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Sources reveal that alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann had an uncannily intimate relationship with his mother during his younger years.

A Mother's Boy at Heart

Heuermann, now 59, was known as a 'momma's boy' among his acquaintances. According to a former classmate from Berner High School in Massapequa, Heuermann would often express statements such as, 'I have to get back to my mother'. "He was extremely close to his mother, who seemed to be his universe," the classmate recalled about Dolores Heuermann, now 93.

The intriguing bond between the two could be seen as a factor in Heuermann's decision to purchase his childhood home in Massapequa Park from his mother for $170,000 in 1994, following the failure of his first marriage to Elizabeth Ryan in 1990.

Life Under His Mother's Shadow

Heuermann, who pleaded not guilty on July 14 to murder charges linked to the deaths of sex workers Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Amber Lynn Costello, 22, and Megan Waterman, 27, found himself being the man of the house as early as age 12.

His father, Theodore Heuermann, a World War II veteran and a second lieutenant in the Air Force, passed away in 1975 when he was just 50. Rex, who later founded his own architecture firm, RH Consultants & Associates in 1994, rarely mentioned his late father to his friends, the classmate remembered. As he grew older, he boasted of his father being an "aerospace engineer who built satellites" but also taught him how to construct furniture.

Living in his childhood home, Heuermann raised his daughter and stepson with his second wife, Asa Ellerup, whom he married in 1996. However, she filed for divorce last week, mere six days after Heuermann's arrest in relation to the gruesome murders.

The Underlying Complexity of Heuermann's Persona

Criminologist Scott Bonn, who accurately profiled the accused Gilgo Beach killer back in 2011, described Heuermann as a "psychopath". He believes that Heuermann's "controlling and domineering" mother might have played a significant role in shaping his warped personality.

In Bonn's opinion, Heuermann's "somewhat unconventional, emotionally incestuous relationship" with his mother could have contributed to his disturbing pathology. Drawing parallels with infamous killer David Berkowitz, also known as the Son of Sam, who himself grappled with deep-seated mother issues, Bonn hypothesized, "Who knows what lurked beneath his façade? He might have been projecting an image of the doting son, when there could have been latent resentment towards his mother."

In recent news, neighbours at a senior housing complex in Toms River, NJ, reported that his mother had recently left and moved in with one of her daughters.