NEW YORK — The New York architect previously accused of killing four women and leaving their bodies strewn along a coastal highway was charged Thursday with the deaths of two more after prosecutors said they gathered new DNA evidence and found a computer document that he had used to “plan” his crimes.
Rex Heuermann, 60, appeared before a judge on Long Island’s eastern tip to face charges of killing Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla, two young women long suspected of being victims of men who preyed on female workers. sexual.
Taylor disappeared in 2003. Costilla was murdered in 1993. The new charges came just days after police completed extensive searches of Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park and a wooded area on Long Island linked to the investigation into a series of deaths known as the Gilgo Beach serial murders.
In a court filing, prosecutors said they were able to use new forensic testing methods to match hairs found on or near both victims to a DNA profile likely to match Heuermann. Additionally, prosecutors say they found a “planning document” on the hard drive in his basement that was used to “methodically plan” his murders.
The document includes Heuermann’s concerns about leaving behind forensic evidence, guidance for cleaning and washing the bodies and notes on how to do better “next time,” according to the bail application.
Heuermann pleaded not guilty at the court hearing and was ordered held without bail.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney was scheduled to hold a news conference following the court hearing.
The charges involving Costilla, who was murdered 30 years ago, indicate that prosecutors believe Heuermann was killing victims for much longer than previously thought. Prosecutors say an entry in planning documents suggested he was involved in the death of another woman, Valerie Mack, who was found dismembered in the same vicinity as Taylor. Heuermann has not been charged in the death of Mack, who disappeared in 2000.
Since late 2010, police have been investigating the deaths of at least 10 people, mostly sex workers, whose remains were found along an isolated road not far from Gilgo Beach on Long Island’s south shore.
The victims had disappeared over a period of at least 14 years. Irritated police officers made only halting progress in identifying potential suspects. Investigators have long said it was likely that not all of the deaths were the work of the same killer. Some of the victims went missing in the mid-1990s. Investigators concluded that an 11th person who disappeared in 2010 from the barrier island community of Oak Beach had accidentally drowned.
Heuermann, who lived across the bay from where the bodies were found, was arrested last July. Prosecutors said a new investigative task force used cell phone location data and DNA samples to link the architect to some of the victims. He was accused of killing four of the women: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Investigators who exhaustively searched Heuermann’s home and dug up his yard last summer returned to the house again last month and spent nearly a week searching for it again. They focused their efforts primarily on the basement, according to a lawyer for Heuermann’s wife.
This followed a search in April in a wooded area in Manorville, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) east of Heuermann’s home, linked to another Gilgo Beach victim.
Jessica Taylor, 20, disappeared in 2003 while working as an escort in New York City. Some of her remains were found in Manorville that year. Other remains were found in a 2011 search in beach brush next to Ocean Parkway, the road where the other Gilgo Beach victims were found.
In April, investigators also spent days searching a property in the eastern North Sea village of Long Island, where Costilla’s body was discovered in 1993. Costilla was 28 when she was murdered and had lived in New York City. .
A decade ago, Suffolk County prosecutors said publicly that they believed Costilla had been murdered by a carpenter who lived in the area, John Bittrolff, who was convicted of murdering two other women whose bodies had been found in the same part of Long Island. But Bittrolff was never charged with Costilla’s death due to lack of evidence. He insists that he is not guilty of any murder.
Heuermann’s attorney and attorneys separately representing his wife and two adult children declined to comment.
Heuermann, who has been detained since his arrest, pleaded not guilty. He was scheduled to return to court on July 30 for a status hearing. No trial date has been set.
Read the full bail application below:
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