Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is eager for his day in court, according to his lawyer. 

“He’s very anxious to get to trial, but he’s a patient man,” Heuermann’s defense attorney Michael Brown told News 12 Long Island earlier this summer.

At that time, the news outlet reported that Brown believed that Heuermann’s trial “at the earliest” will happen in 2026, stating there are “many things that need to happen in this case before then.”

Setting a trial date has been a time-consuming high hurdle due because of the sheer complexity of the case. 

Heuermann, 61, has been charged with the murders of seven women whose remains were found in and around the Gilgo Beach area of Long Island between 1993 and 2011. 

In custody at the Riverhead Correctional Facility in Suffolk County, New York, since his arrest in July of 2023, Heuermann has pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

The notorious case is covered in detail in Peacock’s three-part documentary The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets, which takes viewers inside the suspect’s home for the first time and features interviews with his wife and kids. 

The documentary arrives on Oxygen on Sunday, August 31, when Parts 1 and 2 air at 6 p.m. and 7:15 p.m., respectively. Part 3 airs on Monday, September 1 at 8 p.m. 

Nailing down a trial date for Heuermann, an architect and now-divorced father of two who lived in Massapequa Park on Long Island, depends on resolving key disputes between prosecution and defense. 

These differences include admissibility of certain DNA evidence and whether to split the case into separate trials.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in March that the case was “heading toward the trial phase,” WABC reported. 

Tierney’s office is opposed to separate trials, citing common elements including victim profiles. 

Brown has requested separate trials for each murder charge, owing to differences in the timing of when the victims were killed and the method of the killings. 

“The danger of having count after count, victim after victim in the same trial is that ‘if there’s smoke, there’s fire’ mentality,” Brown said, according to NBC 4 New York. “They shouldn’t be tried together. One issue has nothing to do with the other.”

To learn more about the case, watch The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets, airing in several parts on August 31 and September 1 on Oxygen. The documentary in also still streaming on Peacock.