- Police found death scenes: Homicide detective’s scrapbook on kitchen table
- Family lawyer tells DailyMail.com: ‘Having books is not illegal’
The attorney representing the children of suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann has defended his apparent possession of a grisly book with crime scene photographs from different murders.
Police continue to search the family’s home in Massapequa Park, Long Island, but have not yet revealed what exactly they are looking for.
Heuermann was arrested in July and initially accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27, in 2010 and 2011.
Investigators and state police raided the Massapequa Park home of alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann (pictured in court in February) with a new search warrant.
In February, he was also charged with the murder of 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
The women he allegedly killed were among 11 victims whose bodies were found along the Long Island shoreline between 2009 and 2011.
Yesterday, law enforcement sources told Fox News that the family still kept a copy of death scenes: a homicide detective’s scrapbook, on the family’s kitchen table.
It had been inventoried as part of the initial search of the home last July and returned to the family.
The book is a compilation of photographs from the career of a California homicide detective.
It is unknown why the Heuermanns had it or who among them bought it.
According to police sources, the police found this book on the kitchen table of the family home. The book is by a former LAPD homicide detective and contains gruesome photographs of the crimes he investigated.
Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is “not capable” of committing the brutal murders he has been accused of, according to his ex-wife Asa Ellerup (pictured)
Christopher (left) and Victoria (right) are reportedly ‘crying themselves to sleep’ since their father’s arrest as police vandalize their Long Island home.
The first victim, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was discovered by Suffolk County police on December 11, 2010. The body of Megan Waterman, 22, of Maine, was found two days later.
Heuermann is also accused of killing Amber Costello (left) and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (right).
It is unclear at this time what prompted the search of the Long Island property or what officials were looking for, but several law enforcement agencies were present, including a command center.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, Vess Mitev, the lawyer representing Victoria Heuermann, 26, and Christopher Sheridan, 33, said that neither he nor his clients had “knowledge” of such a book.
He then offered a possible defense of them.
‘It’s not illegal to have books!’ he said.
Investigators have long maintained that Heuermann, an architect who worked in Manhattan, committed the sex workers’ murders while his family was out of town.
His ex-wife Asa continues to attend court hearings neither in defense of him nor in support of the victims.
Instead, he says he wants to hear all the evidence before forming an opinion.
Heuermann is accused of attacking women by meeting them through his advertisements.
He is also accused of tormenting the victims’ families after killing them.
White tents go up outside the Massapequa Park home on First Avenue, with New York State Police officers blocking the street.