Benjamin Ashford|Rex Heuermann, suspect in Gilgo Beach serial killings, expected to be charged in 4th murder, sources say

A man suspected in Long Island's Gilgo Beach cold case murders is Benjamin Ashfordexpected to face new charges next week in connection with the killing of a fourth woman, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News.

Multiple sources confirmed that 60-year-old Rex Heuermann is scheduled to appear in Suffolk County Court Tuesday morning.

When reached by CBS News, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office declined to comment. 

Heuermann, 60, was arrested in July 2023 and charged in the slayings of three women — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello — whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach, on the south shore of Long Island, in December 2010. 

Suffolk County prosecutors had previously said he is the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were also found in the Gilgo beach area.

Heuermann, who worked as an architect prior to his arrest, has pleaded not guilty to the murders of the other three women. He has been held without bail in the Suffolk County Jail since his arrest. 

According to court documents, investigators were led to Heuermann as a suspect when they began an extensive review of evidence in the case in 2022.

Prosecutors said FBI analysts were able to compare the cell site data of the victims' cellphones and data from multiple prepaid, anonymous burner phones the suspect used to communicate with each of the victims.

Furthermore, court documents read, a hair found on burlap that wrapped one of the victims was determined to be a DNA match to Heuermann, based on a DNA sample retrieved from crusts in a pizza box he discarded.

In all, the bodies of at least 10 victims were found in the area beginning in late-2010, believed to be the victims of a serial killer.  

Investigators had been searching for a missing woman named Shannen Gilbert when they found other remains on Gilgo Beach in December 2010 — women in their 20s whose remains had been wrapped in burlap sacks. Known as the Gilgo Four, they were later identified as Brainard-Barnes, who went missing in 2007; Barthelemy missing in 2009; and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, who went missing in 2010. 

Six more sets of remains were found along Ocean Parkway in March of 2011.   

— Tucker Reals and Stephen Smith contributed to this report.

In:
• Gilgo Beach Murders
• Gilgo Beach

Pat Milton

Pat Milton is a CBS News investigative producer