The notorious Gilgo Beach serial killer, Rex Heuermann, has confessed to the brutal slayings of eight women, bringing a significant chapter in Long Island’s grim history to a close. This admission marks a pivotal moment in a case that has haunted the community for over 30 years.
During a court appearance in Suffolk County on Wednesday, the imposing figure of Heuermann—an architect, husband, and father—admitted to the murders of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, Amber Costello, 27, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Jessica Taylor, 20, Sandra Costilla, 28, Valerie Mack, 24, and Karen Vergata, 34. These crimes spanned a period of terror from 1993 to 2010.
Dressed in a dark suit complemented by a white shirt and blue-patterned tie, the 62-year-old made his confession in a straightforward manner, acknowledging guilt to seven murder counts and admitting responsibility for an eighth.
When pressed for details on how he carried out these heinous acts, his response was chillingly concise: ‘Strangulation.’
As part of his plea deal, Heuermann has consented to serve three life sentences without the possibility of parole for three of the murders, with the potential for four additional life sentences for the others. Furthermore, he has relinquished all rights to appeal and will not face further charges related to these eight killings.
The sudden change in plea marks the very first time that Heuermann has confessed to being the infamous serial killer. The longevity of his activity, the brutality of the killings and the long-term evasion and taunting of law enforcement cement him as one of the country’s most notorious serial killers.
He will return to court on June 17 for his sentencing.
The victims clockwise from left: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, Amber Costello, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla
In the latest twist, Heuermann also pleaded guilty to the murder of an eighth victim Karen Vergata
Rex Heuermann has pleaded guilty to the murders of eight women in a reign of terror dating back to 1993
His victims had all been working as sex workers when they suddenly vanished.
Their remains – some of them mutilated and dismembered – were found dumped in remote areas of Long Island.
After evading capture for years – during which time he raised a family in Massapequa Park and ran an architecture firm in the heart of Midtown Manhattan – Heuermann was arrested in July 2023.
Heuermann was initially charged with the murders of Barthelemy, Waterman, Costello and Brainard‑Barnes, who together were known as the ‘Gilgo Four.’
Authorities later linked him to the killings of Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor – bringing the total to seven women.
For the past three years, he has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty and fighting tooth and nail against the charges.
Now, in a stunning reversal, he has admitted not only to the seven murders he is charged with – but to the murder of an eighth victim, 34-year-old Karen Vergata.
Fears of a serial killer first emerged back in 2010 when the remains of the first of 11 bodies were discovered along the remote stretch of Ocean Parkway, close to Gilgo Beach.
The harrowing discovery came during a search for 24-year-old Shannan Gilbert, who had made a chilling 911 call and then disappeared following a visit to a client’s house in nearby Oak Park that May.
That December, Barthelemy’s remains were the first to be found. Within days, Brainard-Barnes, Waterman and Costello were found close by.
By the spring of 2011, 10 victims had been found in the area. The final victim found was Gilbert who, to this day, investigators maintain died by accident and is not linked to the serial killer case.
Another 13 years would pass before a suspect fell on investigators’ radar, as the case was notoriously hampered by the actions of disgraced, corrupt former Suffolk County Police Commissioner James Burke.
Heuermann was ultimately tied to the serial killings through a witness tip about his pickup truck as well as damning cellphone evidence.
The serial killer had used a trove of different burner phones to contact some of the victims, with location data placing the user near both Heuermann’s family home in Massapequa Park and his office in Midtown Manhattan.
With a suspect in sight, investigators then obtained crucial DNA evidence from a discarded pizza crust – which proved Heuermann to be the source of a hair found on Waterman’s body.
Asa Ellerup, the estranged wife of Rex Heuermann, and their daughter Victoria outside Suffolk County Court this morning ahead of the hearing
A spokesperson for the family said their lives had been ‘destroyed’ by Heuermann’s actions
It later emerged that hairs belonging to his wife Asa Ellerup, daughter Victoria Heuermann and another individual close to him had been found on six of the seven victims for which he was charged.
Despite this DNA evidence, none of these individuals are believed to be connected to Heuermann’s crimes.
Suffolk County DA Tierney has previously revealed that Ellerup, the couple’s daughter Victoria and Ellerup’s son Christopher Sheridan – who Heuermann raised as his own – were all out of town on vacation at the time of the murders.
Investigators now believe that Heuermann would stay home during family vacations and use that time to commit his crimes.
It is believed that he held his victims inside the basement of the family home – a place where he had spent his childhood before choosing to also raise his own children there – where they were tortured, murdered and, in some cases, dismembered.
The family pictured together before Heuermann’s arrest on suspicion of being a serial killer
Investigators search Rex Heuermann’s home in July 2023, days after his arrest
A disturbing ‘planning document’, found on a hard drive during a search, revealed what prosecutors described as his blueprint for selecting, killing and disposing of victims.
The document included sections titled ‘body prep’ detailing how to clean and dismember bodies and remove tattoos.
Other chilling evidence also emerged including his sick porn searches for ‘autopsy photos of female,’ ‘tied up fat girl porn,’ ‘skinny white teen crying porn’ and ‘stories of rape audio’ – as well as his online obsession with the Gilgo Beach serial killer case.
Based on Heuermann’s sudden change in plea, his earliest known victim is now believed to be Sandra Costilla – a Trinidad and Tobago native living in Queens when she vanished in 1993.
Her body was found days later in a wooded area in North Sea, bearing sharp force injuries to her face and body.
For years, her murder was not believed to be connected to the Gilgo Beach case and another serial killer, John Bittrolf, was eyed as a suspect, until advanced DNA testing recently identified a hair on her body as belonging to Heuermann.
Meanwhile the killings continued.
Police search a marsh for the remains of Shannan Gilbert in Oak Beach in December 2011 after the remains of several victims were found in the area
Suffolk County Police conduct a search on December 14, 2010 along Gilgo Beach where four bodies were found
Three years later, in February 1996, Valerie Mack – long known as ‘Fire Island Jane Doe’ – was last seen alive in Manhattan while working as an escort.
That April, her dismembered legs were found wrapped in plastic on Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach. In April 2011, her skull was found off Ocean Parkway.
It would take another 12 years before she was finally identified through investigative genetic genealogy.
Mack, a mother-of-one, was then last seen alive in Philadelphia in 2000.
Her dismembered remains were found in two separate locations – Manorville in 2000 and Ocean Parkway in 2011.
Like Vergata, her family only learned she had been murdered years later when she was identified in 2020.
Jessica Taylor’s partial remains were also found close to Mack in both Manorville and Ocean Parkway.
The 20-year-old from Poughkeepsie had been last seen in July 2003 at the Port Authority in New York – a short walk from Heuermann’s office.
Her tattoo had been disfigured, as though to prevent identification – like the ‘planning document’ detailed.
Investigators say these earlier killings predate what became known as the ‘Gilgo Four’ – the cluster of murders that first drew national attention.
The first of those victims to disappear was 25-year-old Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who went to meet a client in July 2007 and never returned.
Heuermann had bound her body with three leather belts, one of which contained his wife’s DNA.
Almost exactly two years later – while his family was away on vacation – 24-year-old Melissa Barthelemy vanished after going to meet a client.
As her loved ones searched for her, the killer used her phone to make chilling, taunting calls, mocking her family and bragging about the murder.
Rex Heuermann in selfies submitted as evidence in the case. The accused serial killer is charged with murders dating from 1993 to 2010
Discarded pizza crust that was seized for DNA testing – allegedly linking Rex Heuermann to the Gilgo Beach serial killer case
Map shows the location of Rex Heuermann’s home compared to Gilgo Beach where the remains of several victims were found
The following summer in June 2010, Waterman was last seen alive leaving a Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge to meet a client.
The last known victim was Costello, who left her home to meet a client in September 2010.
Her roommate told police the client was ‘ogre-like’ and driving a distinctive green Chevy Avalanche – the car Heuermann drove at the time.
Three months later, the serial killer’s graveyard was discovered.
The victims’ family members, who have waited years for answers and justice in the case, learned two weeks ago that their loved ones’ killer was changing his plea to guilty, Newsday first reported.
Since the news broke, Mack’s son has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Heuermann, Ellerup and Victoria – paving the way for further potential civil action against the serial killer.
Since his arrest, Heuermann has been held in isolation inside Suffolk County Jail.
Now, he faces life in prison when he will be sentenced in the coming weeks.
