Alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann pleads guilty in decades-long string of murders
The man charged with killing seven women and scattering their remains throughout Long Island, New York, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, marking the end of a decades-long case that instilled fears of a serial killer lurking within the region.
Rex Heuermann, a 62-year-old architect, admitted to brutally murdering Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Valerie Mack.
He also took responsibility for the uncharged murder of Karen Vergata.
In court on Wednesday, Heuermann said each woman’s cause of death was by strangulation. He will be sentenced on June 17.
"A defendant also has an absolute right to change his plea to accept responsibility and enter a plea of guilty," defense attorney Michael Brown said Wednesday.
"That decision is ultimately up to the defendant," Brown added. "He controls his case, and that's his prerogative. That's his right. And that's what happened here today, when Rex decided that he wanted to accept responsibility and didn't want to proceed to trial."
Heuermann was arrested outside his midtown Manhattan office in July 2023 and had maintained his innocence for nearly three years. A trial had been set for September.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," Heuermann's ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, told reporters outside the courthouse immediately following the plea. "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 investigation was thrown into the spotlight in 2010 after police discovered numerous sets of human remains along an isolated beach highway on Long Island, while searching for 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert, according to the Associated Press.
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Investigators relied heavily on DNA analysis to identify the remains of several victims found scattered throughout Long Island.
Remains of six women – Barthelemy, Costello, Brainard-Barnes, Waterman, Taylor and Mack – were recovered along Ocean Parkway in Gilgo Beach.
The remains of a seventh victim, Costilla, were found more than 60 miles away in the Hamptons.
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An eighth woman, Karen Vergata, was discovered nearly 20 miles west on Fire Island in 1996, and later near Gilgo Beach in 2011.
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Heuermann also admitted to the uncharged murder of Vergata on Wednesday, marking yet another victim in a case dating back to 1993.
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In 2022, Heuermann, who was living in nearby Massapequa Park, was identified as a suspect after the newly-formed Gilgo Beach task force used a vehicle registration database to connect him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one victim disappeared in 2010.
Detectives quickly began looking into Heuermann’s life, with prosecutors alleging he used burner phones to arrange meetings with the victims before abducting them.
Retested DNA found on the victim’s remains also pointed to Heuermann, with cellphone data indicating he had been in contact with a few of the women shortly before they disappeared.
Internet search history also revealed Heuermann’s interest in graphic torture pornography and news surrounding the Gilgo Beach killings – including the renewed investigation efforts.
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Investigators ultimately obtained Heuermann’s DNA after he threw a box of partially eaten pizza crusts into a sidewalk trash can outside his office in midtown Manhattan. The DNA found on the box was then linked to a male hair recovered from burlap used to restrain one of the victims.
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Following his arrest in 2023, detectives spent nearly two weeks scouring the backyard of Heuermann’s family home. There, they found a basement vault holding 279 weapons, along with a computer containing what prosecutors described as a "blueprint" for the killings.
Last year, Suffolk County Judge Timothy Mazzei dealt a blow to Heuermann’s defense by ruling evidence gathered from newly-released DNA technology would be admissible at trial, with prosecutors claiming the evidence directly connected Heuermann to the murders.
Heuermann is expected to be handed three consecutive sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello, along with an additional consecutive sentence of 100 years to life for killing Brainard-Barnes, Taylor, Costilla and Mack, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said in a statement.
In exchange for his admission to the killing of Vergata, the additional plea has been added to Heuermann's plea to the seven murders.
Fox News Digital’s Tessa Hoyos and Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.