Female Accomplice in Gilgo Beach Murders a Possibility—Victim Lawyer

A woman may have played a part in the Gilgo Beach killings, according to an attorney representing the families of two victims.

Rex Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect, is charged in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Amber Costello, 27, and Megan Waterman 22. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He is also the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.

Michael Brown, Heuermann's lawyer, has told Newsweek that his client "insisted he did not commit these crimes."

The remains of the women—known as the "Gilgo Beach Four"—were found close together along Long Island's Gilgo Beach in 2010 while authorities were searching for another woman, Shannan Gilbert. All five were sex workers who had gone missing between July 2007 and September 2010.

By the spring of 2011, another six sets of remains had been found—that of four women, a man and a female toddler. Gilbert was found dead in December 2011 in another area, a coastal marsh. Suffolk County police labeled the death an accidental drowning, which her family has refuted.

Investigators have long tried to determine whether the Gilgo Beach killings were committed by one person or by multiple people. While authorities have charged Heuermann with three killings, prosecutors say investigators are working to link him to the death of Brainard-Barnes.

They have not ruled out the possibility that he may become a suspect in other killings. The task force is "continuing to investigate the other murders and if there is a possible connection to Heuermann," a spokesperson for the Suffolk County Police Department told Newsweek on Thursday.

John Ray, an attorney representing the families of Gilbert and Jessica Taylor, whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach in March 2011, told Newsweek he suspected that a woman could have played a role in the killings.

"When I came into the case, it was long ago with Shannan Gilbert's family, and while we were investigating and still investigating that case, the thought occurred—there's many speculations—the thought that there might have been a female involved in the killings," he said.

"[That] was a guess and it still is so. It's nothing more than one speculation amongst many, so that we would examine the possibility of it."

That thought struck him, he said, because of the way the toddler was buried.

"That came to me because we saw the baby being wrapped up," he said. "It could very well have been wrapped up by 'Peaches', the baby's mother, but, you know, if it was wrapped up by somebody else, and it struck me as more likely that a mother would do that than you know, a male killer. So that that was a reason to think that way."

The remains of the child were found in April 2011. Investigators later found another set of remains that was confirmed through DNA analysis to be those of the child's mother. The unidentified woman's partial remains were first discovered in New York's Hempstead Lake State Park in 1997 and she has become known as "Peaches" due to the heart-shaped tattoo of a peach on her body.

In an appearance on NewsNation, Ray said "it's fairly obvious" that prosecutors will be able to connect Heuermann to the fourth victim.

"It's another thing whether they'll connect him with the other victims," he said. "Remember, many of the other victims were chopped up and their parts were spread unlike the other four who were covered with a burlap. So there's some question about whether or not he's responsible for more than the four. We hope maybe if he feels that the... the grip of the law really tightening down upon him, perhaps he'll admit to some of the others."

A new task force looking into the case honed in on Heuermann as a suspect early last year, prosecutors said, after connecting him to a Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared. They discovered he lived in Massapequa Park, an area linked to some victims' cellphone activity.

According to court documents, investigators matched DNA from a pizza Heuermann ate to hair found on burlap wrapped around one of the victims. They also linked him to other evidence, including burner cellphones that were used to arrange meetings with the women.

Brown told Newsweek this week that his client is a "hard-working" licensed architect with his own firm in New York and no prior criminal history.

"There is nothing about Mr. Heuermann that would suggest that he is involved in these incidents," Brown added. "And while the government has decided to focus on him despite more significant and stronger leads, we are looking forward to defending him in a court of law before a fair and impartial jury of his peers."

Brown also described Heuermann as "a loving husband to his wife of over 25 years and an involved and dedicated father to his daughter and stepson." Heuermann's wife, Asa Ellerup, filed for divorce on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.

Update 7/20/23, 8:55 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from John Ray and the Suffolk County Police Department. The headline has been changed to better reflect Ray's comments.