Prosecutors asking for DNA swab from NYC architect, suspect in Gilgo Beach murders

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office is requesting a DNA sample from a suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders, a spokesperson told The Hill Thursday.

Authorities arrested Rex Heuermann, 59, last month for the death of three women, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello. The architect and Long Island resident is also the top suspect in the murder of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. 

Identified as a suspect in the case for the first time in 2020 due to a connection between his pickup truck and one a witness identified picking up the victim in 2010, Heuermann began to be surveilled by law enforcement by January. Reporting by The New York Times said they obtained a DNA sample from pizza crust that connected him to one of the deaths of the women after he threw away a pizza box in a Manhattan trash can.

His Massapequa Park, N.Y., home is near where at least 10 bodies were found in a 3-mile stretch between 2010 and 2011. Most of the bodies found are those of young women who were sex workers. 

Heuermann’s attorney last month entered a not guilty plea for his client, who is being held without bail.