Gilgo Beach Suspect’s Home Held a 279-Weapon Arsenal and a Walk-In Vault
Rex Heuermann, the Long Island architect charged in the Gilgo Beach serial murder case, kept 279 weapons in his rundown home, most of them in a basement vault big enough to walk into, the authorities said on Tuesday.
At a news conference outside Mr. Heuermann’s ranch house, where the authorities have been collecting evidence since the arrest, the Suffolk County district attorney, Raymond A. Tierney, said that his team was wrapping up its search after more than a week of searching and seizing items. Mr. Heuermann had lived with his family in the dilapidated one-story house with the unkempt yard on First Avenue in Massapequa Park, N.Y., for years, commuting to his architectural consultancy in Manhattan.
The suspect’s now-estranged wife and two grown children have vacated the premises, and crime scene officials have spent the week digging up the backyard and removing items ranging from large pieces of furniture to small bags of household possessions. As they’ve worked, the house has become something of a tourist attraction for true crime fans and a daily encampment for news crews covering the case.
Mr. Heuermann, 59, was arrested on July 13 and charged in connection with the killings of young women whose bodies were dumped in the thick overgrowth along a stretch of Ocean Parkway along Gilgo Beach on the South Shore of the island. Mr. Heuermann has been charged with killing Amber Lynn Costello, 27; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; and Megan Waterman, 22. He is the prime suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
Source: The New York Times
