THE man arrested as the suspected Long Island Serial Killer has been identified as 59-year-old architect Rex Heuermann.
The U.S. Sun was the first outlet to name Heuerman on Friday morning following a raid at a property in Massapequa Park, Long Island, directly north of where the bodies of four women were found near Gilgo Beach in 2010.
Heuermann is the founder and principal of RH Consultants & Associates, LLC, registered to the home in Massapequa Park where the arrest took place, with an office in New York City.
He is described on an online profile as having over 30 years of experience and having worked with major clients including American Airlines.
Heuermann is in grand jury and is due to appear in Riverhead Criminal Court later on Friday where an indictment will be unsealed, police said.
What Ola and James Jordan really ate and did to shed 7st
An old mugshot of Heuermann was revealed on Friday morning ahead of his court appearance.
A source told The U.S. Sun that cops had been on to him "for a while" before making the arrest.
Cops will hold a news conference at 4pm at the district attorney's office in Riverhead to give an update on the case.
Police swarmed Heuermann's address in Massapequa Park late on Thursday night.
An eyewitness told The U.S. Sun that officers had been at the home "all night."
A police drone was spotted flying over the house on Friday morning.
He was reportedly taken into custody outside his Midtown Manhattan office on Thursday night around 8.30pm as he left work.
Cops say he was arrested in connection with the first four murders, the so-called Gilgo Beach Four.
Heuermann has lived in the modest house just north of Gilgo Beach since the 1980s.
Actor Billy Baldwin, brother of Alec, revealed that he had gone to high school with Heuermann.
I'm a 'time traveler' - the 'worst case scenario that could kill us all'
The second-youngest of the four Baldwin brothers, Billy, who was born in Massapequa, said that the community was "in shock."
He tweeted: "Woke up this morning to learn that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect was my high school classmate Rex Heuermann."
The 60-year-old explained that he was in the Berner High School Class of 1981 with Heuermann, and described him as married with two kids.
"Average guy... quiet, family man," he said, before adding: "Mind-boggling... Massapequa is in shock."
Heuermann has reportedly been on the radar of law enforcement since last year after investigators tracked phone calls made from burner phones to the cell phones of some of the victims.
The location of the phone calls was matched to Heuermann's home and office addresses.
Cops have been hunting for the suspected killer since 2010 after the body of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was found near Gilgo Beach, about a half-hour drive from the home.
On December 11, 2010, a Suffolk County Police Officer and sniffer dog discovered her skeletal remains in the brush just off Ocean Parkway, the main road on Jones Beach Island.
She was a sex worker who had disappeared from the Bronx the previous year.
The remains of three other women were found nearby in the following days.
Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Lynn Costello, 27, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, were all discovered within the same stretch of Gilgo Beach in 2011, wrapped in burlap.
By spring 2011, the number of suspected victims of the Long Island Serial Killer had climbed to 10 after the remains of a further four women, an unidentified man, and a toddler were found.
Cops also found the remains of 24-year-old New Jersey sex worker Shannan Gilbert, who disappeared after leaving a client's house close to Gilgo Beach in 2010.
She rang 911 for help after saying she feared for her life and was never seen alive again.
The panicked young woman was heard banging on doors and screaming: "They're trying to kill me," in a chilling 911 call that was never released publicly.
In the call made at 4.51am on May 1, as she left the house on foot, Gilbert repeatedly told dispatchers: "There's somebody after me."
She asked the dispatcher: "Can you trace where I am?" but they were unable to, and she was never seen alive again.
Gilbert's late mother and the family attorney, John Ray, maintained that she was being targeted by the serial killer when she died.
But former chief of detectives at the time of the disappearances, Dominick Varrone, said that the circumstances surrounding her death don't match those of the other victims.
Last year, cops stepped up their investigation into the case, with the FBI coming in along with state and local police forces to try and solve the murders.
Speaking following the arrest, Gilbert's sister Sherre Gilbert told NBC News she was "relieved" an arrest had been made.
She said: "I am overwhelmed but relieved that they finally caught him. It’s been a long time coming and I never gave up hope that one day justice would be served.
"The suspect deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life.
"He destroyed many lives so while it won’t bring our loved ones back, it does help that one less monster is off the streets and he can’t ever hurt anyone else."
More to follow...For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at Sun Online.The-sun.com is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheSunUS and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheUSSun.
