Prosecutors Say Gilgo Beach Murder Suspect Rex Heuermann’s Swab Matches Pizza Crust DNA

By Daniel Garcia

Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann broke his silence since his arrest when he appeared in Riverhead Criminal Court on Wednesday for a pre-trial conference.

In the conference, which only lasted five minutes, attorneys from both sides updated the judge about the evidence that was submitted and will be handed over to Heuermann’s attorney, Michael Brown.

Heuermann was asked directly by Judge Timothy Mazzei if he had been able to review the evidence presented in his case. Heuermann responded yes, and that he had been reviewing it on average “two to three” hours out of the four hours he is allowed per day.

The prosecution had already provided over 8000 pages of evidence to Heuermann’s attorney but handed over an additional 5000 pages as of this morning. The pages contain court records, subpoenas, grand jury testimony, evidence relating to 2 of the victims, police memo books from the search of Heuermann’s home, and video surveillance that was conducted over the span of a year.

As Heuermann left the courtroom, he briefly faced the audience with a small smile on his face before being escorted out.

In a press conference following the hearing, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney touched on the DNA swab, which was sampled from a pizza crust that was thrown away in a trash can in Manhattan.

Tierney shared that they had taken a buccal swab from Heuermann, and the DNA matched the DNA previously collected on the pizza crust and used to link Heuermann to one of the victims.

Heuermann’s attorney, Michael Brown, also touched on the new evidence stating that “DNA can be transferred,” and that there is a significant amount of people who could match the DNA sample.

The court will discuss a motion filed to move Heuermann’s guns from Suffolk County to Nassau County on October 2^nd, but Heuermann is not expected to be back in court until the next pre-trial conference scheduled on November 15^th.