Gilgo Beach Murder Investigation Leads to New Search of Wooded Area in Long Island
April 24 2024, Published 8:00 p.m. ET
The Gilgo Beach murder investigation has sparked a new search of a wooded area near Manorville, Long Island, RadarOnline.com has learned.
The search is believed to be connected to the killings of four women, whose bodies were discovered along Gilgo Beach in December 2010.
NYPD officers, including K9 units, are working with Suffolk County Police to comb through the wooded area near Schultz Road in Manorville. Officers were also seen searching along a road on state land, which is typically only accessible for permitted hunters, according to the Post.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney released a statement on the new search.
"The Suffolk County Police Department, the New York Police Department and the New York State Police are working with the District Attorney’s Office on an ongoing investigation," Tierney's statement read.
"We do not comment on investigative steps while they are underway. We will make further statements when appropriate."
The search is the latest development in the ongoing investigation involving Long Island serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann, who was recently charged with a fourth murder.
As RadarOnline.com reported, Heuermann was charged in the death of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes after a hair linked the suspect to her murder.
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Brainard-Barnes, a sex worker from Norwich, was last seen on July 9, 2007. Her body was discovered three years later in 2010 along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, she "had been left restrained by 3 leather belts, one of which was utilized to tie Barnes’ feet/ankle/legs together."
One of the belts was branded with "WH." It was later discovered that Heuermann had a grandfather named William.
A hair found on one of the belts was linked to the suspect by a DNA profile from his estranged wife, Asa Ellerup.
"The DNA profile generated from the Female Hair on Barnes, which was recovered from a belt buckle utilized to restrain Ms. Brainard-Barnes’ remains, is 7.9 trillion times more likely to have come from a person genetically identical to Asa Ellerup’s SNP Genotype File than from an unrelated individual." the documents stated.
Heuermann, who lived in Massapequa Park and worked as an architect in Manhattan, was charged with the murders of sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman.
Court documents revealed the victims "all had contact shortly before their disappearances with a person using a 'burner' cellphone (i.e., cellphones without an associated verified identity), and the cellphones of two of the four victims Brainard-Barnes and Barthelemy, were used by the killer after their death."
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The documents also revealed the victims were found in a similar manner.
"In addition, each of the four victims were found similarly positioned, bound in a similar fashion by either belts or tape, with three of the victims found wrapped in a burlap-type material."