Rex Heuermann pleads guilty to Gilgo Beach serial murders, admits an eighth kill in court
The Massapequa Park resident and Manhattan architect plead guilty to seven murder charges and also admitted to killing Karen Vergata at the Suffolk County Supreme Court hearing.
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Rex Heuermann, the Gilgo Beach serial killer, admitted to strangling eight women in court on Wednesday. The string of Gilgo Beach murders have haunted the tri-state and beyond for over a decade.
The Massapequa Park resident and Manhattan architect plead guilty to seven murder charges and also admitted to killing Karen Vergata at the Suffolk County Supreme Court hearing.
Vergata's legs were found in a plastic bag on Fire Island after her disappearance in 1996. Her skull was found 15 years later west of Tobay Beach off Ocean Parkway. She was dubbed the "Fire Island Jane Doe" for years before her identity was known.
According to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Heuermann is expected to be sentenced to three consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for killing Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.
He is also expected to be sentenced to a consecutive sentence of 100 years to life imprisonment for killing Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla and Valerie Mack.
Heuermann was arrested in July 2023 and originally charged with the murders of Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello, nearly 13 years after the first body was discovered along Ocean Parkway.
Bathelemy, of the Bronx, was found dead on Dec. 11, 2010. The 24-year-old's phone last pinged in the areas of Manhattan, Freeport, Massapequa and Lindenhurst. After she was reported missing, her sister got taunting calls from someone she believed to be the killer.
Waterman was an escort from Maine and the last sight of her alive was from surveillance footage from the Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge. This is where police believe she left and was killed shortly after. Her body was found in the Oak Beach marsh, along with nearly a dozen others between 2010 and 2011.
Costello was last seen leaving her home in West Babylon in September 2010. Her remains were recovered at Gilgo Beach three months later.
Heuermann was indicted on a fourth murder, that of Brainard-Barnes, on Jan. 16, 2024.
She was last seen at Penn Station on July 9, 2007 after being reported missing from Norwich, Connecticut. A hair found on a belt used to restrain her was found and is nearly identical to the nuclear DNA profile of Heuermann's ex-wife, Asa Ellerup.
Heuermann charged with two additional murders: Taylor and Costilla on June 6, 2024.
Taylor was a Poughkeepsie native, whose decapitated torso was found in Manorville in 2003. Her head and arms were located eight years later along Gilgo Beach. Prosecutors say she worked as a sex worker near Heuermann’s Midtown Manhattan office. Her family previously said she was trying to turn her life around.
Costilla was found in 1993 in North Sea with 25 sharp‑force injuries.
On Dec. 17, 2024, Heuermann was charged with a seventh murder victim, Mack, who was 24 years old when she went missing in 2000. She had been working in the Philadelphia area as an escort and ended up in Manorville, 180 miles from Port Republic, New Jersey, where family members had last seen her.
After his arrest, former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison called Heuermann “a demon that walks among us.”
Heuermann has maintained his innocence since his arrest.
Shannan Gilbert, whose 23-year-old remains were found on Dec. 13, 2011, led to the discoveries of more bodies in the area, but investigators have not identified her as a Gilgo Beach victim.
Heuermann's defense team spent months attempting to suppress key evidence, including DNA that prosecutors say was recovered from a discarded pizza crust and links him to several of the victims. Those efforts were unsuccessful.
Court documents released in June 2024 allegedly showed Heuermann's meticulous planning to prepare, commit and get away with murder through checklists of issues to avoid getting caught - including necessary supplies and potential dumping sites.
The Microsoft Word planning document was recovered from a deleted space by a computer forensic extraction method. A forensic analysis showed the document was made in the year 2000 and was modified between 2001 and 2002.
The document lists "body prep" with notes under that say to remove trace DNA, marks from torture and to remove fingerprints, the head and hands.
Over two years later, in March 2026, a filing uncovered Heuermann's internet searches allegedly including “why hasn’t the Long Island serial killer been caught” and “why could law enforcement not trace the calls made by the Long Island serial killer.”
The filing also cited a Suffolk detective, who said Heuermann was a "sexual sadist" and that there were “significant searches for pornography related to bindings, torture, rape, snuff videos, crying, bruised and impaled women and/or girls…”
A trial is currently scheduled to begin shortly after Labor Day, and Tierney has previously said his office is prepared to proceed if the case does not resolve before then.
