As a young adult, suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann worked summer jobs at Jones Beach, another sandy stretch in the same area he would be accused of dumping half a dozen victims’ bodies decades later. 

Prosecutors revealed at a hearing this week that Heuermann’s alleged motive was to “identify and ‘hunt’ women for the purpose of committing murder” and that the job patrolling sandy stretches of Jones Beach at night made him intimately familiar with the area.

The 61-year-old Heuermann, who sources say picked up the nickname “Sexy Rexy” at the Suffolk County Jail, worked there from 1981, the year he graduated from high school, until 1984, according to court documents.

Rader then went on to work as a compliance and animal control officer in Park City, Kansas.

“Dad even built his animal control officer outfit based on a county sheriff look, including a large night stick, a large Maglite, [and he] carried a shotgun in his truck,” Rader’s daughter, Kerri Rawson, told Fox News Digital. “He looked imposing and absolutely like a cop.”

John Kelly, a criminal profiler who has interviewed numerous serial killers and developed an early profile in the Gilgo Beach case, said the beach patrol job could have sated a desire “for authority and control.”

Attorney Michael Brown speaks alongside his client, Rex Heuermann, during a pre-trial hearing at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., on Feb. 25, 2025. (James Carbone/Newsday via Pool)

“It shows and feeds his need for control at an earlier age and being in a position of authority like BTK,” he said.

Heuermann later became an architect and was accused of abusing his power when dealing with city compliance issues, the New York Times reported in the days after his arrest. He was arrested in July 2023 outside his Manhattan office after police say DNA collected from a discarded pizza box helped them identify him as the suspect.