Rex Heuermann, suspect in the Gilgo Beach serial killings, "compulsively" searched for photos of the victims' children, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said.
Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect, was arrested in suburban Massapequa Park, New York, on Long Island, Thursday night in connection to the slayings of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes—collectively known as "The Gilgo Four."
On Friday, Heuermann was charged in the killings of Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello, while being named as the "main suspect" in the death of Brainard-Barnes. A total of 11 sets of human remains were discovered across Long Island over the course of the investigation, which lasted more than a decade.
Tierney said during a press conference on Friday that detectives tracked Heuermann's cell phone and linked it to multiple "burner" phones that he had used, leading to the discovery that the suspect's Google search history included hundreds of queries related to the homicide investigation.
Heuermann also conducted repeated searches for photos of the victims and their family members, including children, that he was "trying to locate," police said.
"[Heuermann] was compulsively searching pictures of the victims," said Tierney. "But not only pictures of the victims: Pictures of their relatives, their sisters, their children. And he was trying to locate those individuals."
Tierney went on to say that Heuermann searched for a significant amount of "torture porn."
"In addition to that, there was a lot of torture porn and what you would consider, you know, depictions of women being abused, being raped and being killed," he said.
Newsweek reached out to the Suffolk County Police Department for comment via email on Friday.
A burner phone used by the suspect, which police later obtained, included searches for "tied up and raped porn" and multiple queries for child pornography, according to the charging document filed on Friday.
The document also suggests that Heuermann used the phone to specifically Google the names of family members of Barthelemy and Waterman. Additionally, he may have sought advice on avoiding his capture by searching for terms like, "why hasn't the long island serial killer been caught."
Barry Auslander, one of Heuermann's neighbors, told Newsweek earlier on Friday that children were urged to stay away from the suspect's "dilapidated" house during Halloween, adding that he was known for being "not a very nice person."
Another neighbor who spoke on the condition of anonymity called Heuermann "very quiet," saying that their only brief interactions occurred while he was washing his car or doing woodwork.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman described the Gilgo Beach serial killer as a sociopath who was insecure about his "masculinity" and attacked women so they would be "under his control."
Lieberman told Newsweek that a YouTube video of a 2022 interview between Heuermann and Bonjour Realty real estate agent Antoine Amira shows that the slay suspect is "narcissistic, egotistical, demanding and controlling."
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Aila Slisco is a Newsweek night reporter based in New York. Her focus is on reporting national politics, where she ... Read more
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