Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann slammed as ‘small man’ as judge gives max sentence for murder spree
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Rex Heuermann, the Long Island serial killer who has admitted to the murders of eight women between 1993 and 2010, will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Judge Timothy Mazzei on Wednesday handed down three consecutive sentences of life with no parole followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 to life — the maximum possible under New York law.
Heuermann, 62, spoke in court before he was sentenced.
"I’m responsible," he said. "The words I would say have no meaning."
One of the victims' families told him to speak up. Mazzei stepped in and said: "I know that you’re sorry you got caught. I assume you’re sorry for what you did to your wife and children…Are you at least a little bit sorry for what you did to these eight women?"
Heuermann nodded yes and said he is.
"You’re a disgusting and despicable small man, if you’re a man at all," Mazzei said. "And you’re a coward."
After giving him the maximum possible sentence, Mazzei told bailiffs to "get him out of here."
Heuermann pleaded guilty to seven of the murders on April 8 and confessed to an uncharged eighth.
The victims were found concealed across different parts of Long Island, from the Hamptons to Gilgo Beach. Some were dismembered. All had been strangled.
They have been identified as Sandra Costilla, 28, found in North Sea; Karen Vergata, 34, found on Fire Island and near Tobay Beach; Valerie Mack, 24, found in Manorville and along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach; Jessica Taylor, 20, found in Manorville and along Ocean Parkway — and the so-called Gilgo Four, who were all found just east of Gilgo Beach in the brush north of Ocean Parkway. They were Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25; Melissa Barthelemy, 24; Megan Waterman, 22; and Amber Lynn Costello, 27.
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Earlier in the hearing, relatives of several victims delivered emotional impact statements, recounting decades of grief, fear and unanswered questions left by the killings.
Mack's adoptive father told Heuermann that despite the atrocities committed against his daughter, "you never touched her soul," adding that "Valerie is the one who is free today, and you are not."
Taylor's cousins described the trauma of learning that only portions of her remains had initially been recovered and said the case brought renewed pain every time it returned to the headlines. One cousin told Heuermann, "You thought you took her voice," before noting that investigators ultimately caught him despite what prosecutors described as extensive planning.
Brainard-Barnes' sister, Melissa Cann, recalled the final words her sister spoke to her — "I love you. I'll see you tomorrow" — and described years of survivor's guilt following her disappearance. Addressing Heuermann directly, she said she made it her life's mission to see him identified and brought to justice.
Brainard-Barnes' daughter, Nicolette, said she was only 7 years old when her mother was killed and told the court that she is now older than her mother was at the time of her death. She said the victims "mattered infinitely more" than Heuermann and called him "a coward who takes out his own shortcomings on others."
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Gilgo Beach, about 45 miles east of New York City, where Heuermann worked, and about 15 miles from his former home in Massapequa Park.
Concerns of a serial killer first emerged in late 2010 after the disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, a 23-year-old woman who placed panicked 911 calls from the Oak Beach community before vanishing into the surrounding marsh.
During a search for her, police uncovered 10 other victims in the area before they finally found her in December 2011.
While her death was deemed accidental, evidence surrounding other victims eventually led police to Heuermann 12 years later.
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It would be more than a decade before police closed in on Heuermann as a suspect. They initially charged him with killing three of the Gilgo Four. By the time he pleaded guilty in April, he was accused of seven murders.
Authorities uncovered damning evidence along the way. Prosecutors have alleged that he transferred DNA from his ex-wife and daughter to some of the victims. Detectives recovered a computer file where Heuermann kept notes on how to get away with crimes, including supplies for his kill kits, the locations of traffic cameras and a reminder to use push-pins to hang a drop cloth, rather than tape.
His family has not been accused of assisting in any of the crimes – they were out of town during each murder, according to court documents.
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Three other victims found in the area haven't been linked to Heuermann.
Andrew Dykes, a 66-year-old from Florida, has been charged with the 1997 murders of Tanya Denise Jackson, 27, and their 2-year-old daughter, Tatiana Marie Dykes.
There is also an unidentified "Asian Doe" whose skeletal remains were discovered wearing women's clothing near Gilgo Beach in 2011 during the search for Gilbert.
He is believed to be of southern Chinese ancestry and was between 17 and 23 at the time of his death, which investigators estimate came in April 2006 or earlier.
Following Wednesday's sentencing, Heuermann is expected to be transferred to a New York state prison by the end of the week, where he will begin serving multiple consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.