Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann blew up at ex-cop 'like road rage without a car' during confrontation on train then lay in wait for him after the ride and launched a second verbal assa
The Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann acted 'like road rage without the car' when he blew up at an ex-cop on a train before laying in wait for him and launching a second verbal assault days before his arrest, it is claimed.
The suspected murderer, who is six foot four inches tall, 'was a bully and seemed to be the kind of person who felt he could get away with doing things because he was big', an ex-police officer told The Ops Desk podcast.
'It was my impression he felt it was almost his kind of right to be able to confront people and voice his opinion on whatever was going on around him — unsolicited,' the unnamed former cop added.
Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect, was arrested Thursday after cops used cell phone data and DNA evidence to nail him to the murders of Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Melissa Barthelemy in 2010. He has pleaded not guilty.
He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and because he roamed free for over a decade, police fear he may also be responsible for other unsolved crimes.
Heuermann, 59, was taken into custody dramatically in the street on Thursday night at around 8.30pm on suspicion of some of New York state's most horrific and prolific unsolved murders
On Thursday night, Long Island serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann walked carefree through the street in Midtown Manhattan before he was arrested
Now new revelations have been made about his character, with the former policeman claiming on the security podcast that Heuermann's behavior towards him was 'off-color', Fox News reports.
The ex-cop said he was traveling between Massapequa Park, where Heuermann lives, and Penn Station in Manhattan, when the murder suspect launched a minor tirade at him.
He said he hoped the confrontation ended there, but when he got off the train he found Heuermann waiting for him at the top of he escalator, where he launched a further verbal attack.
The man said he decided to walk away, concluding 'It was a bit odd... But listen, this is New York.'
He said while the verbal altercation had nothing to do with the Gligo case, 'It would give you an insight into a mindset.'
Heuermann, who has lived for decades across a bay from where the remains were found, is charged with killing (L to R): Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello
He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, whose body was bound and hidden in thick underbrush along a remote beach highway
He added that he knew it was Heuermann who had been confrontational towards him due to his 'missing left front tooth' and 'very distinctive voice', and that he 'immediately recognized him when he saw his name in the media.
The anonymous man said he had the confrontation with Heuermann just two weeks ago, just over a week before the murder suspect was arrested.
An account from a former girlfriend of the murder suspect has painted a picture of his obsession with true crime.
In an interview with the New York Daily News, Nicole Brass, 34, said about a decade ago, when she would 'date' Heuermann, he would make small talk about the recent and unsolved murders.
'He asked me if I’m a true crime fan... We talked briefly about other serial killers, then he said, "Have you heard of the Gilgo Beach murders? That’s when he got real weird."'
Meanwhile, neighbors from the middle class community where Heuermann lived for all of his life in Massapequa Park, close to where the victim's remains were found, have described him as a menacing figure.
'We would cross the street. He was somebody you don't want to approach,' neighbor Nicholas Ferchaw, 24, told the New York Times.
Heuermann was under 24-hour surveillance leading up to his arrest at around 8.30pm last Thursday, on suspicion of some of New York state's most horrific and prolific unsolved murders.
New York State Troopers removed hundreds of guns from a 'walled off vault' inside Heuermann's home over the weekend
He was arrested close to his Manhattan office, with police saying this was done to avoid a standoff at his Long Island home where he kept an 'arsenal' of 200 weapons.
While he was legally registered to own 92 guns, police found over 200 firearms and other weapons in the small house.
They were kept in a walled-off vault that could only be accessed through a metal door, according to sources cited by CNN.
In an interview on Good Morning America on Tuesday, former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said the reason Heuermann was apprehended on the streets of Manhattan and not at his Long Island home was because he had so many weapons.
Heuermann's arrest occurred steps from where investigators say he made the phones calls in which he arranged to meet the victims for sex and also where he called and taunted the families of the deceased women.
Prosecutors have laid out how Heuermann was driving the same car that was seen by a witness to one of the killings back in 2009.
Investigators were then able to link that car to Heuermann's cellphone records, which tied him to locations related to the murders.
He allegedly conducted at least 200 searches for information about the investigation into the Gilgo Beach murders, and searched compulsively for the victims and their families.
Eventually, cops were able to match his DNA from an uneaten piece of pizza to one of the bodies.
Heuermann's rare first-generation Chevy Avalanche was seized by cops in rural South Carolina and is now making its way back to New York
Cops say that Heuermann also used Melissa Barthelemy's phone to make taunting phone calls to her family from the victim's phone, calls that were made steps from his swanky Manhattan office.
Following the identification of Heuermann as the owner of a Chevrolet, cops issued over 300 subpoenas, search warrants and other legal processes to obtain further evidence.
Prosecutors hope evidence found in the rare first-generation Chevy Avalanche will help them make an airtight case agains him.
Heuermann has been charged with three murders and police say could soon be charged with the murder of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, whose body was bound and hidden in thick underbrush along a remote beach highway.
The murders have remained unsolved for more than ten years after police first discovered murder victims' bodies along Ocean Parkway, a barren stretch of shoreline east of New York City.
Source: Daily Mail
