SUMTER COUNTY, SC—Sumter County Sheriff’s Office is examining allegations that Julia Ann Bean, a woman who went missing in 2017, was last spotted with an individual resembling suspected Long Island serial killer Rex Heuermann, Your Content has learned.
Investigator Scott Bonner of the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office stated to PIX11: “We’ll be looking into it on our end,” after Heidi Kovas, a friend of Bean, visited Sumter County to provide details she had obtained from the missing woman’s daughter.
Over the past weekend, Kovas took to Facebook, revealing to the news outlet that Bean’s daughter had shown her text messages indicating she identified Heuermann from her last encounter with her mother in late May 2017, right before her high school graduation. The daughter had identified Heuermann from a recent online image.
“She knew him right away,” Kovas shared.
The daughter remembered Heuermann taking Bean to a nail salon in Sumter, roughly 100 miles away from his property in Chester County, South Carolina. Kovas relayed the daughter’s words: “That was not his name. That is not what he called himself.”
Kovas also mentioned that this unidentified man had bragged about owning lake houses and large boats, suggesting they could be used for a party, and expressed a desire to wed Bean.
Both Kovas and Bean’s relatives acknowledged that Bean had battled with substance abuse issues.
“Her daughter had mentioned multiple, different men giving her mom money.” Kovas said. “I mean there’s no doubt that she was more than likely escorting. She was a beautiful girl, she IS a beautiful girl.”
Upon seeing news about Heuermann, who owns property in South Carolina, Kovas was taken aback. She was further shocked when she saw images of the victims discovered off Ocean Parkway on Long Island in December 2010, known as the Gilgo Four.
Heuermann is charged with binding three of these victims in camouflage burlap. He maintains his innocence. Kovas remarked: “They look like Julia. The blonde hair, the green eyes, petite.”
Kovas found it peculiar that Bean reportedly left her belongings, including her phone, at home. “She just walked out of her house,” Kovas said.
“She didn’t take a phone. She didn’t take a purse. She didn’t take her drugs. Even her daughter said that she left her dope kit.”
Bean’s disappearance wasn’t reported for over five months, leading some to believe that this delay might have affected the urgency of the police search.
Kovas highlighted the prevalent drug and sex trade in Sumter and speculated that Heuermann might have traveled from Chester County for companionship. She concluded: “I’m not here to cause any trouble. I just want to know where Julia Ann is.”
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