Authorities on Monday executed a search warrant for a second storage unit in Amityville, Long Island, related to the Gilgo Beach murders, a sprawling case that had long cooled until the surprise arrest last week of a suspect in three of the deaths.
The Suffolk County Police Department said an initial search warrant was issued Sunday for a separate storage unit in Amityville.
It is not clear who rented the two units, and the owner of both sites, Omega Self Storage, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A spokeswoman for the Suffolk County District Attorney, Tania Lopez, declined to comment on what investigators are looking for.
The search for the storage facility comes as investigators say they are still receiving information from the public after the arrest of Rex Heuermann, a Manhattan architect who lives in Massapequa Park, Long Island.
In response to NBC News, Lopez said the prosecutor’s office cannot disclose any new evidence received from the search warrants or from the public after Heuermann’s arrest.
Heuermann, 59, was charged Friday with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of three women who disappeared between 2009 and 2010. He is also suspected in the disappearance and death of a fourth. . woman, but that investigation is ongoing, prosecutors say.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Monday that the mountain of evidence, including DNA, cellphone records and a witness lead, gives his office confidence that it can prove its case.
“We are also confident that we will eventually be able to prosecute that fourth murder,” Tierney said. said on CNN.
While 11 sets of human remains have been found since 2010 around the Ocean Parkway area of Gilgo Beach, a remote stretch along Long Island’s south shore, Heuermann is not suspected of involvement in all of the murders. The deaths, many linked to missing New York and New Jersey-area sex workers, had raised fears a serial killer was on the loose.
Following Heuermann’s arrest Thursday night, authorities began searching his home in Massapequa Park, a town across the bay from Gilgo Beach, and his office in midtown Manhattan.
He has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Michael J. Brown, said Heuermann has been a “loving” husband and father to his daughter and her stepson, and “has insisted that he did not commit these crimes.”
“There is nothing about Mr. Heuermann to suggest that he is involved in these incidents,” Brown said in a statement. “And while the government has chosen to focus on him despite larger, stronger leads, we look forward to defending him in a court of law before a fair and impartial jury of his peers.”
What we know about the Gilgo Beach murders
Heuermann is charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. The investigation into the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, is ongoing with no immediate timeline for when it might be resolved, Lopez said.
All of the women were believed to be sex workers advertising on online sites, according to police. All were found in similar positions and bound with belts or duct tape, according to court documents. The bodies of three of those women were also wrapped in burlap-like material.
After years of an investigation without a primary suspect, a joint law enforcement review launched in early 2022 drew attention to a Chevrolet Avalanche registered to Heuermann. Such a vehicle had been on investigators’ radar during Costello’s disappearance from a witness’s trail.
In addition, authorities said, the burned cellphones and credit card activity helped them link Heuermann to the crimes. Investigators also said they analyzed hair found on one of the victims that matched Heuermann’s wife, who was out of town during the various murders.
“As such, it is likely that the burlap, ribbon, vehicles, or other instruments used in furtherance of these murders either came from Defendant Heuermann’s residence, where his wife also resides, or were transferred from his clothing,” prosecutors said. .
A male hair was also found on the burlap used to wrap one of the victims, according to investigators. Police picked up a discarded pizza dumped by Heuermann and took a DNA sample from a pizza crust.
Based on lab results from June, the researchers said her DNA “cannot be excluded” from a match to male hair.
