Yeah, I saw that this morning and looked into it a bit. I hadn't even heard about the Gilgo Beach murders until this story broke.
Looking pretty likely that he's the guy, especially with the DNA evidence they have.
The
25-page charging document (behind paywall, sorry) lays out a strong case.
A witness "identified a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche as the vehicle believed to have been driven by her killer."
The cell phone evidence is very strong. The killer communicated with his victims using burner phones, and also used cell phones belonging to a couple of his victims after their deaths, including taunting calls to one victim's family. Cell phone records show the burner phones were generally used in the vicinity of the accused's residence, workplace, and (near the time of his victim's disappearances) victim's residences. Cell phone records also showed that, following at least two of the killings, the killer's phones moved in tandem with the burner phones in use at the time.
The charging document includes photographs of the accused purchasing additional minutes for one of the burner phones.
A text sent by the probable killer tied one of the burner phones to both a Chevrolet Avalanche and a witness's physical description of the probable killer. The accused matches that physical description and drove a Chevrolet Avalanche.
Travel records show the accused's wife was away during the three most recent of the charged homicides; said travel records were not available for the oldest of the charged homicides.
Records obtained from Verizon showed that Defendant Heuermann's cellphone was used on December 11, 2022, for a period of over three hours to access the fictitious [redacted] AOL Account. Similarly, records obtained from T-Mobile show that burner cellphone [redacted] was used on multiple dates including November 8, 2022, to access this account.
A review of call records for these two additional burner cellphones revealed that both cellphones were used extensively between 2021 and 2023 for prostitution-related contacts....
Those accounts were "used to conduct thousands of searches related to sex workers, sadistic, torture-related pornography and child pornography, including [a long list of redacted lines]...The [redacted] Email Account was also used to conduct in excess of two-hundred (200) searches, between March 2022 and June 2023, related to active and known serial killers, the specific disappearances and murders of [names of four victims], and the investigation of their murders." Another long list of redacted lines follows.
A search warrant conducted on the fictitious [redacted] AOL Account further revealed "selfie" photographs that appeared to have been taken by Defendant Rex Heuermann of himself (see below) and sent to other persons to solicit and arrange for sexual activity, further linking Heuermann to the fictitious email account and the burner cellphone, [redacted], used to establish the account.
The charging document includes one of those selfies.
Only then did investigators go after DNA evidence, which appears to tie both the accused and his wife's hair to the victims. (No one is suggesting the wife had anything to do with the killings, but a bit of what appears to be her hair was found with one of the victims.)
