Suspected Gilgo Seashore serial killer Rex Heuermann held a huge area in his basement locked and grew to become skittish when an inside designer tasked with measuring his dwelling sought to enter – telling her it was loaded with guns, DailyMail.com can expose.
Speaking solely with DailyMail.com, Katherine Shepherd recalled how she found Heuermann’s response odd at the time and now miracles what else he might have been hiding in the 12’x15′ house.
‘I failed to have an understanding of why he was being so weird about it, and now I am thinking “What was he hiding?” ‘ Shepherd reported.
‘It was a huge place. What was taking place in that area? Is that where he took the women of all ages?’
Interior designer Katherine Shepherd, 47, labored with suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann, 59, off and on, for five decades, like a task at his Massapequa Park household in 2005
Shepherd produced a pleasant, operating partnership with Heuermann and other colleagues even though sharing an place of work area with him for two several years in Manhattan. They are pictured in the course of a social outing at Pete’s Tavern in distinctive photos attained by DailyMail.com
Heuermann has lived at the Very long Island house given that the 1980s with his spouse, Asa Ellerup, and their two small children. He was setting up to renovate his kitchen with the support of Shepherd
Shepherd, 47, who worked with Heuermann for five a long time, invested a few hrs assessing his Massapequa Park, New York home for a renovation challenge in 2005 – just a person of various near interactions she experienced experienced with him that have retained her awake at evening because his arrest last 7 days.
Speaking with DailyMail.com, she explained how she had made a friendly, doing work relationship with the 59-calendar year-old architect who is noticed mingling with the inside designers and colleagues in special pictures printed for the to start with time.
She exposed Heuermann even the moment took her to a firing assortment in the Bronx in which he taught her how to fire a 9mm handgun.
On a different situation when she slipped on ice, Heuermann accompanied her to a healthcare facility and then back to her condominium in Manhattan wherever he gave her meds.
Shepherd labored with Heuermann, off and on, from 2002 to 2007 and shared place of work room with him for two of people yrs in Manhattan, in which he ran an architectural organization.
She would often travel with him to position sites as a freelance interior designer. At the time she identified him clever and mostly helpful, if socially awkward.
She now likens him to a genuine-everyday living Dexter, the Showtime character who led a double daily life as a serial killer.
‘He’s just like Dexter,’ she informed DailyMail.com. ‘You’d in no way know if you satisfied him. Dexter was also super usual and then he experienced that other facet.’
Shepherd admitted she had hardly ever even read of the Gilgo killings right up until an previous manager achieved out with the news by using textual content concept on Saturday.
Drone footage of Heuermann’s dwelling exhibits police outside the one particular-tale building and the entrance to the basement
The interior designer who shared photos of a social outing with Heuermann and colleagues, explained she would routinely travel with him to work web pages as a freelance interior designer
Shepherd explained at the time she observed him intelligent and mainly helpful, if socially uncomfortable, but now compares him to to a true-life Dexter, the Showtime character who led a double daily life as a serial killer
‘I googled his title and, Jesus, there he was,’ Shepherd said. ‘There was this photograph of my colleague that I remembered dearly.
Manhattan architect Rex Heuermann (pictured), 59, is billed with three murders attributed to the Gilgo Beach front serial killer, and is the primary suspect in a fourth victim’s murder
‘I then invested the next 8 hours reading each individual short article I could uncover. I was stunned. How could this be the exact person?’
‘I’m like shaking correct now,’ she said as she described her romance with Heuermann, which ended a pair of years right before he allegedly commenced a killing spree, dumping the bodies of quite a few females on the beach, not considerably from his household on Long Island’s South Shore.
He has so far been billed with the murder of Gilgo Seashore victims Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies had been observed in 2010.
He is also the primary suspect in the murder of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and is becoming appeared into for the murders of the other six gals whose bodies have been discovered in 2011.
Heuermann has lived at the assets considering that the 1980s with his wife, Asa Ellerup, and their two small children.
Talking to DailyMail.com, Shepherd mentioned ‘you’d in no way know’ Heuermann would be suspected of his alleged crimes if you satisfied him
Shepherd uncovered she achieved Heuermann in the Bronx at this firing variety where by he has been hired to perform on renovations. He is pictured still left at the location in 2005
Shepherd understood the assets perfectly. On a snowy morning in February 2005, she took a teach from New York City to meet him in Massapequa Park.
He picked her up at the station and drove her to his house, the place she satisfied his spouse and young children.
Shepherd recollects how Ellerup experienced been washing dishes and the young children had been hanging out at the time.
Heuermann was preparing to renovate the kitchen area but also wished precise measurements of the relaxation of the dwelling.
Shepherd went place to area getting measurements and he followed her downstairs.
‘In the basement, there was this 1 home that was locked, and he claimed I couldn’t go into that space,’ she recalled.
‘I was like – what the hell? That’s weird. And he was sort of joking, like, oh you cannot go in there due to the fact there is certainly issues in there. And then he explained, ”I’ve bought a bunch of guns.”
‘He was bizarre about it, and I was like all right, fantastic,’ she explained to DailyMail.com. ‘I could evaluate all over it.’
On Sunday, New York state law enforcement taken out a enormous haul of weapons from the dwelling, a day soon after scouring the home to ascertain whether Heuermann had any ‘trophies’ from a few victims he is charged with murdering.
Special DailyMail.com photographs display officers carrying out at minimum four lengthy-barreled firearms from the architect’s ‘dungeon’-like dwelling as nicely as several blue plastic boxes with weapons in them.
Rex Heuermann is demonstrated in one particular of his Tinder profile photographs. Law enforcement tracked the fictitious electronic mail account he employed on the profile and his burner telephone variety to the case
Heuermann’s yearbook photograph from Berner Large School’s class of 1981. He was arrested outside his workplace in Midtown Manhattan on July 13
Again in 2005, Shepherd still left the residence with her boyfriend from Long Island, who picked her up.
A thirty day period following performing in the dwelling, she fulfilled Heuermann in the Bronx at a firing range wherever he had been hired for some renovations.
Even though there, he gave her a lesson.
‘I fulfilled him out there and measured the gun variety,’ she mentioned. ‘And later on, he taught me how to hearth a 9mm. I didn’t know he was so into guns, but right here we were being.
‘He was telling me how to area my fingers less than the hammer so when the hammer went again it failed to strike me,’ she discussed.
‘I fired like four or 5 pictures and I strike the focus on, a photo of a beer bottle. It was pretty powerful.’
Shepherd also recalled the time she was alone with the foreseeable future alleged serial killer in her condominium.
Before in the working day, she had slipped on the sidewalk and could hardly stroll by the time she arrived at perform.
‘Rex took me in a cab to urgent care, and waited for me while I received an MRI and anything else,’ she said. ‘And then he took me back again to my apartment.
On Sunday New York condition law enforcement removed a large haul of weapons from suspected Gilgo Beach front serial killer Rex Heuermann’s Very long Island household a day after scouring the residence to identify irrespective of whether he experienced any ‘trophies’ from his alleged victims
An officer was seen eliminating two further firearms from the home on Sunday
‘My roommate was long gone at the time,’ she ongoing. ‘Rex got me settled into my space, and then he went off to get my medicine.
‘When he came again, he created sure I had one thing to eat and experienced my medication. And then he went household.
‘He took care of me,’ she reported.
The once sweet memory now haunts her.
‘This is the identical guy that’s allegedly killing women of all ages, and he could have killed me correct there in my condominium if he needed to,’ she claimed. ‘No 1 was there.’
‘I’m not an unsightly female, but I guess I was not on the menu, which is terrific,’ she continued, equally horrified and fairly amused by her ordeals.
‘It’s all really surreal,’ she stated. ‘I check out a good deal of people crime exhibits and all the things, but you by no means consider in a million a long time it truly is going to be you, or any person you know.
‘How would I at any time know a serial killer? What are the odds of that?’