remembering the alleged predator as soft-spoken and professional, the kind of guy who might have one beer with his lunch.
“I’m thinking this is something I never had any idea about,” he said. “I’m in shock. I’m flipping out.”
Angie Teater, in a social media post, recalled the weird vibes when her design school class went to the defendant’s RH Architecture office in Manhattan for a discussion on career paths.
“Strange life twist: when a serial killer is arrested and you realize you’ve met him!!!” she wrote. “I remember thinking I’d never want to work for that guy — there was an ick factor — but in my wildest dreams wouldn’t have imagined him to be a serial killer.”
Another former client who hired Heuermann about seven years ago was aghast at his brush with the accused murderer.
“I can’t believe he’s done the crazy things he’s done,” said Jerome Lordet. ”I couldn’t believe it. That this guy was sitting at my dining room table, with my ex-wife and my kid. Who knows what could have happened?”
