Suspected serial killer's 1980s summer job may have been road map to murders: prosecutors
As a young adult, suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann worked summer jobs at Jones Beach, another sandy stretch in the same area he would be accused of dumping half a dozen victims' bodies decades later.
Prosecutors revealed at a hearing this week that Heuermann's alleged motive was to "identify and 'hunt' women for the purpose of committing murder" and that the job patrolling sandy stretches of Jones Beach at night made him intimately familiar with the area.
The 61-year-old Heuermann, who sources say picked up the nickname "Sexy Rexy" at the Suffolk County Jail, worked there from 1981, the year he graduated from high school, until 1984, according to court documents.
"Part of defendant's work at the beach entailed the defendant getting on All-Terrain Vehicle and going from field to field to ensure beachgoers were off the property once the beach was closed, a role that made the defendant extremely familiar with Ocean Parkway at night," Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Andrew Lee wrote in a court filing unveiled Tuesday.
Heuermann is a South Shore native who bought the Massapequa Park house he grew up in from his mother in the early 1990s. That neighborhood is near both beaches.
Jones Beach is less than 7 miles from Gilgo down Ocean Parkway. Six of the seven victims' remains were recovered in whole or in part east of Gilgo Beach, and prosecutors call the area the "central disposal site."
The filing came as prosecutors voiced their opposition to Heuermann defense lawyer Mike Brown's request to have the slew of charges against his client split up across multiple trials.
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Heuermann is accused of seven murders dating back to 1993, committed under gruesome circumstances and involving allegations of torture, mutilation and dismemberment. Prosecutors argued that the crimes shared the same modus operandi and that many witnesses overlap.
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The victims were all described as "petite" women, many of them around 5 feet tall and barely over 100 pounds. An eyewitness in the case who was the last to see one of them alive described Heuermann, whose identity was unknown at the time, as an "ogre" driving a Chevrolet Avalanche.
Heuermann's job patrolling the beach has drawn comparisons to the convicted serial killer Dennis Rader, whose BTK nickname stands for bind, torture, kill.
Rader spent years working for the home security company ADT, installing systems for people who may have wanted house alarms after his first set of slayings, the home invasion murder of the Otero family in 1974.
Rader then went on to work as a compliance and animal control officer in Park City, Kansas.
"Dad even built his animal control officer outfit based on a county sheriff look, including a large night stick, a large Maglite, [and he] carried a shotgun in his truck," Rader's daughter, Kerri Rawson, told Fox News Digital. "He looked imposing and absolutely like a cop."
John Kelly, a criminal profiler who has interviewed numerous serial killers and developed an early profile in the Gilgo Beach case, said the beach patrol job could have sated a desire "for authority and control."
"It shows and feeds his need for control at an earlier age and being in a position of authority like BTK," he said.
Heuermann later became an architect and was accused of abusing his power when dealing with city compliance issues, the New York Times reported in the days after his arrest. He was arrested in July 2023 outside his Manhattan office after police say DNA collected from a discarded pizza box helped them identify him as the suspect.
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We would really love her assistance to help us, but at the end of the day, we have to do what's right and restore some law and order back to Roosevelt. I would like AOC to partner with us... use her platform to help us get funding or connect women to services." Aoc's 'Red Light District' Plagued By Crime As Democrat Who Helped Her Rise To Power Says She 'Disappeared' Daughtry said issues like prostitution have permeated the area for decades, and he remembers it being a hot spot for prostitution in the '90s. He said the migrant crisis exacerbated the situation as many migrants were drawn to the area, given that it already has a large Latin American population. Mayor Eric Adams spearheaded Operation Restore Roosevelt in collaboration with the NYPD and City Council member Francisco Moya, a moderate Democrat who has often been at odds with his party's progressive wing. Daughtry said Moya was a "huge partner" who physically walked Roosevelt Avenue with him and participated in raids, as did Adams. Adams' office said the operation underscored the administration's commitment to "making sure these crime and quality-of-life issues continue to improve." Meng, meanwhile, told Fox News Digital she is working with local law enforcement and Moya on the matter and described the situation as "concerning." Ocasio-Cortez's office told Fox News Digital that she has engaged with local stakeholders in the area and helped fix lights in the neighborhood. The situation on Roosevelt Avenue was not raised by Ocasio-Cortez at her town hall, nor by constituents who spoke in a question-and-answer portion. Residents Andrew Sokolof Diaz and John Szewczuk told Fox News Digital outside the event that the Roosevelt Avenue problem is a long-standing issue and that local lawmakers must do more to address it. 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