'Massive amount' of evidence recovered from Gilgo Beach murder suspect's home as police end search

Updated

A "massive amount" of evidence was recovered at the "cluttered" home of Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann, authorities said Tuesday in announcing their nearly two-week-long search through the house was over.

“We have reached an end to the search of the Gilgo house. We’re going to be pulling out shortly,” Suffolk County, New York, District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters outside Heuermann’s home.

He stopped short of saying whether he believes any murders were committed in the property in the New York City suburb of Massapequa Park.

"We have obtained a massive amount of material, all of which has to be cataloged and analyzed, and it's going to take some time," Tierney said.

Asked whether anyone might have been killed at Heuermann's home, he would not say.

"I don't believe at this time that we can say one way or the other," he said. "The evidence does not point either way."

Police arrested Heuermann outside his Manhattan office on July 13 in the most significant action in the decadeslong investigation into bodies found along Gilgo Beach.

Heuermann, an architect, has been charged in connection to the slayings of at least three women, whose bodies were buried on a remote stretch of beach highway.

Police have been tearing apart his house and yard looking to evidence connected to the deaths of sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Amber Costello, 27, and Megan Waterman, 22, or any other possible victims.

He is also considered a suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.

Image: Authorities continue to work at the home of suspect Rex Heuermann, bottom right, in Massapequa Park, N.Y., on July 24, 2023. (Seth Wenig / AP)
Image: Authorities continue to work at the home of suspect Rex Heuermann, bottom right, in Massapequa Park, N.Y., on July 24, 2023. (Seth Wenig / AP)

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty and has said, "I didn't do this," defense lawyer Michael Brown has said.

He is being held without bail.