(NewsNation) — Gilgo Beach serial killing suspect Rex Heuermann has been charged with killing 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, the final victim of the Gilgo four.
Heuermann pleaded not guilty and maintained his innocence.
Heuermann was previously considered a top suspect in the case but at the time of his arrest, investigators said they did not have the evidence to charge him with her death.
The Gilgo Beach task force has been investigating the deaths of 10 people whose remains were found along the New York beach in 2010 and 2011. Most of the victims were sex workers
In July, police arrested 60-year-old Heuermann for the murders of three women, with police considering him as a suspect in the death of a fourth. Police used familial DNA evidence to help identify Heuermann.
At the time, he was charged with the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Lynn Costello, 27. They, along with Brainard-Barnes, were known as the Gilgo Four.
All four women were sex workers; Barthelemy’s family said a man using her phone had taunted the family with graphic details of what he had done to her sexually and said he killed her.
Heuermann was taken into custody and is being held in a Suffolk County correctional facility awaiting trial.
