Long Island neighbors shocked by arrests in Gilgo Beach

Nobody suspected Rex Heuermann for a serial killer.

Neighbors of his quiet Long Island suburb were reeling Friday after his stunning arrest in the long-unsolved series of murders dating back more than a decade.

“I’m shocked!” said local resident Carol Bergen, 65. “Shocked. What else can you feel about it?”

Heuermann, 59, was taken into custody Thursday night around 8:30 p.m., with his Massapequa neighbors awakened by authorities early Friday and ordered to move their cars as news of the arrest spread like wildfire.

Neighbors gathered all morning behind the crime scene tape in the suburban enclave, shooting cell phone video and gossiping in gaggles.

“I always thought they were a little odd,” said neighbor Matthew Waterhouse, 23. “It’s horrible. If he did it, he deserves to be put away.”

Ten women were killed in 2010 and 2012, with investigators stymied for years in their pursuit of the killer.

“This is crazy,” said the suspect’s 26-year-old next-door neighbor. “Unbelievable … It’s just shocking. I don’t know what to say.”

Waterhouse said he learned Friday in a group chat that his neighbor, a Long Island native with a wife and two children, was the long-sought suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders.

The next-door neighbor recounted police arriving in the Long Island neighborhood on Thursday night, with men in suits and black SUVs seen on the typically quiet street.

“They gave off hick, redneck vibes,” said Waterhouse of the suspect and his family. “Like the quality of their house, they way they dressed. He wore overalls all the time … I was a little creeped out by the house.”

In a video interview posted on the internet, lifelong suburban dad Heuermann talked about his career as an architect and consultant, working in his Manhattan office since 1987.

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The Daily News reported in 2007 that Heuermann was under investigation for an incident where more than two dozen Harlem families were booted from their apartments after he identified the building as vacant.

A city probe ended with no disciplinary action taken, according to a source.

Neighbor Barry Auslander, 72, recalled watching the suspect walking to the train in a business suit while carrying a briefcase, adding the two never had any interactions along his route.

“He is kind of a strange fella,” said Auslander. “He just kind of keeps to himself. He doesn’t walk with anybody, talk with anybody. He just walks and gets on the train like an everyday businessman.”

According to Bergen, the suspect grew up in the home before eventually buying the property from his mother. His father, she said, was a bizarre character know for jogging with a hatchet in his hand to fend off coyotes or neighborhood dogs.

The younger Heuermann “graduated with my girlfriend and she said he was a complete weirdo,” recalled Bergen. “He grew up in that house. He’s lived here his whole life.

“They thought they were perfect,” she added. “They were weird.”