Suspected Long Island serial killer's duck hunting could have been perfect cover for hiding bodies
Rex Heuermann's home is a quick boat ride from where police found the remains of 4 women near Gilgo Beach
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FIRST ON FOX: Rex Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect, suburban dad and duck hunter who Suffolk County police allege is the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer, could have gone from the boat ramp near his Massapequa Park, New York, home to the marsh grass where investigators found the victims in minutes, virtually undetected, if he took a flat-bottomed vessel he had access to.
"There is a chance that this was an option that he would have seen at the time as something that would be viable for him if, in fact, he was looking to dispose of a body," Paul Mauro, a lawyer and former NYPD inspector, said Wednesday during a visit to the area.
Prosecutors declined to comment Wednesday on whether they believe the victims were driven to the area over the bridge to Ocean Parkway, but the bay side of the beach is almost directly south of a boat ramp close to Heuermann's home.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A possible spot to beach a small boat on the bay side of Gilgo Beach, south of Long Island, New York on Wednesday, July 19, 2023. The remains of Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Melissa Barthelemy were found in the marsh in 2010. The white pickup truck in the background is less than 50 yards from the water's edge. (Mega for Fox News Digital )
"The question becomes, is it not less ostentatious to approach from the waterside as opposed to parking an SUV, this famous Avalanche that the accused had, on the road, whenever he did it middle of the night or otherwise, haul a dead body into the woods, and then bury that body, which is always going to take some time on the cover of darkness?" Mauro asked.
WATCH: Former NYPD Inspector Paul Mauro visits scene where Gilgo Beach victims were found
Heuermann was an avid duck hunter and shared a duck boat with a friend, according to the attorney for his wife, who filed for divorce Wednesday.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Public records show he had a hunting license as recently as 2012. Additionally, police have said they found hundreds of firearms in his basement after they began a dayslong search of his house.
"Let's be frank, we could bury a body out here now and nobody would know, and it's the middle of the day."
Photos taken this week of Heuermann's green Chevrolet Avalanche – seized in South Carolina but prosecutors say he owned at the time of the murders between 2007 and 2010 – show it had a tow hitch and trailer ball.
New York State Police tow Chevy Avalanche, linked to Manhattan architect Rex Heuermann, from South Carolina in the Gilgo Beach murder investigation. (Audrey Conklin/Fox News Digital)
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A channel cutting across South Oyster Bay from Amityville runs straight to the backside of Gilgo Beach, where there is a sandy bank less than 50 yards from where police found one of the "Gilgo Four" in December 2010. They had been searching for a different woman, Shannan Gilbert, who went missing in May 2010 after a series of troubling 911 calls.
Rex Heuermann, 59, is suspected of at least 3 murders after New York authorities discovered 11 sets of human remains strewn along a suburban Long Island beach highway between 2010 and 2011. (Jeffrey Simon Architecture & Design)
They were found in the brush between two small coves north of Ocean Parkway dubbed Hemlock and Coast Guard.
"It's a theory," Mauro said. "The ground was different, likely, back then, but who knows, it may have been more advantageous."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GILGO BEACH SUSPECT REX HEUERMANN STALKED EX-COP AFTER TRAIN ALTERCATION, RIDER SAYS
He said he suspects it was something police had looked into. Photos from early 2011 show a Suffolk County dive team searching Hemlock Cove before they finally found Gilbert farther east along the parkway.
North of Gilgo Beach is South Oyster Bay, south of it lies the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean Parkway runs east to west through the thin stretch of land between. Four bodies were found between 22 and 33 feet from the northern edge of the road in 2010, but the area could also be accessed from behind by the water. The bodies were found along the northern edge of the road with Coast Guard Cove to the west and Hemlock Cove to the east. (Google Earth)
Now, two wooden crosses quietly overlook the marsh in Coast Guard Cove – one of which someone adorned with a skull mask.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News Digital made the journey by boat Wednesday morning. It took about 5 minutes to get from the north end of South Oyster Bay to the south, and 5-10 additional minutes in no-wake zones on either end.
The fastest way to drive there, down Wantagh Parkway and over the bridge, would take about 25 minutes as well – while passing through the Jones Beach area and in the eastbound lane on the south side of Ocean Parkway – requiring the suspect to make a U-turn after Gilgo Beach, turn around, and park on the side of a highway with no shoulder with a dead body in the truck.
Suffolk County divers search Hemlock Cove in Babylon, New York, April 13, 2011, just east of Gilgo Beach. (Photo by Andrew Gombert/EPA/Shutterstock)
GILGO BEACH MURDERS: THE INVESTIGATION IN PHOTOS
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"If I'm putting myself in the mindset of somebody who's looking to dispose of a body – I have a boat; I know these waters; I mean, let's be frank, we could bury a body out here now and nobody would know, and it's the middle of the day," Mauro said after assessing the waterfront.
A skull mask mounted on a cross in the marsh behind Gilgo Beach, south of Long Island, New York, on Wednesday, July 19, 2023. The remains of Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Melissa Barthelemy were found on the beach in 2010. (Mega for Fox News Digital )
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said the victims were wrapped in a camouflage burlap that is consistent with the kind used in duck blinds and was "obviously" intended to conceal the bodies.
Heuermann had 92 handgun permits, Tierney told Fox News Wednesday, and police removed more than 200 firearms from his home. New York law does not require permits for long guns – and police seized dozens of those.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Retired NYPD inspector Paul Mauro looks ashore from a boat near Gilgo Beach off Long Island, New York on Wednesday, July 19, 2023. The remains of Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Melissa Barthelemy were found in the area in 2010. (Mega for Fox News Digital )
Suffolk police have said that the four bodies were all recovered within 22 and 33 feet of the road. However, Ocean Parkway has no shoulder, which would make a vehicle pulled over conspicuous, Mauro noted, and it is patrolled by state police.
A cross standing in the marsh at Gilgo Beach near Long Island, New York, on Wednesday, July 19, 2023. The remains of Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Melissa Barthelemy were found in the brush in December 2010. (Mega for Fox News Digital )
WATCH: ‘GRIM TIDE’ ON FOX NATION
Anthony Babich, a local duck hunter and guide, said a small, flat-bottomed boat could be the perfect way to approach from behind and that the camo burlap "is the best" option for hunters on the water there.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A small South Bay Co. duck boat similar to the one Rex Heuermann is believed to have had access to floats near seagrass in South Oyster Bay, just north of Gilgo Beach. (Anthony Babich)
"You pull right up, and you're good," he told Fox News Digital. "No one's gonna see you, especially at night and if you're familiar with it."
There is a strong chance that Heuermann, who grew up in Massapequa Park, hunted the area for years before and after he bought his childhood home from his mother in the 1990s.
Rex Heuermann used fictitious names and online accounts to solicit and arrange sexual activity, according to a bail application. (Suffolk County DA)
"He knew the area," Babich said. "He knew the spot – it's where his dad took him."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A small duck boat could travel even quicker without having to stick to the channels, which cut through extremely shallow sections of the bay, Babich said.
WATCH: Police in New York search suspected Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann's home in Massapequa Park
"You can walk through the grass, no problem," Babich said. "But where those bodies were, if you go a little bit south of it, to the mosquito ditches that are in the mud, it's so thick in there it sucks you down like quicksand."
GILGO BEACH MURDERS: THE INVESTIGATION IN PHOTOS
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Heuermann pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of first- and second-degree murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27.
His wife, Asa Ellerup, filed for divorce on Wednesday.
CSI police look at a portrait of a woman with two bruised eyes, part of the items that were removed from the home of Rex Heuermann, the suspect of the Gilgo Beach murders, in Massapequa Park, New York, July 17, 2023. (Kevin C. Downs/Redux)
WATCH: ‘GRIM TIDE’ ON FOX NATION
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Gilgo victims were killed between June 2007 and September 2010 and found wrapped in camouflaged burlap off Ocean Parkway in December 2010.
Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
He is due back in court Aug. 1 and faces up to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole if convicted.
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His attorney Michael Brown did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News' Haley Chi-Sing and Julia Bonavita contributed to this report.