Cops have reportedly found a soundproof room in the basement of accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann’s home where they believe at least one woman may have been killed — and brought in cadaver dogs, a backhoe and ground-penetrating radar to try to locate possible bodies and “trophies” in his back yard.
New York State troopers and Suffolk County police have been scouring the accused killer’s family home, yard and storage sites for the 11 days since the hulking architect was charged in the deaths of three women and publicly named a prime suspect in the fourth — all part of the infamous 13-year-old “Gilgo Four” slayings.
“This guy is a wacko,” said Robert Musto, 64, a retired Long Island Rail Road worker and longtime Massapequa Park neighbor, to The Post on Sunday, referring to the 59-year-old suspect.
“He’s got a soundproof room in his basement,” Musto said he was told by cops at the scene. “What do you think that was for?
“They’re saying there’s evidence he killed at least one of the girls down there,” the Long Island neighbor said. “The cops are going to dig all that out. Said they’re focused on the soundproof room in the basement but they’re going to look at everything.”
A law-enforcement source told The Post on Sunday, “Cops are looking for evidence if the victims were in the house, nothing yet.”
An investigator was seen meticulously moving across ground in the back yard Sunday with a radar device resembling a lawn mower, video footage showed.
Three cadaver dogs also were brought to the property, as was a backhoe and dump truck for what state troopers at the scene called a “major excavation.”
Local Kathy Huber, who said she went to high school with Heuermann, said neighbors are OK with the disruption.
“We don’t care how long this has to be here,” Huber, 57, said Sunday. This is a big community of cops and firemen, and I find it hard to believe that anybody here will be angry that cops are taking their time and doing a good job.
“With these girls, with these victims, please, take your time and get justice for these women and these families,” she said, addressing authorities. “We don’t care how long this has to be here.”
Cops have been digging in Heuernmann’s yard by hand while also removing bags of items from the property and dismantling a wooden deck.
Police have searched two nearby storage units for human remains or other possible clues in the chilling case, too.
Heuermann, a married father of two, was nabbed outside his Midtown Manhattan office July 13 and charged in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello, whose bodies were found along a marshy stretch of land in 2010.
Cops believe he is also linked to the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes — the last of the “Gilgo Four.”
Seven other bodies were also discovered near the site, which remain part of unsolved cases.
All four women tied to Heuermann worked as escorts. Authorities have said the suspect was a frequent solicitor of sex.
In the days after Heuermann’s arrest, police removed from his family home a truckload of items, including a creepy child-sized doll with blond braides encased in glass and wood, a portrait of a disfigured woman and a cache of guns — as many as 300, according to cops, photos and reports.
Police also impounded a Chevrolet Avalanche from the driveway and a second Avalanche from a secluded property he owns in South Carolina, the same model that helped cops finally nab him.
Heuermann’s wife, who police said is “disgusted” and “embarrassed” by his arrest, filed for divorce last week and remains in hiding despite being spotted on a few occasions with her children and outside her lawyer’s office.
Heuermann pleaded not guilty to the charges in court, while his lawyer has since hinted that police have ignored other “more significant” clues leading to other suspects.
“It’s pretty crazy to hear,” said Tom Donelson, a 51-year-old Nassau County court clerk who lives in Mineola and was looking at the scene Sunday, of the case.
Musto and other residents in the community have described the “ogre”-like Heuermann as quiet — and just off.
“The detectives, when they interviewed me, they told me everyone around here told him the same things I did: Tight-knit community, and he interacts with no one,” Musto said.
-Additional reporting by Larry Celona
