Gilgo Beach Murder Suspect Detained Thanks to His Wife’s Hair Pizza Crust – Police Search for Trophies of Victims

• Rex Heuermann is arrested as the main suspect in the deaths of three women between 2007 and 2010.
• DNA samples were finally used to bring him in as a suspect in 2023.
• It’s believed Heuermann might’ve kept items linked to the murders.

Rex Heuermann, 59, is finally in custody after being arrested on July 13, 2023, near his office building in Manhattan and charged as the Gilgo Beach murder suspect. The man went under the radar and out of reach from the police for thirteen years after allegedly taking the lives of three women.

He lived under the law’s gaze as a married father with two children while working as a Manhattan business owner. The Long Island native is a professional architect who cared for his clueless family.

He was charged with taking the lives of Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Costello, 27, all online escorts. Another escort Heuermann is accused of killing is a woman named Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who was last seen in June 2007 in New York City.

The Suffolk County Police suspected the father of two of dumping his victim’s bodies along the shores of Gilgo Beach. Several search warrants were served on Heuermann’s home by investigators who also wished to take his car as it was linked to the ongoing case.

At Waterman’s murder site, authorities found a DNA sample that would lead them to Heuermann. They also discovered DNA from a meal the suspect ate and something from his second wife at one of the scenes that linked him to the murders.

What led to Heuermann’s capture was when the police found two things that pointed to him: hair samples and a pizza crust. Someone who witnessed Costello’s disappearance said the victim’s killer used a first-generation Chevy Avalanche.

Authorities found the car, then Heuermann’s home address and description, before finding his workplace. When Waterman’s body was found, two female hairs were also discovered, and one other sample was located in the tape used to wrap Costello’s body with burlap.

A belt buckle used to bind Brainard-Barnes also had a hair sample. Investigators searched the suspect’s trash at his Long Island before finding eleven bottles in July 2022, which were swabbed for DNA, and it matched the female hair from the crime scenes.

It was discovered that the hair belonged to Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, but she wasn’t in town each time the murders occurred. Authorities believed her hair transferred from her husband’s clothing to the crime scenes.

Authorities hoped to find items Heuermann took from his alleged victims and kept at either location or his Massapequa Park home.

The male hair sample was also discovered on Waterman’s body in 2010 and was submitted for analysis ten years later. To match it to the suspect, in January 2023, a surveillance team saw Heuermann dropping a pizza box into the trash close to his office.

The pizza crust inside was tested for DNA, matching the hair found on Waterman’s body. Another thing that could link Heuermann to the murders was that he might’ve kept certain items from his alleged victims.

In the hopes of making the case against Heuermann airtight, investigators are searching a Long Island storage locker linked to him. Authorities are also searching in South Carolina, where the local police and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) are looking at properties tied to the suspect and his relatives.

Like most serial killers, they believed Ellerup’s husband might have kept “trophy” items that linked him to the murders. Rodney Harrison, Suffolk County Police Commissioner, says the suspect’s cluttered home was stuffed with things, describing him as such:

“He’s a monster.”

Authorities hoped to find items Heuermann took from his alleged victims and kept at either location or his Massapequa Park home. They also believed he could’ve kept body parts, with his family saying they were “shocked, disgusted, and embarrassed” to discover the possible double life the suspect led.

The father of two was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and the same amount for second-degree murder in the deaths. On July 14, 2023, Ellerup’s husband appeared in court, where he cried while pleading his innocence; the case is ongoing.