Rex Heuermann's house searched for a fifth day, several items taken from home of accused Gilgo serial killer

Suffolk law enforcement officials continued their search of the Massapequa Park home of suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann for a fifth consecutive day Friday, taking several items as the second extensive search of the home went on.

Authorities wrapped up their work Friday afternoon. Lt. Det. Kevin Beyrer, chief of the Suffolk police homicide squad, said authorities planned to return to Heuermann’s home Saturday to resume the search.

Crime scene personnel removed several items from Heuermann’s home, including two large, flat rectangular objects wrapped in blue plastic.

Prosecutors have not said what brought about the search, which began Monday.

Investigators removed items throughout the interior of the house, basement and garage this week. Dozens of evidence boxes were logged and loaded onto trucks parked in front of the house each day.

The execution of the search warrant caught Heuermann’s family by surprise, according to attorney Robert Macedonio, who represents Heuermann’s estranged wife, Asa Ellerup. Ellerup was in South Carolina when the search began.

Macedonio said he didn’t know when Ellerup and her family could return to their home in Massapequa Park. “Once the search is concluded, we will be notified and the family can return to the premises,” Macedonio said.

Authorities have not told the family why they returned to the home after a 12-day search in July following Heuermann’s arrest, Macedonio said.

Heuermann, 60, was arrested in New York City on July 13. The following afternoon he pleaded not guilty to first- and second-degree murder charges in the killings of Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello, whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach more than 13 years ago.

He again pleaded not guilty in January to the superseding indictment, which added a fourth count of second-degree murder in the slaying of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found near the other victims. All four women — the first of 10 sets of remains found along Ocean Parkway that are believed to be the work of one or more serial killers — worked as escorts.

Massapequa Park residents and true crime enthusiasts hoping to learn more about the serial killings that have riveted Long Island and beyond joined reporters at an intersection near the home the accused killer shared with his family.

True crime podcaster Lori Mottlowitz traveled from Chicago to help her daughter move to New York, but said she also wanted to get a firsthand look at the home of the man charged with four murders.

“I told my listeners I’m going to look and see what this feels like to see it and feel it,” Mottlowitz said. “I’ve only seen it on TV.”

Nick Graystone of Bellmore, whose “Primal Scream” podcast focuses on true crime, music and pop culture, said he’s visited the intersection near the Heuermann home several times since Heuermann’s arrest in July.

“It’s been a case that’s been cold for so long, and all of a sudden they put a face to it,” Graystone said, referring to Heuermann. “There are so many twists and turns it has taken over the years.”

The initial search of Heuermann’s home in July coincided with warrants executed for storage space he rented, the Manhattan office of his architecture firm and a vehicle kept at his brother’s home in South Carolina.

During the July search, police used scanning technology to identify “disturbances” in the ground outside Heuermann’s property, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said at the time. An excavator dug up the yard, and investigators with shovels could be seen scraping freshly upturned earth, but it did not yield any “large items of evidence,” Tierney said.

Heuermann is due to appear next before state Supreme Court Justice Timothy P. Mazzei in criminal court in Riverhead June 18. Mazzei previously told prosecutors he would like to see discovery in the case against Heuermann completed by the end of July.