RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — New prices had been filed Tuesday in opposition to accused Gilgo Seaside serial killer Rex Heuermann.
It comes six months after his arrest.
He was indicted Tuesday within the dying of his fourth alleged sufferer, 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes of Connecticut.
For the primary time, her grieving household spoke publicly.
“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 practice and threw out an vitality drink, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
Learn the superseding bail utility within the Gilgo Seaside murders case
Prosecutors made it clear they believed all hair switch had been produced from Heuermann to his alleged victims. The household was out of city for the murders of the Gilgo Seaside 4.
“Asa Ellerup and her kids weren’t concerned, not even within the jurisdiction, when these murders happened,” Ellerup’s legal professional Robert Madedonio siad.
The accused serial killer, his arms shackled behind his hulking again, confirmed no emotion in any respect. He was carrying a tie and grey go well with, and barely made eye contact with anybody through the court docket continuing.
“You are speaking a couple of gentleman who has by no means been arrested earlier than. He is a productive member of society. He will work day by 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 legal professional 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 definitely worth the wait, and that nuclear DNA will assist deliver justice to the 4 homicide victims.
“Science has caught up. I might, a very good break for justice. break for the investigation,” Tierney mentioned.
New court docket paperwork additionally reveal how the accused killer used burner telephones to achieve out to intercourse staff as lately as final 12 months. They mentioned the lots of of digital gadgets seized from his Massapequa Park residence included searches for the Gilgo victims, and software program that might wipe or erase knowledge.
It was a day to honor the victims, Tierney mentioned.
“She was an mental. She was a author. She was a creative particular person. She cared very deeply in regards to the people who she cherished,” Tierney mentioned. “It has been an honor and a privilege to work these instances, 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 kids, and they’re going to eternally 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 a few murdered ladies — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello — whose our bodies had 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 had 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 had been all intercourse staff, wrapped in burlap. Now prosecutors say they had been all murdered, at totally different instances, by Heuermann.
The DA mentioned the grand jury will proceed to attempt to remedy the remaining murders at Gilgo Seaside.
The following court docket date within the case if Feb. 6.
Watch: Authorized skilled on the case
New York felony protection lawyer and former prosecutor David Schwartz spoke with CBS New York forward of Tuesday’s court docket look to place the developments into perspective. He referred to as it a “scientific case.”
“Heuermann was indicted and remanded for the primary three murders. They made the strategic determination to make the arrest at that second in time, as a result of they had been already surveilling him for a couple of 12 months. They simply did not need something to go incorrect,” he defined. “In order that they made that arrest, and within the meantime, they had been investigating the fourth homicide. They had been ready for the mitochondrial DNA evaluation on the fourth homicide.”
Schwartz went on so as to add “DNA isn’t a layup.”
“They did not use nuclear DNA, which particularly factors to a selected particular person. 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 information, they’ve all forms of different proof that they will piece this case collectively. So I count on this case to be an advanced case, and I count on it to final a very good period of time.”