Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann set to be hit with fifth murder charge

Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann will be charged with another murder this week, per several reports.

Heuermann, 60, is expected to appear in court in Riverhead on Thursday for his arraignment, according to Newsday. 

It comes after investigators connected to the Gilgo Beach cases began searching a wooded area in Manorville, New York, in April.

Heuermann has previously been charged with murdering four female sex workers.

He was arrested in July and initially charged with killing Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Lynn Costello 27. 

In February, he was also charged with the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25. 

Heuermann, an architect, has pled not guilty to the killings. 

The searches come after the father-of-two's home in Massapequa was raided following discovery of the bodies.

The women were found wrapped in burlap and buried along the remote stretch of Ocean Parkway on Long Island's South Shore over a decade ago.

Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all counts and currently remains in jail awaiting trial.

The women's remains were discovered during the search for 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert, an escort from New Jersey who had vanished in May 2010 after making a frantic 911 call.

Her remains were found along the same stretch of coast in December 2011 - and it was her body that led police to the discovery of the 'Gilgo Four'.

No one has ever been charged in Gilbert's death and police said it may have been accidental - but her family believe she was murdered.

The women were among 11 found on the desolate stretch of coastline close to Heuermann's Long Island Home between 2010 and 2011.

All of the victims worked as escorts who advertised themselves on Craigslist.

Heuermann was linked to the killings by DNA on the burlap used to transport the bodied which was compared to samples taken from a pizza crust and napkin that were discarded outside his Manhattan architectural firm, police said.

The samples boasted a 99.96 percent match, according to law enforcement.

Prior to testing the DNA, cops said they were alerted to Heuermann as a potential suspect after a witness linked Heuermann's Chevrolet Avalanche to Costello's murder.

The car was then tied to Heuermann's cellphone records, which allegedly linked him to locations related to the murders.

The indictment stated that Heuermann had used different burner phones to contact each of his victims.

Cops also accused Heuermann of using Barthelemy's phone to make taunting phone calls to her family from the comfort of his office.

Her sister Melissa told how she was bombarded with threatening phone calls from the killer who boasted of the killing and was keeping tabs on her movements.

Last month, state and county police officials descended on Heuermann’s dilapidated, single-family home in Massapequa Park on Long Island.

Officers removed boxes and bags of evidence from the house as forensic and crime lab units spent much of the day on site. Officials from the Suffolk County medical examiner’s office also visited.

Spokespersons for the New York State Police and Suffolk County Police Department deferred questions to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney’s office, which declined to comment.

Last July, police spent nearly two weeks scouring the home, located in a suburban town about 40 miles east of Manhattan.

The search of what Tierney has described as a 'very cluttered environment' turned up more than 200 firearms, including dozens stored in a basement vault. Investigators also tore up a wooden deck, used an excavator to dig up the backyard and scanned for buried objects with specialized equipment.