SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK: Gilgo Beach murders suspect Rex Heuermann reportedly searched for photos of the victims' children online, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in a statement. He also mentioned that the 59-year-old architect searched for the photos "compulsively" and even attempted to find their location. Heuermann was arrested in Massapequa Park, New York, near Long Island on Thursday, July 13.
He is facing three counts of first-degree murder charges and three counts of second-degree murder charges for the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, three of the first four victims of the serial killings. He is also being considered as the "prime suspect" in the murder of the fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Heuermann's "burner" phones and online search history were among the key evidences that led to his arrest more than a decade after the murders.
'He was trying to locate those individuals'
In the wake of Heuermann's arrest, Suffolk County DA Tierney said that the former conducted repeated searches for photos of the Gilgo Beach murders victims and their family members, including the victims' children. While the suspect did not reveal the reason behind his searches, Tierney said that he was allegedly "trying to locate" the victims' family members and their children.
"[Heuermann] was compulsively searching pictures of the victims. But not only pictures of the victims: Pictures of their relatives, their sisters, their children. And he was trying to locate those individuals," Tierney mentioned. He also shared that Heuermann's disturbing online history also included a significant amount of "torture porn." "In addition to that, there was a lot of torture porn and what you would consider, you know, depictions of women being abused, being raped and being killed," Tierney shared. As per Newsweek, Heuermann's search history also showed multiple queries for child p*rnography.
Rex Heuermann contacted his victims' family members
The 32-page document detailing evidences that led to Heuermann's arrest mentioned that he used one of his burner phones to specifically Google the names of family members of Barthelemy and Waterman. In addition to his searches, the suspect even contacted his victims' family members, including her then-minor sister. Reports suggest that Heuermann used Barthelemy's phone at least five times to make "taunting phone calls to Ms Barthelemy's family members" in summer 2009.
As per court documents, the phone calls "resulted in a conversation between the caller, who was a male, and a relative of Melissa Barthelemy, in which the male caller admitted killing and sexually assaulting Ms Barthelemy." It also mentioned that Heuermann called Barthelemy's then-16-year-old sister using a burner phone, saying, "Do you know what your sister is doing? She’s a wh*re."
