(NewsNation) — Three women were reportedly approached by Gilgo Beach serial killing suspect Rex Heuermann with a white envelope they thought was full of money, attorney John Ray exclusively revealed Friday night on “Banfield.”
Ray is the attorney for Nicole Brass, a former escort who says she went on a date with Heuermann.
“He pulled out this white envelope to pretend there was money for her. He did exactly the same thing, according to the taxi cab driver who put him (Heuermann) together with Shannon Gilbert. … And just today, another woman called who had been stalked by him.”
The evidence Ray has amassed over the past decade primarily centers around Shannan Gilbert, whose disappearance initiated the Gilgo Beach investigation.
While Suffolk County police maintained Gilbert drowned and that there was no evidence of a homicide, Ray contends otherwise. He asserts a definitive connection between Gilbert’s case and Heuermann.
This all started when an off-duty officer searching for Gilbert inadvertently discovered the four bodies now known as the “Gilgo Beach Four.“
Heuermann, the man already suspected in the deaths of four women found near Long Island’s Gilgo Beach, was charged in the murders of two more women Thursday during his latest court appearance.
According to a bail application released Thursday morning by Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, Heuermann faces additional second-degree murder charges for the deaths of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla.
Since 2010, police have been probing the deaths of at least 10 people, most of whom are sex workers, whose remains were discovered along an isolated highway not far from Gilgo Beach. Victims had gone missing over a span of at least 14 years.
Heuermann, an architect who lived across a bay from where the bodies were found, was arrested last July in connection to the killings of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Lynn Costello and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
At Thursday’s hearing, Heuermann pleaded not guilty to killing Taylor and Costilla was ordered held without bail. Michael Brown, Heuermann’s attorney, told reporters after that Heuermann is “horrified by the new charges,” and “obviously in a bad place” regarding them.
Woman who ‘dated’ Rex Heuermann in 2015
A former escort who claims to have gone a date with Rex Heuermann in 2015 says the man who is accused of killing six women was “trying to act like he didn’t live it.” They went to a restaurant where she says he was extremely interested in talking about the Gilgo Beach killings.
The conversation “moved to him asking if I knew anything about serial killers,” Nicole Brass said on “Banfield.” “We started talking about different serial killers. Then he asked if I had heard of the Gilgo Beach killings, which I’m from Long Island, so I have. That’s when it started to get weird. … It seemed like someone who was remembering and enjoying talking about it. He said things that I didn’t remember talking about in the news.”
Brass says that if she had gone to Heuermann’s house after the date, she may have become a victim.
Gilgo Beach filing: Heuermann would learn with each kill
Police have searched Rex Heuermann’s home twice, and one piece of evidence they said they found in his basement was a Microsoft Word document named “HK2002-04.” Included in the document was a “checklist of supplies,” including ropes, saws and surgical drapes.
“The task force believes that this is a planning document that was utilized by Heuermann to methodically blueprint and plan out his kills with excruciating detail,” Tierney said at a news conference Thursday. “His intent was specifically to locate these victims, to hunt them down and to bring them under his control and to kill them. His motivations, meticulous planning and clear intent is obvious.”
Wife and kids sticking by Heuermann after planning docs found
According to court documents, Heuermann’s family never knew about the killings.
The children of Heuermann have “come to grips” with the charges their father faces and know the legal process is far from over, according to their attorney.
“They’re on this sort of twisted carousel ride that is not of their own making at all,” attorney Vess Mitev told NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
Asa Ellerup has previously visited her husband in jail.
Ellerup’s attorney confirmed to NewsNation that the pair spent one hour together in the jail and said it was the first time they had seen each other since before Heuermann was taken into custody.
NewsNation’s Laura Ingle contributed to this report.