Gilgo Beach killings: Prosecutors seek cheek swab from suspect Rex A. Heuermann for more DNA testing, court papers show

Suffolk County prosecutors are seeking a cheek swab from suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann for more DNA testing to bolster their case against the Massapequa Park architect in the alleged killing of three women, newly filed court documents obtained by Newsday show.

Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Michelle Haddad said in court filings that prosecutors are looking to collect a cheek swab from Heuermann to test against a mitochondrial DNA profile developed from a pizza crust and “used napkin” he allegedly discarded in Manhattan, which prosecutors have said was matched to a hair sample found at the bottom of burlap used to “restrain and transport” the remains of one of the victims, Megan Waterman.

The motion by prosecutors and supporting statement, filed in criminal court in Riverhead Tuesday also sheds new light on how authorities obtained genetic material from Heuermann’s family and a shifting narrative about how each of the victims died.

“If the defendant’s DNA from a buccal swab sample matches the mitochondrial DNA profile developed from Megan Waterman’s remains, there is scientific evidence of the defendant’s contact not only with Ms. Waterman and where her remains were discovered, but also with the burlap utilized to restrain and transport her human remains,” Haddad wrote in the documents. “Specifically, it is expected this information would provide further relevant evidence of the defendant’s identity as the perpetrator of these crimes.”

State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei ordered the defense to either oppose the prosecution’s efforts to obtain the cheek swab before Aug. 8 or to submit to the testing a week later, court records show.

Heuermann, 59, has pleaded not guilty to first- and second-degree murder charges in the killings of three women — Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello — whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach in 2010.

Authorities have also said Heuermann is the “prime suspect” in the slaying of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found with the other three victims. All four of the women were sex workers.

In the court documents, Haddad said without a direct sample of Heuermann's DNA prosecutors could only reference the pizza crusts and napkins as “purported to be used/touched” by Heuermann.

“Should the defendant’s DNA from the [cheek swab] not match the DNA profile from the pizza crusts and napkin submitted for Rex Heuermann … the defense would be presented with a potential trial defense,” Haddad wrote. “Thus, there is a clear indication that material and relevant evidence will be found and is crucial for trial.”

Haddad also requested that members of the Suffolk County Police Department, its crime lab and the district attorney’s office be permitted to photograph and video record the process of Heuermann providing the cheek swab.

Heuermann’s attorney, Michael J. Brown, did not respond to a message seeking comment Wednesday on the prosecution’s request.

Brown, speaking Tuesday after prosecutors produced more than 2,500 documents used as evidence against Heuermann as part of the discovery process, said his client has continued to profess his innocence.

"He's a man who's never been arrested before," Brown said Tuesday after Heuermann appeared briefly in court. "He's maintained his innocence from the inception of this case. So he's doing the best he can at this point in time. And looking forward to having his day in court."

Haddad’s affidavit also discloses for the first time that police were able to obtain an initial DNA profile for Heuermann’s estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, by recovering “an abandoned water bottle” outside their home. The DNA was compared with additional hairs recovered from three of the alleged victims’ bodies and are believed to belong to either Ellerup or a close relative, the documents say. On July 14, the same day Heuermann was indicted in the three murders, Ellerup and the couple’s daughter, Victoria Heuermann, provided cheek swabs along with her son from a previous relationship, Christopher Sheridan, the documents say.

The statement also notes a shift in the established cause of death for the victims. A footnote in the filing states that initial autopsies conducted in December 2010 concluded that each victim died from “homicidal asphyxia” or strangulation. 

“Recently, Dr. Odette Hall, the Suffolk County Chief Medical Examiner, conducted an independent review of these findings and determined the cause of death to be homicidal violence,” the documents state. “The manner of death remains homicide.”

Newsday reported in 2011, citing sources, that the four initial victims whose skeletal remains were found near Gilgo Beach in 2010, were choked to death. Newsday also reported then that at least one of the families of the four received a death certificate listing the cause of death as asphyxia.

Prosecutors detailed how investigators allegedly linked Heuermann to Waterman’s body through DNA in a 32-page bail document released by prosecutors on the day of Heuermann’s arraignment on July 14.

The DNA was degraded because it was exposed to the elements from being outside, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said. But advances in technology in mitochondrial DNA helped investigators establish that while “99.96% of the North American population can be excluded from the MALE HAIR ON WATERMAN, it is significant that Defendant Heuermann cannot be excluded,” the bail document said.

Meanwhile, a top prosecutor in New Jersey has concluded that Heuermann has no apparent connection to four unsolved killings of women in the Atlantic City area.

“At this point in time, after [Atlantic County Prosecutor’s Office] detectives recently met with Suffolk County detectives to compare timelines, dates, methodologies, etc. of both cases, there does not seem to be a connection between the suspect in the Gilgo Beach case and the Atlantic County homicides from 2006,” Atlantic County, New Jersey, Prosecutor William Reynolds said in a statement released Tuesday.

Similarly, the women found dead in a drainage ditch outside Atlantic City, were also sex workers, leading investigators in Suffolk County and New Jersey to trade notes in order to determine whether there could be a nexus.

Reynolds said he issued the statement on the apparent lack of a connection “due to numerous inquiries and speculation from the media over the past several weeks” since Heuermann’s arrest.

Authorities had said they were examining whether Heuermann could be responsible for those killings, and other unsolved slayings around the country — a routine law enforcement practice.

With Anthony M. DeStefano