Photo:Suffolk County Police Department; Barthelemy family; Suffolk County Police Department (2)
Suffolk County Police Department; Barthelemy family; Suffolk County Police Department (2)
The sister of one of theGilgo Beach murder victimspreviously revealed horrific details about a “taunting” phone call she allegedly had with the suspect more than a decade ago.
Melissa Barthelemy’s sister, Amanda, said she received the call after Barthelemy vanished in July 2009.
“He knew my name,” Amanda told PIX 11 in 2020. “He knew what I looked like.” She claimed that the man also admitted to killing and raping her sister in a separate call.
In a 2016 episode ofPeople Magazine Investigates, John Kelly, a serial killer expert and criminal profiler, gave more insight on the contents of those calls.
“He asked her if she was a whore like her sister,” he said on the show.
Barthelemy, 24, had worked as an online escort, PEOPLE previously reported. Her body was one of four found strangled and wrapped in burlap along a half-mile stretch at Gilgo Beach on Long Island, N.Y., in December 2010. Though a total of 10 bodies were eventually recovered in the area, police have not said they believe they are connected to the same killer.
The mysterious murder case remained cold until last Thursday, when authorities in New York arrested 59-year-oldarchitect Rex Heuermannoutside his office in Midtown, Manhattan. He was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and three counts of second-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Barthelemy, Amber Costello, 27, and Megan Waterman, 22.
Heuermann is also considered a prime suspect in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney previously told PEOPLE that suspect allegedly used four separate burner phones to contact the women and used fake online identities to track their families.
Sara Karnes, a friend ofMaureen Brainard-Barnes, the first of the victims to disappear, said she got an odd call a few days after the 25-year-old vanished in 2007,PEOPLE previously reported.
“Sara says she got a call from a blocked number from someone saying he knew where Maureen was: She was in a ‘whorehouse in Queens,’ said Robert Kolker, author of a book on the case,Lost Girls.
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Tierney previously told PEOPLE that Heuermann was allegedly linked to the killings using cell phone data, a witness’s description of his Chevrolet Avalanche, and eventually, from DNAfrom five hairs found on three of the victims.
source: people.com
