Rex Heuermann.
A week after Gilgo Beach murders suspectRex Heuermannwas charged, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison is comparing the case to “putting a puzzle together.”
In a new interview, Harrison, 54, opened up toThe Sunday Timesabout how “fresh eyes” finally helped lead to an arrest following the murders of at least three women on Long Island more than a decade ago.
“I think there was some good work done but, unfortunately, homicides are putting a puzzle together, and you have to grab so many different pieces,” Harrison said, noting that an off-site team dedicated to the killings “pushed this case in the right direction.”
Heuermann, 59, has beenaccused of killingMegan Waterman, 22, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Amber Costello, 27, whose bodies were discovered in 2010 in the marsh at Gilgo Beach on Long Island. He has since pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to be back in court in early August.
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Harrison reiterated in his conversation with theTimesthat police still “have six other bodies over there at Ocean Parkway that we need to investigate," which he said is “something that’s going to take a while to put together.”
He also credited the “very hard-working Pitbull of a district attorney in Ray Tierney” for helping move things along.
“There’s an ongoing investigation,” Harrison said. “We do have one serial killer, and will determine if there’s multiple or several, but it’s hard to determine if Rex Heuermann is attached to the other bodies that were discovered near Gilgo. I wouldn’t want to speculate.”
The Police Commissioner also defended referring to Heuermann as “a demon that walks among us, a predator that ruined families" during a press conference last week. “If you have destroyed multiple families and taken a loved one away from them, in my eyes you’re a monster. I don’t care how vulgar or harsh it sounds, ask the families to have me put in a different phrase," he said.
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For the investigation, Harrison formed a task force of members of the FBI, state police and authorities from Suffolk County as well — all of whom brought the investigation closer to Heuermann’s Chevrolet Avalanche vehicle and also traced some calls.
Suffolk County DA Tierney previously told PEOPLE that police used cell tower data, a witness’ description of his Chevrolet Avalanche and eventually DNA from five hairs found on three of the victims to narrow in on the suspect.
“One of the biggest problems [of the earlier investigation] was that we didn’t have our perpetrator’s DNA on file — that’s nothing to do with the [quality of the] evidence that was collected, there was just no DNA to match it to,” Harrison told theTimes.
Heuermann is also considered a prime suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. All four women had worked as online escorts and had been missing between 2007 and 2010.
Harrison told PEOPLE this week that the alleged serial killer’s family — his wife and two kids — was in “shock” and “disbelief,” following the news of his arrest. “We had to kind of show them some type of proof to let it be known who their father was behind the curtain,” the police commissioner said. “But they’re cooperating. They’re currently, I’m being told, in a hotel.”
He added that he’s “very happy that we got [Heuermann] off the streets and we’re making this community safer.”
“[Heuermann] had no arrests, which also was very bizarre. Architect, had a good job, had a family, but suddenly we were able to put the pieces of the puzzle together, get in the right direction, be able to get to a point where we needed probable cause against Mr. Heuermann,” he told PEOPLE. “And now he’s in a jail cell.”
source: people.com
