Just days after the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer, Rex Heuermann, bought a timeshare in Las Vegas, a young woman, presumed to be a sex worker, was brutally murdered, and Your Content has exclusively learned police in Las Vegas are investigating Heuermann for any potential ties to the cold case among others. This horrifying crime left law enforcement in two states puzzled and eventually, the case went cold.
Four years before the killings in New York, Heuermann and his wife, Asa Ellerup, bought a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condominium in Nevada in April 2005.
Born on September 3, 1983, Lindsay Marie Harris was a young woman whose severed legs were discovered in a forested area near Interstate 55 in May 2005. She was posthumously identified three years later.
“We are aware of Rex Heuermann’s connection to Las Vegas.” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told Your Content. “We are currently reviewing our unsolved cases to see if he has any involvement.”
Harris vanished from her home in Henderson, Nevada, on May 4, 2005. She was last seen at a local bank, making a deposit. Her rental car was later found deserted at the southern tip of the valley, and there had been no activity on her credit cards. In November that year, a feature about Harris’ disappearance was aired on America’s Most Wanted.
A fortnight later, on May 23, 2005, children found human legs in a grassy field a few hundred yards off Interstate 55 in Divernon, Illinois, situated 15 miles south of Springfield.
In the course of scouring Heuermann’s personal affairs, investigators got hold of his American Express transaction history. Authorities located online accounts created under the pseudonym “Andrew Roberts,” The Daily Beast reported. This account was tied to a disposable phone, also registered under this alias, and associated with an AOL email address, namely, “Springfieldman9,” raising public speculation about the potential connection to Springfield, Illinois.
Upon comparing the DNA samples, it was confirmed that the legs belonged to Lindsay Harris.
In a chilling revelation, her remains were discovered on a path one would take when traveling from Las Vegas to Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home, according to Google Maps.
Harris relocated to the valley in 2003 with her boyfriend whom she met in New York. With a history in sex work, Harris had been arrested five times for prostitution since moving to the valley until her disappearance.
Although Club de Soleil could not verify if Heuermann and his wife still had a timeshare at the resort, they confirmed that their names were registered in their system.
When contacted by Your Content for additional comments, they refrained from making further remarks and recommended directing any subsequent inquiries to the police, who confirmed they are investigating Heuermann for any local leads.
The suspect, aged 59, is believed to have murdered four sex workers between 2009 and 2010, and is alleged to have harassed a victim’s family using a disposable phone.
Heuermann, who works as an architect, was taken into custody on a Thursday evening near his office in Manhattan.
Authorities anticipate that he will be charged with the killing of Maureen Brainard-Barnes and are not dismissing the possibility of additional charges.
The suspect had been under surveillance for about a year before authorities apprehended him outside his Midtown Manhattan office, prematurely ending their investigation due to concerns he might strike again.
Upon arrest, Heuermann had a burner phone, and according to court records, he used separate phones for each of his victims.
On Friday, Suffolk County DA Ray Tierney stated that Heuermann continued to solicit sex workers “throughout the night” and utilized burner phones to hide his identity.
Currently, police are meticulously examining two storage units in Amityville, near Massapequa Park, an area where Heuermann has spent his entire life.
His residence, which he has occupied since the 1980s, is also under forensic scrutiny, with investigators systematically removing items since Friday.
Heuermann was located following the formation of a taskforce in 2022. Court documents reveal his avid interest in the case, noting over 200 searches for case updates in a span of 14 months.
A first-generation Chevy Avalanche was spotted in Amber Costello’s driveway around the time of her disappearance, with Heuermann fitting the physical description provided by a witness of a man seen with Amber.
The discovery of the rare vehicle’s owner led the officers to Heuermann, providing a significant breakthrough in the case.
During their initial 2012 investigation, FBI investigators pinpointed two areas of interest, tracing the origins of phone calls made to Melissa Barthelemy’s family.
In January 2023, hair found on a piece of burlap used to wrap one of the victims from Gilgo Beach was matched to DNA found on a pizza box in Heuermann’s trash.
The Gilgo Beach case was initiated in 2010 following the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker. A subsequent search for Gilbert led to the unearthing of several other female bodies.
A series of disturbing discoveries followed as the remains of eight women, one man, and a child were discovered near the Gilgo Beach vicinity between December 2010 and April 2011.