RIVERHEAD, N.Y. —

A Long Island architect was charged Friday with murder in the deaths of three of the 11 victims in a long-unsolved string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders after detectives pursuing a new lead say they matched DNA from a pizza he ate to genetic material found on the women’s remains.

Rex Heuermann, who has lived for decades across a bay from where the remains were found, is charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman whose body was bound and hidden in thick underbrush along a remote beach highway, authorities said.

Investigators have said over the years that it's unlikely one person killed all 11 victims.

Heuermann, 59, was arrested late Thursday amid a renewed investigation that first identified him as a suspect in March 2022, when detectives linked him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010.

In March, detectives tailing Heuermann recovered his DNA from pizza crust in a box that he discarded in a Manhattan trash can and matched it to a hair found on a restraint used in the killings, authorities said.

Heuermann’s lawyer entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf Friday in state court in Riverhead. Judge Richard Ambro ordered him jailed without bail, citing “the extreme depravity” of his alleged conduct.

Video above: Who is Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann?

Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, said they just learned about the charges Friday morning. Speaking to reporters after the arraignment, he said Heuermann told him: “I didn't do this.”

Heuermann, wearing khaki pants and a gray collared shirt, did not speak in court.

Heuermann lives in Massapequa Park, a community just north of South Oyster Bay and the sandy stretch known as Gilgo Beach where the remains were found in 2010 and 2011. Most of the victims were young women who had been sex workers. Their deaths long stumped investigators, a mystery that fueled immense public attention and led to a 2020 Netflix film, “Lost Girls.”

Determining who killed them, and why, vexed a slew of seasoned homicide detectives through several changes in police leadership. Last year an interagency task force was formed with investigators from the FBI, as well as state and local police departments, aimed at solving the case.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Rex Heuermann is a demon that walks among us — a predator that ruined families," Suffolk County police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said. “If not for the members of this task force, he would still be out on the streets today.”

After connecting Heuermann to the pickup, prosecutors said, investigators were able to link him to other evidence, including burner cellphones used to arrange meetings with the slain women, and taunting calls that a person claiming to be the killer made to one of Barthelemy’s relatives using her cellphone after she disappeared in 2009.

In recent months, Heuermann sought to keep tabs on the probe and “searched obsessively” on the internet for facts about the Gilgo Beach killings, including the names of women he’s accused of killing, as well as podcasts and documentaries about the case, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

Tierney said authorities moved to charge Heuermann now with three of the killings “out of concern for this defendant fleeing and the danger to the community.” They are continuing to work toward charging him in the death of a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

Video below: Family of Megan Waterman speaks out after suspected serial killer arrested

Until his arrest, Heuermann continued to use burner phones, patronize sex workers and search the internet for sadistic materials, including sexually exploitative images of children, Tierney said. He also has permits for 92 guns, the prosecutor said.

“This is a day that is a long time in coming, and hopefully a day that will bring peace to this community and to the families — peace that has been long overdue,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during an unrelated appearance on Long Island.

The arrest came as a shock and a relief to some of the victims' relatives.

“I never thought they’d find this person,” Barthelemy's cousin, Amy Brotz, said.

Law enforcement personnel converged Friday morning on Heuermann's home, a small red house about 40 miles east of midtown Manhattan. Dozens of residents mingled alongside police and media, watching as a half-dozen investigators, some in protective suits, conferred outside the front porch, which was in disrepair, its roof propped up by 2-by-4s.

The home, where Heuermann has lived since childhood, belonged to a family that had long kept to themselves, neighbors said, noting that the dilapidated property seemed out of place among rows of single-family homes and well-kept lawns.

Barry Auslander said the man who lived in the house commuted by train to New York City each morning, wearing a suit and tie and carrying a briefcase.

“It was weird. He looked like a businessman,” Auslander said. “But his house is a dump.”

Heuermann, married with a daughter and a stepson, is a licensed architect with a Manhattan-based firm that, according to its website, has done store buildouts and other renovations for major retailers, offices and apartments.

“We’re happy to see that they’re finally active, the police, in accomplishing something. Let’s wait and see what it all leads to,” said John Ray, the attorney for the families of two other women whose remains were found, Shannan Gilbert and Jessica Taylor.

Gilbert's disappearance in 2010 triggered the hunt that exposed the larger mystery. A 24-year-old sex worker, she vanished after leaving a client’s house on foot in the seafront community of Oak Beach, disappearing into the marsh.

Months later, a police officer and his cadaver dog were looking for her body in the thicket along nearby Ocean Parkway when they happened upon the remains of a different woman. Within days, three other bodies were found, all within a short walk of one another.

By spring 2011, that number had climbed to 10 sets of human remains — those of eight women, one man and one toddler. Some were later linked to dismembered body parts found elsewhere on Long Island, making for a puzzling crime scene that stretched from a park near the New York City limits to a resort community on Fire Island and out to far eastern Long Island.

Gilbert’s body was found in December 2011, about 3 miles east of where the other 10 sets were discovered.

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Balsamo reported from Washington. Associated Press contributors include Jennifer Peltz, Bobby Caina Calvan, Michael R. Sisak and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York and Sarah Brumfield in Silver Spring, Maryland.

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. —

Authorities on Long Island are vowing to continue investigating a string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders after charging an architect in the deaths of three of the 11 victims.

Rex Heuermann, 59, is accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello over a decade ago. He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of another woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

Their bodies were bound and hidden in thick underbrush along a remote beach highway across the bay from the Massapequa Park community where Heuermann has lived all his life. Investigators have said it’s unlikely just one person killed all the victims.

“We’re going to continue to work, investigate, and try to get a small measure of closure for all the victims' families,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

Heuermann, 59, was arrested late Thursday, a year and a half after authorities formed an interagency task force with investigators from the FBI, as well as state and local police departments, aimed at solving the case. He was charged Friday.

Heuermann was first identified as a suspect in March 2022, when detectives linked him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010. In March, detectives recovered Heuermann's DNA from a pizza crust he discarded and matched it to evidence found on one of the victims, authorities said.

“They never stopped working and will continue to work tirelessly until we bring justice to all the families involved,” Suffolk County police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said.

Heuermann was ordered jailed without bail after his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf at an arraignment Friday in state court in Riverhead. In denying bail, Judge Richard Ambro cited “the extreme depravity” of Heuermann's alleged conduct.

Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, said his client told him: “I didn't do this.”

Investigators were continuing to search Heuermann's home, about a 25-minute drive across a causeway spanning South Oyster Bay to the sandy stretch known as Gilgo Beach where the remains were found in 2010 and 2011.

Most of the victims were young women who had been sex workers. Their deaths long stumped investigators, and the mystery fueled immense public attention and led to a 2020 Netflix film, “Lost Girls.”

Authorities on Long Island are vowing to continue investigating a string of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders after charging an architect in the deaths of three of the 11 victims.

Rex Heuermann, 59, is accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello over a decade ago. He is also considered the prime suspect in the death of another woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.

Their bodies were bound and hidden in thick underbrush along a remote beach highway across the bay from the Massapequa Park community where Heuermann has lived all his life. Investigators have said it’s unlikely just one person killed all the victims.

“We’re going to continue to work, investigate, and try to get a small measure of closure for all the victims' families,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

Heuermann, 59, was arrested late Thursday, a year and a half after authorities formed an interagency task force with investigators from the FBI, as well as state and local police departments, aimed at solving the case. He was charged Friday.

Heuermann was first identified as a suspect in March 2022, when detectives linked him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010. In March, detectives recovered Heuermann's DNA from a pizza crust he discarded and matched it to evidence found on one of the victims, authorities said.

“They never stopped working and will continue to work tirelessly until we bring justice to all the families involved,” Suffolk County police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said.

Heuermann was ordered jailed without bail after his lawyer entered a not guilty plea on his behalf at an arraignment Friday in state court in Riverhead. In denying bail, Judge Richard Ambro cited “the extreme depravity” of Heuermann's alleged conduct.

Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael Brown, said his client told him: “I didn't do this.”

Investigators were continuing to search Heuermann's home, about a 25-minute drive across a causeway spanning South Oyster Bay to the sandy stretch known as Gilgo Beach where the remains were found in 2010 and 2011.

Most of the victims were young women who had been sex workers. Their deaths long stumped investigators, and the mystery fueled immense public attention and led to a 2020 Netflix film, “Lost Girls.”

Authorities in the DC metro area said Friday a 35-year-old man who was charged last month in the killing of two women may be a serial killer and the prime suspect in the deaths of two more women, as a wide-ranging investigation is underway to determine if there are more victims.

Investigators believe Anthony Robinson, who they have dubbed the "shopping cart killer," meets his victims on dating websites and allegedly lures them into motels where he then kills them and transports their bodies in shopping carts, Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said during a press conference Friday.

"We're in the process of conducting, along with many other partners, a retrospective investigation to figure out where he's been," Davis said. "And we're going to work with our law enforcement partners, homicide detectives, missing person detectives, to see if we can identify any other victims and families and communities that he has brought harm to."

Robinson, 35, was charged with the deaths of two women found a short distance from each other on Nov. 23 in an open lot in Harrisonburg, Virginia, according to Harrisonburg police.

Police identified the victims as Elizabeth Redmon, 54, of Harrisonburg, and Tonita Lorice Smith, 39, of Charlottesville. Police said Robinson was arrested as a result of video surveillance and cell phone records connecting him to Redmon and Smith.

Robinson is being held in a Harrisonburg jail on two counts of first-degree murder in addition to two felony counts of concealing, transporting or altering a dead body, authorities said.

CNN could not reach an attorney for Robinson.

Harrisonburg police and the Charlottesville Police Department were conducting two separate missing person investigations, which narrowed the focus for both departments to the vacant lot, Harrisonburg Police Chief Kelley Warner said. Police believe Redmon and Smith died at separate times, Warner added.

Nov. 30, the Metropolitan Police Department contacted Harrisonburg police after they determined Robinson could be the last person to have contact with Cheyenne Brown, a missing person from Washington, DC, Warner said. Authorities had determined Robinson was communicating with Brown through a dating website right before her disappearance.

Harrisonburg police determined through cell phone records the contact between Robinson and Brown took place "in and around the area" of a motel called the Moon Inn on Richmond Highway in Alexandria, Virginia, Warner said.

Dec. 7, Fairfax County detectives received a call for assistance from the DC police for help locating Brown. Detectives were informed Brown, 29, took the metro from DC to the Huntington Metro stop in Virginia on Sept. 30 and never returned, said Major Ed O'Carroll of Fairfax's Major Crimes and Cyber and Forensics Bureau.

Fairfax detectives and the Metro Transit Police Department executed a search warrant for cellular data they say confirmed Brown and Robinson were at the same location on Sept. 30, the night of her disappearance, O'Carroll said.

On Dec. 15, homicide detectives located a shopping cart in the wooded area surrounding the Moon Inn, O'Carroll said. In a container near the shopping cart, detectives found the human remains of two people, he added.

Authorities "tentatively believe" the remains recovered from the container are Brown's, based upon a "very distinct tattoo" she had on her body, which was identified by her family, O'Carroll said. The identity of the other individual whose remains were also found inside the container is still unknown, but authorities said Robinson is a suspect in that death.

Authorities chose not to wait for a positive DNA test or dental verification to share information about Brown as the potential victim because they believe there may be other victims in the area, Davis said.

"We are working with the Department of Forensic Science, further DNA testing, to positively and scientifically confirm her identity," O'Carroll said.

IONE, Calif. — Officials say a California serial killer who strangled and raped at least seven women was fatally choked himself in a state prison.

Roger Reece Kibbe, known as the “I-5 Strangler” in the 1970s and 1980s, was spotted unresponsive in his cell Sunday at Mule Creek State Prison southeast of Sacramento.

His 40-year-old cellmate was standing nearby, according to prison officials. The cellmate, Jason Budrow, was in prison after being convicted of strangling his girlfriend in 2011.

An autopsy showed the 81-year-old Kibbe had been manually strangled.

The Amador County Sheriff’s Office is calling the death a homicide.

Investigators secretly took Kibbe on multiple field trips from prison in hope that he would reveal the whereabouts of more victims.

Kibbe was dubbed the "I-5 Strangler" because some of his victims were taken from their cars or their bodies were dumped along highways in Northern California. He was known for leaving random cuts on his victims' clothing using scissors.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

A prolific serial torture-slayer dubbed "The Dating Game Killer" died Saturday while awaiting execution in California, authorities said. Rodney James Alcala was 77.

He died of natural causes at a hospital in San Joaquin Valley, California, prison officials said in a statement.

Alcala was sentenced to death in 2010 for five slayings in California between 1977 and 1979, including that of a 12-year-old girl, though authorities estimate he may have killed up to 130 people across the country.

Alcala received an additional 25 years to life in 2013 after pleading guilty to two homicides in New York.

He was charged again in 2016 after DNA evidence connected him to the 1977 death of a 28-year-old woman whose remains were found in a remote area of southwest Wyoming. But a prosecutor said Alcala was too ill to face trial in the death of the woman, who was six months pregnant when she died.

California's death row is in San Quentin State Prison near San Francisco, but for years Alcala had been housed more than 200 miles away at a prison in Corcoran where he could receive medical care around the clock.

Prosecutors said Alcala stalked women like prey and took earrings as trophies from some of his victims.

"You're talking about a guy who is hunting through Southern California looking for people to kill because he enjoys it," Orange County, California, prosecutor Matt Murphy said during his trial.

Investigators say his true victim count may never be known.

Earrings helped put him on death row, though Gov. Gavin Newsom has imposed a moratorium on executions so long as he is governor.

The mother of 12-year-old Robin Samsoe testified at his murder trial that a pair of gold ball earrings found in a jewelry pouch in Alcala's storage locker belonged to her daughter.

But Alcala claimed that the earrings were his and that a video clip from his 1978 appearance on "The Dating Game" shows him wearing the studs nearly a year before Samsoe died. He denied the slayings and cited inconsistencies in witness accounts and descriptions.

California prosecutors said Alcala also took earrings from at least two of his adult victims as trophies.

Two of the four women were posed nude after their deaths, one was raped with a claw hammer and all were repeatedly strangled and resuscitated to prolong their agony, prosecutors said.

Investigators said one victim's DNA was found on a rose-shaped earring in Alcala's possession and his DNA was found in her body.

He had been sentenced to death twice before in Samsoe's murder, but both convictions were overturned. He was charged in the slayings of the four adult women more than two decades later based on new DNA and other forensic evidence.

After the verdict, authorities released more than 100 photos of young women and girls found in Alcala's possession in hopes of linking him to other unsolved murders around the country.

"There is murder and rape and then there is the unequivocal carnage of a Rodney Alcala-style murder," Bruce Barcomb, the brother of 18-year-old victim Jill Barcomb, said as Alcala was sentenced to death.