Gilgo Beach murders: Rex Heuermann admits to killing 8 women
Accused Gilgo Beach, New York, serial killer Rex Heuermann admitted to the murders of eight women in court on Wednesday as he changed his plea to guilty.
Heuermann, a New York City architect, was arrested in 2023 and initially pleaded not guilty to killing seven women. Over 17 years, he targeted sex workers and dumped their bodies near Long Island's Gilgo Beach, prosecutors said. His trial had been set for September.
"Do you feel it’s in your best interest to plead guilty rather than go to trial?" Judge Timothy Mazzei asked.
"Yes, your honor," Heuermann replied.
Heuermann, 62, agreed to serve three consecutive life sentences followed by four consecutive sentences of 25 years-to-life, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said. He will face no other prosecution in connection with the eight victims but must cooperate with the FBI going forward.
His sentencing is set for June 17.
Standing in a dark suit with his hands shackled behind his back, Heuermann admitted he murdered Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello, whose bodies were found along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach.
“You killed each victim in the same manner, namely strangulation?” he was asked.
“Yes,” Heuermann answered in clinical fashion.
Heuermann also pleaded guilty to strangling to death Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Maureen Brainard-Barnes.
Heuermann also admitted to an eighth killing: 34-year-old Karen Vergata. He was not formally charged with Vergata’s death, but admitted to it as part of the plea agreement.
Authorities believe Vergata was working as an escort when she went missing in February 1996, prosecutors said. Some of her remains were found in April 1996 on Long Island's Fire Island, prosecutors said, and additional remains were recovered in April 2011 on Long Island's Tobay Beach.
Several of the victims’ relatives sobbed quietly and were seen wiping tears as Heuermann admitted to the killings.
Heuermann’s ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and his daughter attended the hearing.
Ellerup leaned forward in her seat, gripping the back of the chair in front of her. Ellerup and her daughter sat in the back row of the courtroom packed with relatives of victims and investigators who have labored over the case for decades.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," Ellerup said after court. "Their loss is immeasurable."
“She never wanted to believe the man she was married to for 27 years, the father of Victoria, was capable of these heinous acts,” Ellerup’s attorney, Bob Macedonio, said.
Defense attorney Michael Brown said the decision to plead guilty and cooperate with the FBI belonged solely to Heuermann.
“There came a point in this defense when Rex said, ‘I want to plead guilty,’” Brown said, adding that admitting his guilt brought Heuermann “a huge sense of relief.”
Brown said Heuermann would likely have more to say at sentencing in June.
Heuermann “walked among us, play acting as a normal, suburban dad, when in reality, all along, he was obsessively targeting innocent women for death,” DA Tierney said at a news conference after court.
Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina called Heuermann a “sadistic, soulless, murderous monster.”
“To the families: No one can ever replace the lives that were taken,” Catalina said. “… But we hope that this brings some measure of solace.”
The Gilgo Beach killings went unsolved for two decades until the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office, New York State Police and the FBI first identified Heuermann as a suspect in 2022 through his Chevrolet Avalanche, a distinctive pickup truck sparsely purchased on Long Island.
From there, prosecutors said they compiled DNA from a hair lifted from burlap used to wrap some of the victims and from pizza crust in the trash outside Heuermann’s Manhattan office.
Heuermann used an alias to communicate with dozens of sex workers and to amass an extensive collection of torture pornography. Prosecutors said he kept a "blueprint" of his killings that included a list of supplies, locations of "dump sites" and reminders to "consider a hit to the neck next time."
Heuermann's victims date back to 1993, when Costilla was killed. The final woman, 27-year-old Costello, went missing in September 2010, according to police.
Click here to read more about the victims.
ABC News' Tonya Simpson contributed to this report.
