DA Ray Tierney Solves Gilgo Murders Case
By Niall Fitzgerald
The 13-year old Gilgo serial-murder case, went from "cold case" to "mass murderer arrested" last Friday, when Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney (R-Brookhaven) charged 59-year-old Rex Heuermann of Massapequa with three of the murders.
Heuermann was arrested in New York City, and arraigned on Friday, for three counts of first degree murder. He is being held in the Suffolk jail, without bail.
In late 2010, Suffolk police located ten bodies - eight women, one man and a child - buried in shallow graves in the sandy dunes on Gilgo Beach - just east of the Nassau County border. Several of the murdered women's bodies were recent - only months old - and wrapped in the same burlap.
Later DNA and missing person's police investigations identified the bodies as belonging to women who had worked as escorts, and met or been picked-up by a man whom witnesses described as being a "6'5" Ogre" who drove a dark colored "Chevrolet Avalanche" truck.
Despite all those leads, the Suffolk Police under then-Chief James Burke and the Suffolk District Attorney - under former Democrat DA's Thomas Spota (2010-2017) and Timothy Sini (2017-2021) - did nothing.
Burke and Spota are themselves now convicted federal criminal felons. Burke beat handcuffed prisoners, toted around duffel bags of "nasty" pornography, suborned perjury, and blackmailed Suffolk police officers to lie to the FBI.
Spota ran wiretaps on Suffolk cops he "suspected" of working with the FBI; blackmailed elected officials in Suffolk; obstructed FBI investigations; and conducted himself like a menacing Mafia thug, strutting around political and law enforcement events in Suffolk County like a goon.
Spota and Burke barred the FBI from investigating the Gilgo murders. And Sini - who served as Suffolk Police Commissioner alongside Spota and Burke, before himself becoming DA in 2017 - did nothing.
Only with the election of Ray Tierney in November, 2021; and the 2022 appointment of Rodney Harrison as Suffolk Police Commissioner did things change: Tierney and Harrison immediately set-up a Gilgo Murders Task force.
Within six (6) weeks, the Task Force had identified Heuermann as the prime suspect. He is 6'5" and owns a 2006 dark colored Chevy Avalanche - a rare vehicle.
Over the next 12 months, Suffolk police and DA investigators closely tracked Heuermann, and gathered DNA, credit card, internet, and cell phone data to definitively tie Heuermann to the murders.
All credit for taking that mass murderer off the streets should go to DA Ray Tierney and Commissioner Rodney Harrison - and the dedicated members of their joint Task Force.