Tue, Dec 24, 2024 | Jumada al-Aakhirah 23, 1446 | DXB ktweather icon0°C

US: Suspect in decade-old murder of nine women, toddler on New York's Long Island in custody

The human remains were found wrapped in burlap bags, and five of the victims were identified as missing sex workers who had advertised for clients online

Published: Fri 14 Jul 2023, 8:28 PM

Updated: Fri 14 Jul 2023, 8:32 PM

  • By
  • Agencies

Top Stories

Police officers stand guard near the house where a suspect has been taken into custody on New York's Long Island in connection with a long-unsolved string of killings, known as the Gilgo Beach murders. — AP

Police officers stand guard near the house where a suspect has been taken into custody on New York's Long Island in connection with a long-unsolved string of killings, known as the Gilgo Beach murders. — AP

A suspect has been arrested in connection with serial killings in New York more than a decade ago that targeted sex workers and others whose bodies were strewn along a Long Island beach, police said on Friday.

Eleven sets of human remains were found in 2010 and 2011 along an isolated stretch of Gilgo Beach on an Atlantic barrier island about 64 kilometres east of New York City. The killings drew national attention.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said a male suspect was arrested at 8.30pm on Thursday. He did not identify the suspect but said a grand jury was expected to hand down an indictment on Friday afternoon.

Speaking to reporters outside a home in the Long Island town of Massapequa, Harrison declined to offer more details. He said more information would be provided at a press conference later.

Citing four law enforcement officials, NBC identified the suspect as Rex Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect from Massapequa, a 20-minute drive from Gilgo Beach. The New York Times, citing an unnamed official, also named Heuermann.

A spokeswoman for the Suffolk Country Sheriff's Office declined to comment on reports naming a suspect in the case.

ALSO READ:

The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports naming a suspect in the case.

Some bodies were found wrapped in burlap bags, and five of the victims were identified as missing prostitutes who had advertised for clients online, including on Craigslist, police have said.

“We’re happy to see that they’re finally active, the police, in accomplishing something. Let’s wait and see what it all leads to,” said John Ray, the attorney for the families of two victims, Shannan Gilbert and Jessica Taylor.

Gilbert's disappearance in 2010 triggered the hunt that exposed the larger mystery. A 24-year-old sex worker, she vanished after leaving a client’s house on foot in the seafront community of Oak Beach, disappearing into the marsh.

Months later, a police officer and his cadaver dog were looking for her body in the thicket along nearby Ocean Parkway when they happened upon the remains of a different woman. Within days, three other bodies were found, all within a short walk of one another.

By spring 2011, that number had climbed to 10 sets of human remains — those of eight women, one man and one toddler. Some were later linked to dismembered body parts found elsewhere on Long Island, making for a puzzling crime scene that stretched from a park near the New York City limits to a resort community on Fire Island and out to far eastern Long Island.

Gilbert’s body was found in December 2011, about 5 kilometres east of where the other 10 sets were discovered.



Next Story