SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK: A week after the Gilgo Beach murder made a breakthrough by taking the suspect into custody, a key witness in the case recalled a face-to-face talk with the alleged killer Rex Heuermann. He was arrested on July 13 in connection to the serial killings of young women.
The New York-based architect was busted outside his office in Manhattan after he was accused of killing Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, and Megan Waterman. The 59-year-old who is from Massapequa Park, Long Island, is also considered a main suspect in the death of another young woman named Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Heuermann is currently held at the Suffolk County Detention Center and is on suicide-watch. He has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the first degree and three counts of murder in the second degree, according to Mirror.
Who is Dave Schaller?
Dave Schaller, the key witness in the notorious killings of the Gilgo Beach victims, said he had a direct interaction with Heuermann. He provided investigators with a description of the man he believed to be the murderer when shortly after cops found remains of Schaller's roommate and three other women in December 2010. The remains of the women who were all sex workers were discovered on a remote stretch of Ocean Parkway.
'I’ve been picturing his face for 13 years'
Schaller recalled telling detectives that the person they were look for was had an "empty gaze" and was a Frankenstein-like figure. He also gave them details of the man's unusual pick-up truck, a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche. Schaller described that the alleged murderer used left his house he shared with Amber Costello in this pick-up truck.
The witness stated that he came home to find the stranger threatening his roommate who is an occasional sex worker that night. Costello locked herself in the bathroom during the incident. After Schaller and the intruder had a scuffle, the stranger left the house in the truck, according to the outlet.
According to prosecutors, Costello was last seen alive when she left her house on September 2, 2010, to meet that same stranger who was her client. After she left, another witness saw a dark-coloured truck drive by her home. "When they told me she was dead, he was the first person who jumped in my head. I’ve been picturing his face for 13 years," Schaller stated, according to The Associated Press.