105 First Avenue, Massapequa Park, NY 11762
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Author: Jewls Krueger
Between 1993 and 2010, sex workers on Long Island were going missing only to have their bodies discovered dumped along roads near Gilgo Beach, wrapped in burlap with their feet and ankles bound. The authorities knew there was a murderer targeting these women, but it wasn't until 2022 that they had a suspect. A man named Rex Heuermann came on their radar after one of the victims' roommates told investigators that an "ogre-like" man who drove a first generation Chevy Avalanche was calling the victim incessantly before she went missing. They searched DMV records for anyone in the vicinity who owned a car matching her description, and Rex Heuermann popped up.
Rex Heuermann - Suffolk County Sheriff's Department
Heuermann worked as an architect out of an office in Midtown Manhattan, commuting to the city daily from a modest, 3 bedroom house in Massapequa Park, by all accounts a quiet and unremarkable man. He had grown up in that same house, eventually purchasing the property from his mother for $170,000 in May 1994. After his mother moved out, he continued to live in the house with his wife Asa Ellerup, their daughter Victoria, and Ellerup's son Christopher Sheridan. What the family didn't know, at least according to Heuermann, was what was happening in the basement.
When his wife and children would go out of town, Rex would often stay behind using his job as an excuse. But while they were away, Rex would use a burner phone to contact a sex worker, lure them to his home, then bring them to a secret room in the basement where he would murder them. He then dumped their bodies in remote areas near Gilgo Beach, hoping they would never be found. Investigations into the disappearances weren't prioritized because the women were seen as having "dangerous lifestyles" due to their roles as sex workers. Very little effort went into uncovering what had happened to these women, which is exactly what Rex Heuermann had been counting on.
On the night of May 1, 2010, a 23-year-old sex worker named Shannan Gilbert made a desperate 911 call after fleeing the home of a client in Oak Beach. She banged on neighbors' doors in a panic before disappearing into the night. It wasn't until December 13, 2011 that her body was found in a marsh nearby. Heuermann has never been charged with or linked to Gilbert's death but it was the search for her body that led police into the brush along Ocean Parkway, where they stumbled upon the remains of 4 of his victims, dubbed “the Gilgo Four”.
Investigators have been insistent that Shannan had wandered into the marsh on her own accord and drowned, saying that the 911 call was proof that she was on drugs and acting erratically. Shannan Gilbert's mother was unconvinced and actively fought to get investigators to look further into the theory that a serial killer had been killing women in the area. Her persistence ultimately helped bring the case the attention it deserved.
Further Reading
Finally in 2022, investigators narrowed in on Rex Heuermann after they linked him to a burner phone that had been in contact with 4 of the victims. Unbeknownst to him, they began surveilling him around the clock and eventually retrieved a pizza box that he discarded which they used to get DNA samples which they ran against evidence from the victims.
Heuermann was arrested on July 13, 2023 and formally charged with 3 counts of murder for the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello. In 2024, prosecutors added charges for three more victims: Maureen Brainard-Barnes in January, and Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla in June. In December 2024, a seventh victim, Valerie Mack, was added to the charges.
After initially pleading not guilty, Rex Heuermann changed his plea on April 8, 2026, admitting in a Suffolk County courtroom to eight counts of murder spanning more than 30 years. including the murder of Shannan Gilbert. He admitted to meeting all eight women, strangling them, and dumping their bodies across Gilgo Beach, Manorville, and Southampton. His eighth admitted victim, Karen Vergata, was included in the plea deal though he had never been formally charged in her death. His sentencing is scheduled for June 17, 2026, at which point he is expected to receive life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The red-shingled house at 105 First Avenue in Massapequa Park, Long Island isn't much to look at. Neighbors called it a "dump." A childhood friend of Rex Heuermann once noted that "that house has not changed in 60 years." With its peeling paint, windchimes hanging above a bare concrete porch, and piles of wood left in the driveway, it blended in perfectly with the quiet, middle-class suburb around it, which was exactly the point.
When investigators searched the home after Heuermann's arrest, they described the interior as extremely cluttered. In the basement, police discovered a walk-in steel gun vault stuffed with boxes, containing 279 pistols and long guns. Also in the basement was what investigators and documentary filmmakers described as a soundproof, vault-like room. This room was originally Heuermann's childhood bedroom before it was converted into a workshop and gun room. It was in this room, Heuermann eventually admitted, that most of the murders took place.
In May 2024, investigators returned to the house for a second major search. This time, they removed wood paneling from the basement walls and seized old newspapers about the Gilgo Beach murders. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney alleged Heuermann had kept the clippings as trophies. Ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs were used to search the backyard, though no human remains were found there.
Rex Heuermann's wife filed for divorce shortly after his arrest. The home has not been sold since then, though investigators have said that it was in an unlivable state.
The house is located at 105 First Avenue in Massapequa Park, a village in Nassau County on the South Shore of Long Island, approximately 55 yards north of the corner of Michigan Avenue and First Avenue. Massapequa Park is accessible via the Long Island Rail Road's Babylon Branch, with the Massapequa Park station just a short walk from the neighborhood. By car, take the Southern State Parkway to Exit 28S.
This is private property. The house remains occupied, and the property owners and their neighbors have endured years of media attention and visitors. Please stay on public sidewalks and roadways at all times, do not approach the house or knock on any doors, and be respectful of the neighborhood.
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