An architect is the suspect in the Gilgo Beach murders 2:26

(CNN) -- Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann is due to appear in a New York court Wednesday for a hearing on his case, in which he has pleaded not guilty to murder in the deaths of three women more than a decade ago.

The discovery of the women's remains near each other in December 2010 on a Long Island beach, and the murders of others in the area, attracted national attention and prompted the search for a possible serial killer.

Heuermann, a 59-year-old architectural consultant from Massapequa Park, was arrested two months ago and is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy in 2009 and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello in 2010, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.

He has pleaded not guilty through his lawyer.

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Authorities Still Working on Gilgo Beach Serial Murder 2:24

Heuermann is expected to attend Wednesday morning's status hearing, where prosecutors and defense attorneys can discuss the release of evidence and provide other updates.

Last month, a Suffolk County judge sided with prosecutors and ruled that Heuermann must provide a DNA sample taken from the inside of his cheek.

"The court considers that comparison of the defendant's sample with the evidence obtained," including a hair found on a victim he is accused of killing and "DNA found on the pizza crust and napkin, will provide material evidentiary evidence, whether incriminating or not," the judge wrote.

Heuermann was first identified as a possible suspect in early 2022, shortly after a multi-agency task force was formed to examine cold cases involving nearly a dozen sets of human remains found along Long Island's southern shore between 2010 and 2011. including four victims buried close to each other on Long Island's Gilgo Beach. Those victims were discovered within days of each other and were nicknamed the "Gilgo Four."

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Although Heuermann is only charged with three of those murders, he is the prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance and death of the fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, authorities have said.

A major breakthrough in the investigation came in January, when investigators recovered Heuermann's DNA from a pizza crust that had been dumped in a Manhattan dumpster, according to authorities. That DNA matched DNA from a male hair from the bottom of a burlap bag that the killer used to wrap one of the victim's bodies, according to prosecutors.

-- CNN's Mark Morales and Jean Casarez contributed to this report.

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