Possible link between Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect and missing woman

01 September 2023 , 17:14

1027     0

Julia Bean has been missing since 2017

A potential link between the suspect arrested in connection with the Gilgo Beach killings in Long Island and a missing woman from South Carolina is being investigated by police.

On Sunday, August 20, the Sumter County Sheriff's Office was contacted by someone who said they were a friend of missing mum Julia Ann Bean. Ms Bean had last been seen on May 31, 2017, with her daughter, Cameron, reporting her missing on November 18 of that year.

The individual who contacted police met with an investigator and told them there may be a connection between Ms Bean and Gilgo Beach killer suspect Rex Heuermann. The next day, a team investigating Ms Bean's disappearance met to review the information.

Rex Heuermann, 59, was arrested on July 13 in connection with the murders of three women (AP)

They then contacted the FBI and shared the information with them. Cameron was asked by investigators to give an interview, with police saying she was "very cooperative and eager to help". They said: "It is her recollection that someone she saw with her mother could possibly be Heuermann."

As a result, police say they have been "pouring over the information they have recently received to determine if there is any evidence linking Bean with Heuermann." However, they said, they have found "no confirmed facts" that either support or dismiss the possibility of a connection between the pair.

Nicola Bulley's children 'cried their eyes out' after being told 'mummy's lost'

Heuermann, 59, was arrested on July 13 outside his office in midtown Manhattan. The prominent Long Island architect had been linked to the 13-year cold case murders by DNA from a pizza crust and napkin thrown in a bin outside his office.

The DNA was a 99.96 per cent match with the DNA profile created from hair recovered from the "bottom of the burlap" bag used to transport one of the Gilgo Four women's naked body. The four women became known as such after their bodies were discovered along a stretch of Ocean Highway near Gilgo Beach in Long Island.

The bodies were found along a stretch of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach (Suffolk County Police Department)

All four women were found within a tenth of a mile of each other, all had been strangled, and all were found in the brush wrapped in burlap. They were identified as Melissa Barthelemy, 24, from New York, Megan Waterman, 22, from Maine, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, from North Carolina, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, from Connecticut.

Heuermann has been charged with the murder of Melissa, Megan and Amber Lynn, and is the prime suspect for the murder of Maureen. The women's bodies were uncovered in December 2010 during the search for 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert. All four women were sex workers from out of the area.

Melissa Barthelemy was the first of the Gilgo Four to be found, on December 11, 2010. She had last been seen outside her apartment in the Bronx on July 12, 2009. Maureen Brainard-Barnes, last seen July 9, 2007 at a hotel in Manhattan, Megan Waterman, last seen June 6, 2010 leaving a hotel in Hauppauge, and Amber Lynn Costello, last seen September 2, 2010, leaving her home, were all discovered on December 13, 2010.

Heuermann's Massapequa Park home was thoroughly searched by authorities (AP)

It was during the search for Shannan Gilbert that the women's remains were uncovered. Shannan had placed a chilling 911 call from the nearby gated Oak Beach community in the early hours of May 1, 2010. During the call, made at 4.51am, Shannan claimed people were trying to killer her and she was seen banging on doors in the neighbourhood, screaming for help.

A year after the Gilgo Four were found, Shannan's remains were found in an Oak Beach marsh, around a quarter-mile from where she was last seen. A week earlier, her pocketbook, ID, cell phone, jeans, and shoes were found in the marsh close to where she was last seen. Suffolk County Police believe she accidentally drowned after entering the marsh in a drug-induced panic, though toxicology screenings were negative for drugs. In May 2012, Suffolk County medical examiners classified her official cause of death as "inconclusive."

Fiona Leishman