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Speaking after the court appearance, Tierney spoke to the “voluminous” amount of material relating to the six murders, the oldest of which dates backs to 1993.

Tips continue to pour in, the DA said. “This case has obviously captured the public’s imagination, and they are continually providing tips.” So far, he said, about 7,000 tips have come in.

“This isn’t the robbery of a commercial establishment where the case is tried in three months,” the DA said. “There’s a tremendous amount of material. It’s arduous work.”

In June, Heuermann was slapped with new second-degree murder charges in the deaths of two additional women, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla, according to a superceding bail application released to the press before the proceedings — bringing the total number of his alleged victims to six.

In July 2023, Heuermann was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder charges and three counts of second-degree murder charges in the deaths of sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose remains were found along Ocean Parkway in 2010.

Heuermann pleaded not guilty to those charges.

A total of 11 sets of remains were found in the Gilgo Beach murders, which rocked Long Island. The remains included that of a toddler and an Asian male.

Heuermann was also charged with the murder of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, in January. New DNA evidence helped connect Heuermann to all four of the deaths, said Tierney, who is prosecuting the case.

Heuermann was charged with second-degree murder, an A-1 violent felony, in the death of Brainard-Barnes on July 9, 2007. Heuermann has also pleaded not guilty to that charge.

New charges possible: DA

When asked on Tuesday if Heuermann may be charged in the death of Valerie Mack, whose remains were found in Manorville and near Cedar Beach, Tierney said : “It’s safe to say he would be a suspect, yes.”

The DA was also asked if it was possible to separate the cases and try him separately on them; Tierney said “judicial economy” was one reason why the DA’s office might want to try the cases together.

Speaking with the media, Heuermann’s attorney Michael Brown said Tuesday’s conference was “lengthy”.

His intern carried a large box of discovery from the courthouse. When asked if he felt the judge was pressuring both sides to “digest the material more quickly,” Brown said the judge was letting the attorneys do what we needed to get the “unprecedented” case — which involves six murder charges and spans 30 years — to court.

Heuermann, he said, “wants his day in court.”

Heuermann spends his days reviewing discovery on a computer, Brown said. He has about an hour of yard time each day and has access to the library. “This is an individual who had no criminal history, who was used to getting on the train, going to work, supporting his family, and coming home. And now he’s in a cell by himself. But he’s dealing with it the best he can. He understands he can’t change the circumstances of his environment for now.”

Brown said, of the October court date, that the defense “wants to digest everything” and to have the case tried before a jury, not the public or the press.

Severing the cases to be tried separately?

On the issue of trying the cases separately, Brown said there would be a motion at some point in time to do just that; the last two cases, involving Sandra Costilla and Jessica Taylor, “had nothing to do with the other four,” he believes. “It’s completely different, so at some point, we want to sever those victims from the indictment.”

His client wants to go to trial, he has repeatedly maintained his innocence, Brown said, adding that no plea deal has been offered.

Brown spoke about how the issue of individual hairs has been used by the prosecution to tie Heuermann to the murders; he maintained that the grand jury minutes said that previous testing by the Suffolk County crime lab had determined that those hairs were “unsuitable” for DNA testing and that “thousands of people on Long Island could be potential donors” of those hairs.

And yet, in January, the DA said a California company had used nuclear DNA testing to “magically” tie his client to the case, Brown said. “I’m looking forward to trying this case.”

Possible change of venue for Heuermann trial

Brown said he is considering a change of venue for the trial; the issue, he said, is if there is a county in New York State where Heuermann could find a fair and impartial jury.

Brown also said he hasn’t yet received the FBI files he’d previously requested.

When asked about the chilling “manifesto”, a blueprint that Tierney said in June had been kept by Heuermann, Brown said that amounted to pages of a popular book that thousands of people may have uploaded excerpts from, to their laptops. “I don’t think it’s that significant at all. But it fits into their narrative. Things that don’t work for them, you don’t hear about.”

Brown said there had been pole camera surveillance at Heuermann’s Massapequa home for a year and a half, unbeknownst to his client, that showed nothing. And, he said, he has new pole camera evidence to review from “another suspect.”

Brown said he believes there are still others, specific people, to be investigated as suspects. He said a previous suspect, whose initials “WH” were found on a belt that was revealed in 2020, was discounted as a suspect by the DA’s office just because of “overlapping phone calls. That doesn’t make sense to me. We want to go to trial.”

Recently, the DA’s office said, of an ongoing search in areas of Suffolk County, including Manorville, Calverton and Southampton: “DA Tierney has repeatedly publicly stated that the task force would continue to investigate additional murders beyond Gilgo.”

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