Suffolk County Police are investigating shocking new witness accounts linking accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann to two prostitutes whose deaths remain unsolved – Shannan Gilbert and Karen Vergata.
Joined by Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison at a news conference Wednesday, attorney John Ray said they came forward after Heuermann’s arrest in the July murders of three sex workers.
According to an affidavit he signed, a witness said he was working as a Suffolk County cab driver in the fall of 2009 when he went to pick up a fare from a popular hot motel.
The woman said a large man she identified as Heuermann hurriedly left the premises when she stopped.
A short while later, a distraught woman he believed to be Shannan Gilbert got out and got into his car.
The petite woman told the cab driver that Heuermann met her on Craigslist and convinced her to come to Long Island with the promise of financial help for her family.
New witnesses claim Rex Heurmann had a relationship with two prostitutes before their deaths. via REUTERS
Upon his arrival, he hands her an envelope that says it contains $1,000 and tells her she can keep it regardless of how their night goes.
“But he said that he saw anger on his face,” the witness stated in his affidavit.
The prostitute said she opened the envelope after the creepy john went to the bathroom and saw it was stuffed with paper, not cash.
Now terrified, she ran to the bathroom after the man left, locked the door and called the taxi company, witnesses said.
Attorney John Ray and Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said the account is under investigation. CBS News
He told his driver to take him to the Ronkonkoma train station so he could return to town.
The witness said she noticed that he had “droopy” eyes and immediately recognized him as Gilbert after media reports of his disappearance in 2010.
Gilbert’s body was finally found in a thick swamp near Gilgo Beach in December 2011.
The woman said she told several people about the troubling encounter at the time and left a message on a police tip line after Heuermann’s arrest.
“I’m sure that girl is Shannan Gilbert,” he said in his affidavit. “I recognized his melting eyes and his unusual voice…Rex Heuermann appeared to me to be a very large man who came from the hotel room I mentioned in my affidavit.”
Another witness told police he believed he went to a swinger gathering at Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home around Valentine’s Day in 1996.
Melissa Barthelemy, top left, Amber Costello, top right, Megan Waterman, bottom left and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.AP
According to her affidavit, she first went to a now-defunct Manhattan swing club called Le Trapeze with her NYPD narcotics detective boyfriend at the time.
While there, they saw a bulletin board ad for swingers interested in coming to a house on Long Island.
The pair decide to drive out to the Massapequa Park residence, but first pick up a sex worker in Manhattan – a woman who witnesses believe is the prostitute Karen Vergata killed.
“She was hungry and homeless,” he said in his affidavit, adding that the girl was initially nervous about making the trip to Long Island with the couple but relaxed after learning he was with the police.
Shannan Gilbert disappeared in 2010.AP
The witness said they were greeted by a husband and wife later believed to be Heuermann and his partner, Asa Ellerup.
The woman said she and her police boyfriend had sex with Heuermann, and that Ellerup turned down his offer of marriage after initially expressing interest.
Ellerup has not been charged or named as a suspect in any of the murders.
As they left, the woman said she saw Vergata running out of the house naked and asked her boyfriend if they should drive her home — but her boyfriend said Heurmann and Vergata were just “playing a game.”
“I feel bad that we left the woman out,” he said, adding that he got to know Heuermann, Ellerup, and Vergata after the case appeared in the press.
Karen Vergata disappeared in 1996. Kevin C. Downs for the NY Post
“I was shocked and very sad to leave him at Heurmann’s house,” he said. “I told John Ray about this because I needed to talk to him so Karen wouldn’t be left behind.”
Vergata went missing in 1996, and her severed leg was found on Fire Island that year. Its skull and some teeth were found in 2011 near Gilgo.
The same witness said he also picked up Heuermann a few weeks or months later, and he refused to drive her out to a remote location “in the woods” because he changed their destination.
Enraged, he threatened to kill her and flashed a gun before getting out of the vehicle, she said.
Heurmann has so far been charged in the deaths of slain sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.
Officials say the list of victims could grow longer as their investigation continues.
The suspected serial killer has already been named as the prime suspect in the murder of another Gilgo victim, Maureen Brainerd-Barnes.
A total of 11 bodies were found in a remote area near Gilgo Beach, including an Asian man, an unidentified woman and her baby girl.
Harrison declined to comment on the credibility of the new witness accounts Wednesday but said police were following up on their recollections.
“We have the information, we’re working on it, we’ll see where it takes us down the road,” he said.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
