14 July 2023 , 17:38
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An expert in the Gilgo Beach murders has shared three things which may have prompted police to arrest a suspect in connection with the Long Island murders.
Suffolk Police - which is leading the investigation - is yet to release any information about the arrest and there has been no charges filed.
Author Robert Ottone, 39, has been researching the Long Island Serial Killer case since the bodies were discovered in 2010. Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, he talked about what he thinks may have led to the arrest of 59-year-old Rex Heuermann, a prominent architect, outside his Manhattan office last night, July 13.
Robert explained he believes there are three "potential reasons" why a suspect could have been on the police's radar for a year before his arrest, after many years of inaction. "One, DNA, possibly," he said.
"Two, somebody's finally said something. Or three, this is just a really good example of the new Suffolk County police force in action."
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Rex Heuermann has been named this Friday morning as a suspect (RH Consultants & Associates, Inc)
Author Robert Ottone, 39 (Photo courtesy of Ashley Rusinek)Police were spotted outside Heuermann's Massapequa Park home, and also searching the Massapequa Park area today, July 14. Robert said that police were "digging up his lawn" as they continued their search.
He talked about how things were changing in the area, that "the police force is getting younger, they're getting smarter and they're getting more diverse", and according to Robert "that's the really important part."
Robert went on to say: "It's more about hearts and minds than about just making things go away, which is kind of what the old guard in the county was. Just like 'Hey, let's mop this up as quick as possible and call it a day'."
One of the things which prompted change within the county's police department was the "gang problem", specifically relating to a group calling themselves MS13. Robert said: "That's kind of forced our two police departments to really change how they do things because that particular gang does things very differently, so there was a kind of forced evolution."
VICTIMS OF THE LONG ISLAND MURDERS. Top row, L to R: Molly Jean Dilts, Shannan Gilbert and Tracy Ann Roberts. Middle row, L to R: Melissa Barthelemy, Barbara Breidor and Kim Raffo. Bottom row, L to R: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello (Handout)
Rex Heuermann has been arrested (SPD)During the time the bodies were discovered, the first on December 11, 2010, and three more of the 'Gilgo Four' on December 13, Robert was working as a journalist. They were identified as Melissa Barthelemy, 24, from Buffalo, New York, who was found December 11; Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, from Groton, Connecticut, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, from Wilmington, North Carolina, and Megan Waterman, 22, from Portland, Maine - all found December 13.
The women had reportedly been working as sex workers in and around the area at the time. Their bodies were found during a search for 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert, from Ellenville, New York.
The group, who became known as the 'Gilgo Four' were found less than a tenth of a mile apart in brambles off the Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach. Each was wrapped in burlap, and medical examiners concluded all four had been strangled.
Where the victims were found (Suffolk County Police Department)"Right around the time Hurricane Sandy happened here on the East Coast, the case kinda went away," he recalled. "It was still being talked about in some circles and people certainly cared about it, but it didn't stick around.
"So, like around the one-year anniversary of the bodies being found is when I really got more involved and I met some of the people connected to the case and started looking into it more and I wrote a few articles about it and then I started researching it more and more to try and more put of an emphasis on it."
He moved from his online news outlet to work for a speciality magazine but continued to research the gruesome murders in his own time. During that time, he said: "I made a lot of contacts, and a lot of these people were current police, retired police, NYPD.
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"I had always had a lot of connections with some people, let's just say, who have connections right? Like people who know people."
Robert began to learn more about the case, putting it all together and eventually starting a podcast. During that time, he said: "There were a lot of weird characters that came out of the woodwork during the podcast that kind of creeped me out."
He was even threatened as a result of what he was doing.
Heuermann's home in Massapequa Park was flooded with cops this morning (CBS News)"I was threatened twice when I was a reporter covering this," he explained, "and once when I was doing the podcast."
He began teaching and lecturing, giving talks about true crime. He said the Long Island Serial Killer, also known as the Manorville Butcher, Craigslist Killer and simply LISK, has been an "evergreen" topic and his "most requested" lecture. Now, he's hoping the arrest will "put this to rest" and "bring closure" to families - though there has been no charges filed against the suspect arrested.
"Hopefully it gives them closure," he said. "I think that's really all that they could hope for. I know that there are two to three families that, not that they've moved on, but they're not as coval about anything as they used to be.
The expert spoke to the Mirror (Photo courtesy of WLIW-FM/NPR)"Because it's been a long time, and it's not that people have to move on, but at a certain point things can't have such a dominating presence in your life. So I do hope that at the very least they get some closure, and I feel, I would hope that they would feel that if this does bear fruit, and this does turn out to be accurate, and this individual is 'solely' responsible for this, hopefully, this helps them heal a little bit more.
"Even though it's over a decade later, there's no time limit on healing, and there's no time limit on closure. So hopefully this helps bring both of those things to them."