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Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann may have killed victim in soundproof room; cops using cadaver dogs to search yard

Cops collect evidence from Gilgo beach killer Rex Heuermann's house
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Cops allegedly found a soundproof room in the accused Gilgo Beach killer’s basement and think at least one victim was killed there, it was revealed Sunday — as police used cadaver dogs and ground-penetrating radar to scour his back yard.

A former co-worker told The Post that suspected serial murderer Rex Heuermann, 59, once took time off from his job as a Manhattan architect to install a concrete-lined vault at his family’s Long Island house.

It’s not clear if that basement compartment is the one cops suspect could have been a killing chamber or whether it is possibly the space previously reported to hold Heuermann’s up to 300 guns.

But “it’s not just a hidden room — it’s a serious vault,” the ex-colleague said. “It had a huge, heavy-duty safe door. He went and poured new concrete walls, massive amount of concrete to encase this room.”

“It was maybe 2 or 3 feet thick,” the former co-worker said.

New York state troopers and Suffolk County investigators have been searching Heuermann’s home  for the 11 days since the hulking, married dad of two was charged in the deaths of three women and named the prime suspect in a slaying of a fourth — all part of the infamous 13-year-old “Gilgo Four”  murders.

“This guy is a wacko,” Robert Musto, 64, a retired Long Island Rail Road worker and longtime Massapequa Park neighbor, told The Post on Sunday, referring to Heuermann.

Police have been searching the home and property of accused Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann since he was arrested in Midtown Manhattan on July 13 — and are stepping it up with a backhoe and cadaver-sniffing dogs. New York Post

“He’s got a soundproof room in his basement,” Musto said he was told by cops at the scene. “What do you think that was for?

“They’re saying there’s evidence he killed at least one of the girls down there,” the Long Island neighbor said. “The cops are going to dig all that out. Said they’re focused on the soundproof room in the basement but they’re going to look at everything.”

Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?

Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.

The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.

Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.

Melissa Barthelemy, 24

  • Barthelemy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009. Heuermann was charged for Barthelemy’s murder in July 2023.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25

  • Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007. Her remains were found in December 2010. Heuermann was charged for Brainard-Barnes’ murder in January 2024.

Amber Lynn Costello, 27

  • Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello was found on December 13, 2010, after having been last seen leaving her home September 2, 2010. Heuermann was charged for Costello’s murder in July 2023.

Megan Waterman, 22

  • Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach. Heuermann was charged for Waterman’s murder in July 2023.
NY Post

Jessica Taylor, 20

  • Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.

Valerie Mack, 24

  • Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.” Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police. Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.” More bones were found on April 4, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.

Unidentified Asian man

  • The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be-identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth.

‘Peaches’ and her daughter

  • An African American woman’s partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler, who was about 2 years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother, “Peaches.”

Karen Vergata

  • A victim previously referred to as Jane Doe No. 7 has been identified as 34-year-old Manhattan woman Karen Vergata. Vergata is believed to have disappeared around Feb. 14, 1996; two months later, her legs were found in a plastic bag at a park near Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach. At the time of her disappearance, Vergata was believed to have been working as an escort. Two sets of Vergata’s remains were identified in August 2023.

Shannan Gilbert, 23

  • Gilbert was a Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association on the morning of May 1, 2010. She spoke with two neighbors before disappearing. Her body was discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.

Jessica Taylor, 20

  • Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.

Sandra Costilla

  • Costilla was murdered in 1993 but had not been included among the so-called Gilgo Beach victims — until now. Investigators suspected convicted serial killer John Bittrolff in Costilla’s death, but he was never charged in her slaying — which remains one of several unsolved Long Island murders.

A law enforcement source told The Post on Sunday, “Cops are looking for evidence if the victims were in the house, nothing yet.”

Outside the house Sunday, an investigator was seen meticulously moving across ground in the back yard Sunday with a radar device resembling a lawn mower, video footage showed.

State and county cops have already scoured Heuermann’s backyard by hand, removing bags of items and dismantling a wooden deck. New York Post

Three cadaver dogs also were brought to the property, as was a backhoe and dump truck for what state troopers at the scene called a “major excavation.”

The construction rig was rolled into the yard shortly before 4 p.m.

Local Kathy Huber, who said she went to high school with Heuermann, said neighbors are OK with the disruption.

Rex Heuermann, 59, an architect and married father of two, was charged with three of the “Gilgo Four” murders, with cops saying they suspect he also may be tied to the death of a fourth woman found at the marshy Long Island site. Suffolk Police Department

“We don’t care how long this has to be here,” Huber, 57, said Sunday. “This is a big community of cops and firemen, and I find it hard to believe that anybody here will be angry that cops are taking their time and doing a good job.

“With these girls, with these victims, please, take your time and get justice for these women and these families,” she said, addressing authorities. “We don’t care how long this has to be here.”

Cops have been digging in Heuernmann’s yard by hand while also removing bags of items from the property and dismantling a wooden deck.

Police have searched two nearby storage units for human remains or other possible clues in the chilling case, too.

Heuermann was nabbed outside his Midtown Manhattan office July 13 and charged in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, whose bodies were found along a marshy stretch of land in 2010.

Cops believe he is also linked to the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes — the last of the “Gilgo Four.”

Seven other bodies were also discovered near the site, which remain part of unsolved cases.

All four women tied to Heuermann worked as escorts.

Authorities have said the suspect was a frequent solicitor of sex.

Massapequa Park neighbors said cops told them they are searching a soundproof room in accused killer Rex Heuermann’s basement and suspect that at least some victims may have been killed on the property. New York Post

In the days after Heuermann’s arrest, police removed from his family home a truckload of items, including a creepy, child-size doll with blond braids encased in glass and wood, a portrait of a disfigured woman and a cache of guns — as many as 300, according to cops, photos and reports.

Investigators returned to the home Sunday with a load of furniture — including a couch, ottoman and nightstands — and other household items in a truck and carried them back into the house.

An official in a blue suit with a clipboard standing outside the house told The Post that the items were being brought back because they were “insignificant” to the probe.

Police also previously impounded a Chevrolet Avalanche from the driveway and a second Avalanche from a secluded property he owns in South Carolina, the same model that helped cops finally nab him.

Heuermann’s wife, who police said is “disgusted” and “embarrassed” by his arrest, filed for divorce last week and remains in hiding despite being spotted on a few occasions with her children and outside her lawyer’s office.

Heuermann pleaded not guilty to the charges in court, while his lawyer has since hinted that police have ignored other, “more significant” clues leading to other suspects.

“It’s pretty crazy to hear,” Tom Donelson, a 51-year-old Nassau County court clerk who lives in Mineola and was looking at the scene Sunday, said of the case.

Musto and other residents in the community have described the “ogre”-like Heuermann as quiet — and just off.

“The detectives, when they interviewed me, they told me everyone around here told him the same things I did: tight-knit community, and he interacts with no one,” Musto said.

Additional reporting by Larry Celona