Find out what's happening in Riverheadfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

An analysis of those devices revealed Heuermann’s “significant collection of violent, bondage and torture pornography, dating back to 1994,” the bail application said.

In the months leading up to Mack’s disappearance and murder, the Gilgo Homicide Task Force uncovered images accessed by Heuermann that include breast mutilation, and the tying up of women with rope, “which largely coincide with a) the injuries inflicted on Ms. Mack’s breast and b) how the rope ligatures were utilized on Valerie Mack,” the bail application said.

More specifically, during the month of September, 2000, “investigators observed a large uptick in downloads of pornographic images depicting bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism,” or BDSM, the bail application said. The pornographic downloads were found on a compact disc located in Heuermann’s home office, the bail application said.

Also, on May 23, 2020 and July 30, 2020, Heuermann’s home IP address was used to access Gilgonews.com, a website previously maintain by the Suffolk County Police Department to disseminate information regarding the Gilgo Beach investigation, the DA said.

On May 23, 2020, at about 11:30 p.m., at the time Heuermann’s IP address visited the website, the page highlighted the upcoming identification of “Manorville Jane Doe,” who would, five days later, be identified as Mack, the bail application said.

On July 30, 2020, at about 10:50 p.m., Heuermann’s IP address once again visited the “Mack-specific” portion of the website for information pertaining to the investigation, the website said.

Heuermann speaks out

For the first time this wek , Heuermann spoke in court: “Your honor, I am not guilty of any of these charges.”

Heuermann’s next court date was set for January 15.

Judge Timothy Mazzei said on that court date, he’d like to see the defense file their aforementioned motion for a Frye hearing — that hearing would take place to determine if the new nuclear DNA testing, which has previously not been used in New York, would be admissible in court.

Also he told defense attorney Michael Brown that if he intends to file for a motion of severance — that would mean that the cases could be tried separately — he should do so at that time.

Brown has maintained that the fifth, sixth and seventh murder cases differ from the first four and on Tuesday, he added that he believes the prosecution often likes to “bootstrap” cases together.

“Each case should rise and fall on on its own,” he said.

Tierney said he would oppose a motion severing the cases.

Mazzei said he’d like to see those hearings take place by late February or early March.

When asked in recent months if Heuermann would be charged in the death of Mack, whose remains were found in Manorville and near Cedar Beach, Tierney said: “It’s safe to say he would be a suspect, yes.”

According to the bail application, on Nov. 19, 2000, three individuals were hunting with a dog in a wooded area of Manorville when, at about 10:50 a.m., the dog alerted the group to a black plastic bag, which was wrapped with duct tape. The bag was found about one mile west of Halsey Manor Road and north of Mill Road, the DA. said.

Inside the bag, the hunters found additional plastic bags and a set of human remains; they called 911 and Suffolk County police found the remains of Mack. “Notably, the victim was decapitated,” the bail application said. Both of her hands were severed from her body, above the wrists, and her right leg had also been cut off from her body at mid-calf, the application said. Her torso, legs and arms were also bound with rope, the DA said. During the initial Manorville investigation, Mack’s head, hands and right foot were not found at the scene and their location remained unknown for about 11 years, the DA said.

In 2020, Suffolk County police, along with the FBI, revealed the name of the woman known as”Manorville Jane Doe,” or “Jane Doe #6,” as Valerie Mack. Mack, who also used the name Melissa Taylor, went missing in 2000 at the age of 24, police said.

Her left mid and lateral breast had injuries the form of “two contiguous ragged defects,” likely the result of post-mortem mutilation with a sharp application, the application said.

Several human hairs were located, one on her left wrist, found to be a female human head hair with Caucasian characteristics, the DA said. Mitrochondrial DNA testing later determined that Heuermann’s estranged wife Asa Ellerup and his daugher, “who share a mitrochondrial DNA profile, cannot be excluded as the contributor of the said hair recovered from the remains of Valerie Mack,” the bail application said, tying them to the hair to the exclusion of 99.65 of the population in North America, the DA said.

In November, a nuclear DNA profile for the female hair on Mack indicated that the hair was far more likely to have come from “a person genetically identically to Victoria Heuermann’s SNP genotype file than from an unrelated individual.”

Neither Ellerup nor Victoria have been charged or are considered suspects; Victoria was only between three and four years old at the time Mack disappeared, the bail application said.

Tierney noted Tuesday that the bail application was the first in the proceedings so far where it was not made clear that Ellerup and the children were out of town when Mack was murdered. “I don’t believe we have any evidence in relation to the family’s whereabouts”, the DA said, adding that he wouldn’t be discussing that.

Robert Macedonio, who represents Ellerup, told Patch: “In light of today’s recent developments, I would like to repeat again that Asa Allerup, the estranged wife of Rex Heuermann, has no knowledge of the crimes that Rex is charged with. She is not a suspect, and never has been a suspect in any of the homicides. The only information that Ms. Ellerup has of these alleged crimes is what has been reported in the media, and she has maintained the position that she does not believe Rex was capable of committing the crimes he’s accused of. She will attend the trial and withold judgment until she sees and hears the evidence for herself in the courtroom.”

In November, Macedonio said that Ellerup and the grown children would be leaving the Massapequa Park home and moving to South Carolina; she was not present at Tuesday’s proceedings.

Brown has long maintained that he questions the lab where the nuclear testing was done, whether the results were science-based, and said the lab is a for-profit business; that’s why he will insist on a Frye hearing to determine if that DNA evidence is admissible in court.

In a previously revealed “manifesto,”or “blueprint,” that was found in the investigation, were categories including “problems,” “supplies,” “DS” and “TRG.” It is believed “DS” stands for “dump site,” and two of the locations listed were in the vicinity of Mill Road and Ocean Parkway, both where Mack’s remains were found, the application said.

“TRG” seems to be a reference to target or victim, the bail application said; Mack was about 5-feet tall and 110 lbs., fitting the “small is good,” note in the planning document, the bail application said.

A review of Heuermann’s Nextel cellular phone revealed that on October 3, 2000, in the time frame of Mack’s murder, he appeared to make two outgoing calls to a plumbing company based in Lynbrook; in mid-November 2000, he paid another plumbing company to check his “mainline drain,” the document said.

Also, a forensic anthropologist analyzed cut bones of both Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack and concluded both were dismembered with a hand-powered saw, with similar blade widths, the document stated.

Mack was “packaged for transport,” according to the planning document’s “body prep” section, the bail application said.

Her leg was also mutilated at the mid-calf to delay identification of Mack’s tattoo on her foot/ankle — which depicted her son’s name, the document said.

Clippings were also found with articles about the Gilgo Beach investigation, the bail application said.

In April, 2011, as part of an expanded search of the Gilgo Beach area, her skull, hands, and right foot were found along Ocean Parkway, just east of Gilgo Beach. Mack’s remains were found less than 1.5 miles east from where Jessica Taylor’s skull, hands, and forearm were discovered, the DA said.

Each of the five previously discovered victim remains on Gilgo Beach, as well as Mack’s skull, hands, and right foot, were found on the same side of the road and at a similar depth within 50 feet from the roadway, the application said.

Mack, the DA said, was born on June 2, 1976 in Atlantic City, NJ, as Valerie Lyn Fulton. At an early age, she was placed in foster care and shuffled between several foster homes until she was adopted by the Mack family, the DA said. At 17, she gave birth to a son and began living with her son’s father in Wildwood, NJ.

She was arrested for prostitution several times in Philadelphia, the DA said; she is believed to have been a sex worker in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, the DA said.

When her remains were found in Manorville, it was determined that she had died about two-to-eight weeks earlier.

This week, Tierney referenced the articles, including a New York Post article, a People magazine article, and a New York magazine article on the Gilgo Beach investigation, that were found in the Heuermann home, in his home office and in the “basement vault” of the home.

Tierney noted that the bail application said that in Heuermann’s planning document, he mentioned, in the “supply” section, that one of the listed supplies was foam drain cleaner — and that he’d made calls to a plumber on October 3, 2000, and in mid-November, when he paid another plumber to check the “mainline” drain.

Click Here: nsw blues rugby store

He pointed out the “adhesive” found on the basement wall and said the planning document references push pins, which did not leave an adhesive stain on the wall.

When asked if he believed the murders could have taken place at the home, Tierney said he didn’t have to prove where the murders had taken place. “We don’t have to specifically prove where they happened; there are other elements we need to prove. But I think if you look at this case, the planning document, the adhesive,” he said, the planning document and other evidence was “consistent” with the possibility.

Tierney said the phone records, the financial records, the internet searches and the various clippings that Heuermann had kept regarding the case were “evincing his intent, his interest in the case. We think it’s circumstantial evidence of his persistent interest in, as well as the victims, methods being used by law enforcement to try and catch the murderer. All of these things evince a certain mental state and intent. It paints a certain picture. The picture we will try to prove at trial.”

He added: “When you look at the planning document it evinces two things clearly: intent and also, careful and meticulous planning. If you look at the victims in the context of evidence in the case, the house figures prominently.”

Brown, Heuermann’s attorney, said the bail application “in large part, talks about the investigators on this case and what they believe. Paragraph after paragraph, what they believe. That’s not evidence,” he said. “Opinion testimony has no place in the court.”

Of the article clips, he said many around the country have a fascination with the case.

Brown told reporters after the court proceedings that he’d, “in some way, expected additional charges. I had expected maybe, at some point, the Mack case would come forward.”

He believes the cases should be severed because the circumstances differed and still maintains there are other suspects to consider.

He reminded that two separate and exhaustive searches were undertaken at the Heuermann home. “They went through that house with a fine-toothed comb, dug up the backyard, went into walls and pipes and the cement foundation and they’ve yet to show anyone any evidence, not with the tools or guns they gathered. There’s no evidence of any victims’ DNA on those tools.”

A reporter mentioned the hair found, and Brown again, questioned the validity of the lab doing the testing and said he questioned the science and that it was a for-profit business. That’s why he will insist on a Frye hearing, he said.

When asked about a change of venue, Brown said they are still discussing taking the case out of Suffolk County but nothing has yet been determined.

Heuermann last appeared in court in October.

This June, Heuermann was slapped with new second-degree murder charges in the deaths of two additional women, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla, according to a superceding bail application released to the press before the proceedings — bringing the total number of his alleged victims to six.

In July 2023, Heuermann was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder charges and three counts of second-degree murder charges in the deaths of sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose remains were found along Ocean Parkway in 2010.

Heuermann pleaded not guilty to those charges.

A total of 11 sets of remains were found in the Gilgo Beach murders, which rocked Long Island. The remains included that of a toddler and an Asian male.

Heuermann was also charged with the murder of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, in January. New DNA evidence helped connect Heuermann to all four of the deaths, said Tierney, who is prosecuting the case.

Heuermann was charged with second-degree murder, an A-1 violent felony, in the death of Brainard-Barnes on July 9, 2007. Heuermann has also pleaded not guilty to that charge.

Heuermann returned to court in July for a routine appearance where “voluminous amounts” of discovery were turned over to the defense, according to Tierney — and at the time, the DA said it was “safe to say” that he might be considered a suspect in the death of a seventh woman.

New details were released recently about an Asian homicide victim found in the same areas as those associated with the Gilgo Beach killings, Tierney said — and law enforcement is appealing to the public to identify the individual and bring closure to his or her family.

Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox.Fri, Dec 20, 2024 at 8:31 pm ET|Updated Fri, Dec 20, 2024 at 8:55 pm ET