SUSPECT ARRESTED

A DISCARDED PIZZA CRUST HAS LED POLICE TO A BREAKTHROUGH IN THE COLD CASE MURDERS, WITH AN ARCHITECT CHARGED

- Michael Crooks

Missy Cann is still haunted by the moment she was told her missing sister’s remains were found on a beach on New York State’s Long Island in 2010. Police discovered the decomposed body of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, near the remains of three other women on Gilgo Beach, sparking a more than decade-long hunt for a serial killer.

“It’s really, really hard… I miss her so much,” Cann told CBS’s 48 Hours on the 10-year anniversary of her sister’s unsolved murder. “I want answers. I just want answers.”

Police now believe that those answers involve a “quiet family man” who they allege was living a depraved double life. On July 13, detectives investigating the case of the “Long Island Serial Killer”, which involves at least 10 unsolved murders, swooped on a Manhattan office and arrested architect Rex Heuermann.

Heuermann, a married father-of-two who lives in Long Island’s Massapequa Park, was charged with the murders of three of the Gilgo Beach victims: Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27, who all disappeared between 2009 and 2010. The 59-year-old is also the “prime suspect” in the murder of Brainard-Barnes, however at the time of publication, no charges have been laid.

All of the so-called “Gilgo Beach Four” were sex workers who advertised on the classifieds site Craigslist. Investigations are ongoing in six other murder cases.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty. Judge Richard Ambro ordered Heuermann held without bail due to “the extreme depravity of the allegations”.