Rex Heuermann appears with his lawyer Michael J. Brown, left, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023. Heuermann was charged last month in the deaths of three women and is the prime suspect in a fourth. (James Carbone /Newsday via AP)
OAN’s Abril Elfi
12:09 PM – Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Rex Heuermann, the prime suspect in the Gilgo Beach Murders, appeared in court where prosecutors said DNA from a pizza box led them to him.
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On Wednesday, the 59-year-old suspect appeared in a Riverhead, New York, court where prosecutors stated the DNA he had submitted last month linked him to the murders.
Investigators previously stated that the DNA match was taken from pizza crust that Heuermann reportedly threw into a New York City trash receptacle.
Heuermann turned in the court-ordered test last month, and Suffolk County prosecutors claim that the sample DNA from the pizza crust matched a hair found on the body of Gilgo Beach victim Megan Waterman in 2010.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told the press that they were confident the DNA would be a match.
“The surveillance team had observed the pizza box and were confident that that was the DNA, that the DNA profile would be consistent with the defendant because he left that material inside the box,” Tierney said. “And so the buccal swab just erases all doubt.”
The alleged killer has been charged with three counts of murder, in connection to the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Prosecutors have previously said he is also a prime suspect in the disappearance of a fourth woman, 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in 2007.
The former architect has been in custody since July 13th and his next court appearance is scheduled for November 15th.
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