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Topics: True Crime, Crime, US News, News
Rhianna Benson
Topics: True Crime, Crime, US News, News
The man dubbed the 'Gilgo Beach Killer' has pleaded guilty to the murder of eight women after police used a pizza crust to link him to the cold case.
Rex Heuermann, 62, appeared in Suffolk County Court this week, three years after his arrest and following an investigation that spanned over 30 years.
The mass murderer brutally strangled a stream of women who lived locally to the area between 1993 and 2010, before dismembering some of them and abandoning their remains across the region.
The bodies of Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Megan Waterman were found strewn along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. Sandra Costillo's remains were found more than 60 miles away, in the Hamptons.
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At the time, Heuermann, who hailed from the nearby neighbourhood of Massapequa, had worked as an architect in New York. He was also a married father of two young children.
An official investigation was first opened following the disappearance of Shannen Gilbert in the Oak Beach area in 2011. Though police later ruled that Gilbert had drowned in the marshland of the region, the search for her body led to the discovery of several other victims.
Suffolk Country Police Department worked tirelessly for eight years to find the perpetrator of these heinous crimes, but were ceaselessly stunted by misdemeanours, corruption and tensions within the force.
In 2022, however, a new police commissioner was hired, forming the Gilgo Beach task force, which would liaise with the FBI to review all the evidence they'd gathered on the case over the years.
Heuermann soon emerged as a suspect after police linked his vehicle registration to a description given by friends of one of his victims, Costello, who claimed she'd previously been harassed by an 'ogre-like' man who drove a Chevrolet Avalanche car.
Other Ocean Parkway locals also claimed at the time they’d frequently observed a similar vehicle loitering in the area.
Search warrants for Heuermann's home led to the discovery of billing records for burner phones he'd used to contact his victims, as well as a computer search history of violent torture pornography and an interest in the case.
Eventually, investigators used DNA lifted from a pizza crust that the killer had discarded to link him to a male hair found on burlap that Heuermann had used to restrain one of his victims, the majority of whom were sex workers.
Opting to take a guilty plea shortly after his arrest, Heuermann agreed to cooperate fully with the FBI.
Appearing in court this week in a white button-down shirt and black overcoat, he pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and four counts of intentional murder.
The serial killer also admitted to the murder of Karen Vergata in 1996, but wasn't charged for her death.
Some of her remains were found on Fire Island, more than 20 miles west, in 1996, and others near Gilgo Beach in 2011.
Heuermann's ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, told reporters as she and her daughter, Victoria, left the courtroom: "My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Their loss is immeasurable, and the focus should be on them at this time and moment.
"I ask that you give some privacy to my family as they navigate through this very difficult time."
The Gilgo Beach Killer will be sentenced in June to life in prison without the possibility of parole.