Gilgo Beach suspect Rex Heuermann to face additional murder charge in death of 4th woman: source

GILGO BEACH, Long Island (WABC) -- Alleged serial killer Rex Heuermann returns to court this week on Long Island where he is expected to be charged in the death of a fourth woman whose remains were found in a marshy spot near Gilgo Beach, multiple sources told ABC News.

Heuermann is already charged with killing three women whose bodies were found wrapped in burlap in close proximity and prosecutors have said he is the prime suspect in the death of a fourth, Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
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Brainard-Barnes is the last of the so-called "Gilgo Four."
Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to killing Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Costello, all of whom were found dead in December 2010, and is being held without bail.

"So Maureen is in this place, is very near the other ladies, that puts them into a geographical pattern as well, she fits into that," said former NYPD Chief of Detectives and ABC News contributor Robert Boyce.

He is due back in court in Riverhead Tuesday when prosecutors are expected to announce that a grand jury has returned an indictment charging him with a fourth murder, the sources said.

Brainard-Barnes was found wrapped with a belt that had a distinctive buckle bearing the initials WH, which could stand for Heuermann's father, prosecutors have said.
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The skeletal remains of all four women -- all missing sex workers and all wrapped in burlap -- were discovered in the dead of winter 13 years ago.



Last summer, a special task force zeroed in on Heuermann, an architect who investigators linked to the women through DNA evidence, including a sample taken from pizza crust in the trash outside his Manhattan office -- but they had yet to establish a forensic match to Brainard-Barnes.

"There was a hair recovered from Maureen Brainard-Barnes from a belt buckle that was around her legs," said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.

Heuermann is a father of two from Massapequa Park -- just a few miles north of the dumping ground off Long Island's south shore.
There are six other Gilgo Beach victims whose deaths remain unsolved.
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ABC News' Aaron Katersky has more on what is expected to happen in court on Tuesday. He appeared on Eyewitness News Mornings @ 10:




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