The Gilgo Beach murder case remains an active investigation days after a suspect was arrested.
Investigators remained at Rex Heuermann‘s home on Long Island on Monday, as people came by bicycle, car, and foot to catch a glimpse of police working on the sensational case.
Law enforcement confiscated an arsenal of nearly 300 guns, framed pictures, even a child-like doll from Heuermann’s disheveled Massapequa Park home.
“They should knock it down,” one person said. “I think it probably should be bulldozed,” said another.
Police were also searching a nearby storage unit they say is connected to the case, where Heuermann kept unspecified items.
Across Massapequa Park, homeowners said they are worried about their village becoming a tourist town for gawkers, comparing it to the “Amityville horror” house two miles away.
“To me, it’s like the same beautiful neighborhood, with this weird-looking house. In Amityville, it was the only house where the side faced the street,” resident Robert Gayer said.
“Coming down to get a glimpse of just the house where he lived. I don’t want to compare it to the Amityville horror house,” Massapequa Park Mayor Daniel Pearl said. “I’d love to bring back the peace the village enjoyed prior to this incident and erase all memories of whatever occurred.”
Background: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / AP; Inset: Obtained by CBS New York
Meanwhile, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department confirmed Heuermann “is currently on suicide watch.” A judge on Friday ordered him held without bail.
During a news conference on Monday afternoon, New York State Police Maj. Stephen Udice said one investigator from Troop L on Long Island was assigned to the case being run by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office and worked solely on the Gilgo Beach case starting in February of 2022. A month later, that investigator notified the task force that a potential suspect, Heuermann, had been identified. It was the first time Heuermann’s name had come up and the first time he was identified as a potential suspect in the case, Udice said.
The task force continued its investigation and eventually confirmed that Heuermann was a suspect in at least three of the murders.
Heuermann was arrested outside his Manhattan architectural office on Thursday night. He was charged in the murders of three women and is considered the prime suspect in the murder of a fourth. Their bodies found within a quarter mile of each other on Gilgo Beach in 2010, wrapped in burlap.
“Heuermann had a double life. He had a wife. He had two kids. An architect. And I guess at nighttime turned into this monster,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said.
Neighbors are wondering if the victims were killed Massapequa Park. They also want to know if they were kept in refrigeration and buried together, and what, if any, DNA evidence will be found in his truck or work shed.
J. Conrad Williams Jr./Newsday RM via Getty Images
Investigators say a witness initially reported seeing a Chevy Avalanche pickup, like one Heuermann owned, when one of the women disappeared. They said they later established that data from burner phones linked Heuermann to the victims. Investigators eventually obtained his DNA from a discarded pizza crust that allegedly matched a hair found on one of the victims.
A source confirmed reports Monday that investigators have recovered a vehicle linked to the suspect in South Carolina.
As for the house, “I think the village probably should act to take over the property and tear it down,” one homeowner said.
“Take that money, the proceeds, and give it to the family victims,” another added.
The remains of seven other people were found near Gilgo Beach between 2010 and 2011. Heuermann has not been ruled out as a suspect in those unsolved cases.
CBS News correspondent Jeff Pegues contributed reporting.
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