Cops use excavator in Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect's backyard

Cops use diggers and ground-penetrating radar in excavation of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect’s rundown Long Island home

• Drone footage shows officials using an excavator at the  Long Island home
• Officials are using ground penetrating radar to search for any disturbances
• Heuermann is charged with the murders of 3 of 4 women known as the Gilgo Beach Four

Investigators have been spotted using a massive excavator to dig up the backyard of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann – as they revealed the search could be over as soon as Tuesday.

Officials said they are using ground penetrating radar to search for any disturbances in the yard of the Long Island home that Heuermann, 59, shared his wife Asa Ellerup and two adult children.

‘If I had a tree stump it would be a disturbance in the ground. An underground wire or a cesspool would be a disturbance in the ground. All it shows is that there is something under there,’ Suffolk County Lieutenant Kevin Beyrer told Dailymail.com.

Bayrer added that while they are still searching the property, the investigation may end tomorrow or later in the week. 

Officials were seen returning some items they took for inspection to the Massapequa Park home on Sunday.

Investigators have been spotted using a massive excavator to dig up the backyard of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann 

Heuermann, 59, lived in the Massapequa Park, Long Island, home with his wife Asa Ellerup, adult daughter and stepson

Officials said while they are still searching the property, the investigation may end tomorrow or later in the week

Suffolk County Commissioner Raymond would not confirm claims by a neighbor who said investigators found a soundproof room in the home’s basement.

‘Somehow some bad information got out there is not a soundproof room,’ he explained. ‘There is a vault where he secured numerous guns – there is no soundproof room.’ 

Heuermann pleaded not guilty to the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. 

He is also the lead suspect in the 2007 disappearance and subsequent murder of the fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, though he has not yet been charged in the case, and is being investigated for the murders of six other women whose bodies were found near Gilgo Beach in 2011.

Police have said they believe the alleged serial killer murdered at least one of his victims inside the home while his family was away.

Aerial footage of the scene revealed groups of investigators in Heuermann’s back yard digging up earth and bagging evidence.

Cadaver dogs also were brought to the property

Commissioner Raymond said on Monday officials ‘are doing a total investigation around the house to see if there is anything we need to take a closer look at.’

llerup was at home Thursday when police burst into the property at the same time they arrested Heuermann outside his architectural firm in Manhattan.

Her attorney, Robert Macedonio, said the family had been blindsided by the shocking murder charges.

‘Obviously this has been a shocking time for them and a pretty difficult time to comprehend,’ he told the US Sun.

Police said they believe the alleged killer murdered at least one of his victims inside the home

The Heuermann-Ellerup home in Long Island is pictured Saturday, as investigators remove items from the house

The first victim, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, was discovered by Suffolk County Police on December 11, 2010. The body of Megan Waterman, 22, was found two days later

Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old when she went missing (left). Amber Lynn Costello was 27 years old. Their bodies were found near Barthelemy’s the same day

‘As with any family, it’s extremely upsetting and they’re totally shocked and caught off guard. The family doesn’t want to make any further comment than that.’

Authorities previously echoed the attorney’s comments, stating the family was ‘in the dark about his double life.’

Moreover, detectives are now looking into unsolved murders across the country to see if they are linked to Heuermann.

Cops are probing whether he operated in the Atlantic City area, and have been interviewing jailed sex workers who interacted with him.

The update from law enforcement comes after it was revealed the Gilgo Beach killings have similarities to murders in the area by the ‘Eastbound Strangler,’ who killed four sex workers by strangling them near Atlantic City.

In the Long Island case, most of the victims were also female sex workers, and several of them were strangled.

The investigation now covers four states – Heuermann owns a time-share in Las Vegas and a property in South Carolina – and police are investigating if he could be connected to any unsolved killings there. 

Suffolk County police have already executed search warrants in the two properties. Officers recovered a Chevrolet Avalanche truck they believe is connected to the suspect and one of the murders and transported it back to New York.