Rex Heuermann arrest: Video shows moment serial killer suspect is taken into custody

The moment that plain clothes NYPD officers apprehended serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann on a crowded Midtown Manhattan street was caught on camera. 

Heuermann, 59, was taken into custody and later charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello over a decade ago. 

He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of another woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

The arrest occurred close to his architectural offices, steps from where investigators say he made the phones calls in which he arranged to meet the victims for sex and also where he called and taunted the families of the deceased women. 

Meanwhile, neighbors from the middle class community where Heuermann lived for all of his life in Massapequa Park, close to where the victim’s remains were found, have described him as a menacing figure whose home was avoided by children Halloween, who was once kicked out of a Whole Foods for stealing oranges and who owed thousands in back taxes. 

‘We would cross the street. He was somebody you don’t want to approach,’ neighbor Nicholas Ferchaw, 24, told the New York Times. 

Quickly, the plain clothes police officers who tracking his movements confront him 

Eventually, the 59-year-old architect is surrounded by officers and taken into custody 

The newly recently video showing the arrest of Heuermann sees him walking through a busy street at dusk during rush hour with a bag slung over his back. He appears unaware that he’s being pursued by police officers. 

Eventually, a group of suit-wearing officers stop and surround Heuermann. The arrest occurred around 8:30pm. A little over 12 hours later, he was arraigned on three first-degree murder charges in a Long Island courtroom. 

A long-time colleague of Heuermann told the Times that he spoke to the suspect on Thursday evening, noting that he was cracking jokes. ‘That must have been right before he left the office and they arrested him,’ Steve Kramberg told the Times.  

The suspect’s neighbors were long wary of the mysterious architect. One, Mike Schmidt, said he would often shares beers with another neighbor and point at Heuermann’s home and remark: ‘He probably has bodies in there,’ according to the Times. 

Schmidt said that last Halloween, he finally resolved to break years of tradition by taking his children to trick-or-treat at Heuermann’s home, where he lived with his wife, daughter and stepson. The home that the suspect lived in as a child. 

He said that hulking architect opened the door to the kids and gave them each a plastic pumpkin packed with candy. Schmidt added that when he told his wife where the sweets came from, she made him throw them out. 

Earlier, neighbors described the suspect’s home as being ‘creepy’ and ‘dungeon-like’ in interviews with DailyMail.com. 

In his professional life, some painted Heurmann as an arrogant character. Paul Teitelbaum, who worked with Heuermann in a project involving a building in Brooklyn Heights remarked that he had a ‘swagger’ about him.

‘I’m the expert, you’re lucky to have me’ was Heuermann’s attitude, according to Teitelbaum. 

Heuermann is charged with three murders attributed to the Gilgo Beach serial killer, and is the prime suspect in a fourth victim’s murder

In 2022, Heuermann was involved in a bizarre incident in which he was accused of stealing clementines meant for children from a bowl in a Whole Foods supermarket. 

‘He took three and put them in his pocket, then he took more. I said: “Sir, those are for the kids,”‘ store worker Tara Alonzo told the Times. Alonzo said that Heuermann became so angry, a manager had to escort him out. 

Alonzo said that the next time she heard about Heuermann was when she saw his face on TV following his arrest. ‘My co-worker said: “That’s the orange guy.”‘ 

Over the last decade or so, Heuermann has been involved in a series of lawsuits in which he’s taken people to court, accusing them of hitting him with their cars and causing him ‘serious and permanent injuries,’ reports CNN. 

The network’s report says that the cases were ‘settled or discontinued,’ a recent one is still open. 

During a deposition involving one of those suits, Heuermann said that he only sport he participated in was ‘competition rifle.’ 

CNN also revealed that Heuermann has issues with the IRS, at one point owing more than $425,000 in back taxes going back to 2005. As of October 2022, he repaid $215,078. 

He and his wife also owe over $81,000 to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance.  

He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose body was bound and hidden in thick underbrush along a remote beach highway

Also among the victims was Shannan Gilbert (left) and an unidentified Asian male, who police believe is a transgender sex worker. Heuermann is suspected, but has not been charged, with both deaths

Heuermann was first identified as a suspect in March 2022, when detectives linked him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010. 

In March, detectives recovered Heuermann’s DNA from a pizza crust he discarded and matched it to evidence found on one of the victims, authorities said.

‘They never stopped working and will continue to work tirelessly until we bring justice to all the families involved,’ Suffolk County police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said.

Heuermann was ordered jailed without bail after his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf at an arraignment Friday in state court in Riverhead. In denying bail, Judge Richard Ambro cited ‘the extreme depravity’ of Heuermann’s alleged conduct.

Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, said his client told him: ‘I didn’t do this.’ 

Investigators were continuing to search Heuermann’s home, about a 25-minute drive across a causeway spanning South Oyster Bay to the sandy stretch known as Gilgo Beach where the remains were found in 2010 and 2011.

Most of the victims were young women who had been sex workers. Their deaths long stumped investigators, and the mystery fueled immense public attention and led to a 2020 Netflix, Lost Girls. 

The pizza box taken from a trash can outside Heuermann’s midtown office 

‘We’re going to continue to work, investigate, and try to get a small measure of closure for all the victims’ families,’ Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Friday. 

That evening investigators were still at work on Heuermann’s home, searching his yard to evidence and clues.

An array of tarpaulin sheets and white-suited workers littered his ghoulish property which had clearly fallen into disrepair. 

A family-sized fridge was among the items seen being seized, and officers said they are still searching for 92 firearms that are registered to Heuermann, but are currently unaccounted for. 

At least one expert speculated that Heuermann could be behind an even greater number of killings. 

Katherine Ramsland, an expert in forensic psychology, said the alleged killer’s trail of death could extend well beyond what he has been charged with.

She told NewsNation that people ‘don’t know’ if he ever stopped killing, adding that ‘all we know is what he’s a suspect in right now.’

Asked why he may not have already been linked to other remains found in the area, Ramsland said it was possible another serial killer was on the loose.

‘The other (murders) don’t seem to have been handled in the same way,’ she said. ‘Serial killers don’t always do the same thing all the time.

‘There’s a lot of differences in the way some of those victims were treated and then left. So, I’m not sure that he’s attached to them. I couldn’t rule it out, but they don’t look like the same kinds of things that we’re seeing with the four victims we’re talking about.’

Investigators have noted a series of ‘red flags’ in Heuermann’s behavior that ultimately led them to his Long Island home, which is roughly a 25-minute drive from Gilgo Beach.

This included blatant Google searches asking why cops were unable to trace calls made by the serial killer, who was known to taunt his victim’s families.