A 25-year-old woman from Long Island revealed on Friday that she had a disturbing encounter with Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann earlier this month in a park. The woman, identified only as Ally, was so disturbed by the incident that she filed a police report.
Ally said that she was shocked upon realizing that the man arrested for the murders was the same person she encountered on July 3 at Brady Park, located just a short drive from Heuermann's home on 1st Avenue in Massapequa Park. Heuermann, an architect and a father of two, was arrested on Thursday evening and arraigned on Friday in the deaths of three women.
Chilling Encounter with Killer
Ally shared her disturbing encounter with Heuermann with the New York Post hours after his arrest. She revealed how the alleged serial killer approached her started talking to her. "I was going for a bike ride over in Brady Park and he came up behind me and he asked me what time it was," Ally exclusively told The Post.
"He was trying to compliment me. Asking me if I came here often. Asking me my name," Ally told The Post of the 59-year-old architect's bizarre behavior.
"He had very dirty clothes on. He popped right out of the woods. Everywhere I went in the woods he would pop out somewhere," she continued.
Ally said that Heuermann persistently bothered her, approaching her on two separate occasions during her visit to the park.
"The first time he came up behind me I felt like breathing behind me. Then he ask me what time it was and he saw the picture of me and my boyfriend on my phone. So he was just asking me questions," she told the outlet.
As a result of Heuermann's behavior, Ally felt increasingly upset and disturbed. She eventually reached a point where she decided to call her sister to come and pick her up from the park.
"That's when I got (my sister) on the phone because I got nervous. She had to pick me up. I couldn't even go home from my bike ride," she recalled.
Ally was so worried and tensed that she even filed a police report about the encounter.
Two weeks later, Ally was filled with horror upon learning that Heuermann had been arrested in connection to the murders of at least three women. The remains of the three victims were found near Gilgo State Park on Ocean Parkway back in December 2010.
"My mom showed me the picture and I started screaming. I got so nervous because I realized that that was him," Ally told the outlet.
End of a Decade-Long Search
Heuermann, a married father of two, pleaded not guilty on Friday to several charges, including three counts of first-degree murder. These charges are connected to the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found dumped along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo State Park in December 2010.
Heuermann led a normal life for years before he was busted on Thursday. Detectives say they matched DNA from pizza that the suspect ate to genetic material found on the women's remains. However, his arrest has left his neighbors in shock as they never saw anything suspicious about Heuermann.
On Thursday, the same neighbors in Massapequa Park, including actor Billy Baldwin, were taken aback when they came to know that their Heuermann, was a suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders.
Most of the neighbors described him as a reserved businessman and a "regular family man." Baldwin, 60, who graduated from Berner High School in the class of 1981, tweeted his disbelief at learning that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect was a classmate of his.
"Married, two kids, architect. 'Average guy... quiet, family man.' Mind-boggling," the local-born actor wrote.
"Massapequa is in shock."
Raised alongside his brother Craig, the 59-year-old architect grew up in an untidy house built in 1956 on 1st Avenue. Interestingly, this house is located directly across the bay from the area where 11 bodies were discovered between 2010 and onwards.
He bought the house from his mother, Dolores, for $170,000 In 1994, as indicated by property records. That same year, he started his own company, RH Architecture Design, which is located on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan, where he was arrested on Thursday night.
Neighbors mention that his daughter worked with him at the company, and he is believed to have also raised a son with special needs.
According to neighbors, he also raised a son with special needs while his daughter was among his staff at his office.
Prosecutors stated that investigators were initially led to Heuermann after a witness reported seeing a pickup truck similar to the model he owned around the time when one of the victims went missing in 2010.
Additionally, investigators were able to establish further evidence linking Heuermann to the crimes. This included the discovery of burner phones that were used to coordinate meetings with the victims.
Ally's impression of Heuermann as a sinister figure is not unique. Another person who had a professional connection with Heuermann described him as "weird."
"He was always odd. He'd mosey around. We knew something was odd about him," the person, who asked not to be named, told The Post Friday.
"I feel like it makes sense he's a serial killer. He's a weirdo," they added.
