Long Island lawyer John Ray says arrest of Rex Heuermann ‘casts a shadow’ over police department’s ‘inadequate’ work

John Ray, the Long Island attorney who has waged a decade-long campaign to solve the riddle of possibly 10 murder victims found near Gilgo Beach, has said the arrest of the accused serial killer Rex Heuermann has “elated” the families of two victims he represents.

Ray’s involvement in the case centers on Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker and aspiring actor who disappeared aged 23 in May 2010 from a house several miles from Gilgo Beach. Her disappearance triggered a police investigation that later uncovered the remains of four women in their 20s who had been wrapped in burlap sacks and came to be known as the “Gilgo Four”.