Architect accused in Gilgo Beach serial killings is due back in court

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — Rex Heuermann, the architect accused of murdering at least three women and leaving their bodies along a remote stretch of coastline near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach, is due back in court for the first time since his arraignment.

Heuermann is charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, who disappeared over five months in 2010. Prosecutors also say he’s also suspected in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007.

All of the women were sex workers whose remains were discovered near to each other on a barrier island off Long Island’s southern coast.

Investigators spent nearly two weeks combing through Heuermann’s home in Massapequa Park, across a bay from where the remains were found.

The search included digging up the yard, dismantling a porch and a greenhouse and removing many contents of the house for testing. Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup, told the New York Post that it left the home in shambles, with belongings piled in heaps, part of her bathtub cut away and furniture broken up.

“My couch was completely shredded. I don’t even know if there’s any parts to the couch,” said Ellerup, who filed for divorce after her husband was arrested. She said her two adult children, who also live in the house, were crying themselves to sleep.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was ordered jailed without the possibility of bail in his first court appearance in mid-July.

Investigators say they cracked the case with the help of sophisticated cell phone location data analysis, DNA evidence and an old tip about a vehicle seen parked outside the home of one of the victims.