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The Gilgo Beach Killings
● Case Closed
Serial Killer
Suffolk County, Long Island, New York
1993 to 2010
8 Lives Taken
01
The Fallen
Victim Information
Sandra Costilla
First Known Victim, Killed 1993
Sandra Costilla
Sandra Costilla was a native of Trinidad and Tobago who had been living in New York. According to Heuermann's own admission, she was the first woman he killed, met through an arrangement and killed in his vehicle before he was married. She went missing in November 1993 and was found later that month by hunters in a wooded area of Southampton, Long Island. For years another man was wrongly suspected in her death before investigators connected the case to Heuermann.
Karen Vergata
Victim, Age 34, Killed 1996
Karen Vergata
Karen Vergata lived in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan and worked as an escort. Her family last heard from her on Valentine's Day, 1996. Some of her remains were found that same year on Fire Island; additional remains were recovered in 2011 on Tobay Beach. She remained unidentified for 26 years, known only as Jane Doe Number Seven, until forensic genealogy identified her in October 2022. She was survived by two sons. Heuermann admitted to her killing as part of his plea agreement but was never formally charged in her death.
Valerie Mack
Victim, Age 24, Killed 2000
Valerie Mack
Valerie Mack had spent time in New Jersey and Philadelphia and had prior arrests related to prostitution. A hunter's dog discovered her decapitated remains in a wooded area of Manorville, Long Island, in November 2000. The rest of her remains were not found until April 2011, along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. She was known for years only as Jane Doe Number Six. Her parents, Ed and JoAnn Mack, said at sentencing that Heuermann robbed their daughter of the chance to achieve her dreams.
Jessica Taylor
Victim, Killed 2003
Jessica Taylor
Part of Jessica Taylor's remains were found in Manorville, near Heuermann's home, in July 2003 by a local woman walking her dog. Additional body parts belonging to her were discovered during the 2011 search of Gilgo Beach, nearly eight years later. At sentencing, her cousin Violet Swager remembered her as fierce, kind, compassionate, beautiful, and intelligent, and told Heuermann directly that he chose small women because he was nothing more than a weak, disgusting coward.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes
Victim, Age 25, Killed 2007
Maureen Brainard-Barnes
Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old when she vanished in 2007. Her friend Sara Karnes remembered her as having bright blue eyes and being very outgoing and outspoken. Her remains were found at Gilgo Beach in December 2010 as one of the "Gilgo Four." Investigators later found DNA belonging to Heuermann's then-wife in hair recovered from a belt used to restrain her. Her sister, Melissa Cann, spoke at sentencing through tears, telling Heuermann he was a coward who preyed on vulnerable, innocent women, and describing decades of survivor's guilt over wondering if she could have done more to protect her sister.
Melissa Barthelemy
Victim, One of the "Gilgo Four"
Melissa Barthelemy
Melissa Barthelemy was one of the four women whose remains were discovered together along a quarter mile stretch of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach during the search for missing woman Shannan Gilbert in December 2010. Heuermann admitted in court that he contacted three of the Gilgo Four victims, including Melissa, using burner phones and lured them with money. He confirmed in his guilty plea that he strangled her and bound her body before discarding it, consistent with how investigators found her remains.
Megan Waterman
Victim, One of the "Gilgo Four"
Megan Waterman
Megan Waterman was a mother. Her daughter Liliana was three years old when Megan vanished and did not fully understand what had happened until she was about nine. At sentencing, Liliana said her world was shattered in an instant and asked aloud whether her mother had been in pain or scared in her final moments. Megan was one of the four women found together near Gilgo Beach in December 2010, more than a decade and a half after the killings began.
Amber Lynn Costello
Victim, One of the "Gilgo Four"
Amber Lynn Costello
Amber Lynn Costello was the last of the four women known as the Gilgo Four, all discovered together near Gilgo Beach in December 2010. She was among the women Heuermann admitted to contacting through burner phones before luring them to their deaths. The discovery of her remains, alongside those of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, was what first revealed to investigators in 2010 that a serial killer had been operating undetected on Long Island for years.
01
Overview
What We Know
Beginning in 1993 and continuing for 17 years, Rex Heuermann, a Manhattan architect living a double life in Massapequa Park, Long Island, murdered at least eight women. Most of his victims worked as sex workers and were contacted through advertisements or arrangements, several through burner phones he purchased specifically for that purpose. He strangled each woman, bound their bodies with belts, ropes, or other restraints, and discarded their remains across Suffolk County, primarily near Gilgo Beach and in the wooded area of Manorville not far from his home.
The case became public in December 2010, when investigators searching for a missing woman named Shannan Gilbert discovered the remains of four women along a quarter mile stretch of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. Those four women, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello, became known as the "Gilgo Four." The discovery revealed that a serial killer had been operating on Long Island for years, undetected, while the women he killed had largely been written off by the public and, in some cases, by investigators, because of their work in the sex trade.
In the months that followed, additional remains were found in the area, eventually linked to Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, and Karen Vergata, women who had gone missing years earlier in 1996, 2000, and 2003 and whose partial remains had been recovered piecemeal over more than a decade, in some cases known only as Jane Does. Sandra Costilla, killed in 1993, was Heuermann's first victim by his own later admission, though her case had for years been wrongly associated with a different convicted killer.
The investigation stalled for more than a decade after the 2010 and 2011 discoveries. It was reopened in 2022 by a newly formed task force, which eventually used cell tower records, a witness description of a green pickup truck, credit card records, and computer forensics to identify Rex Heuermann as the suspect. He was arrested on July 13, 2023. In April 2026, he pleaded guilty to seven of the murders and admitted in open court to an eighth killing, that of Karen Vergata, for which he was never formally charged as part of his plea agreement. He was sentenced on June 17, 2026, to consecutive terms of life in prison without parole.
02
Chronology
Case Timeline
November 1993
Sandra Costilla Killed
Rex Heuermann later admits that Sandra Costilla, killed in his vehicle before he was married, was his first victim. Her remains are found by hunters in a wooded area of Southampton, Long Island, later that month. For years, another man is wrongly suspected in her death.
February 1996
Karen Vergata Disappears
Karen Vergata's family last hears from her on Valentine's Day. Some of her remains are found later that year on Fire Island. She will remain unidentified, known only as Jane Doe Number Seven, for the next 26 years.
November 2000
Valerie Mack Killed
A hunter's dog discovers Valerie Mack's decapitated remains in a wooded area of Manorville, Long Island. She is known for years only as Jane Doe Number Six. The remainder of her body will not be found until 2011, near Gilgo Beach.
July 2003
Partial Remains of Jessica Taylor Found
A local woman walking her dog discovers partial remains belonging to Jessica Taylor in Manorville, near Heuermann's home. The remains are not connected to a larger pattern at this time. Additional remains belonging to her will not surface until the 2011 search of Gilgo Beach.
2007
Maureen Brainard-Barnes Vanishes
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, vanishes. Her remains will not be discovered until December 2010, when she is found alongside three other women near Gilgo Beach.
2009 to 2010
Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello Killed
Heuermann contacts and kills Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello using burner phones to arrange meetings with each of them, luring them with money. He strangles each woman and binds her body before discarding it.
December 2010
The "Gilgo Four" Discovered
During a search for missing woman Shannan Gilbert, Suffolk County police discover the remains of Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello along a quarter mile stretch of Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. The discovery reveals for the first time that a serial killer has been operating undetected on Long Island for years.
March to April 2011
Additional Remains Recovered
Expanded searches of the Gilgo Beach and Ocean Parkway area, conducted as part of the continued search for Shannan Gilbert, recover additional remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, and Karen Vergata, connecting them to the growing pattern. The case remains unsolved for more than a decade, and several of the victims remain unidentified Jane Does for years afterward.
2022
Task Force Reopens the Investigation
A newly formed Suffolk County task force reopens the long dormant case. Investigators use forensic genealogy to identify Karen Vergata in October 2022, ending 26 years of her being known only as Jane Doe Number Seven. The task force begins using cell tower records, witness descriptions, and financial records to identify a suspect.
January 26, 2023
Pizza Box Recovered
Investigators, now following Rex Heuermann as a person of interest, recover a discarded pizza box he had thrown into a trash can in Midtown Manhattan. DNA recovered from leftover crust inside the box will later prove central to the case.
June 12, 2023
DNA Match Confirmed
DNA recovered from the pizza crust comes back as a match to a male hair found on one of the victims' bodies. Combined with Heuermann's personal cell phone records linking him to burner phones used to contact several victims, investigators now have probable cause for an arrest.
July 13 to 14, 2023
Rex Heuermann Arrested and Charged
Rex Heuermann, a 59-year-old architect, is arrested and charged with three counts of murder. An indictment is filed July 14, 2023, in Suffolk County. He is held without bail. He will later be linked to additional victims as the investigation of his properties and devices continues.
2024 to 2025
Additional Charges and Pre-Trial Proceedings
Heuermann is formally charged in connection with additional victims as DNA and forensic evidence link him to their deaths. He pleads not guilty to all charges. His defense raises objections to new DNA testing methods used by prosecutors and requests separate trials for the complexity of the case. A Frye hearing is held in early 2025 to determine the admissibility of the DNA evidence.
April 8, 2026
Guilty Plea
In a courtroom packed with reporters and victims' relatives, Rex Heuermann pleads guilty to murdering seven women: Sandra Costilla, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack, and Jessica Taylor. He also admits in court to killing an eighth woman, Karen Vergata, though under his plea agreement he is not formally charged in her death. As part of the agreement, he agrees to cooperate with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit.
June 17, 2026
Sentenced to Consecutive Life Terms
Judge Timothy Mazzei sentences Rex Heuermann at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead to three consecutive life terms without parole for the murders of Barthelemy, Costello, and Waterman, plus a sentence of 100 years to life for the murders of Brainard-Barnes, Costilla, Mack, and Taylor. Family members of the victims deliver victim impact statements. When Heuermann offers no apology, Judge Mazzei calls him a disgusting and despicable small man and a coward. Heuermann is led from the courtroom as families cheer.
03
Law Enforcement
The Investigation
For more than a decade after the December 2010 discovery of the Gilgo Four, the investigation produced no suspect. Suffolk County police were criticized for years over the slow pace of the case, and the unresolved disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, whose search had led to the original discovery, became its own subject of controversy. In 2022, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney convened a new task force dedicated specifically to the Gilgo Beach killings, combining personnel and forensic resources that had not previously been applied together to the case.
Investigators used a combination of cell tower records, a witness description of a distinctive green pickup truck, credit card billing records, and computer forensic analysis to narrow their focus to Rex Heuermann, an architect who lived in Massapequa Park but maintained an office and frequently traveled into Manhattan. Surveillance teams began following him in early 2023. On January 26, 2023, investigators recovered a pizza box Heuermann had discarded in a trash can in Midtown Manhattan. DNA extracted from leftover crust inside the box was compared to a male hair recovered from one of the victims' bodies years earlier. On June 12, 2023, that comparison came back as a match.
Heuermann's personal cell phone records were found to correspond to the locations and timing of burner phones used to contact several of the victims shortly before their disappearances, an investigative breakthrough that connected him directly to the planning stages of multiple killings rather than only to the disposal of the bodies. He was arrested on July 13, 2023, and an indictment was filed the following day. After his arrest, investigators searched his Massapequa Park home and recovered what prosecutors described as a deleted planning document, a checklist of supplies including gloves, rope, and tape, from his computer files, along with what they called a significant collection of violent, bondage, and torture pornography dating back to at least 1994. Mitochondrial DNA analysis of hairs recovered from multiple crime scenes matched the profiles of Heuermann's then wife and daughter, who lived with him during the period the killings occurred but were never implicated in the crimes themselves; investigators confirmed both were repeatedly out of state, in Iceland or visiting family, during the windows when killings are believed to have taken place.
The Search of the Heuermann Property
Heuermann's home, Massapequa Park
Aerial view of the property
Interior, processed during the search
The case was prosecuted by Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney. Heuermann's defense raised significant pre-trial challenges, including a Frye hearing contesting the admissibility of newer DNA testing methodology used by a California laboratory to link six of the seven originally charged victims to Heuermann, and a request for five separate trials given the complexity and scope of the case. Those proceedings were ultimately resolved through Heuermann's April 2026 guilty plea, which avoided a trial altogether. As part of the plea agreement, Heuermann agreed to cooperate with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit, which intends to study his case to better understand how serial offenders evolve over long periods of undetected activity, and to assist with other unsolved cases.
Case Document
Indictment, State of New York v. Rex Heuermann. Filed in Suffolk County on July 14, 2023, the day after Heuermann's arrest, charging him with murder in connection with the deaths of three victims.
Download Indictment (PDF) ↓
Case Document
Bail Application, State of New York v. Rex Heuermann. Filed July 14, 2023, in connection with Heuermann's arraignment following his arrest.
Download Bail Application (PDF) ↓
04
Convicted
The Accused
Rex Heuermann
Architect, Massapequa Park, New York
Age at Arrest: 59
Age at Sentencing: 62
Occupation: Architect, principal of RH Consulting and Associates since 1994
Family at Time of Crimes: Married to Asa Ellerup; one daughter; one stepson
Arrested: July 13, 2023
Charges: Murder, charged in connection with seven deaths across multiple indictments
Plea: Guilty to seven murders; admitted to an eighth (April 8, 2026)
Sentence: Three consecutive life terms without parole, plus 100 years to life
Sentencing Judge: Hon. Timothy Mazzei, Suffolk County Court, Riverhead
Prosecutor: Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney
Case Disposition
Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty on April 8, 2026, to the murders of Sandra Costilla, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack, and Jessica Taylor. He also admitted in court to killing an eighth woman, Karen Vergata, though under the terms of his plea agreement he was never formally charged in her death. On June 17, 2026, Judge Timothy Mazzei sentenced him to three consecutive life terms without parole for the deaths of Barthelemy, Costello, and Waterman, and to 100 years to life for the deaths of Brainard-Barnes, Costilla, Mack, and Taylor. He will never be released. As part of his plea agreement, Heuermann agreed to cooperate with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit.
Forensic Breakdown
Criminal Investigative Analysis
Developmental History
Rex Heuermann was born in 1963 and raised in the same Massapequa Park home where he later lived as an adult and where investigators eventually searched for evidence. His father, Theodore Heuermann, a World War II veteran and aerospace engineer, died in 1975 when Heuermann was 12 years old. A boyhood acquaintance later described their relationship as troubled. His mother, Dolores, was described by people who knew the family as a controlling presence; childhood acquaintances called him a momma's boy who remained extremely close to her into adulthood. By outward appearances, his adolescence was unremarkable. He graduated high school in 1981 with no documented history of the childhood behavioral precursors, such as fire setting or animal cruelty, sometimes reported in serial offender case histories. The publicly available record on his childhood is thin, and sources covering the case have themselves cautioned against drawing a direct causal line from either parent to his later crimes.
Pre-Identification Profile
Before Heuermann was identified, the available evidence supported several deductions. We know the offender was likely a physically capable adult male, because each victim was overpowered and strangled alone. We know he likely had a stable local base, because the same general disposal area near Gilgo Beach and Manorville was used repeatedly across nearly two decades rather than varying with each offense. We know he likely drove a specific, identifiable vehicle, because a witness described a distinctive green pickup truck. We know he likely held steady, well compensated employment with schedule flexibility, because sustaining repeated burner phone purchases and a multi decade pattern of planned killings requires both disposable income and unaccounted time. We know he likely had a family or household routine he was working around, because the timing of disappearances clustered around periods that would have allowed an undetected window.
Confirmed Offender Profile
Once identified, Heuermann matched nearly every element of the deduced profile. He was a married, employed, financially stable architect who had run his own firm since 1994, providing both the income and schedule flexibility predicted. He owned a Chevrolet pickup truck consistent with the witness description. He had lived his entire life in Massapequa Park, directly supporting the local anchor point theory drawn from the disposal pattern. Investigators confirmed his wife and children were repeatedly out of state, in Iceland or visiting family, during the specific windows when killings are believed to have occurred, matching the predicted household routine pattern. The planning evident in the crimes was corroborated by a deleted digital document investigators described as a checklist for supplies including gloves, rope, and tape, recovered from his home computer.
Victimology
Heuermann's victims were primarily sex workers, contacted in some cases through advertisements and in several cases through burner phones purchased specifically to arrange meetings. This victim pool offered practical advantages to an offender seeking to avoid detection. Sex workers often work with limited verification of clients, frequently meet new contacts alone, and have historically received slower investigative response when reported missing, all factors that can extend an offender's undetected operating window. The consistency of his victim type across 17 years indicates a stable and specific selection pattern rather than opportunistic offending against whoever happened to be available.
Modus Operandi
Heuermann's functional method remained consistent across the killings. He contacted victims in advance, often using burner phones to arrange a meeting under false pretenses, then strangled each woman. Court testimony confirmed he bound victims' heads and legs after death and wrapped their bodies before transporting them to remote, semi rural locations he was familiar with. This functional sequence of contact, kill, bind, transport, and dispose remained stable from his earliest known killing in 1993 through his last in 2010.
Signature Behavior
Distinct from the practical mechanics of the killings, Heuermann's consistent binding and wrapping of victims' bodies after death served no operational purpose in completing the murder itself. Strangulation alone was sufficient to cause death; the subsequent binding of heads and legs and wrapping of remains reflects a ritualized behavior tied to a psychological need rather than a practical necessity of the offense. The consistency of this behavior across more than 17 years and at least eight separate killings is the clearest signature element of the case, present regardless of which specific victim or disposal location was involved.
Geographic Profile / Anchor Point
Heuermann disposed of victims' remains in a relatively contained area of Suffolk County, concentrated around Gilgo Beach, Ocean Parkway, and Manorville, all within a limited radius of his lifelong home in Massapequa Park. This pattern is consistent with a marauder type offender, one who operates from a stable home base rather than traveling long distances specifically to commit or conceal crimes. The repeated return to familiar, geographically convenient locations over a 17 year span, rather than varying disposal sites to avoid pattern recognition, ultimately became one of the features that helped investigators connect multiple sets of remains to a single offender once the area came under closer scrutiny in 2010 and 2011.
Risk Assessment
Heuermann's own risk exposure as an offender was comparatively low for most of the 17 year span of his crimes. He maintained a stable cover identity as a married professional, used burner phones rather than personal devices to contact victims, and varied little in his method once it was established, choices that minimized his contact with anything traceable. His victims, by contrast, faced elevated situational risk due to the nature of sex work, including reduced verification of clients, frequent solo meetings with strangers, and historically slower institutional response to their disappearances. This combination of low offender risk and elevated victim risk is a documented pattern in cases where offenders are able to operate undetected over extended periods.
In Memoriam
They Are Not Forgotten
Eight women were killed over 17 years, and for most of that time, almost no one was looking for the person responsible. Sandra Costilla, Karen Vergata, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello. They were daughters, mothers, sisters, and cousins. Some of them were known to the world for years only as Jane Does, numbers instead of names, because the world did not move fast enough to give them back their identities while their families waited.
Megan Waterman's daughter Liliana was three years old when her mother disappeared. She stood in a courtroom decades later and asked the question that had clearly never stopped asking itself inside her. Was she in pain. Was she scared. Maureen Brainard-Barnes's sister carried survivor's guilt for years, wondering if there was something more she could have done. Valerie Mack's parents said the man who killed her robbed her of the chance to become whoever she was going to become. Jessica Taylor's cousin stood up and told the man who killed her exactly what he was. These are not abstractions. These are people who have spent years, in some cases decades, carrying something most people are never asked to carry.
For a long time, these women were treated by parts of the public, and at times by the systems meant to protect them, as less urgent because of the work they did to survive. That is not a small detail. It is part of why it took so long. It is part of why some of them were numbers before they were names. The work of journalists, advocates, and most of all the relentless persistence of their own families is the reason any of this came to light at all.
Sandra. Karen. Valerie. Jessica. Maureen. Melissa. Megan. Amber. They were here. They mattered. They are not forgotten, and they were never numbers, no matter how long it took the world to learn their names.
Sources
ABC News / Good Morning America, "Who are the victims of admitted Gilgo Beach killer Rex Heuermann?" (June 17, 2026) | ABC News, "Gilgo Beach serial killer sentenced to life: Angry families speak out, judge orders Rex Heuermann removed" (June 17, 2026) | NBC News, "Rex Heuermann sentenced for Long Island's Gilgo Beach serial murders" (June 17, 2026) | CBC News, "Rex Heuermann, Long Island-based serial killer, sentenced to life in prison" (June 17, 2026) | PBS NewsHour / Associated Press, "Rex Heuermann pleads guilty to murdering 7 women and admits he killed another" (April 8, 2026) | A&E, "Who Were Rex Heuermann's Victims?" (May 2026) | Britannica, "Gilgo Beach serial killings" (April 2026) | Netflix Tudum, "The Long Island Serial Killer Victims: Names, Ages, Photos, News" | CBS News, "Rex Heuermann, suspected Gilgo Beach killer, appears in court for hearing on DNA evidence" (January 2025) | Riverhead News Review, "Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann sentenced to life without parole" (June 17, 2026)
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