Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann sentenced to life behind bars for murdering seven women in decades-long reign of terror on Long Island

Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was branded a ‘disgusting’ man and a ‘coward’ as he was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of seven women, closing a dark chapter to a case that has haunted Long Island for more than three decades.

Inside a Suffolk County courtroom jam-packed with victims’ family members, journalists and law enforcement officials, the hulking 62-year-old architect wore a yellow tie, pale blue shirt and dark suit to Wednesday’s hearing.

He finally confessed and pleaded guilty to the murders of Sandra Costilla, 28, Valerie Mack, 24, Jessica Taylor, 20, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27, in April. In a stunning twist, he also admitted to the 1996 murder of an eighth victim, Karen Vergata, 34, for which he has never been charged. 

Justice Timothy Mazzei called Heuermann a coward before sentencing him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

‘You’re a disgusting and small man, if you’re a man at all. You’re a coward,’ Mazzei said. ‘Alright, get him out of here.’ 

Heuermann, who has remained largely silent through multiple court appearances since his 2023 arrest, briefly addressed the court at the hearing.

‘I am responsible for all that was said in this room. The words I say have no meaning,’ he said.

The judge asked Heuermann if he was sorry for the murders.

‘At least eight women that we know of. Are you a little bit sorry for that?’ the judge said.

Heuermann replied, ‘Yes.’

But Heuermann had stared straight ahead and avoided looking at his victims’ loved ones as they reprimanded him for his crimes. 

Mack’s adoptive sister, Danielle Mack, told Heuermann that he does not ‘have the humanity to feel remorse.’

‘He is a selfish, entitled man who felt like my sister and the others were his to destroy, she said.

His sentencing comes on what should have been the 43rd birthday of one of his victims, Jessica Taylor. Instead, Taylor died at the age of 20, being lured, murdered and dismembered by Heuermann in July 2003.

Taylor’s cousin, Violet Swager, mocked Heuermann’s ‘meticulous’ murder preparation in court. 

‘You were certainly sloppy. You made a whole planning document to kill my cousin, and you didn’t even do that right,’ she said, questioning why anyone would find him fascinating.

‘You’re boring. You’re not prolific. You’re nobody. You chose small women because you are a weak, disgusting coward. She saw you as the huge freak that you are.’

Swager noted that June 17 would have been Taylor’s 43rd birthday, and expressed gratitude that justice had finally arrived, concluding her emotional statement with: ‘Happy Birthday, Jess.’

In all, Heuermann murdered eight women during a 17-year killing spree between 1993 and 2010.

For decades, Heuermann masqueraded as a family man, living in Massapequa Park with his wife of 27 years Asa Ellerup and their children Victoria Heuermann and Christopher Sheridan and commuting to his architecture firm in the heart of Midtown Manhattan.

But when his family was out of town on vacation, the towering six foot four predator would lure petite young women working as sex workers, strangle them and dump their bodies in remote areas of Long Island.

With the exception of his first victim, Costilla, Heuermann killed the women inside the basement of his home – the same suburban ranch-style house where he spent his own childhood and then raised his family. He also dismembered Vergata, Mack and Taylor inside the home.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney told the Daily Mail that a ‘meticulous’ level of planning had gone into each of the murders, meeting the women in advance, selecting his chosen victim and then buying a designated ‘kill phone’ to use solely to contact her.

Heuermann’s killing spree was only discovered and appeared to come to an end when his dumping ground was discovered along a remote stretch of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach, in 2010. But another 13 years would go by before the notorious Gilgo Beach serial killer was finally unmasked with Heuermann’s arrest in 2023.

Now, Heuermann will spend the remainder of his life in state prison with no possibility of parole.

As part of his plea agreement, Heuermann waived all rights to appeal, agreed to cooperate with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit and will not face any additional charges over the eight murders.

While the courtroom was crowded on Wednesday with the heartbroken families of the eight women whose lives he stole, notably absent from the sentencing was Heuermann’s own family.

Ellerup – who divorced him just days after his arrest but continued to stand by him – said in a statement through her attorney, Bob Macedonio, last week that she would not attend ‘out of respect’ for the victims.

‘Ms. Ellerup believes this day should be centered on the victims, their families, and the profound impact these crimes have had on their lives,’ Macedonio said.

In the almost three years since her then-husband’s arrest, Ellerup has visited him in prison regularly and attended almost every one of his court hearings.

In a recent Peacock docuseries, she revealed how he had confessed to her during a prison visit that he murdered eight women in their home. Ellerup – who prosecutors confirmed was out of town with the children at the time of each of the murders – also disclosed that she has moved her bedroom down into the basement where the women were killed.

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 Beach that May.

That December, Barthelemy’s remains were the first to be found. Within days, Brainard-Barnes, Waterman and Costello were all found within a quarter mile of each other.

The four women, together known as the Gilgo Four, were all bound and wrapped in burlap.

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.

Officials warned that a serial killer or serial killers was at large but, despite the high-profile nature of the case, the investigation was notoriously hampered by the actions of disgraced, corrupt former Suffolk County Police Commissioner James Burke.

In 2022, with a new police chief and district attorney at the helm, a dedicated Gilgo Beach Task Force was created.

Within weeks, Heuermann was on the radar 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.

It later emerged that hairs belonging to his wife, daughter and another individual close to him had been found on six of the seven victims for which he was charged.

A disturbing ‘planning document,’ found on a hard drive during a search of his home, then 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.

Heuermann was initially charged with the murders of Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello before the other four murder charges followed.

Costilla’s murder had never before been linked to the Gilgo Beach case prior to Heuermann being hit with charges in 2024 and another Long Island serial killer, John Bittrolff, was long eyed as a suspect in the 1993 slaying.

For almost three years, Heuermann fought the charges and sought to have the crucial hair DNA evidence tossed from the case.

Those attempts failed and just months before his trial was set to begin he changed his plea.

While he will now spend the rest of his life in prison, he could still face further prosecution if tied to other murders across New York state – and even further afield.

The remains of three other victims were also found along Ocean Parkway close to the remains of Heuermann’s other victims and were long suspected of being linked to the Gilgo Beach case. A separate suspect has now been charged with the murders of two of those victims – mother Tanya Jackson and her toddler daughter Tatiana Dykes. The case of the third victim – who is yet to be identified and is known only as Asian Doe – remains unsolved.

Heuermann also had known ties to several states including New Jersey, Nevada and South Carolina.

After sentencing, his DNA will now be entered into CODIS, allowing law enforcement agencies further afield to also compare his profile to unsolved cases.

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