LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK: The infamous Gilgo Beach murders remained cold for over a decade. However, the arrest of a suspect a few months has brought the victims' families one step closer to seeing justice served.
The women, most of them sex workers, were found dead and buried on the Babylon beach. With no leads for years, the cases remained cold or were struck off with false assumptions about what must have happened.
It was only this year, 13 years later, that a suspect was found and arrested: Rex Heuermann.
NBC's true crime show 'Dateline' is set to air a special report on the case, titled 'The Hunt for the Gilgo Beach killer', at 9 pm ET on Friday, November 10.
Who is Rex Heuermann?
Heuermann was an influential architect and ran RH Consultants & Associates before he was accused of being a serial murderer. According to NBC News, he had major business clients as an architect, with the likes of American Airlines and JFK International Airport in his long list.
He is also a married man and a father of two. His wife, Asa Ellerup, recently visited him in jail. This is given the fact that Ellerup filed for divorce in the week Heuermann was arrested.
Heuermann was linked to the case when his car was recognized as the one mentioned by a witness. Later, a discarded pizza piece eaten by him was used to match his DNA to the one found on the body of one of the victims.
Rex Heuermann locked up as victims' families await trial
The architect is currently locked up in a Suffolk Couty jail while he awaits trial. Heuermann has denied the accusations of killing the three women who make up the 'Gilgo Four'. The fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, is still a cold case although she was one of the four bodies that were linked together in the serial killer case. Heuermann is only a prime suspect in her killing and disappearance, according to CNN.
Rex Heuermann's neighbor shares 'weird' exchange with accused
One of Heuermann's neighbors, Jimmy Mack, will appear in the 'Dateline' special report. An excerpt from his interview with Andrea Canning revealed that he had a "bad feeling" about the architect after an exchange over Mack's parked car.
"He was mad because my car was halfway into this walkway. Apparently, he had to walk a foot around my car, and he wasn't too happy about it," Mack told Canning.
Mack continued, "He said, 'Are you the a-hole that owns this car?' And I said, 'Yeah.' And he goes, 'Alright, I'm going back in 15 minutes, and I'm gonna cut the tires.' I said, 'Excuse me?' I was in shock at that point."
Mack also shared that his neighbor was calm in the way he threatened him, making the confrontation eerier.
