Police search home of Rex Heuermann, accused in Gilgo Beach slayings, for second time
New York authorities carried out a second search of the house of Rex Heuermann, the man charged with the slayings of the "Gilgo four" – four women whose bodies were found on Gilgo Beach − Tania Lopez, a spokesperson for Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney, confirmed to USA TODAY on Tuesday.
Robert Macedonio, an attorney for Heuermann's estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, also confirmed the search of Heuermann's residence in Massapequa Park, on the south shore of Long Island.
"We have not received a copy of the warrant," he said. "So I don't know the basis for the probable cause to go back in."
Local news video also captured New York State Police troopers at Heuermann's home.
Lopez declined to comment further on the search. "The work of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task force is continuing," she wrote in an email. "We do not comment on investigative steps while ongoing."
New York State Police declined to comment and referred USA TODAY to the District Attorney's office.
Guns uncovered:Hundreds of weapons found as investigators end search of Gilgo Beach suspect's home
Heuermann charged in deaths of women on same strip of Gilgo Beach
Heuermann is accused of the slayings of four women whose bodies were all recovered on the same strip of Gilgo Beach – Megan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Amber Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
Authorities filed the latest charges in Brainard-Barnes' death in January. Heuermann was charged with the other three slayings last July after police arrested him at his Manhattan office. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The first search of Heuermann's property shortly after he was detained turned up more than 200 guns in a basement vault. Police pored over the area between his house and nearby storage containers and dug through his yard with shovels and a yellow excavator.
The arrest came more than a decade after the four women's bodies were found wrapped in burlap and dumped on the strip of seashore in 2010. The women, all sex workers, went missing from July 2007 to September 2010, beginning with Brainard-Barnes, who vanished after she traveled to Manhattan from her home in Connecticut for sex work.
Over the course of the investigation, at least 10 bodies were uncovered in the same area. One was identified as the remains of Jessica Taylor, 20, while others have not been publicly identified, including a toddler and a female nicknamed "Peaches" for a tattoo of a peach found on the remains.
Police monitored Heuermann, swabbed his pizza crust before arrest
Law enforcement surveilled Heuermann for more than a year before his arrest. A key development in the investigation came in January 2023, when investigators swabbed a pizza crust that Heuermann tossed in a garbage can outside his office and matched the DNA to a hair found near the bodies.
Ellerup filed for divorce from Heuermann days after the arrest. However, Macedonio wrote in a statement released in March that Ellerup still visits Heuermann weekly and "believes he is not capable of the crimes he is accused of."
“I will listen to all of the evidence and withhold judgment until the end of trial," Ellerup said in the statement. "I have given Rex the benefit of the doubt, as we all deserve.”
Heuermann's next court date is scheduled for June 18, according to Macedonio and the court's web portal.
The case is still in the discovery phase, when new evidence is introduced, which the judge wants to complete by the end of July before scheduling a trial date, according to Timothy Finnerty, public information officer for the office of District Administrative Judge of Suffolk County Andrew A. Crecca.
Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her on email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.