SEVERAL chilling clues have been revealed in the case of the Long Island Serial Killer as suspect Rex Heuermann has been taken into custody.
Heuermann, 59, was arrested by police Thursday evening outside his Manhattan office as police surrounded his address in Massapequa Park, about 30 miles east of New York City, and stayed throughout the night into Friday morning.
He works as an architect and is the founder and principal of RH Consultants & Associates, LLC, and an online profile claims the 59-year-old has 30 years of experience working with major clients like American Airlines.
Heuermann was charged with three counts of first degree murder and three counts of second degree murder by a grand jury on Friday afternoon in connection to the deaths of three of the four women known as the Gilgo Four, per a bail application from the Suffolk County District Attorney.
The alleged murderer pleaded not guilty and is due back in court on August 1, per News 12 Long Island.
An eyewitness told The U.S. Sun that Suffolk County Police Department officials swarmed near the residence on Thursday evening before the arrest on Thursday.
Read More on Crime
They also noted that a "large cooler" was removed from the architect's house — a new clue among many collected for over 10 years in the unsolved multiple-homicide case.
The arrest alone is a major breakthrough, per Gilgo News.
Last year, Nassau and Suffolk County police stepped up their investigation into the case, with the FBI and New York State Police joining forces to solve the murders of at least 10 people, with their remains spread out over Gilgo Beach in Long Island — a half hour from Heuermann's home.
FBI profilers described eerie similarities that could be drawn between a file created on the killer in 2011 and Heuermann, the current suspect, per The New York Times.
Most read in The US Sun
They described the supposed killer at the time to be a "sadistic but charming average Joe."
The suspected killer was also described as "financially stable and bright," blending into any environment with relative ease.
Although one of the most recent clues came in May 2020 when previously unidentified remains, known as "Jane Doe #6," were confirmed to belong to Valerie Mack, per Daily Mail.
The FBI used advanced DNA forensics technology in their partnership with the Suffolk County Police Department to help determine the remains.
Mack disappeared at 24 while operating as a sex worker but typically stayed in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Family members told law enforcement they had last seen her in 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey.
However, the LISK case began with a desperate search for another sex worker, Shannan Gilbert, 23, who was last seen in Oak Beach on the South Shore of Long Island, New York, in 2010.
Instead, the skeletal remains of Melissa Barthelemy were found by an officer and sniffer dog on December 11 of that year.
Barthelemy was a sex worker who had disappeared from the Bronx in 2009 and became part of what is known as The Gilgo Four in the case.
'SPECIFIC PURPOSE'
The Gilgo Four include Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 — all of whom were found whole, wrapped in burlap, and discovered about one-tenth of a mile apart from each other on Gilgo Beach.
They were grouped as four of 10 bodies that Long Island officials were clear belonged to the work of one murderer among arguments that all the bodies were the result of a single person's actions.
If the belief is correct, Heuermann, the suspected serial killer, would have seemingly taken a three-year gap in murders, as Brainard-Barnes went missing back in 2007.
It's unclear if Maureen died right after she disappeared or sometime in the three years before she was found, although one theory is that the suspected killer had a cooling-off period between the murders.
In another chilling revelation in the case, forensic psychologist Dr. John Delatorre exclusively told The U.S. Sun he agreed the serial killer cherry-picked his victims when asked.
"They're picked for a specific purpose," he said.
Many of the victims share a commonality of sex work.
Delatorre added that while the suspected killer may have frequented places where prostitutes advertise or may have even purchased sex before, it wasn't someone who was just trying to get rid of them because of their career choice.
"I think this individual has a specific target in mind," the expert explained.
Delatorre said the suspected killer may have been trying to find someone that closely matched another person that they weren't able to harm.
"They are an easy target, but I highly doubt that that's the only reason why [the killer] is choosing sex workers," he noted.
"Now it's possible that whoever's doing this has a specific victim in mind but for whatever reason, they can't get to that victim, so they use a proxy."
"And the easiest proxy to use, that most people would never really think twice about, would be a sex worker," Delatorre continued.
'THEY'RE GONNA KILL ME'
The remains of Gilbert were also eventually found and left another chilling clue.
She managed to call 911 before her death, noting that she feared for her life.
The call was never released publicly, but The U.S. Sun obtained the recorded conversation with police dispatch, where Gilbert could be heard banging on doors and saying, "they're gonna kill me."
At 4.51am on May 1, as she left the house on foot, Gilbert repeatedly told dispatchers: "There's somebody after me."
She then asked: "Can you trace where I am?"
Police were unable to locate her, and she was never seen alive again.
Gilbert's late mother and the family attorney, John Ray, maintained that she was being targeted by the serial killer when she died.
However, Dominick Varrone, the former chief of detectives at the time of the disappearances, said that the circumstances surrounding her death don't match those of the other victims.
Other remains totaling up to the body count of 10 include three additional women, an unidentified man, and a toddler.
Other clues connected to the bodies included tattoos, jewelry, and leather belts, per Gilgo Case.com.
One tattoo of a peach was used to identify the remains of the toddler's mother, who became known as "Peaches."
Her remains were first found at Hempstead Lake State Park in 1997 but weren't identified in connection with the toddler until 2011.