Who is Gilgo Beach homicide victim Maureen Brainard-Barnes?

Maureen Brainard-Barnes is believed to be the first member of the “Gilgo Four” — escorts whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach in 2010 — to be killed by alleged serial killer Rex A. Heuermann, investigators say.

Born and raised in Connecticut, Brainard-Barnes was a mother of two who turned to sex work out of desperation, her sister told CNN in 2011. The petite young woman, a straight-A student in high school, was unemployed and facing eviction when she started traveling to Manhattan to meet clients in midtown hotels. 

She was 25 years old when she disappeared in 2007.

Her skeletal remains were found on the north side of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach on Dec. 13, 2010, not far from where the remains were found of the other “Gilgo Four” victims, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who called Heuermann a prime suspect last summer when he charged the Massapequa Park architect in the killings of Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello — filed a new criminal charge of second-degree murder related to Brainard-Barnes’ death against Heuermann on Tuesday in Riverhead, bringing some possible answers to anguished family members and friends 13 years after her body was discovered.

At a news conference Tuesday, Melissa Cann, Brainard-Barnes' younger sister, said she's continued to “hold on to hope that one day there will be justice for Maureen and that whoever took Maureen's life will be held accountable.

“Today is another important chapter in the long pursuit of justice,” added Cann, 39.

Brainard-Barnes' remains were among the first of several discoveries along Long Island’s South Shore in the months that followed. A total of 10 bodies — including that of an Asian man and a toddler — were found in the area.

Heuermann, 60, pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in July to multiple murder charges linked to the deaths of Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello. He also pleaded not guilty to killing Brainard-Barnes.

Brainard-Barnes, according to her obituary, was born in June 1982 in New London, Connecticut, and grew up across the Thames River in nearby Groton. She was a straight-A student in high school, according to a profile in New York magazine, but dropped out when she got pregnant at the age of 17. Brainard-Barnes earned her GED and worked as a blackjack dealer at the nearby Foxwoods casino. She also held jobs at a ShopRite and at a gas station.

Cann told CNN in 2011 that Brainard-Barnes turned to working as an escort out of desperation: Unemployed and facing eviction, she became pregnant again by a boyfriend and briefly gave up sex work, according to the New York profile, but returned to escorting after the baby was born.

On Tuesday, Cann described the loss of her sister as “a wound that truly never heals.”

“It remains part of you,” Cann said.

Suffolk police said Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich in the summer of 2007. The 4-foot, 11-inch woman would routinely travel by train to Manhattan, work a few days as an escort out of midtown hotels — not far from Heuermann’s architect office — and return to Connecticut. She advertised her services on Craigslist as “Juliana” or “Marie.”

Brainard-Barnes sometimes traveled with another woman who worked out of a different room at the same hotel, according to Suffolk police, who said a male friend — whom they referred to as their cousin — may have accompanied them to offer protection.

Brainard-Barnes traveled with her female friend to Manhattan the weekend she went missing.

The friend returned home early, while Brainard-Barnes remained in the city. The last time Brainard-Barnes was heard from was on July 9, 2007, at 11:43 p.m., when she called a friend in Connecticut. She told her friend she was going to meet someone outside of her familiar midtown hotels for an outcall.

A friend reported Brainard-Barnes missing to the Norwich police on July 14, 2007. The NYPD assisted Norwich police in the missing-person investigation, and then took it over, according to Suffolk police officials.

Nicolette Brainard-Barnes, Maureen's eldest child, said she was 7 years old when her mother disappeared, in what attorney Gloria Allred said was her first public comments.

For years it looked to her like there might never be an arrest, Brainard-Barnes said.

“Her death drastically changed the trajectory of my life,” she said. “There are countless times I needed her and she was not there. I remember she read to me every night. And now I can no longer remember the sound of her voice.”

Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ whereabouts remained a mystery to her family for more than three years — until her body was found in 2010, during a search for Shannan Gilbert, an escort from Jersey City who had gone missing several months earlier.

Cann said her sister was an aspiring writer who loved to read new books and was always supportive of her family members.

“She was only 25 years old,” Cann said. “She had her whole life ahead of her.”