Crime & Safety
'A Clone Of Me': BTK Killer Draws Comparison To Gilgo Beach Suspect Rex Heuermann: Report
Dennis Rader says he and Gilgo suspect Rex Heuermann are much alike, including living in a neighborhood "undetected," according to a report.
![Dennis Rader says he and Gilgo suspect Rex Heuermann are much alike, including living in a neighborhood "undetected," according to a report.](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/22941961/20230721/040213/styles/patch_image/public/btk-heuermann___21160150488.jpg)
MASSAPEQUA PARK, NY — Dennis Rader, known as the BTK serial killer, told Fox News he sees "a clone of me" in Rex Heuermann, the Long Island man charged with six murder counts in the deaths of three sex workers in the Gilgo Beach serial killing case.
"I was arrested age 59. Married, two kids," Rader told Fox News Digital in a letter. "Husband, dad longtime a serial killer, stalker, used electronic devices, lives in a neighborhood undetected."
Heuermann was also arrested at age 59 and was married with two kids. The architect, who lived in a Massapequa Park home in disrepair, was brought into custody roughly 13 years after the first remains were found, officials said.
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Rader was captured in 2005 — decades after his first kill — through DNA evidence. He is serving 10 consecutive life sentences in a maximum security prison in Kansas after confessing in 2005 to killing 10 people over 30 years.
Heuermann was charged in the deaths of Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy, and Megan Waterman, whose remains were found in 2010 along Ocean Parkway. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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Evidence around Heuermann's arrest includes pizza crust with DNA matching male hair found on Waterman; burner phones; a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche; Google searches; selfies and more, investigators said.
Rader told Fox News that "DNA and electronics" were Heuermann's "downfall," much like him. The convicted killer claims he predicted the similarities years ago.
Since 2010, at least 11 sets of remains have been found, believed to be related to the Gilgo Beach killings. Police have searched for a serial killer ever since. At least four of the killings included strangulation, and two showed signs of blunt-force trauma. The cause of death remains inconclusive for some victims.
Forensic psychologist, Louis Schlesinger, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, previously told Patch there are only a handful of educated serial killers, including Rader, who went to college. He also named Ted Bundy, a law school dropout.
"[Heuermann] obviously is an architect, but that's rare," Schlesinger said. "Among the group of serial, sexual murderers, most of them are unskilled, and so on. But the American people want their serial killers to be evil geniuses with IQs of 160 that speak five languages, including Aramaic."
So far, officials obtained a menagerie of items from Heuermann's house including: a trove of more than 200 guns; a painting of a fair-skinned blonde woman with large, deep-set, dark eyes, a gash on her right cheek; and a childlike doll enclosed in a display case.
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