Eerie Google Street View appears to capture Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann chatting to woman near office
Image was first unearthed by online sleuths who spotted a man matching the description of the 59-year-old father-of-two on East 36th Street in New York City
An eerie Google Street View image has appeared to capture Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann chatting to an unidentified woman close to his Midtown Manhattan office.
The photo, captured in June 2022, reveals a man matching the description of the 59-year-old father-of-two on East 36th Street in New York City.
It shows the Massapequa Park architect standing next to a young woman with her arms folded outside a smoke shop.
It was captured merely months before law enforcement turned their focus on him as the prime suspect behind the gruesome deaths of at least three female sex workers whose bodies were found dumped in burlap sacks on Long Island.
The image was first unearthed by online sleuths scouring the internet for any trace of the father of two.
Mr Heuermann, a Manhattan architect who lives in Massapequa Park, was arrested on Thursday and charged with the murders of three women who vanished between 2007 and 2010.
He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the first degree and three in the second degree over the deaths of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello.
Court documents state that Mr Heuermann is also the “prime suspect” in the murder of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, though he is not facing charges related to her death.
The four women are known as the “Gilgo Four” – and are among the 11 victims whose bodies were found along a stretch of Ocean Parkway in Long Island in 2010 and 2011.
Michael Brown, an attorney for Mr Heuermann, has said that his client is innocent and that there was “nothing” about him to suggest his involvement in the murders.
“He has entered a not guilty plea and has indicted he did not commit these crimes. There is nothing about Mr Heuermann that would suggest that he is involved in these incidents,” he said.
“And while the government has decided to focus on him despite more significant and stronger leads, we are looking forward to defending him in a court of law before a fair and impartial jury of his peers.”
But investigators and the victims’ family members don’t agree.
“Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks among us. A predator that ruined families,” Suffolk County police commissioner Rodney Harris told PIX 11.
Lynn Barthelemy, the mother of victim Melissa Barthelemy told NBC News on Friday that she hopes he “suffers”.
“I’d like him to suffer at the hands of other inmates. Let him receive what the girls received,” she said.
“Death is too good for him. It’s too easy,” she added.