Jogger is haunted every time she runs ‘after ogre Rex Heuermann terrorized her in Route 29 killer’s hunting ground’

ACCUSED Long Island Serial Killer Rex Heuermann once stalked and terrorized a female jogger while she was running in a Virginia woods near the hunting grounds of the Route 29 Stalker, a woman has claimed in a new affidavit.

Earlier this week, in a public press conference, Gilgo Beach attorney John Ray shared previously unreleased statements from several women claiming to have shared frightening and violent encounters with Heuermann over the last three decades.

One of the women, identified by the pseudonym Nancy Poe, alleged in an affidavit provided to Ray that she was chased by Heuermann in the summer of 1997 while she was out running alone in Echo Lake Park, near Richmond, Virginia.

Between March 1996 and May 1997, eight women and girls had been abducted and murdered in an area near Richmond known as the Route 29 corridor.

Only three of the eight murderers have even been solved, and the serial killer commonly referred to as the Route 29 Stalker remains at large today.

In a copy of her statement obtained by The U.S. Sun, Nancy Poe, who was in college in 1997, said fear of the Route 29 Stalker was so heightened at the time that her cross-country track team was forced to stop running at a local state park after a decapitated body was found there.

Still, almost every evening, Nancy said she would go out for three-mile runs to Echo Lake Park and loop back home.

One evening in either August or September 1997, Nancy claimed she was running her usual route through the park when she crested a small hill to see a "large ogre of a man" in a camouflage jacket crouching down behind a tree near the trail staring at her, per the affidavit.

"I froze in fear in the middle of the path in a flight or fight stance and stared at him," Nancy wrote in her statement.

"He was wearing jeans, a tee, and a camo jacket on a hot day in a small park that absolutely no one would be hunting animals in, he did not have a fishing poll, was not going to the bathroom [...] but was staring at me in a way that I knew I was in trouble.

"I didn't know what to do. We were face-to-face. He did not say a word, he did not say, 'I'm sorry I didn't mean to scare you,' instead, he stood up and moved slowly behind another tree next to him and closer to me.

"All kinds of thoughts went through my head," she added, "but one was don't forget that face. And if I don't get out of here now he is getting ready to grab me."

Nancy believes she yelled out to the man before turning on her heels and running back the way she came as fast as her legs would carry her, the affidavit states.

On her way out of the park, she remembers encountering a car she believes belonged to the ogre-ish man but cannot remember its make, model, or color.

"I have never run so fast in my life," wrote Nancy.

"I was alone, no cell phone, about one mile from my house.

"I wet my pants on the way home and I fell and tore my knees up. When I got home I was crying."

Nancy immediately informed her husband and her parents of her encounter with the unknown male in Echo Lake Park.

She was so frightened by their crossing of paths that she bought mace and immediately enlisted in karate lessons, which went on to study for more than a decade.

LISK LINKS

Nancy said she never forgot the man's face.

Last year, The U.S. Sun published a series of stories highlighting potential links between the Route 29 Stalker and accused Gilgo Beach Killer Rex Heuermann. The perceived parallels between the two cases were first reported by the investigative true crime blog, Murder Incorporated.

The investigation centered on the unsolved murder of Alicia Showalter Reynolds, a 25-year-old newlywed who was killed while traveling along Route 29 on March 2, 1996.

Alicia's younger sister, Barbara Josenhans, and twin brother, Patrick Showalter, both told The U.S. Sun they noticed a striking resemblance between Heuermann and a black and white pencil composite sketch of the Route 29 Stalker.

Property records unearthed as part of that investigation also showed that Heuermann's mother, Dolores Heuermann, has lived in Palmyra, Virginia, since at least 1994.

Palmyra is roughly 50 miles from where Alicia Showalter Reynolds was last seen alive.

In a 2018 deposition for an unrelated lawsuit, Heuermann admitted to traveling to Virginia on several occasions throughout 2018.

When asked how he got there, he responded: "[I] Drove, or my wife would be driving," per the transcript.

In her sworn affidavit, Nancy said she was aware of the Showalter Reynolds case and remembered once seeing a colored pencil sketch of her killer which "didn't trigger anything" at the time.

However, she continued, "But then [recently] I scrolled down [a] recent article and there was a sketch I had never seen. It was a black and white penciled sketch.

"When I saw it I almost vomited. This was the man I had the run-in with."

Nancy said soon after she watched an ABC 20/20 program on the Gilgo Beach murders that left her certain Rex Heuermann was the man she'd encountered in 1997.

She also continued reading about the Route 29 murders on Murder Inc. and discovered the killing of Anne Carver Clapp, who lived in Palmyra within a mile of Dolores Heuermann.

Clapp vanished from the Charlottesville area on September 15, 1997. Her remains were later found in Goochland in 2001.

A man was charged with her murder but later acquitted. The case remains unsolved.

"Goochland is two towns from where I lived and Echo Lake Park. I went there all the time," wrote Nancy.

"It is perhaps a 10-minute drive and a straight, easy 1-hour drive from Rex Heueremann's mother's house to this park.

"Anne Carve Clapp was abducted within a one or two-week timespan from when I had a run-in with the man, who I think was Rex Heuermann, either looking for a place to dump or looking for a victim, who could have been me," she alleged.

"There is just too much resemblance and coincidence as to Heuermann for me to ignore it.

"Please encourage someone to investigate, and compare DNA on Alicia Showalter and Anne Carve Clapp."

Nancy added that while three of the murders were solved and tied to Richard Marc Evonitz, at least five others remain unsolved.

"I wonder now if Rex saw Evonitz as an opportunity to do his own hunting in the Virginia area, or was inspired by those crimes," she further alleged.

"I recognize Rex Heuermann's face. He was thinner in 1997 than he is now. His hair appeared, generally as it is depicted in the sketch of the suspect, provided by Virginia State Police.

"I am not sure of his eye color. His face, from cheekbone to cheekbone, was very wide."

HEUERMANN'S 'LIKENESS'

The U.S. Sun has contacted Virginia State Police for comment on Nancy's statement.

When approached late last year, the department refused to specify whether Heuermann was being eyed as a potential suspect in the case.

"State police does not comment on potential suspects, confirmed or unconfirmed," said Public Relations Director Corinne Geller.

"Despite the passage of more than two decades and the scrutiny of more than 10,000 leads, Virginia State Police continues to actively pursue the disappearance and murder of [...] Alicia Showalter Reynolds.

"State police remain hopeful that this case will come to a successful resolution and continue to encourage the public to come forward with any information related to the investigation."

When shown the affidavit by The U.S. Sun, Alicia's sister Barbara said her initial reaction was "Holy s**t."

Alicia's case has garnered very few leads over the last three decades but her family has not given up hope of finding the person responsible for her death.

However, Barbara hopes the culprit is already dead so the family can be spared from the emotional tumult of a criminal trial.

"I want to believe the guy is dead, quite frankly," admitted Barbara.

"That would make everything easier [...] one of the hardest parts of all this has been watching my parents deal with their grief, while also dealing with my own.

"At this point, 27 years later, although I would love for the case to be solved, I would hate for there to be a court trial.

"Dealing with the trial, seeing this person in the flesh, and reliving it all would be more disturbing than helpful, for me, at least.

"I don't know if the rest of my family feel the same way, but that's definitely where I stand."

EXPAND THE SEARCH

Heuermann, meanwhile, has been charged with the murders of four sex workers - Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes - who were found dead along a remote stretch of beachfront parkway on Long Island in December 2010. He has pleaded not guilty.

Police departments across the country are also investigating Heuermann in connection with various cold cases, including in Las Vegas and South Carolina.

In September, The U.S. Sun exclusively revealed that, additionally, Heuermann is being investigated in connection with the murder of Carmen Vargas, another sex worker strangled and discarded at the side of a road in Freeport, New York, in 1989.

An attorney for Heuermann has been contacted for comment about the claims made in this story.

During John Ray's symposium on Tuesday night, he also shared various other sworn accounts from women claiming to have been accosted or scared by Heuermann over the last three decades.

He closed the event by reaffirming his belief the investigation into Heuermann needs to be expanded and taken out of Suffolk County's hands.

He said, "It is clear that the [Gilgo Beach] Task Force is not big enough, strong enough, organized enough, to handle all these cases that are multi-state.

"We have to get a much bigger look from the federal end. We need the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office to step in, which is why I started this case back in 2011."

Heuermann has been in custody without bond since July 2023.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and is due back in court next week.