The capture of Rex Heuermann, the man accused of being the Long Island serial killer, has ignited a wave of renewed investigations into unsolved murders across the United States. This includes the chilling 2006 case in a seaside neighborhood near Atlantic City, where four sex workers were found dead in a sewage ditch.
In a shocking discovery on November 21, 2006, two women found the remains of 35-year-old Kim Raffo behind a line of motels just west of Atlantic City. Upon arrival, the police uncovered three more bodies in the same pit: Tracy Ann Roberts, 23, Barbara Breidor, 42, and Molly Dilts, 19. The victims, like those Heuermann is suspected of killing, were all believed to be sex workers. They were all laid face down in murky water, barefoot, and aligned in the same direction.
Heuermann, a 59-year-old Long Island architect who worked in New York City, was arrested earlier this month on several murder charges related to the disappearances of three women between 2007 and 2010: Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27. He is also the primary suspect in the murder of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. All of these women were found in the brush near Gilgo Beach, along Ocean Parkway.
In addition to his home in Long Island, Heuermann also had a timeshare in Las Vegas and property in South Carolina. Police seized an old Chevrolet Avalanche pickup from his South Carolina property, believed to be the vehicle involved in Costello’s disappearance. Heuermann also appears to have ties to Atlantic City.
A dancer at Stiletto, a local strip club, claimed to have encountered Heuermann three times — twice before the coronavirus pandemic and once in 2021. She alleged that he paid for a private room but declined a lap dance, instead attempting to persuade her to meet him outside the club, which she never did.
While the dancer couldn’t definitively identify the man as Heuermann, she described him as a large New Yorker with a similar face. Dave Schaller, the sole witness to Costello’s disappearance, described the suspect as an “ogre,” standing over 6 feet tall and weighing around 250 pounds.
Despite the similarities between the Atlantic City and Gilgo Beach cases, an official link to Heuermann as a person of interest in the Atlantic City murders has not been confirmed. Atlantic County Prosecutor William Reynolds stated that they are pursuing all leads in the unsolved Golden Keys case, but could not comment further due to the ongoing investigation.
Heuermann is scheduled to return to court on August 1. He has pleaded not guilty.