Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was found to have a cache of over 200 guns at his Massapequa home, according to Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison. Speaking in an interview with Fox News, Harrison said that the cache was found in a vault in the basement of Heuermann’s home and that authorities are investigating whether the weapons were registered or legal. Heuermann, a Manhattan architect, was arrested on Thursday for the murders of three sex workers whose bodies were found on Gilgo Beach in 2010. He is also the prime suspect in the murder of a fourth victim.
Harrison revealed that investigators had been aware of Heuermann for some time but had been careful not to alert him to their interest. He said that Heuermann had a wife and two children and that investigators had been able to tie him to the case through phone records, background checks, and credit card usage.
Heuermann was found to have ties to an Upper West Side building, where his architecture firm had carried out renovation work. The building comes with a doorman, bike room, storage units, a fitness center, playroom, laundry room, and views of Central Park. Heuermann’s firm had also overseen the renovation of a Target in SoHo, an apartment building on Gramercy Street, a Footlocker in the Bronx, and a Burlington Coat Factory in Brooklyn.
Authorities have received a flood of new evidence and information since Heuermann’s arrest, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. He said that investigators had found DNA evidence linking Heuermann and his wife to some of the victims and that they had also found a doll in Heuermann’s home that appeared to be out of place. Tierney said that investigators were continuing to gather evidence and were not ruling out the possibility that Heuermann was responsible for more murders.
Deputy Police Commissioner Anthony Carter said that a multijurisdictional task force would continue to investigate Heuermann and the remaining unsolved cases. He said that investigators had been concerned that Heuermann may have set his sights on another victim, which had prompted them to make the arrest. Carter described Rex Heuermann as a “demon” and said that he was glad to have taken a violent person off the streets.