A suspect has been arrested more than a decade after a prostitute's terrified call led police to 10 bodies that had been dumped along a barren three-mile stretch of Long Island coastline.
The murders puzzled the Suffolk County Police Department and frustrated family members of the victims for years. There were no developments in the case until New York City architect Rex Heuermann, 59, was arrested as a suspect at his Manhattan office Thursday night.
However, police sources have said Heuermann is being looked at for the killings of the first bodies found - known as the Gilgo Beach four - and not the additional six that were uncovered afterwards. The serial killer riddle began with the search for year-old Shannan Gilbert, an escort from New Jersey who had vanished in after making a frantic call.
A confused Gilbert was heard claiming that someone was trying to kill her before she went missing on May 1 near Oak Beach. I am inside a house. Can you trace where I am? Neighbors of the area later said they saw her knocking on several doors before vanishing.
As police looked for Gilbert in the beach community where she was last seen, they encountered the bodies and partial remains of other women who had been dumped by the Gilgo Beach shore. Most of the victims were prostitutes with petite frames and green or hazel eyes.
