Long Island serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann allegedly contacted sex workers hundreds of times and watched videos of the killings of women online before he was arrested in connection to the Gilgo Beach murders.
In a new court filing obtained by ABC New York, prosecutors claimed that Heuermann, 62, registered burner phones and a Tinder account in order to communicate with sex workers. He created the accounts under the aliases of “Andrew Roberts” and “Thomas Hawk” in an attempt to hide his identity.
Additionally, he allegedly used a Gmail account to conduct “thousands” of searches regarding hardcore violent pornography and sex workers.
Prosecutors said that the same Gmail address was used to conduct more than 100 searches that were related to the Gilgo Beach serial killings and other murders. His alleged searches included “Why hasn’t the long island serial killer been caught,” “Map of all known serial killers” and “Cops launch Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force.”
The Suffolk County district attorney’s office included the new details about Heuermann’s concerning online activity after his defense team issued a motion to suppress certain evidence.
“The defendant’s recent use of burner phones to patronize sex workers cannot be dismissed,” prosecutors said in their response, per the outlet. “Far from impermissible character evidence, such evidence is directly relevant as it reflects a consistent pattern spanning over 15 years, which the issuing Judge could logically and rationally have inferred was part of defendant’s current and former modus operandi to not only commit these murders, but also to avoid apprehension and prosecution.”
The prosecutors also argued in the new filing that the materials they found provided clear evidence that Heuermann is a “sexual sadist.”
Heuermann was arrested in July 2023 and was charged with the murders of Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.
He pleaded not guilty during hearings in July 2023 and January 2024. Heuermann’s trial is scheduled to begin in September after Labor Day.
In September 2025, Judge Mazzei ruled that all seven murder cases against Heuermann would be tried in one hearing. The decision was made after his defense team expressed hope that the cases would be split.
Prosecutors previously said that they used DNA from Heuermann’s discarded pizza crust to help link him to the 2007 killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, as well as six other deaths in the Long Island area that took place over the course of a decade.
The defense fired back by arguing that taking DNA from the pizza crust violated Heuermann’s constitutional right to privacy.
“We all heard about them going in our garbage, taking our pizza crust,” attorney Danielle Coysh said in January, per CBS News. “Rex Heuermann may have abandoned his pizza crust, but he never abandoned all that personal information that is now our DNA.”
Despite the defense’s argument, the judge ruled that advanced DNA testing can be used at the trial. Prosecutors previously argued that using advanced DNA testing was critical in order to link Heuermann to the murders.
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