'I was on high alert': Women shares unsettling train journey with Gilgo beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann
Kaylin Morales, 21, said she was travelling home on a nearly empty Long Island Rail Road train on 1 July 2023, when Heuermann sat down beside her, uncomfortably close, despite there being dozens of empty seats.
'I just thought he was this big, fat, ugly white man…I obviously didn't know who he was at the time,' Morales told the New York Post. 'It was just so weird that the rest of the seats were empty and he had to sit right next to me.
I was on high alert at that point.'
Heuermann, 61, allegedly made a creepy comment as he sat down, saying, 'Oh, you don't have to move your pretty legs. I won't bother you.'
Feeling 'uncomfortable' and 'boxed in' by Heuermann's large body, Morales began secretly recording him with her phone, capturing photos and videos as the train left Penn Station. In one Snapchat clip, Heuermann is seen sipping a Miller Lite, his phone on his lap appearing to show a New York Post article.
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Another video shows him cracking open a second can of beer.
'I could have moved but I was like, 'Is he going to say something else to me?'' she said. 'I just don't want to interact with this man any further — everything about him was sussing me out. So I thought the best thing to do was ignore him and put my AirPods in and look out of the window.'
Morales said she later saw Heuermann exit the train at Massapequa, the same area he had lived in for years before his shocking arrest on 13 July 2023 in connection with several long-unsolved murders on Gilgo Beach.
Her footage, initially kept private, was submitted to Suffolk County Crime Stoppers. Morales was later interviewed by a detective, who confirmed the man in the videos was indeed Heuermann.
'My heart immediately sank to the floor…it was literally the craziest feeling. I couldn't even believe it,' she recalled of the moment she recognised him on the news.
Morales said she held off from posting the clips online until earlier this month out of fear for her safety and finally posted it on TikTok.
'I was worried if I posted right after his arrest, if he had a partner, I didn't want them coming after me, so I waited,' she said. 'After I watched the Netflix documentary and see that he did this alone, I felt more comfortable sharing my experience.'
When approached, the Suffolk county police department declined to comment, and the district attorney's office said they could not confirm or deny details of any ongoing investigations.
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