Gilgo Beach victim’s sister says she is ‘overwhelmed but relieved’

The sister of one of the Gilgo Beach victims has said she is “overwhelmed but relieved” that an arrest has finally been made more than a decade after her disappearance.

Sherre Gilbert, whose sister Shannan disappeared in 2010, said she hopes suspect Rex Heuermann “will rot in prison for the rest of his life” if convicted of the murders.

He broke his silence Friday morning, saying he never gave up hope that “justice would be done one day.”

It comes after Heuermann, 59, was arrested outside his Manhattan offices on Thursday night in a stunning development in the 13-year-old’s case.

He was arrested in connection with the first four murders of young prostitutes in their twenties, known as the ‘Gilgo Beach Four’.

Heuermann appears in an interview about his architecture firm before being arrested Thursday night.

Sherre spoke about her relief after the arrest Friday morning, saying she always believed a suspect would be caught one day.

She said nbc news: ‘I’m overwhelmed but relieved that they finally got him.

It has been a long time coming and I have never given up hope that justice will one day be served. The suspect deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life.

“He destroyed many lives, so while it won’t bring our loved ones back, it does help one less monster off the streets and never be able to hurt anyone else.”

Sherre’s sister, Shannan, was an escort who disappeared after visiting a client at a home in Oak Beach, Long Island, in May 2010.

Her body was found in a nearby swamp in December 2011, but no arrests were made.

A map showing where the victims’ remains were located along the barren stretch of Ocean Beach Parkway in Gilgo Beach, located on the south shore of Long Island.

The street in Massapequa Park, Long Island, where a suspect was arrested this morning in connection with the Gilgo Beach murders.

Forensic teams working on Heuermann’s home on Friday. A freezer was one of the items seized.

The Gilgo murders became notorious during the 2010s when detectives tried to track down a suspected serial killer who killed ten people.

The ‘Gilgo Beach Four’ were found wrapped in burlap sacks along the shoreline in December 2010. All had been strangled to death.

Six other women and a small child were found in the following months. Police will continue to investigate whether or not Heuermann has any connection to the other six.

Heurmann’s home in Massapequa Park was inundated Friday with police officers.

The modest home sits north of Gilgo Beach, where the bodies of 10 women and a young child were found in 2010 and 2011, with only South Oyster Bay separating them.

Among the items seized from the property was a freezer. Heuermann, who is married with two children, has lived in the house since the 1980s.

Police sources told DailyMail.com that he had been on their radar since last year.

Investigators linked him to the crimes by tracing phone calls made from disposable phones to the victims’ cell phones more than 10 years ago.

‘Gilgo Four’: These photos show the first four victims who were found a decade ago near Gilgo Beach, Long Island, as part of an investigation into a serial killer

The partial skeletal remains of Valerie Mack were located in a wooded area of ​​Manorville in September 2000. The partial skeletal remains of Jessica Taylor, an escort working in New York City, were located in a wooded area of ​​Manorville on September 26. July 2003.

Heuermann was arrested last night outside his office in Midtown Manhattan.

The source added that “good old-fashioned police work” cracked the case, rather than any DNA development.

Sherre Gilbert, the sister of Shannan Gilbert, one of the victims, said nbc news she was “relieved” that an arrest had been made.

“I am overwhelmed but relieved that they finally caught him. He has been a long time coming and I have never given up hope that justice will one day be served.

The suspect deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life.

“He destroyed many lives, so while it won’t bring our loved ones back, it does help one less monster off the streets and never be able to hurt anyone else.”

Heuermann runs a small architectural firm in the city.

New York City architect Rex Heuermann, 59, has been arrested in connection with the Gilgo Beach murders on Long Island, in a breakthrough in one of the most notorious unsolved serial killer cases in the country.

On the company’s website, he claims to have worked on projects including JFK airport, projects for American Airlines, and for some Catholic charities.

The location of the phone calls matched Heuermann’s home address and his office address.

It is unclear what specific evidence led to his arrest last night. He is due to appear before a judge on Long Island at noon.

John Ray, a lawyer representing the family of two of the victims, told DailyMail.com they were warned a week ago that an arrest was imminent.

‘We had a tip a week ago that they were about to do this.

“We have two names, but obviously we don’t want to say unless we’re 100% sure.”

He confirmed to DailyMail.com that Heuermann’s name was among those being investigated.

Ray believes that the discovery of a man’s remains could have prompted the arrest today.

Ray said that while the suspect arrested today is a man, he and his clients “have always had an outside theory” that a woman might have been involved.

No one has been arrested in connection with the murders.

The suspect’s home is located directly north of Gilgo Beach, across South Oyster Bay.

The decade-long investigation has been described as one of the most “intense and prolific” manhunts for a serial killer.

In 2020, a true crime podcast cast suspicion on former Suffolk County Police Commissioner James Burke.

Burke, who served time in jail for assaulting a local man while in office, was the top cop from 2011 to 2015.

Among the victims was Shannan Gilbert, who was found dead in an Oak Beach swamp in 2011, about a quarter mile from where she was last seen alive.

The 24-year-old’s neck had been broken before she was killed and had a puncture hole that could have been caused by a drill, according to her family’s lawyer.

The first victims were discovered in December 2010.

They were Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Costello, 27.

Known as the ‘Gilgo Beach Four’, their bodies were found in burlap sacks.

Some of the four had been missing for three years when their bodies were found.

They were all sex workers who advertised their services on Craigslist, leading police to believe that this was how the killer first contacted them.

Some had also told their friends that they were planning to meet a client the day before they disappeared.

In March and April 2011, four other bodies were found in the same area, including that of a young child.

They were Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack and an unidentified woman known as ‘Peaches’ or ‘Jane Doe No. 3’.

Peaches’ young daughter was also killed. In the following weeks, two more sets of remains were found.

One belonged to an ‘Asian male’ now believed to be a transgender sex worker who had been dead for five or six years, and Jane Doe No. 7, whose remains were found on a beach in the popular Fire Island resort town. .