Gilgo Beach suspect pleads guilty, admits killing 8 women over 3 decades

Rex Heuermann (centre), a 62-year-old architect from Long Island, pleaded guilty to killing seven women mentioned in the indictment against him and admitted in court to the killing of an eighth victim. Photo / Getty Images

A New York architect has pleaded guilty to killing and dismembering seven women over three decades in beach communities, and confessed in court to the murder of another.

Rex Heuermann, 62, of Long Island, who was arrested in 2023, made his plea during a hearing in Suffolk County, New York, in which he confessed to graphic crimes after an extensive investigation into one of the state’s most notorious serial killings.

Heuermann is expected to face three consecutive life sentences and an additional 100 years behind bars, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office.

The murders began in 1993 and continued until 2010. Heuermann said he deposited the remains of many of his victims near Gilgo Beach, a barrier island near southern Long Island. The case rose to national prominence after police discovered the remains of the women near the beach in late 2010 and 2011.

For more than a decade, the cases remained unsolved, and investigators were hampered by infighting over how to resolve them. Women’s advocacy groups raised concerns that investigators were not handling the cases properly because some of the victims were sex workers.

The case picked up steam in 2022 when investigators linked a vehicle that had been registered to Heuermann to the scene of one of the killings. As police began monitoring Heuermann, investigators recovered an abandoned pizza box from a New York City garbage can in January 2023 that included his unfinished crusts. DNA from the crusts was then linked to male hair found on one of his victims.

The finding propelled prosecutors to charge Heuermann with the deaths of four women in July 2023. A year later, he was charged with two other killings. He initially pleaded not guilty to those crimes.

Prosecutors had alleged that a search of his home turned up a document he used to “methodically blueprint and plan out his kills with excruciating detail”.

That document showed Heuermann’s “intent was specifically to locate these victims, to hunt them down and to bring them under his control and to kill them”, prosecutors said in 2024.

In the plea agreement signed yesterday, Heuermann admitted killing Sandra Costilla, 28, in November 1993. He picked her up in his vehicle and strangled her before leaving her body in Southampton.

He confessed to killing Karen Vergata, 34, in 1996 by strangling her and dismembering her body. He took her remains to various locations.

Although some of Vergata’s remains were discovered in 1996, her skull was not found for another 15 years, in the Gilgo Beach area. She was not identified until 2023 after genetic screening.

In autumn 2000, Heuermann drove to pick up Valerie Mack, 24. He strangled her and dumped her remains at two different locations, including Gilgo Beach.

Some of her remains were discovered by hunters in November 2000, but others were not found until 2011 near Gilgo Beach. Mack was positively identified in 2020.

In July 2003, Heuermann strangled and dismembered Jessica Taylor, 20, and scattered her remains in two locations, according to prosecutors. Some of her remains were discovered a few days later, but others were not found until 2011.

He further admitted killing his next victim in July 2007 after seeing an online advertisement from Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who was 25.

After he arranged to meet her, he strangled her and wrapped her body in three belts, the district attorney’s office said. Her remains were discovered in 2010 near Gilgo Beach.

He killed sex worker Melissa Barthelemy, 24, in 2009, wrapped her body in burlap and tape and left it near Gilgo Beach.

He also used burlap and tape to transport the body of Megan Waterman, 22, whom he killed during the summer of 2010 after the two met at a Holiday Inn. Her body was found six months later near Gilgo Beach.

Heuermann killed his final known victim in September 2010. He had driven to pick up Amber Costello, 27, at her home and then strangled her, disposing of her remains near Gilgo Beach.

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