Gilgo Beach serial killings suspect 'a demon', top investigator says

Suffolk County Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Carter told CNN: “The acts that (the suspect) committed were the worst I’ve ever seen.”

“He’s a demon, and it’s really hard to get into the mind of somebody that’s capable of committing the crimes that he committed,” Carter said.

“This person intended to do what he did to these victims. And that is why I say that’s one of the worst, if not the worst.”

The unsolved killings confounded authorities on Long Island’s South Shore after a woman’s 2010 disappearance led investigators to find at least 10 sets of human remains in addition to hers and launched the hunt for a possible serial killer.

The New York architect’s arrest came more than a year after the task force explored his possible connection to the cold case named for the beach where the remains were discovered.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty and was remanded in custody Friday. He is the “prime suspect” in a fourth murder, prosecutors said.

When asked if there may be more victims, Carter said: “I think in the coming days, as we continue to gather evidence, anything is possible.”

“There are still things that we have to do. There are still human remains that have to be investigated further in Gilgo,” he said.

“I can’t begin to imagine the pain that these families have had to endure over the last decade and to know that this demon was capable of doing such an evil act to these families, it is just, you know, beyond comprehension.”

Detectives on Long Island are hunting for fresh clues about the architect.

They’re combing through storage units linked to Heuermann and using DNA evidence to see if he’s connected to other cold cases.

The ongoing work marks an important new phase in a multi-agency investigation that — after years of dead ends and frustrations — led prosecutors to charge Heuermann.

Heuermann, who has lived for decades across a bay from where the remains were found, is also considered the prime suspect in the killing of a fourth victim.

He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer said Heuermann denied committing the crimes.

Investigators have said it’s unlikely just one person killed all of the victims, and they insist the probe is far from over after the watershed moment of Heuermann’s arrest.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison, who spearheaded the creation of an interagency task force last year to solve the Gilgo Beach killings, has vowed that authorities will “work tirelessly until we bring justice to all the families involved.”

“We’re just in the infancy of the work that needs to be done going forward,” Deputy Commissioner Anthony Carter told The Associated Press on Monday.

Detectives executed a search warrant at Omega Self Storage in Amityville on Sunday and searched another nearby storage facility on Monday. Both are less than a 10-minute drive from Heuermann’s home.

This followed a multi-day search at Heuermann’s house in Massapequa Park, about a 25-minute drive across a causeway spanning South Oyster Bay to the sandy stretch known as Gilgo Beach where the women’s remains were found.

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Investigators were also checking to see if Heuermann’s DNA — obtained from pizza crust he disposed and linked to genetic material found on a Gilgo Beach victim’s remains — connected him to other unsolved cases.

Heuermann, 59, is charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. Authorities are continuing to work toward charging him in the death of a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.

Most of the victims were young women who had been sex workers. Their deaths long stumped investigators, and the mystery fueled immense public attention and led to a 2020 Netflix film, “Lost Girls.”

Harrison, a longtime high-ranking New York City police official, made solving the Gilgo Beach killings one of his top priority when Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone appointed him as police commissioner in January 2022.

Harrison, the NYPD’s former chief of detectives and chief of department, soon formed the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, convincing the FBI, state police and local departments to commit their top investigators full time to the effort.

The multi-jurisdictional task force was formed in early 2022, three days after Carter took on the role of deputy commissioner. It includes investigators from Suffolk County Police, New York State Police, the Sheriff’s Department, the District Attorney’s Office, the FBI and others.

“The detectives in this case… they never quit,” Carter said. “They’ve been working this case for over a decade and they never quit.”

“There was a lot of persistence and a lot of detailed planning that went into all of that.”

Carter said of the task force’s attempts to get a viable testing sample of their suspect’s DNA.

“Between our undercovers and really the full power of the task force, we were able to finally get that abandonment sample.”

Carter said he was out exercising on a run Thursday when the call came through from Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison that the team was moving in to apprehend their suspect in Midtown Manhattan.

“When that arrest finally came, that was the first thing that came into my head was – we got him,” Carter said.

He said the task force feared for public safety and the possibility their suspect may have set his sights on another potential victim.

“There was always a concern and that was the reason why the arrest was made that Thursday evening,” Carter said, noting it was a “very dangerous and delicate balance that we had to navigate through.”

Carter said investigators are still looking into the suspect’s whereabouts and conduct up from when the women’s remains were discovered in December 2010 up until Thursday.

Investigators are also continuing to comb through details coming in on tip lines and are lining up interviews with witnesses, he said.

Heuermann’s wife and two children are cooperating with the investigation, Carter said.

“These victims were mothers, daughters and people in the community that nobody deserves what happened to them. Nobody and, you know, to bring their families and bring the victims themselves justice. It is long overdue but I am very glad that we are where we are today,” Carter said.