Revelations have emerged regarding the methods employed by Rex Heuermann, the Gilgo Beach serial killer, to commit his crimes while eluding law enforcement for many years.
Heuermann’s strategy involved a carefully orchestrated four-day plan. He would attract women to his residence in Massapequa Park, Long Island, during periods when his family was away on vacation.
Once there, he subjected his victims to days of torment before ultimately killing them, then proceeded to manipulate their bodies in a gruesome manner.
Demonstrating a chilling level of meticulousness, Heuermann documented the exact time needed to dispose of the victims’ bodies at Gilgo Beach, ensuring he had a precise blueprint for future crimes.
Heuermann was so meticulous in his planning he timed to the second how long it took to dump victims’ bodies at Gilgo Beach and made notes to be used for next time.
One particularly skin-crawling journal entry urged him to be less noisy next time so he could have more ‘PLAY TIME.’
The hulking 6ft 4in, 270-pound killer revealed his maniacal methods for the first time in a new Peacock documentary released this week, The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets.
‘He was so meticulous, detail oriented, pathological, control, dominance. He had to beat himself at his own game,’ said Long Island therapist Alison T Winter, who interviewed Heuermann for the documentary.
‘Clearly, he enjoyed killing, and it became a sickness for him. It became an outlet. It became an obsession.’
Rex Heuermann at his first court appearance at Arthur Cromarty Court Complex in Riverhead after his July 2023 arrest
The victims clockwise from left: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla
Rex Heuermann also pleaded guilty to the murder of an eighth victim, Karen Vergata
Heuermann pleaded guilty on April 8 to murdering eight sex workers between 1993 and 2010.
Seven of the eight victims were killed in his Massapequa Park home except for his first known victim Sandra Costilla, who was killed in his Dodge Ram Charger – before her body was dumped in North Sea, a town in South Hampton – and approximately 60 miles from his home.
Costilla’s murder was unplanned but all the other killings were pre-mediated.
Heuermann admitted to strangling all of his victims – Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard -Barnes, Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy, known as ‘The Gilgo Four’, and also dismembering Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Karen Vergata.
He told Winter how he would initially meet his victims and get to know them to gain their trust before arranging a second meet.
He explained he would commit the crimes in the basement – which later became known as ‘the kill room’ – in his family home where he also grew up.
Day one was ‘the prep.’
‘He cleaned the entire basement and he would prepare for his time with them in the house,’ Winter said.
Day two was his ‘time with the victim.’
‘He told me that was always very enjoyable. He was very kind until they were going to be murdered,’ she said.
‘And then a lot of it was the postmortem – his play time – and that night was the dump.’
Day three was ‘clean up.’
‘He had to take every single thing he used, tools, tarps, clothes, everything, and he would dispose of it, so there was in his mind no evidence.’
Day four, was a day, she said, he set aside for ’emergencies.’
He told her that he ‘needed an extra day’ in case anything did not go to plan.
The therapist spoke about Heurmann’s double secret life said, in part, ‘the prepping timing, play time, clean up – it all became a methodical second life – so to speak.’
‘It’s a four-day high,’ she said, ‘a four-day adrenaline rush and then he’d fly out to his family.’
Winter was able to share her intimate sessions with Heuermann and his family after they waived their rights to patient privacy
She recalled her first visit to the Suffolk County Correctional Facility located in Riverhead, Long Island, when the imposing serial killer was waiting for her.
‘He is absolutely analyzing me in his mind. He looked at me as if he is special,’ she said.
She said he asked: ‘Have you ever sat with a serial killer before?’
Understanding his narcissistic tendencies she responded. ‘I have not …but you are all the same ….you are not that special.’
‘He looked at me and kind of froze.’
She said she remembered how he turned his body towards her, looked at her right in the eye and said: ‘Do you have any idea what it’s like to want to kill someone – to hurt – to kill – to play god – and end somebody’s life. You don’t know what that is like.’
Eventually she earned his trust and said Rex started ‘sharing everything with me.’
‘The deeper he gets the darker it gets’ she said, but he could never explain ‘the why’ and what triggered him to kill another human being.
‘I’ve asked ‘the why. He does not know,’ Winter said.
‘The only thing he is really able to come up with is he gets to know them as people if he gets to know someone he gets vulnerable. He’s not in total control so if he felt like he was losing a sense of control what would he do – he would purse with a kill which was planned.’
As the years went on and the number of victims grew, Heuermann would try to ‘perfect his process.’
Asa Ellerup, the estranged wife of Heuermann, and their daughter Victoria, outside Suffolk County Court on April 8 – the day their family member would plead guilty
Asa Ellerup’s attorney Robert A Macedonio said their lives had been ‘destroyed’ by Heuermann’s actions, who is also joined by the family’s therapist Alison T Winter
Winter spoke of a stopwatch Heuermann would use to time how fast he could park his car, lift the body out of his vehicle and dump them along Gilgo Beach.
‘He went from his first kill – two minutes and 32 seconds – to his last at Gilgo,’ which was just 37 seconds.
In June 2024, nearly a year after his arrest, prosecutors said they found a ‘planning document’ in his home that he used to ‘methodically blueprint’ his killings in a hard drive found during one of the searches at his Long Island home.
In the document, Heuermann laid out a set of tasks to complete before, during and after killings, including checking the weather and setting up a staging area. It also has a place to note practical lessons for ‘next time.’
One section, titled ‘BODY PREP,’ included guidance to ‘REMOVE HEAD AND HANDS,’ as well as tattoos and ‘marks of torture.’ Heuermann allegedly also left a reminder for himself to wash the ‘inside and all cavities’ of his victims.
Another section, ‘THINGS TO REMEMBER,’ appeared to highlight lessons from previous killings that should be heeded, according to prosecutors.
The entries describe the importance of sleeping properly ‘BEFORE HUNT,’ using thick rope, and limiting noise to increase ‘PLAY TIME.’
In a section titled ‘POST EVENT,’ there were reminders such as ‘change tires,’ ‘burn gloves,’ ‘dispose of pics,’ and ‘have story set.’
Map shows the location of Heuermann’s home compared to Gilgo Beach where the remains of several victims were dumped and later found
The back of Heuermann’s property that was searched a number of times since his 2023 arrest
Forensic teams and investigators moving out troves of evidence from Heuermann’s home
Investigators looking through documents that Heuermann had hidden as he carried out his kills
Boxes of files and evidence removed from his home and office that were placed in a truck
Copious amounts of evidence including digital evidence were taken out of the family home
In the documents, Heuermann also allegedly listed potential and past dumping sites as well as the supplies he had at hand.
In a section titled ‘PROBLEMS,’ he allegedly listed potential ways he could get caught, including blood stands, witness identification and hair and fiber evidence.
The Task Force observed that Heuermann possessed, in his home office, the book entitled The Cases That Haunt Us
Prosecutors ‘said at the time, ‘with Heuermann’s family vacationing out of state, Defendant would have had unfettered time and exclusive access to [his house] allowing Defendant Heuermann ample opportunity to execute, and clean up after, these crimes.’
In addition to the hard drive, prosecutors say they found a book in Heuermann’s possession by the retired FBI agent John Douglas, The Cases That Haunt Us.
They say the planning document also referenced specific pages in another work by Douglas, Mind Hunter, that allude to the personality types of serial killers and personality profiles of those who use mutilation and sexual violence.
On June 17, Heuermann will be sentenced to life in prison.
