“If you have destroyed multiple families and taken a loved one away from them, in my eyes you’re a monster. I don’t care how vulgar or harsh it sounds, ask the families to have me put in a different phrase.” Those are the words Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison described Rex Heuermann — the primary suspect in the Gilgo Beach killings.
Even though a myriad of evidence has now surfaced, authorities are still “putting the puzzle together” to close the horrendous case perpetrated by Rex Heuermann.
In a recent interview, 54-year-old Harrison shared with The Sunday Times how “fresh eyes” ultimately assisted in resulting in an arrest after at least three women were killed on Long Island over a decade ago.
Harrison stated, “I think there was some good work done but, unfortunately, homicides are putting a puzzle together, and you have to grab so many different pieces,” adding that an off-site team working on the killings “pushed this case in the right direction.”
Who are the victims of the perpetrator?
The bodies of Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Costello, 27, were found in the marsh at Gilgo Beach on Long Island in 2010. Rex Heuermann, 59, has been charged with their murders. He later entered a not-guilty plea, and his next court appearance is set for early August.
Harrison reaffirmed in his interview with the Times that police still “has six other bodies over there at Ocean Parkway that we need to investigate,” adding that this is “something that’s going to take a while to put together.”
Additionally, he gave Ray Tierney credit for his “very hard work Pitbull of a district attorney” role in advancing the case of the killer Rex Heuermann.
Harrison noted that the investigation was still ongoing. “I wouldn’t want to speculate, but it’s hard to determine if Rex Heuermann is attached to the other bodies that were discovered near Gilgo,” Harrison added.
Harrison assembled a task force of FBI, state, and Suffolk County police officers to conduct the investigation, and they all helped to narrow it down to Rex Heuermann’s Chevrolet Avalanche and track down certain calls.
Prior to being able to identify Rex Heuermann as the primary suspect, police used cell tower data, a witness’s description of the suspect’s Chevrolet Avalanche, and DNA from five hairs discovered on three of the victims, according to Suffolk County DA Tierney, who previously spoke to PEOPLE.
It had nothing to do with the [quality of the] evidence that was gathered; there was simply no DNA to match it to, Harrison told the Times. “One of the biggest problems [of the earlier investigation] was that we didn’t have our perpetrator’s (Rex Heuermann) DNA on file.”
Police specifically took bottles from a trashcan outside the suspect’s home and subsequently a used pizza box in Manhattan to gather an “abandonment sample” from Rex Heuermann. The site stated that the DNA in the box matched that of a hair discovered on Waterman’s corpse.
Rex Heuermann is also a main suspect in the death of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Between 2007 and 2010, all four of the women—who were employed as online escorts—were reported missing.