Prosecutors turn over 8 TBs of evidence in Gilgo Beach case

(NewsNation) — The Suffolk County District Attorney’s office began the process of turning over eight terabytes of evidence including thousands of pages and photos to Rex Heuermann’s defense team after he was charged with murdering three women found at Gilgo Beach more than a decade ago.

Heuermann had his first appearance in court Tuesday, facing charges for the deaths of three of 11 victims found along Gilgo Beach in New York in 2010 and 2011. While families of some of the victims were in court, none of them were willing to speak to the media and asked for privacy.

The hearing was largely administrative in nature, involving scheduling and discovering, the process where prosecutors turn over evidence they have gathered during their investigation to the defense team. That included four two-terabyte hard drives with several discs, including 2,500 pages of documents and photographs.

District Attorney Raymond Tierney said investigators had collected a massive amount of “information, evidence, photographs and reports,” during the 13-year investigation that needed to be turned over to the defense team, per New York’s strict laws around discovery.

Tierney cautioned reporters it would take time to turn over all the information, which he said would be done on a rolling basis, and for Heuermann’s defense team to make sense of all of the evidence.

The 59-year-old Manhattan architect was charged with killing at least three women — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello — and remains a lead suspect in a fourth death.

The women are three of the 11 victims — 10 adults and one toddler — whose remains were found buried wrapped in burlap sacks along Gilgo Beach in 2010 and 2011. All of the adult victims were sex workers and some have yet to be identified.

Authorities have cautioned Heuermann may not be responsible for all the deaths.

In addition to the investigation in South Carolina, police in Las Vegas, Nevada, announced they were reviewing cases for a possible connection to Heuermann.

Heuermann has since denied the charges.

His court appearance Tuesday comes days after police say they found a tremendous amount of information during a search of his home. Authorities in Suffolk County, New York, announced they recovered what was described as a “huge” list of items from Heuermann’s home.

Officials say at least 279 weapons were kept inside a thick basement vault large enough to walk into.

The next status hearing in the case has been set for September.