“After hearing about this case for so many years, it’s a shock,” said neighbor Cheryl Lombardi.

No one answered the phone at Mr. Heuermann’s house. firm, RH Consultants and Associates, on Friday morning. An email seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Mr. Heuermann described himself in a February 2022 interview as an architect and architectural consultant who perused building and administrative codes and maintained an “extensive library of outdated books.”

“I am a problem solver, I was born and raised on Long Island, I have been working in Manhattan since 1987, a long time”, said in the 18 and a half minute interview with Antoine Amira, a real estate agent and host of a show called Bonjour Realty on YouTube.

It was not known on Friday how many of the killings had been linked to Heuermann.

One of the first deaths to come to light was in May 2010, when Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old from Jersey City, NJ, who worked as an escort, was reported missing on Long Island. She disappeared while visiting a client in Oak Beach, a gated community three miles from Gilgo Beach.

Seven months later, Suffolk County Police discovered four bodies wrapped in burlap along Ocean Parkway, three miles from where Ms. Gilbert was last seen alive. In 2011, they were identified by DNA as Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, and Melissa Barthelemy. They were all 20 years old and worked as escorts. Later that year, they found the remains of Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old mother from southern New Jersey who had paid the bills as an escort and had been missing for 20 years.

Ms Gilbert’s remains were found in December 2011, but investigators have said they do not believe her death was linked to the serial killer. Ms Gilbert’s family disagreed and demanded the publication of more evidence.