SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK: A wooded area near the home of the alleged Gilgo Beach murders suspect could be hiding more victims. Former NYPD cold case detective Joseph Giacalone said ''It's an ideal place'' to hide bodies.
Giacalone, who is also a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said that the Massapequa Preserve, a 430-acre expanse of trails that connects to the Bethpage State Parkway, is a perfect place to dump bodies, the New York Post reported.
Are there more hidden bodies?
“There is this long, dark road that you can take and you could just pull off on the side of the road, do what you got to do, get back in the car and go,” he said. “No cameras, nothing like that. No traffic lights. It’s an ideal place,” he told the publication. Rex Heuermann, an architect and married father of two, was arrested on July 13 and charged with the murders of three women who worked as escorts and whose remains were found along Ocean Parkway in 2010 and 2011. He is also a prime suspect in the murder of the fourth woman.
Rex is charged in the first-degree murder of Melissa Barthelemy who went missing in 2009, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello who went missing the following year, besides this he is prime suspect Maureen Brainard-Barnes, the fourth woman whose remains were four at the same spot. The four women have been known as 'Gilgo Four'.
'Usually serial killers have a cool-off period'
Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home is just half a mile from the preserve, which has been the scene of other violent crimes in recent years. In 2019, a decomposing corpse, believed to be a victim of the MS-13 gang, was found in the preserve, and two years earlier, two members were charged with hacking a teen to death there, the publication reported. Giacalone said that he doubts that Heuermann stopped killing after 2011 and that he may have changed his disposal location to avoid detection. “Usually serial killers have a cool-off period, but not 10 or 11 years,” he said before adding “It would mean to me that the person would have to find a new place to dispose of his bodies."
'Everywhere I went in the woods he would pop out somewhere'
He also pointed out that the preserve is close to Brady Park, where a young woman reported a creepy encounter with Heuermann on July 3. Ally, a 25-year-old from Long Island, said that Heuermann popped out of the woods and followed her around. “He had very dirty clothes on. Everywhere I went in the woods he would pop out somewhere,” she said as reported by the outlet. She filed a police report and was shocked to see Heuermann arrested in connection to the Gilgo murders.
