Gilgo Beach killings: Police website dedicated to case has been removed
The clearinghouse for news and information about the Gilgo Beach killings case was taken down a few weeks ago for IT reasons, Suffolk police said. Credit: Gilgonews.com
The Suffolk County Police Department has removed a website dedicated to the Gilgo Beach homicide investigation from the internet because of unspecified “IT reasons,” a police department spokesperson confirmed Tuesday.
The content of GilgoNews.com was taken down a few weeks ago and a time frame for when it will be restored has not been provided, the spokesperson said, in response to an inquiry. The website was not hacked, the spokesperson said. Suffolk County was the victim of a massive ransomware attack in 2022.
A Google search for the website — once replete with a map, timeline and biographical information on each victim — now pronounces “no information is available for this page.” Gilgonews.com is “an expired domain,” the website says.
According to ICANN or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit that manages IP addresses and domain names, the Gilgo website’s registration was updated on May 27 and doesn’t expire until May 23, 2025.
The police department launched GilgoNews.com in January 2020 in an effort to garner information from the public that would help identify a suspect. The site was a clearinghouse of information on the case, designed to provide the public with accurate information about developments in the investigation, one that was prone to wild conspiracy theories and speculation in online forums.
Since the launch of the site, authorities last July arrested Rex A. Heuermann, who has been indicted on murder charges in the killings of six women, five of whom were identified as Gilgo victims. Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
A spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney, whose office is prosecuting Heuermann, declined to comment on the website’s removal. Heuermann’s lead defense attorney, Michael J. Brown, did not respond to a request for comment.
Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.
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