MASSAPEQUA PARK, NY — The serial slayings of three sex workers — so far attributed to accused Gilgo Beach killer, Rex Heuermann — appear to be sexually motivated, and could have been fantasized about decades earlier.
That’s according to Louis Schlesinger, a forensic psychologist and professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who spoke to Patch about the motivations behind serial killers and what he’s seen come out of the Gilgo Beach murder investigation.
“Well, this type of murder is a serial sexual homicide,” Schlesinger said. “The motive is sexual. Keep in mind, I didn’t evaluate this guy, but I’m going based on what we know.”
Find out what's happening in Massapequawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
“The best way to understand this type of offense is to look at the behavior as an abnormal sexual arousal pattern, where there’s a fusion of sex and aggression, so that the aggressive act itself is eroticized,” he said.
Most people can understand murder, he said. But sexual murder is “very difficult for somebody to understand.”
Find out what's happening in Massapequawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
What is found at the crime scene is that the offender goes above and beyond what is necessary to kill the person and leaves the person in a degrading position or with a foreign object insertion and very often mutilation, he said.
Because killing alone is not psychosexually sufficient, Schlesinger said.
“Somebody doesn’t wake up one day and say, I think I’ll go out and kill five women — that sounds like a good idea,” he said. “This begins 20 to 25 years earlier in the offender’s mind, in the offender’s fantasies. And of those individuals, who have these very disturbed fantasies, a much smaller group actually acts them out. And this is what you see.”
The sexual instinct is very strong, according to Schlesinger.
“This is an abnormal sexual instinct, but in general, the sexual instinct is strong,” he said. “That’s why God made it strong, so that the species propagates, right? If, for example, in order for — let’s say a woman to get pregnant — she’d have to run 20 miles, most women would say, ‘You run 20 miles; I’m not gonna do it.’”
“God was way too smart, so he made it very strong,” Schlesinger said.
“So in a situation like this, there’s such sexual gratification from inflicting pain; killing; control and domination; that they want to do it again, and then they do it again. And so you see, it’s repetitive, compulsive, and they kill in the series.”
Schlesinger’s remarks come after Dr. Carole Lieberman, a Los Angeles-based psychiatrist who went to Stony Brook University, told Patch this week she found it troubling that Heuermann, according to prosecutors, kept a close eye on the victim’s families.
Heuermann even went a step further — calling at least one of those distraught family members.
“He continued the torture of the women to the torture of the families,” Lieberman said. “He needed more satisfaction of his sadistic urges.”
See also:
In Heuermann’s case, he is accused of murdering Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello. The women’s bodies were found buried along Ocean Parkway in 2010 after a routine exercise with Suffolk police cadaver dog, “Blue.”
Their bodies were found along with that of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, and the group has since been referred to as the Gilgo Four. Heuermann remains a prime suspect in her death.
Click Here: LONGCHAMP LE PLIAGE ORIGINAL L TOTE BAG RECYCLED CANVAS NAVY WOMEN
All the women were sex workers who disappeared during the course of their work.
Altogether, 11 sets of remains were discovered, including a toddler and an Asian male. Some of the remains were tied to other sets of remains found in Manorville and Lakeview State Park in Hempstead.
The discovery of the bodies came after the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, who was last seen in nearby Oak Beach. Her remains were uncovered in 2011.
No charges have been brought in relation to the other deaths.
Heuermann’s defense attorney, Michael Brown of Central Islip, has not responded to numerous requests for comment from Patch.
He has previously said that his client has protested his innocence.
In an interview with ABC News on Tuesday, Brown said his client was traumatized by his arrest.
In Part 3 of this series, Schlesinger explains intricate mathematical statistics behind serial sexual murder and now that relates to the accusations against Rex Heuermann.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.