Sex worker recalls potential close call with suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Eyewitness News investigative reporter Kristin Thorne spoke exclusively with a sex worker who said she may have had a close call with the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer 3 years ago.
The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, said after Rex Heuermann's name came out, she researched his contact information and found that he was already entered into her phone as, "do not answer."
The woman said she doesn't recall speaking with Heuermann or meeting him.
"If I get a vibe from somebody that this person is scary, that's when I'll save them as, do not answer," she said.
The woman said Heuermann's information had been entered into her phone in 2020, when she was living in Massapequa - less than a mile, she said, from Heuermann's house in Massapequa Park.
"My hands are shaking thinking about it," she said.
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The woman, who now lives in Virginia, said she was working on Long Island at the time of the disappearances of Heuermann's suspected four victims.
"We all knew that there was a serial killer out there that was hunting us and we thought that the person was from the Hamptons and so nobody was taking calls in the Hamptons," she said. "We were turning to the city instead. It's really shaken our community that, that we're afraid that he would have passed any of our screening techniques because he is a business person."
Eyewitness News also spoke with a local luxury escort who said Heuermann's arrest has caused her to increase her personal security measures.
"He looks like 80% of my clients," she said. "His build, his professional stature, his marriage, his children, where he lives. I could have been a victim. There would have been no recourse."
The woman said since Heuermann's arrest, women in the local sex worker community are talking about how frustrated they feel that it took so long to track down a potential suspect.
"People are very frustrated that there is just such an utter lack of regard," she said.
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She also spoke out against the memes that have been circulating on social media of Heuermann and poking fun at his arrest.
"Here we are again," she said. "People don't care about women."
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