These experts are taking a victory lap.
Criminologist Scott Bonn pinpointed a dozen years ago that the Gilgo Beach serial killer was probably an educated, professional white male with a family living on the South Shore of Long Island.
Bonn hit the bulls-eye.
Twice-married architect Rex Heuermann, arrested this week in the long dormant case, quietly raised two children — including a son with special needs — in the ramshackle Massapequa Park home he grew up in.
“It’s certainly gratifying but more than anything else I’m just so glad that he finally appears to be in custody and hopefully some of the victims’ families can have a sense of closure,” said the former assistant professor of sociology at Drew University, who is now a podcast host living in Las Vegas.
“This has been one of those cases where it was just so sad; the victims families had to fight for justice and fight to even be recognized,” Bonn noted.
“This case has been on the public radar for 12 years but for many of them [families] it has been longer since their loved ones disappeared. I feel for them.”
Bonn — who also nailed it that the accused killer is a professional — found it “really riveting” that suspect Rex Heuermann was an architect “because they have to be extremely precise and organized and meticulous. And that is exactly what his crime scenes and the way these bodies were disposed would indicate.”
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.
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Forensic psychologist Dr. Joni Johnston opined last month that the serial killer may have taken a 10-year break after getting too old for murder.
Heuermann is 59.
“I’m just looking at the statistics and doing the research,” the data-driven Johnston said modestly.
“We look at the research and we’ve been studying serial killers for probably 40 years,” she said.
“Serial killers rarely kill after the age of 50,” she added.
Heuermann was arrested after DNA from the hair of victim Megan Waterman matched that of his, taken by investigators from a discarded pizza crust in January.
Bonn believes the Long Island suspect is an “organized serial killer” and “power/control killer,” out of the same mold as Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy.