GILGO BEACH, Long Island, New York – Alleged serial killer Rex Heuermann has been charged by prosecutors in Suffolk County, New York, with the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in 2007 while working as an escort. Heuermann, 60, has also been charged with the murders of three other escorts, including Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, and Melissa Barthelemy, whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach. He pleaded not guilty to the new second-degree murder charge and was remanded to Suffolk County jail.
Heuermann’s now-estranged wife and children were out of town when Brainard-Barnes disappeared, fitting an alleged pattern of Heuermann being home alone when the other three victims were killed. Prosecutors revealed that Heuermann used phones in fictitious names to contact sex workers and had hundreds of electronic devices seized from his home and office.
Last summer, investigators identified Heuermann as the prime suspect, linking him to the victims through DNA evidence. Heuermann, an architect from Massapequa Park, is a father of two and lives just a few miles north of the dumping ground off Long Island’s south shore. The deaths of six other Gilgo Beach victims remain unsolved, and the family of Brainard-Barnes hopes that everyone will remember the other victims from whom charges have not been filed against any suspect.
The victims’ family gathered outside the court after the hearing, with Brainard-Barnes’ daughter and sister sharing emotional words. Brainard-Barnes’ daughter, Nicolette, expressed how her mother’s murder at the age of 25 drastically changed her life and left her children without a mother. Her sister, Melissa Cann, also shared her pain, describing her sister as someone who was always there for her and a mother of two amazing children who are now without their mother.
As the case against Heuermann unfolds, prosecutors persist in their pursuit of justice for the victims and their families, with the hope of bringing closure to the unsolved deaths linked to the “Gilgo Four” and the other unidentified victims.