The suspect police arrested in the Long Island Serial Killer case has a unique tie to Hollywood, one actor revealed Friday morning as news broke about the case.
“Woke up this morning to learn that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect was my high school classmate Rex Heuermann,” actor Billy Baldwin tweeted.
Baldwin, the second-youngest Baldwin brother, said he and Heuermann graduated together from Berner High School in Massapequa, N.Y., as part of the class of 1981.
A source confirmed with PEOPLE on Friday morning that Heuermann, an architect with an office in Manhattan, has been identified as the suspect by police. It is not clear if Heuermann has yet been charged. PEOPLE was not able to contact him, and it’s not clear if he has an attorney.
Police in New York first began investigating the case of the so-called “Long Island Serial Killer” 13 years ago after the bodies of four sex workers were found wrapped in burlap and placed within about 500 feet of one another in the marsh at Gilgo Beach.
Later, investigators uncovered the remains of more people in the area, bringing the total number to at least 10, though they have said not all of them are believed to be connected to the same killer.
The families of two separate victims received mysterious phone calls from an unidentified person who taunted them about the murders. The mother of 24-year-old victim Melissa Barthelemy told PEOPLE a man had called Melissa’s sister and “said he had killed her.”
The long-unsolved case has gained more notoriety in recent years after author Robert Kolker’s wrote his bestselling 2013 nonfiction book Lost Girls about the murders.
The book was later turned into a true crime Netflix movie of the same name, released in 2020 and starring Amy Ryan, Gabriel Bryne, and Lola Kirke.
Woke up this morning to learn that the Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect was my high school classmate Rex Heuermann.
— Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) July 14, 2023
Berner High School
Massapequa, New York
Class of 1981
Married, two kids, architect.
“Average guy… quiet, family man.”
Mind-boggling… Massapequa is in shock.… pic.twitter.com/Tms0IWVazN