by The mother of one of the Gilgo Beach victims says she hopes the suspected serial killer will «suffer» in prison.
«I would like him to suffer at the hands of other inmates,» Lynn Barthelemy said Friday in an interview with NBC News. «Let her get what the girls got.»
«Death is too good for him,» Barthelemy added. «It is too easy.»
Barthelemy was speaking hours after the arrest of Rex Heuermann, 59, a Manhattan architect who lives in Massapequa Park in Nassau County on Long Island.
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Heuermann was detained more than a decade after the first set of wreckage was discovered on Gilgo Beach in neighboring Suffolk County. Remains of 11 victims in total have been found, including Barthelemy’s 24-year-old daughter Melissa.
Heuermann was charged with the murders of Barthelemy and two other women: Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.
«Our family has suffered every day,» said Lynn Barthelemy, who lives in upstate New York.
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Among the clues in the case were calls made from Melissa Barthelemy’s disposable phone to her family members in the days after she went missing in 2009, according to a bail request made public Friday.
The «taunting phone calls,» in which the man who called the caller admitted to killing and sexually assaulting Barthelemy, were traced to a location in midtown Manhattan near Heuermann’s office at the time, the bail request says.
NBC News previously reported that officials believed the alleged killer used Melissa Barthelemy’s cellphone to repeatedly call her teenage sister after the murder.
«We knew from the beginning that the phone calls were going to be key,» said Lynn Barthelemy.
Heuermann’s arrest also drew a strong reaction from Sherre Gilbert, whose sister Shannan Gilbert disappeared on Long Island in May 2010. Her remains were found in December 2011.
“I am overwhelmed but relieved that they finally caught him,” Gilbert said in a statement to NBC News. “It has been a long time coming and I have never given up hope that justice will one day be served.”
«The suspect (Rex) deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life,» he added. «He destroyed many lives, so while he won’t bring our loved ones back, he does help one less monster off the streets and he can never hurt anyone else!»
John Ray, an attorney representing the families of Shannan Gilbert and Jessica Taylor, said he was «delighted» that there had been an arrest in the Gilgo Beach murders.
«Finally, the dam broke,» he said in an interview Friday morning.
But he said he feels «very strongly» that Heuermann is not responsible for the 11 murders, including those of Gilbert and Taylor.
“It gives us a sigh of relief, but it’s biased,” Ray said. «There is definitely» another suspect.
“There is still a lot to do on this,” he said.
