There's a lot of work to be done in Gilgo Beach case: DA Ray Tierney
Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney shares what to expect ahead of Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann's court appearance on 'Your World.'
Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is allegedly a "serial user" of sex workers who attended "swinger" parties.
And he had firsthand run-ins with two women whose bodies were found under similar circumstances to three others he's accused of murdering, according to the lawyer for their families.
The new allegations came during a news briefing by the Long Island lawyer, John Ray, who stood alongside Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison. Although, no new charges had been filed as of Wednesday afternoon, and county District Attorney Ray Tierney distanced himself from the claims.
Separately, a lawyer for Heuermann's wife categorically denied several of the new claims that mentioned his client.
SUSPECTED SERIAL KILLER REX HEUERMANN'S WIFE WANTS TO SELL GUN COLLECTION SEIZED BY POLICE
Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann appears in Judge Tim Mazzei’s courtroom at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead Sept. 27, 2023. His lawyer, Michael J. Brown, is at left. (James Carbone/Newsday/Pool)
Ray represents the family of Shannan Gilbert, the 24-year-old woman who vanished May 1, 2010, after telling a 911 dispatcher, "There's somebody after me."
Gilbert, a sex worker, ran away from the Oak Beach home of Joe Brewer, who has not been charged in relation to any of the cases. She also refused to go with her driver, Michael Pak, and fled down a street, banging on doors and prompting neighbors to call 911. That was the last time she was seen alive.
Listen to Shannan Gilbert's 911 call before being reported missing
Gilbert's death was eventually ruled accidental by Suffolk County detectives. However, the search that began after her disappearance led to the discovery of 10 other bodies, including the "Gilgo Four" prosecutors linked to Heuermann in July.
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Suffolk County prosecutors charged Heuermann with six counts of murder in three cold case slayings of Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22. They also labeled him as the prime suspect in the slaying of a fourth woman, 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who was found near the other three victims.
One of the witnesses, Ray said, contacted him after seeing pictures of Gilbert and Heuermann on TV following his arrest, which made national headlines more than a year and a half after Suffolk County's new police commissioner, Harrison, established a task force to renew the investigation into the slayings.
Counter-clockwise from left: Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Megan Waterman, 22, and Melissa Barthelemy, 24, disappeared after meeting with a client on Craigslist. The remains of the women were found in December 2010 at Gilgo Beach on Long Island. (Suffolk County Police Department)
On Wednesday, John Ray, the attorney for Gilbert's family, said witnesses have linked Heuermann to GIlbert's death, which was officially ruled an accident last year, and to Karen Vergata, who was last seen on Valentine's Day in 1996.
Vergata's hands and feet were recovered in 1996 on Fire Island, which is to the east of Gilgo Beach. However, she was not identified until earlier this year.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced Friday that the Gilgo Beach task force had identified remains found on Fire Island in 1996 as Karen Vergata. (Suffolk County DA/ Google maps)
Gilbert was "lured" into meeting Heuermann in the fall of 2009 at a Sayville motel over the phone, Ray said, citing one of the newly emerged witnesses. When they met in person, however, he handed her an envelope purported to be stuffed with cash. There was nothing inside but strips of paper.
Another witness, whose name Ray did not share, claimed to be a 54-year-old "swinger" who claimed she went to a sex party with her police officer boyfriend in 1996 and met Heuermann and Vergata. She identified Vergata as a naked woman she saw running out of a "swinger" party involving couples who swapped partners for sexual intercourse. Heuermann was at the same party, Ray said, and the witness claimed to have had sex with him twice.
Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann enter their home in Massapequa Park, N.Y., July 27, 2023. Ellerup’s husband, Rex Heuermann, is charged with six counts of murder relating to bodies found in Gilgo Beach. (MEGA for Fox News Digital )
The witnesses alleged that Heuermann was "a serial user of sex workers" and would sometimes call them two at a time to his house while his wife was in another room. Her attorney, Bob Macedonio, told Fox News Digital the allegation that she was home for any of her husband's illicit activities was "ludicrous."
"It makes no relevant sense for Asa Ellerup to be upstairs in a house, which you’ve all seen [is] very small, while her husband is downstairs quote-unquote ‘having sex workers at the house,’" he said.
Rex Heuermann used fictitious names and online accounts to solicit and arrange sexual activity, according to a bail application. (Suffolk County DA)
Macedonio noted that Tierney has said publicly Ellerup is not a suspect in the case and accused Ray of trying to "remain relevant" after investigators publicly declared Gilbert's death an accident last year.
Ellerup filed for divorce shortly after authorities arrested her husband. Through her attorney, she's maintained that her husband's activities caught her completely by surprise. She is also battling two forms of cancer and endometriosis, Macedonio said.
Attorney John Ray, left, and Jasmine Robinson, center, cousin of Jessica Taylor, a victim of a Long Island serial killer, exit the Arthur M. Cromarty Court Complex, where Rex Heuermann was arraigned, July 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Tierney's office, in a statement released shortly after Ray's news briefing, said prosecutors had not been informed in advance of the allegations and that attorneys for victims' families "by definition have a conflict of interest" who are not part of the Gilgo task force.
Harrison, the police commissioner who alongside Tierney spearheaded the Gilgo Beach cold case task force, was present during the briefing. He said he sat in on one of Ray's eyewitness interviews. But he stopped short of naming Heuermann a suspect in the Gilbert and Vergata cases.
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"We added two more investigators to this task force to take this kind of information in and to pursue it," Harrison said. "We have the information. We’re working it. And we’ll see where it leads us down the road."
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to his current charges and would face up to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole if convicted.
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