Alleged Long Island Serial Killer Arrested, Tied To PA Victim

PHILADELPHIA — Officials formally charged the suspect in a decade-long hunt for a serial killer accused of killing sex workers, including a 24-year-old woman whose last address was in Pennsylvania.

One of the 11 victims is Valerie Mack, an escort whose last known whereabouts were in Philadelphia in 2000. Her dismembered remains were discovered in two separate locations, 11 years apart; police identified her in 2020 through genetic genealogy.

A suspect in the killings, 59-year-old Rex Heuermann of Massapequa Park, was taken into custody by New York State Police and officers from Suffolk and Nassau counties on Friday. He pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of murder on Friday. Read more — Gilgo Beach Killing Suspect Pleads Not Guilty; New Details Emerge

The disappearance of 24-year-old sex worker Shannan Gilbert in 2010 led to the discoveries of at least 11 sets of remains on the shore of Long Island. The initial search for the Jersey City resident led to the bodies of four other sex workers, all of whom were strangled and stuffed in burlap bags.

Mack, who also used the name Melissa Taylor, went missing in 2000 at the age of 24, police said.

She was working as an escort in Philadelphia at the time of her disappearance and family members last saw her in the spring or summer of 2000 in the area of Port Republic, New Jersey, police said.

Mack's partial remains were found by hunters Nov. 19, 2000, in a wooded area off Halsey-Manor Road in Manorville. More than a decade later, other dismembered remains were found in April, 2011, near Cedar Beach along Ocean Parkway.

Mack, who was 5 feet tall and 100 pounds with brown hair, was identified after authorities used genetic genealogy.

At least four of the 11 killings included strangulation, officials said. Two showed signs of blunt-force trauma. The cause of death remains inconclusive for some victims.

Police have been searching for a serial killer ever since. A Netflix movie, "Lost Girls," was made about the case. Related article — Gilgo Beach Killer Timeline: All You Need To Know Leading Up To Arrest

Neighbors expressed shock to Patch and the Associated Press on Friday, after law enforcement officers swarmed a small red house in the suburb about 40 miles east of midtown Manhattan. Dozens of neighbors watched, along with police and media, as investigators in protective suits gathered outside the front porch, which The Associated Press described as being in disrepair, with its roof propped up by 2-by-4s.

Heuermann, an architect and owner of the Manhattan-based RH Consulting, is a building facilitator for the city's Department of Building, helping clients navigate the complicated construction process, according to an interview that Bonjour Realty conducted with him last year.

Neighbors told Patch and the AP that the home belonged to a family that had long kept to themselves.

“I passed the house all the time. I never really [saw] anybody outside," a 20-year-old neighbor, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 15 years, told Patch. They did not want to be identified.

"It’s just a house you don’t go to," the neighbor continued. "Trick or treating, you just stay away. You just know that there’s danger there. Parents were always like, ‘Don’t go up the street too far.’”

The dilapidated property stands out in the row of single family homes and well-maintained lawns, according to the AP.

“This house sticks out like a sore thumb. There were overgrown shrubs, there was always wood in front of the house,” Gabriella Libardi, a 24-year-old teacher, told the AP. “It was very creepy. I wouldn’t send my child there.”

Another neighbor, Barry Auslander, told the AP the man who lived in the house took the train daily to New York City and wore a suit and tie, carrying a briefcase.

“It was weird. He looked like a businessman,” said Auslander. “But his house is a dump.”

With additional reporting by the Patch team in Long Island.