Gilgo Beach Suspect Rex Heuermann's Disturbing Behavior Before His Arrest

On July 13, 2023, 59-year-old married father and Long Island resident Rex Heuermann was taken into custody in connection with three murders and considered a prime suspect in a fourth. Heuermann, a Manhattan architect, is accused and suspected of killing four women found in the Long Island Gilgo Beach area, near where he lived. Known as the "Gilgo Four," Heuermann's alleged victims were among 11 sets of human remains recovered near Gilgo Beach since 1996 — crimes often attributed to the Long Island Serial Killer or LISK, with similar circumstances to what Heuermann allegedly committed.

Two interviews have now offered insight into what Heuermann's life was like in the years and months leading up to his arrest. Speaking with NewsNation's Chris Cuomo in July 2023, former New York sex worker Nicole Brass recalled meeting a man in 2015 she believes was Heuermann. And in August 2023, Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told Newsday that Heuermann engaged in "disturbing" activity until he was apprehended. According to Brass, in 2015, Heuermann mentioned the Gilgo Beach murders, and his "body language kind of changed." It was as if, "he was picturing it all over again," she said (via Youtube).

In her NewsNation interview, Nicole Brass told Chris Cuomo that Heuermann asked her to meet him at his home, but according to Brass, she suggested a public place, instead. He also asked her to ride in his car, but she declined. On their date, Heuermann mentioned the bodies found on Gilgo Beach, attributed to the LISK, were concealed in burlap, a detail that may not have been common knowledge at the time, according to Brass —although a 2011 Atlantic article about LISK referenced the material. Still, "I just always told people like I think I had dinner with the Gilgo Beach murderer," Brass told Cuomo. "I am almost positive." In 2015, Brass was uneasy and ended the date. " ... everything about it was very, very strange," she said. And although it's unconfirmed it was Heuermann, Brass said his face and body are unmistakable. "He's a really big guy and his face is very recognizable," she said.

The four women Heuermann is accused and suspected of killing were reportedly contacted via burner cell phones traced to the Massapequa Park area where Heuermann lived, according to NBC News. Heuermann continued to contract sex workers until shortly before he was arrested, per The Independent.

Nicole Brass' comments to Chris Cuomo are consistent with Suffolk Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison's August 2023 interview with Newsday, in which he revealed that Heuermann continued to engage " ... in activity that was disturbing, be it his internet searches, be it engaging in other activities that he shouldn't be engaging in." In July 2023, The New York Times reported that until July, 2023, Heuermann had searched for, " ... sadistic materials, child pornography, images of the [Gilgo Beach] victims and their relatives," according to prosecutors.

But whether Heuermann, who has pleaded not guilty, may have murdered again, was something Harrison couldn't talk about. Harrison did say he was confident they'd found the right person for the crimes that Heuermann is accused and suspected of committing. "I'm very confident that Mr. Heuermann's our subject," Harrison explained, and based on that confidence, "I'm gonna call him what I wanna call him — somebody that ruined families, somebody who's a predator, somebody who shattered lives. And not just one, several, and there may be more," he said.