Children were advised against visiting Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann’s house on Halloween, according to one of his neighbors.
Heuermann was arrested by police on Thursday night, with his home in Massapequa Park, New York, being searched on Friday by investigators. Heuermann’s arrest comes after a long chain of unsolved murders that occurred on Long Island over a span of years that police believed were the work of a serial killer. Over the course of the investigation, 11 sets of human remains were discovered across the island, but Heuermann—a 59-year-old architect who owned an architectural firm in New York City—was arrested in connection to the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes—also known as “The Gilgo Four.” The four women’s remains were first found along property on Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County.
Newsweek reached out to Suffolk County Police Department by email for comment.
Neighbors told Newsweek on Friday that they barely knew Heuermann and that he was “very quiet.” However, one of Heuermann’s neighbors told Newsweek that children were urged to stay away from his house during Halloween.
Suffolk County PD
“Most people don’t knock on his door,” said Barry Auslander, one of Heuermann’s neighbors. “During Halloween, the kids are told to stay away. He’s not a very nice person.”
Auslander added that Heuermann’s house was “dilapidated inside and out.”
Auslander said he didn’t know Heuermann well and had never spoken with him, but had seen him walking to the train often. Auslander said he has lived in Massapequa Park for 13 years and that he wasn’t surprised at Heuermann’s arrest because of other various unrelated crimes that have occurred in the area. However, Auslander was surprised that police arrested Heuermann as a suspect in “The Gilgo Four” murders because he thought the case had gone cold.
He told Newsweek he never noticed anything unusual about Heuermann, but that he didn’t interact with neighbors.
“We have block parties all the time,” Auslander said. “His house is always dark. There’s never any lights on, and when he comes out, he’s going to work and that’s the only time I ever see him. He just sort of kept to himself.”
Another neighbor told Newsweek on Friday that their only interaction with Heuermann was waving to him when they saw him washing his car or doing woodwork.
When investigators began searching Heuermann’s house, Auslander said there were “tons of police, tons of trucks, and an army helicopter.”
The investigation of the murders has been ongoing since 2010 when a search for then-missing Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker from New Jersey, uncovered the other human remains. Other remains found included those of Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, a female toddler, an Asian male, an unidentified woman who was believed to be the toddler’s mother and another unidentified woman. Gilbert was found in late 2011, after the other 10 victims were found.
