What do we know about Rex Heuermann, the New York architect arrested for the Gilgo Beach murders on Long Island

() — Architect Rex Heuermann, accused of a series of murders on Long Island, logs years of tax arrears amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, has repeatedly filed lawsuits accusing drivers of injuring him in car accidents, and is still alive. at his childhood home, according to a public review of court records and documents.

Heuermann, who police say murdered at least three women on Long Island, lived in the same house where he grew up — a few miles across the bay from the beach where the bodies were found more than a year ago. decade––according to a 2018 statement from him.

Between 2014 and 2022, Heuermann filed four lawsuits in New York courts against drivers who he said struck him with their cars, causing “serious and permanent personal injury,” according to court records. Three of the cases were resolved or discontinued, while the most recent one is still open.

In his April 2018 deposition for one of the cases, Heuermann discussed his life and work, saying he lived in his childhood home in Massapequa Park, a Long Island suburb, with his then-carrying wife. 22 years old, her daughter and her stepson.

At one point in the deposition, when asked if he played sports, he said: “Really the only thing I ever competed in was competition rifle.”

Heuermann appears to have had trouble paying his taxes for more than a decade. Nassau County records show Heuermann was subject to six tax liens filed by the IRS in Nassau County between 2010 and 2021. According to the liens, Heuermann owed a total of more than $425,000 in unpaid taxes since 2005. .

The IRS later filed tax lien releases showing that Heuermann paid or no longer owed about $215,078 of that debt, with the most recent documents dating from October 2022.

According to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, Heuermann and his wife, Asa Ellerup, also currently owe a total of more than $81,500 in personal income taxes to the state, and the tax bills have accumulated since November. of 2020.

A still from video shows Rex Heuermann buying minutes for one of the disposable cell phones linked to some of the crimes, prosecutors say.

Other court records give clues to the technical and sometimes mundane work that Heuermann performed as an architect. The suspect was in charge of examining water damage to a building in Manhattan last year and offered an analysis of the proposed waterproofing, according to a letter he wrote to an attorney. Filed records in another case show emails he sent to coordinate a renovation project in the Bronx in 2017.

At a civil court hearing in 2018, Heuermann described his work as “general architecture” and said he works for clients to resolve issues with the state Department of Buildings. One associate described the job as “an unpleasant process. I wouldn’t want to be Mr. Heuermann in that way for one minute.”

In September 2007, a Harlem apartment building that had contracted with Heuermann for a renovation was declared unsafe by the Fire Department, which ordered the evacuation of two dozen families, reported the New York Daily News at the time. The commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings said the agency was investigating whether Heuermann had falsely claimed the building was vacant, according to the Daily News.

Heuermann is listed in city documents related to the building that say it will remain vacant during construction. A building department spokesperson told that in 2007, the department conducted audits of multiple jobs on which Heuermann was the architect of record, but found “no pattern of false submissions or significant non-compliance with regulations,” and did not disciplinary action was taken.

The website for Heuermann’s firm, RH Architecture, listed his daughter as an employee. Since then, the page that names all employees does not work.