How A Pimp And Chevrolet Avalanche Identified Alleged 'Long Island Killer' Rex Heuermann
A year ago, a pimp for murder victim Amber Costello identified a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche as the vehicle he believed Costello's killer, The Long Island Killer, drove.
Police conducted a registration search following the witness interview with a special task force, uncovering that a local resident owned a similar, distinctive model vehicle.
The finding led police to Rex Heuermann, whom they arrested last week.
“This was significant, because a witness to the disappearance of Amber Costello identified a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche as the vehicle believed to have been driven by her killer,” a bail application said.
Heuermann also matched the pimp's' description of a 6-foot-4 man who looks “like an ‘ogre.'"
Rex Heuermann.
Specifically, the man told police he saw the suspect and his Avalanche while he planned a September 2010 “ruse” with Costello, a prostitute. The witness would pretend to be her "angry boyfriend" to scare men away so Costello could keep the cash without the sex.
However, the plan turned amiss when the target, Heuermann, used a burner phone to demand they meet the next night.
Alleged Long Island Killer Failed To Cover His Tracks
“Amber told us that he wanted to see her again, but he didn’t want to come back to the house
because of her boyfriend,” the witness told police.
"That night would be the last time Costello, 27, was seen alive — leaving her house at the same time as a witness saw 'a dark-colored truck' drive by," reports The Post.
Police were able to link the burner phone to Heuermann’s hometown of Massapequa Park, about 15 minutes away where Costello and the other "Gilgo Four '' women's bodies were found dead.
Though key to the investigation, Heuermann hardly attempted to hide the Avalanche from plain sight.
He had long parked the truck outside his home -- visible to neighbors, passersby, online mapping sites, and ultimately police.
An archived Google Maps street view from 2011 — the year after the investigation into Costello's whereabouts “-- shows the truck parked outside Heuermann’s home on 1st Avenue:
"The suspected serial killer was eyed over his first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche that was seen for years parked outside his home, such as here in 2011," reports The New York Post.
“Once we got that car, who it was connected to, that’s when the investigation got legs,” said Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told the Daily News Saturday.
The Chevy was still registered in Heuermann’s name in 2022, 12 years after Costello's murder.
In addition, police identified Heuermann via his DNA from a discarded pizza crust that matched a hair left on another victim’s body.
A burner phone; pizza crust; distinctive Chevrolet Avalanche; motormouth pimp; and normal, married father of two ... not even Harlan Coben could pen the case of The Long Island Serial Killer.