This Wednesday in court prosecutors announced that DNA samples collected from Rex Heuermann are a match for the DNA evidence from the hair found on one of the Gilgo Four victims.
Before Heuermann was arrested in late July, the police collected a DNA sample from pizza crust discarded outside of his NYC office. Upon collecting the DNA from the pizza crust, there was a match with the DNA from a hair found on Megan Waterman’s body back in 2010. This evidence had previously only been tied to Heuermann’s wife, but after Heuermann was required to submit a court-ordered DNA swab police insist the DNA has come back a confirmed match.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told the press that “the surveillance team had observed the pizza box and were confident that that was the DNA, that the DNA profile would be consistent with the defendant because he left that material inside the box… and so the buccal swab just erases all doubt.”
As Heuermann maintains his innocence, his defense attorney, Michael Brown, told reporters that “there is nobody on the face of the earth that is credible is going to say that hair is my client’s hair… It’s impossible under science standards. What they can do is say he could potentially be a donor for that hair, but so could thousands and thousands of other people just in our area, so take that for what it’s worth.”
Heuermann is currently charged with the murders of three women found along the coast of Gilgo Beach in 2010, including Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello. Police also currently have Heuermann as the prime suspect for the fourth victim, completing the tragic Gilgo Four, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Since the beginning of the trial, Brown has instructed Heuermann not to “let anything upset you” and to “just be stoic,” and so he has.
Heuermann was arrested in connection with the murders this July after police recovered cell phone records and former witness accounts along with the DNA evidence. Heuermann has maintained his innocence and pleaded not guilty to all three murder charges during his arraignment in July. He is currently being held at the Suffolk County Jail without bail.