by Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann is now charged with murder in the deaths of the four women known as the “Gilgo Four” after investigators discovered their remains on Long Island in 2010.
Heuermann has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, prosecutors said Tuesday. Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old when she was last seen in July 2007.
Heuermann pleaded not guilty to the new charge when he appeared in court on Tuesday in a dark suit with his hands cuffed behind his back. His daughter and his estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, were present at the hearing.
Heuermann was taken into custody in July and charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the slayings of Melissa Barthelemy in 2009, and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello in 2010. He pleaded not guilty to those charges last year.
The remains of all four women were found near Gilgo Beach within days of each other in 2010.
“The grand jury investigation of the so-called Gilgo Four is over, it’s over,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters after the hearing.
As the cases are prosecuted in court, the investigation will move into its second phase, Tierney said, where authorities will look at “the other bodies and the other murders, which we think are investigatively significant. “
Heuermann continues to plead not guilty, his attorney Michael Brown told reporters after the court hearing. “He said, ‘I am not guilty of these charges.’ He looks forward to fighting these charges,” Brown said.
Brainard-Barnes lived in Connecticut and was believed to be working as a sex worker when she went missing. The other three victims were reported to have been sex workers or escorts when they disappeared.
“Failure for sex workers to access justice sends a message to the men who victimize them that victims can never face consequences for their unjust and criminal actions,” said Attorney Gloria Allred, who represented several members the families of the victims, at a subsequent news conference. the hearing. “This is 2024 – will there be justice for women who just needed some money to support their children or themselves?”
Nicolette Brainard-Barnes was seven years old when her mother was killed.
“Her loss changed the trajectory of my life a lot,” she told reporters at the news conference. “A lot of times I need her and she wasn’t there.”
Nicolette said her mother read to her every night.
“I owe my mom so much, and I know she would want me to speak up for her in this process and let everyone know who she really was.”
New DNA evidence is revealed
Investigators found DNA related to Ellerup on a leather belt used to restrain Brainard-Barnes, according to an indictment.
Brainard-Barnes was restrained with three leather belts, one of which was used to bind her ankles together, the indictment states.
Brown said that the prosecutors evidence of nuclear DNA testing indicated on Tuesday “problems.”
“We’ve been told all along that the evidence is not amenable to nuclear DNA testing,” Brown said. “Miraculously, nuclear DNA testing and results have emerged.”
In 2010, hair recovered from a belt buckle was unsuitable for DNA profiling and was sent to a forensics lab for further analysis before Heuermann was identified as a suspect, the indictment says.
The lab was recently able to generate DNA sequencing data for the hair found on Brainard-Barnes, confirming a link to Heuermann, the indictment states.
The DNA profile is “7.9 trillion times more likely to have come from an individual genetically identical to Asa Ellerup’s SNP genotype file than from an unrelated individual,” the indictment states.
“Nuclear DNA has been in the hair since it was first recovered in 2010 and now science has caught up,” Tierney said. “I would say that’s a good break for justice, a good break for the investigation.”
Researchers also determined that DNA extracted from female hairs recovered from the bodies of Waterman and Costello was “significantly more likely” from someone with genetic DNA profiles identical to that of Heuermann’s wife and daughter, according to the indictment.
The technology used to determine the DNA evidence is “cutting edge” and “scientifically accepted in the medical and forensic community,” Tierney added.
Ellerup was away when Brainard-Barnes left, according to the indictment. And the four killings were allegedly committed while Heuermann’s wife and children were traveling out of state, giving him “unfettered time to carry out his plans for each victim without any fear of exposure by his family or he would acknowledge his participation in these crimes,” according to the indictment.
“This indictment … makes clear once again that Asa Ellerup and her children were not involved, even in the jurisdiction, when these murders occurred,” Ellerup’s attorney, Robert Macedonio, said Tuesday.
Heuermann’s arrest last year “shocked” Ellerup and the children, Macedonio said.
“This world that existed, or could exist, they did not fully know about,” said the attorney. “She has nothing to do with this and never had anything to do with it.”
Authorities identified Heuermann as a suspect in early 2022 using cell phone data, witness reports and other information, and obtained a sample of his DNA from the crust left in a pizza box he threw away.
Investigators also linked Heuermann to Waterman by conducting advanced DNA testing on a piece of male hair found near her body and comparing it to DNA obtained from the leftover pizza, the indictment said.
More than 200 guns found in the town
Less than six miles from where the remains were found, Heuermann had lived quietly with his family in the Long Island suburb of Massapequa Park for years.
He married Ellerup in 1996 and lived quietly with his daughter and stepson. Neighbors said the family mostly kept to themselves. Ellerup filed for divorce within days of Heuermann’s arrest, her attorney told CNN at the time.
When investigators turned the house upside down last summer, they found between 200 and 300 guns stashed in a walled vault locked behind a metal door. Authorities also looked at properties Heuermann owns in South Carolina and Nevada.
Investigators recovered two burner phones from Heuermann at the time of his arrest that were used to contact sex workers, Tierney said Tuesday. Prosecutors were able to identify fraudulent email accounts and aliases used by Heuermann to search for “torture pornography” and information about the murder investigations and the victim’s family, he said.
Heuermann’s DNA was found on at least one of the bodies, Tierney previously said.
Heuermann’s internet history included at least 200 internet searches for information about the status of the Gilgo investigation, as well as compulsive searches for photographs of victims and their families, the district attorney said.
The Gilgo Four are among 11 sets of human remains found scattered across Long Island’s South Shore between 2010 and 2011, launching what police called “one of the most consequential homicide investigations” in the island’s history.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Nicki Brown and Artemis Moshtaghian contributed to this report.
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