Suspected Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann is scheduled to appear in court this week after reportedly being charged with a fifth killing, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The Manhattan architect, 60, was arrested last year after being linked to the long-unsolved murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman. Their remains were among 11 bodies found scattered along Gilgo Beach in New York in 2010. This past January, investigators allegedly linked Heuermann to a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
On Monday, Newsday cited multiple anonymous sources who said the latest indictment charged the suspect with an additional killing, but declined to specify the nature of the new charge.
Heuermann, who remains behind bars as he awaits trial, is due to appear in court for an arraignment this Thursday before state Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei in Riverhead, a source told The New York Post.
The major new development came two weeks after RadarOnline.com reported that investigators conducted a second search of Heuermann's Massapequa Park home, which he shared with his estranged wife Asa Ellerup and their two children.
Law enforcement sources told The Post last month that the search stemmed from investigators being unable to determine where the victims were killed before their bodies were dumped along the beach.
NewsNation's Laura Ingle reported seeing the medical examiner carrying "very large evidence bags" out of the home.
The Suffolk County District's Attorney's Office was tight-lipped about the search, saying only that "the work of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task force is continuing."
Heuermann was first suspected in the deaths of the "Gilgo Four" after the disappearance of 23-year-old sex worker Shannan Gilbert in 2010 led investigators to the horrific mass grave on and near Gilgo Beach. Gilbert's death was later ruled an accident, despite similarities to the Gilgo Four, who were also sex workers. The victims, who were all in their 20s, advertised their services on Craigslist.
Court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com revealed that "each of the four victims were found similarly positioned, bound in a similar fashion by either belts or tape, with three of the victims found wrapped in a burlap-type material."
Additionally, "all had contact shortly before their disappearances with a person using a 'burner' cellphone (i.e., cellphones without an associated verified identity), and the cellphones of two of the four victims Brainard-Barnes and Barthelemy, were used by the killer after their deaths," per the docs.
After more than a decade, Heuermann was finally arrested, and pleaded not guilty to the murders.
