[ad_1] A suspected serial killer has been arrested over a series of deaths of women close to New York City, more than a decade after remains were fi
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A suspected serial killer has been arrested over a series of deaths of women close to New York City, more than a decade after remains were first found.
Rex Heuermann, 59, a New York City executive, was arrested at his home in Massapequa Park, 66 km west of Manhattan on Long Island, multiple sources told The New York Post.
The suspect is due in court in hours. Police are set to give further information at a press conference on Friday afternoon US time.
The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in hessian near a beach, within days of each other in late 2010.
Mr Heuermann has not been linked to another six deaths that were suggested as possibly being connected, the source said.
The culprit became known as the Gilgo Beach Killer, due to the beach near where the bodies were found, the Long Island Serial Killer or the Craigslist Ripper. Many of the victims were sex workers who advertised on the website Craigslist.
Mr Heuermann is the owner and founder of Manhattan architecture firm, RH Consultants and Associates, which counts Catholic Charities and American Airlines as its clients, according to its website.
In an interview posted to YouTube channel Bonjour Realty, Mr Heuermann said he was “born and raised on Long Island”.
“I’ve been working in Manhattan since 1987, very long time,” he said.
Four women murdered in quick succession
Local TV service News 12 did not identify the suspect or detail what led to the breakthrough in what it called “one of the most intense, prolific searches for a serial killer ever”.
Fears of a serial killer emerged when the body of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was found along Ocean Parkway, a highway on Jones Beach Island off Long Island, on December 11, 2010. The remains of three other women found in the following days.
The Gilgo Four — Ms Barthelemy along with Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 — were found whole, wrapped in hessian less than one kilometre apart from each other near the highway adjacent to the beach near the small hamlet of Gilgo.
By spring 2011, the number of bodies had climbed to 10 — eight women as well as an unidentified man and toddler.
The bodies were found during a search for missing Jersey City-based sex worker Shannan Gilbert, whose body wasn’t found until December 2011, a year after the Gilgo Four.
John Ray, an lawyer for Ms Gilbert’s family, told News 12 that he “had a very strong, credible tip that they were about to close in on an arrest” around a week ago.
However, he confirmed that he had not heard anything official from investigators, whom he had not heard from since “several months ago”.
“We’re pleased if they actually managed to find somebody that can be tagged for this,” said Ray, who also represents the family of Jessica Taylor, 20, another of the dead women not part of the initial four.
“We’re pleased that something is finally occurring, because we’ve been frustrated.”
Friday’s arrest came after the police commissioner of Suffolk County on Long Island created a special Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force in February last year.
It included help from state police, local sheriffs, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office as well as the FBI.
“I believe this case is solvable and identifying the person or people responsible for these murders is a top priority,” Commissioner Rodney Harrison, the NYPD’s former chief of department, said at the time.
This story was published in The New York Post and is reproduced with permission.
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