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(NewsNation) — Police in New York say they recovered hair from the wife of Rex Heuermann on the bodies of three women found in Gilgo Beach, a piece of evidence one legal analyst believes will be difficult for the defense to dispute.
“My first kind of gut reaction was that that is worse for him than his (own) DNA,” criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos said Monday on “CUOMO.”
Suffolk County authorities announced murder charges against Heuermann on Friday, the culmination of a yearlong investigation that first identified him a suspect in the spring of 2022. Heuermann is accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found in 2010 and 2011.
Police had Heuermann under surveillance for more than a year; they collected DNA from a pizza box he discarded in a Manhattan trash can to link him to the victims. His wife’s hair was also found on the three victims, according to his bail application.
“Unless you’re going to allege that his wife was somehow involved, it’s what I would call a ‘bad fact’ for the defense because you’re going to be sitting there arguing, ultimately if he goes to trial, you’re gonna have to try to explain to a jury why both his DNA and his wife’s DNA are on the victims,” Geragos said. “I mean, that’s a tough sell.”
Heuermann’s defense attorney, Michael Brown, said after his initial court appearance the evidence is circumstantial in nature. Heuermann pleaded not guilty.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney told reporters at a news conference Friday that Heuermann had seven burner phones and made Google searches on the Gilgo Beach killings 200 times over a 14-month period.
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On Monday, Tierney reaffirmed his confidence that he has the right suspect, telling NewsNation, “If we had any doubts, we would not have brought the case.”
“On the face of it, it looks very impressive what they put together,” Geragos said. “My guess is, however, that there’s a whole lot more here that we don’t know yet.”
Police said Monday that they recovered some 200 guns and a life-sized doll in a glass case from Heuermann’s home. Authorities were also searching a storage locker in Amityville.
Heuermann is also the lead suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose body was also found on Gilgo Beach. The four women were among 11 bodies that were discovered along a stretch of Ocean Parkway, and Suffolk County authorities are working to determine if Heuermann may have been involved in any of the other unsolved murders.
To get more information, Geragos said prosecutors could take the death penalty off the table or decline to prosecute any family members if it’s proven they were accessories.
“Those are the kinds of arrows in the quiver for prosecutors that they use, generally, in these cases,” Geragos said.
