Gilgo Beach Serial Killer Suspect Has Surprising Tie to Upper West Side

The suspected serial killer at the center of the Gilgo Beach murder investigations has an unexpected connection to the Upper West Side.

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Rex Heuermann, a 59-year-old Massapequa Park resident and the owner of RH Consultants and Associates, an architectural firm he founded in 1994, was arrested Friday near his midtown office for the murders of four Long Island women.

Heuermann’s arrest came after Suffolk County’s new police commissioner created a special Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force in February of last year, over a decade after Long Island residents became fearful that a serial killer was among them.

In late 2010, the bodies of four women were found within days of each other near Ocean Parkway wrapped in burlap. Victim Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was found on Dec. 11, 2010, and three days later, victims Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 28 were found one-tenth of a mile apart from each other and became known as the “Gilgo Four.”

By the Spring of 2011, the number of remains found climbed to ten, with eight women and an unidentified man and toddler as part of the discovery. So far, Heuermann is only linked to the Gilgo Four, with authorities connecting his cell phone bills and newly obtained DNA evidence to the four strangling murders. Authorities observed Heuermann discard a pizza box in January 2023 and obtained the leftover crust, which was then matched with DNA evidence of a male hair found on the body of Megan Waterman.

As Long Island residents grapple with the possibility that their neighbor was indeed the serial killer among them, Upper West Siders and other city residents may have also encountered Heuermann as his work in architecture covered the tristate area. RH Consultants and Associates lists its major clients as the Target in Soho, Catholic Charities, NYC-DEP Sewerage and Treatment, American Airlines and other major tenants at JFK International Airport, a residential apartment building on Gramercy Street, a Footlocker in the Bronx, and a Burlington Coat Factory in Brooklyn.

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The website also lists “a full gut renovation of the 2 Bedroom, 2 Bath Central park West Apartment” on its resume, which Curbed points out was located at 360 Central Park West. The apartment “was renovated with new wood flooring throughout, a new kitchen, all new cabinetry, fixtures and new doors throughout, along with two new bathrooms including an ADA compliant bathroom. A new dropped ceiling was added to conceal central air in the apartment, along with new recessed lighting throughout.”

RHC touts its “extensive experience providing over thirty years of service dealing with the New York City Building Code, the New York State Code, the NYC Department of Building, and all major city agencies” on its website.

Over the past weekend, in an unrelated public appearance on Long Island, Governor Kathy Hochul hoped Heuermann’s arrest would bring long overdue “peace” to all residents.

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