Gilgo Beach killings: Rex Heuermann visited Manorville gun club day before victim Jessica Taylor disappeared, source says

Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex A. Heuermann visited a Manorville gun club the day before the disappearance of alleged victim Jessica Taylor, whose partial remains were found days later in the nearby woods, a law enforcement source told Newsday.

The new information comes after prosecutors shared a July 20, 2003, excerpt from a day planner that showed Heuermann was scheduled to attend a rifle training event at the Peconic River Sportsman’s Club on River Road that morning. Online researchers then used that information to find photographs that appear to show Heuermann training young marksmen attending a similar event at the private club in 2006.

An indictment charging Heuermann with second-degree murder in Taylor's death was unveiled on Thursday. The superseding indictment also charged him with another second-degree murder in connection with Sandra Costilla's death in 1993. He pleaded not guilty to the charges last week.

A law enforcement source, who said Heuermann was affiliated with multiple “shooting clubs” in the area, confirmed the photos depict Heuermann at the exclusive 600-member club, which boasts a yearslong waiting list for membership.

A spokesperson for Peconic River Sportsman’s Club later told Newsday Heuermann had attended “a few” public events at its 400-acre property but was never a member. He last visited the club for a shooting competition in April 2010, club spokesperson Kerry Goldberg said.

“Mr. Heuermann was not and is not a member of the Peconic River Sportsman’s Club,” Goldberg said. “Mr. Heuermann did participate in a few high-powered rifle events at the club, which were open to the public.”

Goldberg said Heuermann would serve as one of 30 volunteer coaches, “not an instructor,” for a sanctioned safety program called Small Arms Firing School, which focuses on gun safety and marksmanship for legal competition.

“His role was to ensure safety while working directly with an individual student who took the course and assist them while shooting,” Goldberg said.

Heuermann’s attorney, Michael J. Brown, of Central Islip, declined to comment for this story.

The day planner lists three other shooting events Heuermann, the owner of 280 guns seized during a search of his Massapequa Park home, may have attended the month Taylor was killed.

Peconic River Sportsman’s Club, which was founded in 1948, runs along a portion of River Road and Connecticut Avenue across from the Enterprise Park at Calverton. Connecticut Avenue becomes Halsey Manor Road just south of the club.

Peconic River Sportsman's Club member Michael McEnroy, of Yaphank, recalls fellow club members recognizing Heuermann as someone who had attended rifle competitions there when photos of him were published after his arrest.

“It was very devastating,” McEnroy said. “We didn't expect it. It came out of left field for us.”

McEnroy said the club was later contacted by the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office, which requested records of the times Heuermann visited the club.

Taylor’s partial remains were found in a wooded lot on Halsey Manor Road near the Long Island Expressway, a little more than a mile from the edge of the gun club property on July 26, 2003. Prosecutors said records uncovered by a search warrant show Heuermann visited an area of Manhattan where Taylor was known to frequent as a sex worker on the day she disappeared. A witness described a truck similar to one Heuermann owned parked near where Taylor was found on the evening of July 25, 2003, prosecutors said.

Remains of Valerie Mack, a fellow sex worker from New Jersey, whose death prosecutors say Heuermann is a suspect in, were found even closer to the gun club, near a utility path on an adjacent parcel of woodlands off Mill Road. Additional remains of Taylor and Mack were later found off Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.

Heuermann, 60, has pleaded not guilty to first- and second-degree murder charges in the killings of three women — Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy and Amber Lynn Costello — whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach in December 2010. He has since denied second-degree murder charges in the killings of Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Costilla, alleged slayings that span from 1993 to 2007.

Though it has been noted since his July 13 arrest that Heuermann was an avid collector of guns, prosecutors have said they do not believe any firearms were used in the six killings he has been charged with.

Suffolk prosecutors have said some of Heuermann’s weapons — at least 26 unregistered handguns, 15 unregistered assault weapons and 10 high-capacity magazines — may have been possessed in violation of state guns laws and the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office has said it is considering bring charges.

A Newsday review of a Suffolk County Police Department Property Section inventory of Heuermann’s seized guns reveals he had a collection of historic long guns, hunting rifles, revolvers and semiautomatic weapons.

Heuermann’s collection includes guns from nearly every decade dating back the 1860s. Firearms in his cache were manufactured in the United States, England, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Belgium, Brazil, Romania, Israel and France. Some are firearms used in the world wars, while other types include an Uzi and “Tommy” guns, court records show.

They range in value of between a couple hundred dollars to more than $5,000 apiece, according to a comparison of the inventory and online gun dealer price listings.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.