NEW YORK — Relatives of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, one of the women known as the “Gilgo Four” who were found slain in Long Island’s Gilgo Beach in 2010, addressed the public Tuesday after a grand jury indicted a man suspected in her death.
Nicolette Brainard-Barnes was 7 years old when her mother was killed. Now 24, she said her mother’s death “drastically changed the trajectory of my life.”
“There are countless times I needed her, and she was not there,” she said at an emotional news conference on Tuesday. “I remember she read to me every night, and now I can no longer remember the sound of her voice.”
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, is one of at least four women believed to have been killed by Rex Heuermann between 2007 and 2010. Heuermann also faces murder charges in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Amber Lynn Costello, 27; and Megan Waterman, 22.
Their bodies, along with seven others, were found near Ocean Parkway on Long Island in 2010 and 2011, sparking fears of a serial killer and kicking off years of investigations.
Heuermann has not been charged in connection with any of the other bodies found. Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Tuesday that a grand jury investigation into the deaths continues.
“For years, it looked like there might not be charges against any suspect for the murder of my mother,” Nicolette Brainard-Barnes said. “While the loss of my mom has been extremely painful for me, the indictment by the grand jury has brought hope for justice for my mom and my family.”
Melissa Cann, Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ younger sister, said she spent years hoping that her sister would get justice. She described her sister as “a loving mother, a caring sister and a giving friend.”
“My life shattered with the confirmation of Maureen’s death,” she said Tuesday, adding that her sister’s death gave her PTSD. “I would overthink every situation I deemed a threat because the worst possible thing in my life (had) happened. I became guarded. I overprotected the ones I loved around me because I knew first-hand that evil exists in this world.”
Authorities said they linked Heuermann to Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ death after finding a hair on the buckle of a belt that had been used to restrain her which was later linked to Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup. Other hairs found on Waterman and Costello matched Ellerup, Heuermann and the couple’s daughter, court records show.
At the time of the killings, authorities said Ellerup and her children were out of the state, “which allowed Defendant Heuermann unfettered time to execute his plans for each victim without any fear that his family would uncover or learn of his involvement in these crimes,” authorities said in a bail application obtained by WCBS-TV.
Heuermann’s attorney entered a not-guilty plea on his client’s behalf on Tuesday, WABC-TV reported.
Authorities shared new details in the investigation on Tuesday, expanding on earlier DNA evidence that linked Heuermann to the killings and on Google searches he made on a newly uncovered email account that focused on the Gilgo Beach investigation, his alleged victims’ families, serial killers, investigative techniques, software to erase digital devices, rape and torture.
Brainard-Barnes was last seen in 2007, shortly after she traveled from her home in Connecticut to Manhattan in New York, where she worked as an escort for days at a time, authorities said.
Her body was found on Dec. 13, 2010.
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