Rex Heuermann, the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer, reportedly kept his victims alive to inflict pain and torture them, according to crime experts and investigators. Heuermann, 60, faces murder charges in connection with the deaths of six women spanning from the early 1990s to 2011. Initially, he was charged for the killings of the "Gilgo Four"—Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello—whose bodies were discovered near Gilgo Beach on Long Island in 2010.
In June, Heuermann was charged with additional counts for the murders of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla. A recently discovered planning document, described by prosecutors as a "blueprint," outlines details about torture, captivity, noise control, and "play time." Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney commented on the significance of the document, saying, "That speaks for itself," during a press conference in June.
Tierney further explained the disturbing implications of "play time," telling reporters, "We allege that the more rest the participants [have], the more you get done. The more rested the participants are, the more you can get done." This document, which was deleted in 2002 but later recovered from a device found in Heuermann's Massapequa Park home, is central to the case against him.
According to Tierney, the remains of Taylor and Costilla showed evidence of severe torture. Taylor's body was dismembered, while Costilla's showed signs of mutilation. Prosecutors have also suggested a possible four-day period during which Taylor may have been held captive, based on the last known contact with her family and surveillance of a pickup truck near the location where her body was eventually discovered.
The planning document's content also includes references to using "push pins to hang drop cloths from the ceiling not tape" and mentions a "hard point," which prosecutors interpret as a reference to a fixed attachment on a ceiling for suspension bondage. Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD detective sergeant and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, described the document as "frightening" in a report by Newsday. "Just from reading the [manifesto] document, this is the most sadistic thing around, keeping people alive to torture them. The torture these victims had to go through just compounds things for their families," Giacalone said.
Former FBI profiler Gregg McCrary echoed these sentiments, noting, "The more interaction they can have is the payoff for them. They want to keep them alive as long as they can, reasonably. Killing is what they have to do at the end to not be discovered."
However, Heuermann's attorney, Michael J. Brown, downplayed the significance of the document at a press conference in July. "It all goes into the narrative," Brown said. "It's any piece of the puzzle that they can take and they can fit and they can argue that it's Rex Heuermann, they've done it. The things that don't work for them, you don't hear about."
The planning document also mentions the book "Mindhunter," written by FBI profiler John Douglas, a detail that Brown dismissed as irrelevant. "There are probably hundreds of thousands of people across our country, if not millions, who have read that book and downloaded portions of that book," he said.
Despite the defense's efforts to minimize the evidence, Tierney pointed out that Heuermann's interest in "Mindhunter" appeared to focus on parts discussing mutilation and "sexual substitution," where a perpetrator penetrates a victim's body with an object as a substitute for a sexual act. "That is when the perpetrator penetrates the victim's body with an object as a means to substitute the sexual act," Tierney explained, adding that it seems this was performed on Costilla.
The remains of Taylor and Costilla, discovered shortly after their deaths, provided more physical evidence compared to the "Gilgo Four," whose remains were skeletonized. "With regard to the Gilgo Four, they were skeletonized, so we're left to surmise a lot of things, or we just don't know, because we don't have the same amount of evidence that you would on a person who has been deceased for a period of days, as opposed to a period of years," Tierney noted. "With Costilla and Jessica Taylor ... we know more about what, unfortunately, what happened to them, because there's more evidence there."
Despite the disturbing allegations and evidence presented, Brown argued against the portrayal of his client as a "horrific, prolific mass murderer." He referenced surveillance footage obtained by prosecutors, stating, "I have seen the video from the beginning to the end. What you see is a guy walking his dog, a guy going to work in the morning with his briefcase and his sports jacket and coming home."
Rex Heuermann remains held at the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead as he awaits his next court appearance. The trial date has not yet been scheduled.
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