RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — New prices have been filed Tuesday towards accused Gilgo Seaside serial killer Rex Heuermann.
It comes six months after his arrest.
He was indicted Tuesday within the loss of life of his fourth alleged sufferer, 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes of Connecticut.
For the primary time, her grieving household spoke publicly.
James Carbone
“I used to be solely 7-years-old when my mom was murdered. Her loss drastically modified the trajectory of my life,” daughter Nicolette Brainard-Barnes mentioned. “Whereas the lack of my mother has been extraordinarily painful for me, the indictment by the grand jury has introduced hope for justice for my mother and my household.”
Nicolette’s household had prayed for a decision.
Investigators mentioned they linked Brainard-Barnes’ homicide to Heuermann by way of DNA from a feminine hair discovered within the buckle of a belt used to bind her ankles, toes and legs – eight trillion to 1 that it matched Heuermann’s spouse Asa Ellerup or daughter Victoria, who was tailed on an LIRR prepare and threw out an power drink, in accordance with courtroom paperwork.
Learn the superseding bail software within the Gilgo Seaside murders case
Prosecutors made it clear they believed all hair switch have been created from Heuermann to his alleged victims. The household was out of city for the murders of the Gilgo Seaside 4.
“Asa Ellerup and her youngsters weren’t concerned, not even within the jurisdiction, when these murders occurred,” Ellerup’s lawyer Robert Madedonio siad.
The accused serial killer, his palms shackled behind his hulking again, confirmed no emotion in any respect. He was sporting a tie and grey go well with, and barely made eye contact with anybody through the courtroom continuing.
“You are speaking a few gentleman who has by no means been arrested earlier than. He is a productive member of society. He’ll work day-after-day. He is supporting his household, and he is incarcerated. And he is claiming he did not do that. However he’s wanting ahead to having his day in a courtroom,” Heuermann’s lawyer Michael Brown mentioned.
“Your response to the hairs linked to his daughter and spouse?” CBS New York’s Jennifer McLogan requested.
“Miraculously, nuclear DNA testing and outcomes have come ahead,” Brown mentioned.
DA Ray Tierney says it isn’t a time for sarcasm, and it was well worth the wait, and that nuclear DNA will assist carry justice to the 4 homicide victims.
“Science has caught up. I’d, a very good break for justice. A great break for the investigation,” Tierney mentioned.
New courtroom paperwork additionally reveal how the accused killer used burner telephones to succeed in out to intercourse employees as lately as final yr. They mentioned the tons of of digital units seized from his Massapequa Park house included searches for the Gilgo victims, and software program that will wipe or erase information.
It was a day to honor the victims, Tierney mentioned.
“She was an mental. She was a author. She was a creative individual. She cared very deeply concerning the people who she liked,” Tierney mentioned. “It has been an honor and a privilege to work these circumstances, and to offer that small measure of closure.”
“It has been 16 years since I final noticed my sister, 16 years since I heard her voice, as a result of 16 years in the past, she was silenced,” Brainard-Barnes’ sister Melissa Cann mentioned. “Maureen was a mom of two wonderful youngsters, and they’re going to perpetually be with out their mom. Maureen was my older sister, who was at all times there for me once I wanted her.”
When Heuermann was arrested in July and charged because the elusive Gilgo Seaside serial killer, prosecutors mentioned his DNA from discarded pizza and burner cellphone proof tied him to 3 murdered ladies — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello — whose our bodies have been discovered alongside Gilgo Seaside in 2010.
The petite 25-year-old from Norwich, Connecticut, was a mom of two. She was working as a Craigslist escort in Manhattan when she disappeared in July 2007. Her stays have been discovered three years later close to three different ladies’s our bodies, dumped alongside desolate Ocean Parkway on Lengthy Island.
Police dubbed them the “Gilgo 4.” They have been all intercourse employees, wrapped in burlap. Now prosecutors say they have been all murdered, at totally different occasions, by Heuermann.
The DA mentioned the grand jury will proceed to attempt to resolve the remaining murders at Gilgo Seaside.
The subsequent courtroom date within the case if Feb. 6.
Watch: Authorized knowledgeable on the case
New York legal protection lawyer and former prosecutor David Schwartz spoke with CBS New York forward of Tuesday’s courtroom look to place the developments into perspective. He known as it a “scientific case.”
“Heuermann was indicted and remanded for the primary three murders. They made the strategic choice to make the arrest at that second in time, as a result of they have been already surveilling him for a few yr. They simply did not need something to go unsuitable,” he defined. “In order that they made that arrest, and within the meantime, they have been investigating the fourth homicide. They have been ready for the mitochondrial DNA evaluation on the fourth homicide.”
Schwartz went on so as to add “DNA is just not a layup.”
“They did not use nuclear DNA, which particularly factors to a selected individual. They used mitochondrial DNA, due to — 13 years later, all this time glided by, which excludes 99.6% of the inhabitants,” he mentioned. “So it is scientific proof, plus circumstantial proof — they’ve his truck, they’ve cellphone data, they’ve all sorts of different proof that they’ll piece this case collectively. So I count on this case to be a sophisticated case, and I count on it to final a very good period of time.”
