A next-door neighbor of the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer claims he heard Rex Heuerman digging in his backyard that morning.
Heuerman has been arrested and charged with the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, three of the ‘Gilgo Four’ whose bodies were found on a Long Island beach in 2010.
In addition to a neighbor’s terrifying claims, memories of strange behavior patterns like burning trash, police say at least one woman was killed in Human’s Long Island home.
Dominic Cancellieri, who has lived next door to Heuermann for 15 years, told News Nation how he heard Heuermann digging in his backyard one night.
‘When I was around 18 or 19 years old I was watching TV in my basement,’ he told the outlet, ‘I went outside around one or two in the morning and heard digging in the yard next door.
Dominic Cancellieri, (pictured) who lived next door to Heuermann for fifteen years claimed to have heard him digging in his backyard in the early hours of the morning.
Police were seen trawling through Human’s ‘dungeon’-like property on Thursday.
Investigators continued to comb the suspect’s backyard Thursday
‘Now I really wanted to go and check what it was and see through the fence but something stopped me from doing that’ he said.
‘I was nervous, I wasn’t too sure what I was doing at the time. But now that everything has come to fruition, it doesn’t surprise me in the least,’ the neighbor admitted.
Heuerman also recalled Cancelli skirmishing over a parking space when he parked his truck halfway across his driveway.
‘I got out of my car and told him he had to move his car’ and ‘he got a little louder, and I got back a little louder and he moved his car.’
‘Every incident, even the way he looked, makes me think that this guy is a freak and with everything that’s come,’ he added, ‘it makes sense to me now.’
The claims came after police were seen on Thursday trawling through Human’s ‘dungeon’-like property and backyard.
Investigators in white overalls carefully sort through evidence around a blue forensics tent on the property.
Describing other incidents of his neighbour’s strange behaviour, Cancelliri said: ‘He would burn his rubbish and I would smell it and I would always think ‘why is this guy burning his rubbish again.’
It seemed like every few weeks I would smell garbage burning in his house.’
Investigators in white overalls carefully sort through evidence around a blue pop-up tent on the property
Heuerman was arrested and charged with three murders of the ‘Gilgo Four’ whose bodies were found on a Long Island beach in 2010.
The architect was arrested in New York and pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder.
Investigators are returning Heerman’s cluttered possessions (pictured) after he was arrested for killing three of the four women found at Gilgo Beach
The first victim, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was discovered by Suffolk County police on Dec. 11, 2010. Megan Waterman, 22, was found two days later.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25 when she disappeared (left). Amber Lynn Costello was 27 years old. Their bodies were found near Barthelemy on the same day
‘I never liked the guy, I miscalculated about him the only thing I really thought was that he wasn’t the smartest of people but obviously he was very calculating.’
Another local who worked on Heuermann’s plantation told Newstimesuk.com how Heuermann once told him that he would be fired if he ever tried to enter his property.
Troy Weeks, 23, lives a few blocks away from Heuerman in Massapequa Park and mowed the suspect’s lawn weekly or bi-weekly until June 2022.
‘He seemed to have no emotion or personality. He always had the same expression, a blank stare. He was very monotonous when I spoke to him,’ Weeks told Newstimesuk.com.
‘He [Heuermann] I was always told, ‘If you’re thirsty or need something to drink, knock on the back door, don’t enter the house.’
“He said if you ever try to open my door, you can’t work for me,” Weeks continued.
I was really surprised to see the condition of his house. Once when I peeked through the back window I saw four coconut heads with faces carved into them.
‘I thought it was very creepy,’ he added, ‘me and my friends called it the house of shrunken heads.’
Heurman stopped working for him in June 2022 when he short changed him $5.
For the seventh day on Thursday, police were seen searching properties for ‘trophies’ that could be linked to the victims
Law enforcement loaded a pair of skates into a truck from Rex Heuerman’s home Thursday
Asked about his former employer’s arrest, Weeks said: ‘I’m still trying to process it. I’m not surprised. It’s scary. I’m going to have nightmares.’
Meanwhile, another neighbor revealed exclusively to Newstimesuk.com how he once caught the now-murder suspect hanging out with ‘the girls’.
Jimmy Mack, who lives a few blocks from Rex Heuerman’s ‘dungeon-like’ home, has revealed his run-ins with the suspected killer to Newstimesuk.com.
He claimed he once caught her babbling about ‘girls’ at the end of his driveway when he was drunk and when he thought no one was listening.
Mack said that when she asked Heuerman what he was doing, he blasted her over her car and threatened to slash her tires.
And another neighbor said they found the 6ft 4in Heuermann ‘creepy’ and once walked past him working in his garage and he never looked up.
Mack, 51, who owns a trucking company and lives with his wife and three stepchildren, recalled a terrifying encounter with the human outside his Long Island home.
Heuerman was walking home from the LIRR station past Mack’s house on March 2, a regular route for the architect, when the men clashed.
The architect lived with his wife Asa Ellarup in a ‘dungeon-like’ Massapequa Park home just 18 miles from Gilgo Beach.
In addition to his cluttered home, Heuerman kept two storage units in Amityville. They were searched yesterday and today
Mack was smoking a cigarette on the porch around 10 p.m. and he told Newstimesuk.com that a man called Heuerman.
‘I’m sitting on my balcony and she can’t see me but I can hear her saying ‘oh here we go again… I told them… I told those girls once before… now you understand.’
Mack said Heuermann didn’t realize he was there and was startled. He said he became intoxicated and muttered to himself before standing at the end of his driveway. Mac said to Heuerman, ‘Brother are you talking about my house?’
He replied: ‘Are you the **hole that owns this car?… I warned them last time and now they’re going to look,’ then aggressively said he’d be back in 15 minutes to cut his tyres.
Mack said he chased Heuerman out of his driveway and told his wife to lock the door before following him down the street on foot, saying, ‘What did you say about the girls … are you talking about my wife and daughter?’
The confrontation escalated and Mack told Heuerman, ‘Either we handle our business now or I’ll never see you again,’ before Heuerman left.
Mack then followed his neighbor into his car, recalling that he felt that ‘something wasn’t right. I need to know where this man lives.’
Jimmy Mack, (left) who lives a few blocks from Rex Heuerman’s (right) ‘dungeon-like’ home, revealed to Newstimesuk.com about his run-in with the suspected killer.
He saw Heuerman jump over his neighbor’s fence and shield his face as he fled, she recalled, saying, ‘He didn’t want me to see his face.’
Mack said the air of confrontation and discomfort he felt meant he ‘knew something was up for me to get back in my car and follow this guy home.’
He remembers telling his friends and family ‘if anything happens to this house or anything, this is the guy’. He added, ‘That’s how much I knew there was something wrong with it.’
‘Who knows if he’d come back with a gun,’ Mac asked. ‘He (Heuermann) said fifteen minutes and that’s how long it would take him to get back to my house’
‘I lost five nights of sleep. I was waiting for this guy to come back. I was on my porch every night. Even my wife lost sleep. Everyone was nervous.’
Mack added, ‘I’m not trying to sound like a tough guy but when someone threatens my family.’
He also said he confronted his neighbors and alerted them to where the man lived.
‘I told everyone on the block to be careful… my gut was telling me something was wrong… it was more than a normal collision.’
Another neighbor, who lives just around the corner from Heuerman and wished to remain anonymous, said, ‘He was always tinkering in the garage or outside and it scared him a lot.’
Once he walked by and saw Heuerman making a chair while wearing a leather apron and barely looking up.
The dog was also left in the backyard occasionally barking incessantly and disturbing the neighbors, another resident told Newstimesuk.com.
Police believe at least one of the Gilgo Beach victims was killed at the suspected serial killer’s Long Island home.
Newstimesuk.com exclusively revealed Wednesday that detectives in South Carolina are reviewing a now nearly decade-old missing person’s case to see if Heuerman may have been involved.
Police in Rock Hill, just 20 miles from where Heuerman bought a wild 18-acre property, have confirmed they are re-examining the case of Aaliyah Bell Hall, who disappeared in 2014.
A spokesperson for the Rock Hill Police Department told Newstimesuk.com: ‘We have not been contacted by any other agencies. But we are reviewing the case and investigating any possible links or matching timeframes to Alia Bell’s disappearance with Rex Heurman.’
Law enforcement sources told CBS News that detectives are now looking into unsolved murders across the country to see if they are linked to Human, 59. He is the prime suspect in the fourth murder.
For the seventh day on Thursday, police were seen searching properties for ‘trophies’ that could be linked to the victims. Investigators are also looking at his timeshare in Las Vegas and a property he owns in South Carolina.
Newstimesuk.com previously spotted an investigator carrying a note with some of the evidence found inside, including a rope in a vault and handcuff keys on a shelf under a workbench.
Investigators are also searching two storage units connected to Humane and several boxes were seen outside one on Wednesday. Blue tarps and white tents have been placed outside the unit to cordon off the scene.
Police also revealed that Heuermann may have ties to Atlantic City, New Jersey, and expanded their investigation into a fourth state.
Police are investigating whether he worked in the area, and are interviewing sex workers in prison who had contact with him.
‘He was reaching out to them for sex,’ Suffolk County Police Department Sheriff Errol Toulon told Good Morning America of prostitution officials. ‘They took the phone but didn’t meet him.’
The update from law enforcement comes after revelations that the Gilgo Beach killings are similar to the ‘Eastbound Strangler’, who strangled four sex workers near Atlantic City, to murders in the area.
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