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Suspected Gilgo Beach murderer Rex Heuermann was still engaged in “disturbing” behavior while being tailed right up until his arrest, the top cop in the case revealed — while refusing to rule out the possibility that another Long Island serial killer could still be on the loose.
“I can’t talk about if he was preparing to kill again,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told Newsday Wednesday of married father of two Heuermann.
But “he’s somebody that was still engaging in activity that was disturbing, be it his internet searches, be it engaging in other activities that he shouldn’t be engaging in.
“That’s something I was very, very passionate about, regarding ‘we need to see what his lifestyle is,’” he said of the intense surveillance leading up to his arrest.
Harrison defended calling 59-year-old architect Heuermann “a demon that walks among us” and a “predator” at a press conference the day after the bombshell arrest.
“I’m very confident that Mr. Heuermann’s our subject,” he told the outlet in a video interview.
“Because of my confidence, I’m gonna call him what I wanna call him — somebody that ruined families, somebody who’s a predator, somebody who shattered lives.
“And not just one, several, and there may be more. I didn’t say that there is, but there may be more. If the family members have a problem with me calling him a demon, then I’ll apologize.”
Heuermann pleaded not guilty last month to multiple first- and second-degree murder charges related to the decade-old strangulation deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Amber Lynn Costello, 22, and Megan Waterman, 27. He is also the prime suspect in the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
The remains of all four women were found off Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in December 2010.
As for the additional bodies discovered in and around the coastal Long Island enclave – including that of Karen Vergata, whose identity was announced last week – Harrison said police cannot rule out the potential for another serial predator.
The remains of all four women were found off Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in December 2010.
“We were able to bring comfort to three families, we’re very close to a fourth one, but we still have more work to do to identify the subject or subjects that were involved with the other bodies that were discovered,” he told Newsday.
When pressed on whether Long Island residents should be worried about another possible killer in their midst, Harrison said he wishes he “could give … an answer.”
“I can’t tell you at this time,” he said.
“Is Rex Heuermann going to be held accountable for the other bodies on Ocean Parkway? Time will tell.”
Harrison maintained that the death of Shanann Gilbert, the Jersey City woman whose May 2010 disappearance sparked the search that led to the discovery of the Gilgo bodies, was “a horrible accident.”
“Myself and the investigators assigned to the homicide squad still believe it was just an incident where she ran into the marsh and unfortunately drowned on that horrible day,” he told Newsday,
Though Gilbert’s autopsy ruled her cause of death undetermined, the lawyer representing her estate maintains that a second examination conducted at the family’s request revealed she died from strangulation.