Psychiatrist Explains Rex Heuermann's Alleged Calls to Victim's Family

The man charged in three of the Gilgo Beach murders may have felt a "sexual thrill" when he allegedly made "taunting" phone calls to the family of a victim, according to a forensic psychiatrist.

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

At a news conference on July 14, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said a breakthrough came just six weeks into a new task force's work on the case last year, when an investigator determined that Heuermann owned a Chevrolet Avalanche—the same model that a witness reported seeing when Costello disappeared in 2010.

Prosecutors said investigators then linked him to other evidence, including burner cellphones used to arrange meetings with the women and taunting calls that a person claiming to be the killer made to Barthelemy's relatives using her cellphone.

His attorney Michael Brown previously told Newsweek that Heuermann, an architect with a firm in New York City, had "insisted he did not commit these crimes."

Prosecutors allege Heuermann was living a double life, maintaining the appearance of a suburban family man while preying on women when his wife and children were out of town.

Forensic psychiatrist Carole Lieberman described the alleged killer as "a serial sexual sadist" who was not satisfied solely by killing.

Lieberman told Newsweek: "Since Rex Heuermann is a serial sexual sadist, he was not satisfied by killing, and likely torturing, his victims.

"He needed to taunt their families with calls to gloat about having killed their loved ones, in order to inflict pain on them, as well.

"Heuermann undoubtedly felt a sexual thrill when he made these calls, similar to the sexual thrill he felt looking at child pornography and pictures of women being sexually tortured.

"At the time he made these calls, the technology for discovering LUDS (local usage details) wasn't as widely known as it is today. So, he either felt he was safe from discovery or unconsciously he wanted to be discovered."

Investigators uncovered email addresses under fictitious names that were linked to searches for violent and child pornography. Heuermann also searched for information about the investigation, the victims and their relatives, prosecutors wrote in their court filing.

The remains of the slain women, all of them sex workers who disappeared between July 2007 and September 2010, were found close together in Gilgo Beach in late 2010.

By the spring of 2011, 10 sets of human remains had been found in the area—eight women, one man and one infant. The remains of Shannan Gilbert, whose disappearance sparked the initial search, were found in December 2011, about 3 miles east of where the other 10 were discovered.

In some of those calls, made in the weeks after Barthelemy disappeared, a male caller told Barthelemy's relative that he had sexually assaulted and killed her, according to the court filing. The calls were traced to midtown Manhattan, near where Heuermann worked, the filing said.

Investigators learned that Heuermann's cellphone had often been in the same general areas, around the same times, as the burner phones used to contact Barthelemy, Costello and Waterman.

Brown, Heuermann's lawyer, has said there is nothing about his client that "would suggest that he is involved in these incidents."

He described Heuermann as a hardworking licensed architect with no prior criminal history, and "a loving husband to his wife of over 25 years and an involved and dedicated father to his daughter and stepson."

He added: "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."

Following Heuermann's arrest, Barthelemy's mother, Lynn Barthelemy, told NBC News: "I'd like him to suffer at the hands of other inmates. Death is too good for him."