New York officials to release new renderings of possible Gilgo Beach victim

[September 16, 2024]  By PHILIP MARCELO

BRENTWOOD, N.Y. (AP) — Law enforcement officials are set to release new information Monday about one of the victims whose remains were found along a coastal highway in New York's Long Island more than a decade ago, a string of deaths known as the Gilgo Beach killings.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said in a statement that the task force investigating the killings will also discuss other developments in the yearslong investigation.

Spokespersons for Tierney's office did not respond to emails and calls seeking additional information over the weekend.

Tierney told Newsday that among the things the office will discuss are new, more detailed renderings of a male of Asian descent whose remains were found off Ocean Parkway in 2011.

Investigators have said they believe the unidentified man died five to 10 years earlier.

They say he was likely in his late teens or early 20s, was about 5 feet 6 inches (170 centimers) tall and had close-cropped hair. The victim was dressed in women’s clothing and may have been a sex worker, officials said at the time.

Officials will publish renderings of what he may have looked like that were made through anthropological reconstruction, Newsday reported. The hope is they may generate new leads.

Local officials released a more basic sketch of the victim back in 2011.

DNA records from Asian people is less common in U.S. genetic databases, making it difficult to compare and identify the remains through traditional methods, according to Tierney.

"We’re hoping maybe someone will remember a person who looked like him that disappeared in the time frame when he died,” he told Newsday.

Authorities continue to work at the home of suspect Rex Heuermann, who has been charged with the slayings known as the Gilgo Beach killings, in Massapequa Park, N.Y., July 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

No one has been charged in the death. A local architect is accused in the killings of six women, some of whose remains were found near the unidentified man’s.

Rex Heuermann, 61, was arraigned in June in connection with the deaths of two young women long believed to have been preyed upon as sex workers.

The charges came after recent police searches of Heuermann's home and a wooded area on Long Island.

Jessica Taylor disappeared in 2003 and Sandra Costilla was killed 30 years ago, in 1993.

Costilla's inclusion in the case indicates prosecutors now believe Heuermann was killing women far longer than previously thought.

Heuermann was previously charged with killing four others: Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

Since late 2010, police have been investigating the deaths of at least 10 people — mostly female sex workers — whose remains were discovered along an isolated highway near Gilgo Beach.

Heuermann, who lived across the bay, was arrested last July.

He has pleaded not guilty and his attorney, Michael Brown, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment over the weekend.

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