The accused Gilgo Beach killer was my congressional constituent

The arrest of the accused Gilgo Beach serial killer has been the focus of extensive national and even international attention. The Gilgo murders and the dramatic apprehension of Rex Heuermann as the accused serial killer have particular resonance for me. Gilgo Beach is located in my former congressional district, less than five miles from where my Massapequa Park district office in Nassau County, N.Y., was located. And, as it turned out, all those years the accused murderer had resided in Massapequa Park just blocks from my office.

Gilgo is located primarily in Suffolk County with its western border adjoining Nassau. Both counties were in my district. Gilgo’s official population is fewer than 200. I followed the Gilgo serial murder case closely from the time the buried bodies of four young women were first discovered in December 2010. This was followed by additional victims’ bodies being found in subsequent months, evidencing the sadistic work of at least one serial killer.

These victims were buried in densely covered marshland alongside Ocean Parkway. The first four victims — Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman and Maureen Brainard-Barnes — were buried near each other and wrapped in burlap bags. Hundreds of cops from specialized units in the Nassau and Suffolk Police departments scoured the area for evidence. Some of the officers I spoke with described how dense and thick the brush was and how difficult it was just to cut their way through, let alone search for evidence.

During these years, particularly because of my position on the House Homeland Security Committee, I had close working relationships with the Nassau and Suffolk police, as well as the FBI. I was able to observe the seriousness of purpose these agencies were giving to the Gilgo murders, including the FBI, which we later learned had early on profiled the “boxes” indicating the serial killer’s likely presence in Massapequa Park and Manhattan. It was also in the early stages of the investigation that key hair particle evidence was found.   

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until more than a decade later, in 2022, that strong leadership by Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who instituted a Gilgo task force using advanced DNA technology, would lead the investigation to Heuermann. Tierney then had to make the command decision when to have Heuermann taken down — whether to move immediately or be extra sure and wait. There was enough evidence linking him to at least three of the murders. Waiting ran the risk of word leaking out and Heuermann realizing he was being targeted, and would also allow him time to attack more victims. Arresting him at his home was dangerous because investigators learned he had assembled an arsenal of weapons there. The decision was made. On Thursday evening, July 13, Heuermann was arrested on the street outside his Manhattan office, simultaneous with his Massapequa Park home being raided.

Heuermann’s arrest and the realization that a serial killer had been living among them for his entire 59 years sent shockwaves through the Massapequa Park community. My Seaford home is located less than three miles from Park Boulevard in Massapequa Park, where my district office was located for the entire 28 years I was in Congress. You could not ask for a more friendly, well managed, manicured, law-abiding community than Massapequa Park. It has 17,000 residents and is an independent village with its own mayor, village board and court. It is located geographically within the larger Massapequa area, which totals almost 40,000 people.

His neighbors have remarked how strange and distant Heuermann was. Homes in Massapequa Park are beautifully maintained, which made Heuermann’s poorly maintained, almost dilapidated residence stand out as a village eyesore. Now with the Heuermann residence surrounded by Nassau, Suffolk and state police, and with gawking sightseers angling for photos amid reports that some or all of the murders may have been committed in that house, there is the neighbors’ realization of how dangerously close they lived all these years to a human instrument of death. When I stopped at a Massapequa shop the Saturday morning after the arrest, the woman behind the counter just looked at me and blankly said: “His wife was always in here. My God!” Others who attended Massapequa schools with him are similarly shaken.

More remains to be done. Tierney is working exhaustively to determine where the murders were committed and what other murders Heuermann may have carried out. While Massapequa Park will never be quite the same, life will go on. Massapequa Park will remain strong and vibrant. And its residents will be assured that law enforcement has done and is doing its job.

Peter King was the U.S. representative of New York’s 2nd and 3rd congressional districts for 28 years, including serving as chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security. Follow him on Twitter @RepPeteKing.