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Who is Rex Heuermann, suspect arrested in the Gilgo Beach murders?

Rex Heuermann, 59, has been arrested in connection with the Gilgo Beach murders, about 11 years after New York authorities discovered 11 sets of human remains on Long Island.

MASSAPEQUA PARK, NY – New York authorities on Friday named Rex Heuermann as the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer.

Heuermann, 59, is tied to at least 11 murders after New York authorities discovered 11 sets of human remains strewn along a suburban Long Island beach highway between 2010 and 2011. The identified victims have been named as Shannan Gilbert, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack. 

Heuermann is a married father of two and architect living on Long Island and working in Manhattan at his firm, RH Consultants & Associates.

Neighbors described the suspect to Fox News Digital as the "neighborhood creep" as police vehicles swarmed his Massapequa Park home Friday morning. 

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Former neighbor Carol Bergen told Fox News Digital that Heuermann once asked her brother if he cried at their father's funeral after he died.

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Massapequa Park is a clean-cut neighborhood where residents keep up with manicured landscaping and hang American flags off their front porches. Several homeowners in Heuermann's neighborhood are local police officers, and a closed police academy is located down the street from the suspect's home.

A 23-year-old neighbor said Heuermann's home has been in disarray for years. Neighbor Justin Greenberg described Heuermann to Fox News as "quiet" and interested in woodworking.

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Heuermann was a 1981 graduate of Berner High School in Massapequa, according to locals.

In a February 2022, YouTube video interview with Bonjour Realty, Heuermann describes himself as an "architect," "architect consultant" and a "troubleshooter."

"Born and raised on Long Island. Then working in Manhattan since 1987," Heuermann says in the video. "…When a job that should've been routine suddenly becomes not routine, I get the phone call."

At one point in the video, the interviewer asked Heuermann what his job has taught him. "I think this job has taught me more about how to deal with people," Heuermann responded, "because dealing with the technical aspects is something a person can learn. … but it's the people, how they're all so different, and how you deal with the people, [that] is one of the more interesting aspects that comes out of all this."

Heuermann also said his father was an aerospace engineer and built satellites and furniture at home.

"And I still build it in the exact same workshop," he said.

In 2007, Heuermann mistakenly listed a dilapidated apartment building in Harlem as vacant, resulting in dozens of families being kicked out of their apartments, according to the New York Daily News.

Most of the Gilgo Beach murder victims were identified sex workers their 20s, although two sets of remains belonged to a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian male.

Suffolk County Police and prosecutors are expected to provide an update on the Gilgo Beach case at 4 p.m. ET Friday. 

Fox News' Greg Norman contributed to this report.

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