Some residents of a small Long Island town were stunned Friday when one of their neighbors was arrested for the “Gilgo Beach” murders, as the alleged serial killer behind the killings of several women.
“It’s a bit shocking,” said Stephen Graziano, who lives on the block in Massapequa Park where the alleged killer, Rex Heuermann, was arrested.
Heuermann faces murder charges for the deaths of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello, whose bodies were discovered near an isolated, marshy area of Gilgo Beach more than a decade ago.
The victims were all women, and all sex workers.
“I can’t understate just how much this hindered the investigation and the interpretation of the case early on,” journalist Robert Kolker, whose book “Lost Girls,” about the Gilgo murders was adapted into a Netflix film, told WNYC.
“In this case, the people in charge seemed to almost say this was a consolation to the general public that they didn’t have to worry about this serial killer,” said Kolker.
Heurmann’s attorney described the prosecution’s evidence as “circumstantial” and says his client says he “did not do this.”
The arrest is a major development in a case that has haunted the area for over a decade.
Kolker joined WNYC host Sean Carlson to discuss the case. A lightly edited transcript is below.
Sean: So, for people who may not know all the details of this case, can you remind us what we knew before today?
Bob: Well, this has been an open serial killer case in the New York area for many, many years. It first went public as a serial killer case at the end of 2011, but the first victims may have disappeared even years before that. This particular arrest surrounds four women whose remains were found around the same time at the end of 2010.
Ever since then, the police have been finding more bodies and there have been no declared suspects, no declared leads, nothing but rumors and conjecture, and the families have been left to wonder for the longest time until…
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