Gilgo Beach killings suspect is expected to be charged with a fourth killing, source says
Accused Long Island serial killer Rex A. Heuermann appears during a hearing in Suffolk County Superior Court in Riverhead
By Brynn Gingras and Mark Morales, CNN
(CNN) — Serial killings suspect Rex Heuermann is expected to be charged with a fourth killing in connection with the Gilgo Beach case, a source familiar with the investigation said Sunday.
Heuermann is scheduled to be in court Tuesday, according to the Suffolk County district attorney. ABC and CBS previously reported the news, citing multiple sources.
Investigators plan to announce “a significant development in the investigation” after the hearing, the district attorney said in a news release.
Heuermann, an architectural consultant from Massapequa Park, New York, has already been charged with killing three women whose bodies were discovered along a stretch of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach in 2010, bound with belts or tape and wrapped in burlap.
He faces three counts of first-degree murder for the killings of Melissa Barthelemy in 2009 and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello in 2010, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. He has pleaded not guilty.
The source familiar with the investigation did not make clear which victim Heuermann is expected to be charged in connection with. But authorities have previously said that Heuermann was also the prime suspect in the disappearance and killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found near the same location as the other women.
The four women, who were discovered within days of each other, came to be known as the “Gilgo Four.”
Barthelemy’s remains were the first set of female remains found in bushes along an isolated strip of waterfront property in December 2010. At the time, authorities were searching for another missing woman, Shannan Gilbert, a 23-year-old from New Jersey who hadn’t been seen since May 2010.
CNN has reached out to Heuermann’s attorney for comment.
CNN has reached out to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and the Suffolk County Police Department for comment.
Court is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to Robert Macedonio, the attorney for Heuermann’s estranged wife, Asa Ellerup. The DA requested the date be moved up from a previously scheduled February 6 hearing, Macedonio said.
Ellerup, who filed for divorce last year after her husband was arrested and charged, is expected to attend Tuesday’s hearing, Macedonio said.
CNN’s Zenebou Sylla and Ray Sanchez contributed to this report.
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