Designer recalls chilling chat with Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann
A shaken Westchester County woman says the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer casually chatted her up about the slayings months before his arrest — and laughed when she said anyone could be a mass murderer.
Interior designer Dominique Vidal revealed in a TikTok post Saturday how hulking architect Rex Heuermann, 59, brought up the grisly crimes as the pair hung out at a Big Apple bar after a meeting of a networking group they belonged to.
The alleged murderous, married Long Island dad asked Vidal if she liked podcasts, and when Vidal replied she did and had once been into true crime, he wanted to know if she had “a favorite case,” and she answered no, the woman said.
“And he asked me if I know — I’m not making this up at all — about the Gilgo Beach murders,” said Vidal, visibly shaken.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, of course I know.’ And he goes on to tell me, ‘Yeah, that’s a serial killer that was never caught in my hometown, my neighborhood where I live. The guy killed like 10 people and might still be out there.’
“I like make a joke. ‘Yeah, you never know who you’re talking to. Anybody could be a serial killer. I could be a serial killer,’ ” she said. “And he laughed at that.
Interior designer Dominique Vidal says accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann talked to her about the slayings months ago. TikTok
“And I just cannot stop running that conversation over and over in my head, and I’m really disturbed,” Vidal said.
“I can tell you right now that me and my boyfriend are not surprised that he is a serial killer,” she added of Heuermann. “Just everything about him: his mannerisms, how full of himself that he was, how odd he was. He was always very sweaty and not very nice to talk to and creepy.
“I’m still processing all of this, thinking over and over again about how I shook his hand, and how his hand felt, and I’m listening to the voicemails on my phone from him, and I’m going over his e-mails, and I’m looking at the photos of all of us at the Christmas party and the photos of him at our networking meetings in the conference room,” she said.
Manhattan architect Rex Heuermann, a married father from Massapequa Park, was charged Thursday in three of the Gilgo Beach slayings and is being eyed in a fourth, authorities say. Rex Heuermann Consultants & Associates
“And I’m just seeing this monster hiding in plain sight. And it all makes so much sense. He was so full of himself.
“I just thought he was an architect who thought he was like God’s gift to this world, but no, he’s literally a serial killer,” Vidal said.
Heuermann of Massapequa Park was arrested Thursday near his Manhattan office and charged with three of the infamous local murders dating back more than a decade — with police saying more raps against him may be pending.
The dad of two pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in court last week and sobbed to his lawyer, “I did not do this,” the attorney has said.
Police found 11 bodies dumped near a marshy area in Gilgo Beach near Heuermann’s home. EPA
Heuermann, 59, cried to his lawyer as he claimed he had nothing to do with the killings, the attorney said. Suffolk County Sheriff/MEGA
But cops said they linked the architect to the trio of killings, including through DNA recovered from pizza crust plucked from his trash, and charged him in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27.
He also is considered the prime suspect in the slaying of at least one more woman, Maureen Brainard-Barns, 25, officials said.
Investigators said 11 bodies in all were found dumped in a marshy area near the Heuermann home.
The architect and his wife, Asa Ellerup, have lived in Heuermann’s childhood home with the kids. His daughter, 26-year-old Victoria, worked as a receptionist at her dad’s office.
Investigators continue to comb through Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home Sunday seeking evidence. Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Heuermann was remanded without bail to the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court Complex in Suffolk County, LI. His wife was unable to be reached Sunday.
Vidal said she left the networking group that Heuermann was in partly because of the bad vibes she got from him.
“He was a weirdo, and I didn’t want to be around that,” she said, adding that he only wanted to talk about himself. “He left a huge impression on me of being a very odd, unwelcoming person.”
She said Heuermann’s arrest — and her recollection of her troubling encounters with him — have her so upset that she’s shacking up with her parents for now.
Vidal said she is “not surprised” that Heuermann is an alleged serial killer. Dominique Michelle Vidal Studio
“Stay safe out there. and trust your gut,” she said in the video.
“If something feels off about somebody, trust yourself. Don’t back out… just leave the conversation.”
-Additional reporting by Alena Adamson
Source: New York Post
