Alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann routinely burned garbage at home and once even dug a hole in his yard in the middle of the night, his longtime next-door neighbor claimed.
Dominick Cancellieri rejected reports of Massapequa Park neighbors recalling Heuermann, 59, as a normal-seeming fellow, saying that was “not the case at all” from his own experience sharing a property line with the man charged with killing three women more than a decade ago.
“Every instance — even just the way he looked — I always thought this guy was a weirdo,” Cancellieri told Chris Cuomo on NewsNation Thursday night.
“Freaking everything that’s come up — the vile Google searches that he’s had — this all makes sense to me now,” the neighbor said.
According to Cancellieri, the alleged serial killer had a history of carrying out strange activities overnight.
Heuermann would frequently sit in his running car, which was parked in front of his Nassau County home, with all the lights on as late as 2 a.m., according to Cancellieri.
Once during his teen years, Cancellieri said he was watching TV in his home’s basement around 1 a.m. when he allegedly heard Heuermann digging around in the backyard.
“I really wanted to go and check out what it was and look through the fence … but something stopped myself from doing it,” Cancellieri recalled.
“I was nervous. I wasn’t too sure what I was hearing at the time. But now with everything coming to fruition, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest bit.”
Cancellieri also claimed Heuermann would burn his household garbage every few weeks — which is illegal in Nassau County.
“I would smell it and I would always wonder like, ‘why is this guy burning his garbage again?’” Cancellieri said.
The two men only had one altercation during their time as neighbors after Heuermann allegedly blocked Cancellieri’s driveway with his truck — which helped investigators tie the alleged killer to one of his victims.
Cancellieri said he “got a little loud” while confronting Heuermann, but the suspected violent murderer backed off and moved his vehicle.
Though Cancellieri found his longtime neighbor’s behavior “suspicious,” he said he never saw Heuermann bring women into the house and never suspected him of the heinous crimes he has since been charged with.
“I always thought he was weird,” said Cancellieri. “I just didn’t like him. And the only thing that I miscalculated about him was I really thought he was not the smartest of people. Obviously, he was very calculated, though.”
Heuermann, a Manhattan architect and father of two, allegedly evaded police for more than a decade after allegedly killing sex workers who patrolled the island.
He pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder in the deaths of Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22. He is also considered the “prime suspect” in the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25.
The women’s bodies were found along a quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway in 2010.
The investigation into Heuermann now spans several states, as police in South Carolina and Nevada are reportedly re-examining unsolved cases near his properties in both areas.
