Gilgo Beach killings investigators were at the suspect's home with a K-9 and ground-penetrating radar, CNN affiliate reports
CNN —
Authorities searching the home of Gilgo Beach serial killings suspect Rex Heuermann continued those efforts over the weekend with the help of a police dog and ground-penetrating radar, CNN affiliate News 12 Long Island reported.
The news station reported its crew was on scene Sunday when the dog and radar were brought in. Later in the day, authorities began digging in Heuermann’s backyard with a backhoe, according to the affiliate.
Investigators have not revealed whether anything was found at the house over the weekend, the news station added.
Investigators search the backyard of Rex Heuermann's home on July 23, 2023. News 12 Long Island
CNN has asked police and the district attorney for details about the home search this weekend but has not received a response.
Police estimate it will be another two or three days until they finish searching Heuermann’s home, a law enforcement source told CNN. Authorities finished searching the home’s basement but still need to search the attic and garage, the source said.
Investigators may also do some technical work in the backyard to determine if someone, or something, was buried there, the source added. Police dogs that have been on the premises have not found anything.
This comes more than a week since Heuermann was arrested in New York City and charged with murder in the deaths of three of the “Gilgo Four” – a group of four women whose remains were found along a short stretch of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach in 2010.
He has pleaded not guilty in the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello.
The 59-year-old architect is also the prime suspect in the disappearance and killing of the fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, but he has yet to be charged in that case.
Since this spring, investigators probing the case have been operating on the theory that Heuermann committed the killings in his home in Massapequa Park, New York, CNN has previously reported.
That home is just a few miles from where the women’s remains were found.
A source involved in the investigation has told CNN the fact that the disappearances occurred during times that Heuermann’s family was out of town suggests he may have lured victims to his Long Island home, where the suspect lived with his wife, their daughter and his stepson.
Investigators believe committing the killings at home would have given Heuermann control of the environment and access to materials that were found at the crime scene, including tape and burlap bags, the source said.
Crime laboratory officers are seen outside Rex Heuermann's home in Massapequa Park on July 18, 2023. Yuki Iwamura/AFP/Getty Images
Search warrant sought possible ‘trophies’
Investigations into the suspect have expanded to other parts of the country.
Police in Las Vegas are sifting through unsolved cases for any sign that Heuermann may have been involved, CNN has reported.
Though they lived on Long Island, the suspect and his wife had bought two timeshare condos in Las Vegas between 2003 and 2005, according to property records obtained by CNN. The couple sold the first property, the records show, and it is unclear whether they still own the second.
And in northern South Carolina’s Chester County, where tax records show Heuermann owns four large parcels of land, the sheriff’s office says it has been gathering evidence since before the suspect’s arrest.
A search warrant for South Carolina property owned by the suspect sought possible “trophies,” among other items, the suspect may have taken after the killings, according to the Chester News & Reporter, which has seen the warrant.
The warrant shows a long list of items under “property sought,” many of which are listed as “trophies,” the newspaper reported.
That list includes phones, articles of clothing, jewelry, identification, notebooks, ledgers, Bibles, personal effects and/or photographs or recordings depicting the victims, according to the paper.
Other “trophy” items were separately listed, according to the paper, including condoms, black leather belts, knives, scissors, devices used to stamp letters on leather goods, and “Bounty paper towels specifically from the Bounty Modern Print Collection.”
CNN has reached out to South Carolina authorities to obtain the search warrant.
Forensic and trace evidence was also sought, the paper reported, including anything that could provide DNA like fingernails and hair.
The warrant also reveals authorities are looking for other items that may have been used in the killings and any items from locked rooms or storage areas on property owned by Heuermann, the paper reported.
Source: CNN
