Billy Baldwin Reveals Tie to Gilgo Beach Murder Suspect Rex Heuermann: 'Mind-boggling'

Billy Baldwin revealed his personal ties to today's break in the Gilgo Beach murders case, after the announcement Friday morning that a suspect has been arrested.

According to multiple reports, Rex Heuermann, an architect, was arrested in connection with the killings, though authorities have not officially released his name. More will be announced at a press conference later today.

After an escort disappeared in 2010 while leaving a client's home, a search of the nearby area led to the shocking discovery of 10 sets of human remains -- many belonging to other sex workers. The case has baffled local authorities for years, before today's big update.

As the arrest started making headlines, Baldwin took to Twitter to react in shock -- revealing he went to high school with the suspect.

"Woke up this morning to learn that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect was my high school classmate Rex Heuermann," he tweeted. "Berner High School Massapequa, New York, Class of 1981  Married, two kids, architect. 'Average guy ... quiet, family man.' Mind-boggling ... Massapequa is in shock. 23andMe strikes again???"

The unsolved murder investigation began in 2010, when 24-year-old sex worker Shannan Gilbert (below center) disappeared after leaving a client's home in Oak Beach. In a 911 call released publicly for the first time in 2022 (above), Gilbert can be heard saying, "There's somebody after me."

Eight months into their search for Gilbert, police discovered human remains belonging to 24-year-old Melissa Barthelemy, 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 27-year-old Amber Lynn Costello and Megan Waterman, 22 -- who were all working as escorts on Craigslist and dubbed the "Gilgo Four" -- nearby.

In March 2011, partial remains of Jessica Taylor, another escort, were found several miles away ... before three more sets of remains belonging to a toddler, an unknown male and Valerie Mark -- a 24-year-old who also worked as an escort -- were discovered in April 2011. Two more sets of remains were discovered a week later, one of them a DNA match as the toddler's mother, whose partial remains were discovered in Nassau County's Hempstead Lake State Park in 1997. The other set matched remains found on Fire Island in 1996.

Pictured above are Gilbert in the center; Top row L-R: Barthelemy, Brainard-Barnes and Costello; Bottom row L-R: Waterman, Taylor and Mack.

Gilbert's phone, purse and remains weren't discovered until December 2011. A belt believed to belong to the suspect embossed with either the letters "HM" or "WH" was also found at the scene. Though Gilbert's disappearance sparked the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation, authorities announced in 2022 -- when they released the 9-1-1 call -- that while they believe her death was "tragic," it "was not murder and most likely not criminal."