The creepy keepsakes found in the Long Island home of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann may have fueled his twisted fantasies and served as trophies of his victims, an expert told The Post.
Investigators combing Heuermann’s dilapidated Massapequa Park home for clues have turned up everything from suburban staples like a hockey stick and stuffed animals to a fair-haired, child-sized doll, an unnerving portrait of a blonde woman with blackened eyes and “a lot of torture porn,” Fox News reported.
One expert suggested Heuermann could have used the disturbing images to ‘amp him up’ for his alleged Long Island spree.
“People don’t snap. When you have someone who engages in this type of sadistic violence, there’s a process and there’s an escalation to that point,” said Dr. Katherine Kuhlman, an Arizona-based psychologist licensed in police and public safety psychology, told The Post.
“So over time, people typically become desensitized to things that you and I might find frightening or disturbing. And so, it may start with some BDSM [bondage, discipline, sadism, and masochism] porn and then it escalates into something like what we see with [Heuermann]. And so it gets to the point where nothing else is as thrilling to him as those disturbing images…as those kills.”
Heuermann pleaded not guilty on July 14 to murder charges in connection with the deaths of sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Amber Lynn Costello, 22, and Megan Waterman, 27.
A suspected serial killer has been arrested over the notorious Gilgo Beach murders in Long Island, The Post can confirm.
Rex Heuermann, 59, a married dad of two and architect at a New York City firm, has a home on 1st Avenue in Massapequa Park, sources told The Post.
His arrest is tied to the “Gilgo Four,” four women — Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25 — found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in 2010.
The body of Barthelemy was first found along Ocean Parkway on Dec. 11, 2010, sparking fears of a serial killer in the area.
By spring 2011, the number of bodies had climbed to 10, including eight women as well as an unidentified man and toddler.
Heuermann’s arrest comes after Suffolk County’s new police commissioner created a special Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force in February 2022.
Kuhlman said serial killers typically collect “physical” trophies from their victims, but she “can’t help but wonder” if some of the disturbing images and portraits seized by authorities “remind him” of the victims and “so in essence, they are his trophies because they help him to relive what he did.”
Added Kuhlman: “The items could trigger the memories of what he did and essentially recreate that fantasy that he can relive over and over and over again.”
Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.
The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.
Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.
Kuhlman suggested the doll recovered by investigators could “represent youthfulness,” adding “a lot pf his victims were in their younger twenties. I also wonder as we start to hear about potential more victims, if we’re going to hear about some underage ones — and if that doll represents those, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
The psychologist said, ultimately, serial killers “don’t really stop” so a “fantasy is only good for so long, until you need to make it real.”