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New York Architect Art Vandelay Denies Role in Long Island Serial Killer Case

Posted on | July 15, 2023 | 1 Comment

As soon as I heard that the suspect arrested in the long-unsolved murders of three women in the Long Island community of Gilgo Beach was an architect, I immediately thought of George Costanza in Seinfeld pretending to be an architect named “Art Vandelay.” This just shows what my sick sense of humor, I suppose, but the story of how an investigative task force finally identified Rex Heuermann, 59, as the suspect is fascinating. According to cops, Heuermann kept the cell phones of two victims and used the phones to get numbers of their relatives, then used “burner” phones to taunt at least one victim’s family member. However, Heuermann apparently didn’t realize that having his own cell phone with him at the time he used the “burner” phones meant that he was “pinging” off the same phone tower. So cops pored over the phone information and, by a process of elimination, narrowed down the possibilities to a comparative handful of potential suspects, and then — because a witness had seen a green pickup truck near one crime scene — this brought Heuermann to the top of the stack, as he sometimes drove a green truck he borrowed from his brother. Once he became the focus of the investigation, Heuermann’s financial records and Internet activity added more evidence against him, and finally detectives got a DNA match from discarded garbage. Breaking a case more than a decade old was very hard work, and the killer is an architect? Wow.

Art Vandelay could not be reached for comment.



 

Category: Crime

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One Response to “New York Architect Art Vandelay Denies Role in Long Island Serial Killer Case”

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    July 23rd, 2023 @ 2:22 pm

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