Dave Schaller tells the AP he provided detectives with a description of the person he believed to be the killer and the vehicle he drove years ago.
NEW YORK — In the winter of 2010, shortly after police discovered the remains of his roommate and three other women buried on a remote stretch of Long Island shoreline, Dave Schaller provided detectives with a description of the person he believed to be the killer.The man they were looking for was a towering, Frankenstein-like figure with an “empty gaze” who drove a first-generation Chrysler Avalanche, Schaller recalled telling investigators.
On July 14, police arrested Rex Heuermann on charges of killing Costello and two other women, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. He is the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Heuermann, an architect who worked in Manhattan, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“This was crucial information, and I don’t know why they didn’t share it,” said Rob Trotta, a county legislator who worked as a Suffolk County Police detective until 2013. “They made some serious blunders here.” He stressed there were other elements that ultimately helped investigators arrest Heuermann, including new technology that helped match samples of DNA to the suspect.
The question has vexed some law enforcement officials as well. Two high-ranking officials who worked closely on the case and attended briefings between 2011 and 2013 said they never heard anything about a witness statement describing the suspect and his vehicle. Investigators said they were also looking for any electronics, video recordings and writings related to the killings; burlap; duct tape; guns and ammunition; cutting tools; and a specific type of paper towel from the Bounty Modern Print Collection.
The federal inquiry would also lead to prison sentences for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, who oversaw the early years of the Gilgo Beach case, as well as the county’s top anticorruption prosecutor, Christopher McPartland.
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