Long Island architect Rex Heuermann pleads guilty to murdering 7 women and admits he killed another

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A Long Island architect who led a secret life as a serial killer pleaded guilty on Wednesday to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings.

Rex Heuermann, 62, entered the pleas in a courtroom packed with reporters, police and victims’ relatives, some of whom wept as he detailed his crimes. He will be sentenced in June to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Heuermann's guilty pleas — to three counts of first-degree murder and four of intentional murder — bring finality to a case that bedeviled investigators, tormented victims’ relatives and tantalized a true-crime obsessed public for years. Although he wasn't charged in her death, he also admitted that he killed Karen Vergata in 1996.

Under questioning by Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, Heuermann admitted that he strangled all eight victims and dismembered some of them, that he used burner phones to contact them, and that he wrapped their bodies in burlap before dumping them.

Wearing a black suit coat and white button-down shirt, Heuermann appeared matter-of-fact and unemotional as he answered questions from Tierney and the judge. He never looked back at the packed courtroom gallery, keeping his gaze fixed straight ahead.

The women, many of them sex workers, were killed over a 17-year span and buried in remote locations, including along an isolated beach highway across the bay from where he lived, authorities said.

Tierney scheduled a news conference for later Wednesday. He will be joined by victims’ family members and members of the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, which cracked the case with the help of clues that included DNA lifted from a discarded pizza crust.

Investigators and members of the public packed the hearing. Reporters and camera operators swarmed Heuermann's ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, and their daughter as they entered and left the courthouse.

“My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families," Ellerup said afterward. "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.”

Ellerup and her daughter, Victoria, had no knowledge of or involvement in the killings, said their lawyer, Robert Macedonio. Ellerup has said she found it very difficult to believe her husband was serial killer, because he never gave off warning signs during their time together.

Asked about Heuermann's admissions, his defense attorney Michael Brown told reporters, “There came a point in this defense where Rex said, ‘I want to plead guilty,'" noting that one of Heuermann’s concerns was sparing the victims’ families and his own family from the ordeal of the case going to trial.

In response to a question about whether Heuermann was sorry, Brown responded, “I would hope so. ... I would expect at sentencing he would have something to say.”

As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann agreed to cooperate fully with the FBI's behavioral analysis unit.

The case began in earnest in 2010 after police found numerous sets of human remains while searching for a missing woman, Shannan Gilbert, along Long Island’s South Shore, setting off a search for a potential serial killer that attracted global interest and spawned a Hollywood movie. Although her relatives disputed the finding, authorities eventually determined that Gilbert drowned, and Brown said Wednesday that Heuermann "had nothing to do with Shannan Gilbert.”

Investigators used DNA analysis and other evidence to identify victims. In some cases, they were able to connect them to remains found elsewhere on Long Island years earlier.

Remains of six victims — Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Megan Waterman — were found in the scrub along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. The remains of another victim, Sandra Costilla, were found more than 60 miles (100 kilometers) away in the Hamptons.

Police also identified the remains of Vergata, which were found on Fire Island, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) west, in 1996, and near Gilgo Beach in 2011.

But despite the attention, including a documentary series and the 2020 Netflix film, “Lost Girls,” the investigation dragged on for more than a decade, punctuated by fleeting leads and dashed hopes.

In 2022, six weeks after a new police commissioner formed the Gilgo Beach task force, detectives identified Heuermann as a suspect by using a vehicle registration database to connect him to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing when one of the victims disappeared in 2010.

Heuermann lived for decades in Massapequa Park, about a 25-minute drive across a causeway spanning South Oyster Bay to the sandy stretch where the women’s remains were found. Some of the victims were believed to have disappeared from that community and their cellphones were found to have pinged towers in the area, authorities said.

After the truck discovery, a grand jury authorized more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants, allowing the task force to dig in to Heuermann’s life.

Detectives collected billing records for burner phones he allegedly used to arrange meetings with the victims, retested DNA found with the bodies and scoured Heuermann’s internet search history, which showed that he had viewed violent torture pornography and exhibited an intense interest in the Gilgo Beach killings and the renewed investigation. Cellphone data showed Heuermann was in contact with some victims just before they disappeared, investigators said.

To obtain Heuermann’s DNA, a task force surveillance team tailed him in Manhattan, where he worked, and watched as he threw the remnants of his lunch — a box of partially eaten pizza crusts — into a sidewalk garbage can.

Investigators rushed in, grabbed the box, and sent it to the crime lab, which matched DNA from the crust to a male hair found on burlap used to restrain one of the victims. He was arrested in July 2023.

After Heuermann’s arrest, detectives spent more than 12 days searching his yard and home, where they found a basement vault that contained 279 weapons. On his computer, investigators said, they found what they described as a “blueprint” for the killings, including a series of checklists with reminders to limit noise, clean the bodies and destroy evidence.

Associated Press writers Philip Marcelo in New York City, Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, and Julie Walker in Riverhead, New York contributed to this report.

Rex A. Heuermann, center, pleads guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings, at a court hearing in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)

Victoria Heuermann walks to the courtroom as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island's infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Elizabeth Baczkiel, mother of victim Jessica Taylor, walks to the courtroom as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island's infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Asa Ellerup, left, wife, of Rex Heuermann and Ellerup's attorney, Robert Macedonio, right arrive outside court as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island's infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Rex A. Heuermann, pleads guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings, at a court hearing in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)

Rex A. Heuermann, pleads guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings, at a court hearing in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney walks to the courtroom as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island's infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Asa Ellerup, wife, left and her daughter Victoria Heuermann arrive outside court as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island’s infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Asa Ellerup, left and her daughter Victoria Heuermann arrive outside court as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island’s infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Asa Ellerup, left and her daughter Victoria Heuermann arrive outside court as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island’s infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Asa Ellerup, estranged wife, center left, and her daughter Victoria Heuermann arrive outside court as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island’s infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Asa Ellerup, estranged wife, of Rex Heuermann arrive outside court as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island’s infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

In 2010, police searching for a missing woman began finding human remains in the scrub along a barrier island parkway near New York’s Gilgo Beach. Police almost immediately feared some were left by a serial killer.

Over the years, investigators used DNA analysis and other clues to identify the victims. In some cases, they were able to connect them to remains found elsewhere on Long Island years earlier.

Here is a timeline of the investigation that led to the arrest of Rex Heuermann, who pleaded guilty Wednesday to murdering seven women and admitted in court that he killed an eighth.

Nov. 20, 1993: Two hunters discover the body of Sandra Costilla, 28, in a wooded area of North Sea, a hamlet in the Hamptons. Costilla had been living in New York City.

April 20, 1996: The partial remains of Karen Vergata are discovered on Fire Island, a barrier beach off the coast. Her name remains unknown to investigators until 2022, when new DNA analysis helps them make an identification. Vergata, 34, was involved in sex work when she vanished.

June 28, 1997: The partial remains of a woman are discovered inside a plastic tub in a state park in West Hempstead, New York. Investigators nickname her “Peaches” after a tattoo on her body. Her identity remains a mystery for many years, but in 2025 police identify her as Tanya Jackson, a U.S. Army veteran who was living in Brooklyn before she disappeared.

September 2000: The partial skeletal remains of Valerie Mack, who had been working as an escort in Philadelphia, are found in a wooded area in Manorville, New York. Mack, 24, was last seen by her family in the spring or summer of that year in Port Republic, New Jersey.

July 26, 2003: The partial skeletal remains of Jessica Taylor are discovered in a wooded area of Manorville. She was 20 when she vanished and had been working as an escort.

July 9, 2007: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who had traveled to New York from her home in Norwich, Connecticut, for sex work, is last heard from by a friend. She says she is leaving her hotel to meet a client. Investigators later say cellphone records showed her phone was last used on Long Island.

July 10, 2009: Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old sex worker, is last seen at her Bronx apartment. She tells a friend she is going to see a man and will be back in the morning. Phone location data puts her last known location on Long Island. Days later, a man begins using Barthelemy’s mobile phone to make taunting phone calls to her relatives.

May 1, 2010: Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker, disappears in the barrier island community of Oak Beach, New York, after fleeing the house of a client and banging on a neighbor’s door. In a recorded 911 call, she tells a dispatcher people are after her, but she can also be heard refusing offers of help. Her pimp, the client and his neighbor all tell police she appeared disoriented and ran into the night on her own.

June 6, 2010: Megan Waterman, 22, who had traveled to Long Island from Maine for sex work, is last seen at a motel in Hauppauge, New York.

Sept. 2, 2010: Amber Lynn Costello, 27, is last seen leaving her home in West Babylon to meet with a sex work client. A male friend later tells investigators that person he presumed was the client drove a Chevrolet Avalanche.

Dec. 11, 2010: A police officer and his dog discover human remains while conducting a training exercise along Ocean Parkway. Authorities initially suspect they may have located Gilbert, but are later able to identify the victim as Barthelemy.

Dec. 13, 2010: Police find the bodies of Costello, Brainard-Barnes and Waterman on the same quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway where Barthelemy’s remains were located.

Dec. 14, 2010: Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer publicly announces the discovery of the bodies and says a serial killer might be to blame. Police expand the search, while still looking for any sign of Gilbert.

March 29, 2011: Some of Taylor’s remains are discovered along Ocean Parkway.

April 4, 2011: Additional remains of Valerie Mack are found along Ocean Parkway. Near those remains, investigators also find the remains of a 2-year-old girl, later identified through DNA as Jackson’s daughter, Tatiana Dykes. Elsewhere on the parkway, investigators discover the remains of an Asian male. Investigators estimate he died five to 10 years earlier and was in his late teens or early 20s. He still has not been identified.

April 11, 2011: Additional remains of Vergata are discovered along Ocean Parkway, several miles west of Gilgo Beach. Police also find additional remains of Jackson along the beach parkway.

Dec. 13, 2011: Gilbert’s skeletal remains are discovered in a tidal marsh near Oak Beach. After an autopsy, Suffolk Police say she accidentally drowned.

January 2022: The Suffolk County district attorney convenes a new task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach killings.

July 13, 2023: Investigators arrest Heuermann and charge him with murdering Costello, Waterman and Barthelemy. The key evidence is mobile phone location data suggesting Heuermann and the women were in the same places at some of the same times, and traces of DNA found on the remains.

Jan. 16, 2024: Heuermann is charged in the death of Brainard-Barnes. Prosecutors say a hair found with her corpse is genetically similar to a DNA sample from Heuermann’s wife.

May 20, 2024: Investigators launch a new search of Heuermann’s home. It lasts nearly a week.

June 6, 2024: Heuermann is charged with murdering Costilla and Taylor.

Dec. 17, 2024: An indictment is unsealed charging Heuermann in Mack’s death.

Dec. 18, 2025: A Florida man, Andrew Dykes, pleads not guilty to killing Tanya Jackson and Tatiana Dykes. Investigators say Andrew Dykes was Tatiana’s father and DNA evidence linked him to the crime. While in the end, the case was unconnected to the other Gilgo Beach deaths, the investigation benefited from the extra resources poured into the serial killer investigation, authorities say.

April 8, 2026: Heuermann pleads guilty to seven counts of murder, involving the killings of Barthelemy, Brainard-Barnes, Costello, Costilla, Mack, Taylor and Waterman. He also acknowledges in court that he killed Vergata. His sentencing is set for June 17.

Asa Ellerup, left, wife, of Rex Heuermann and Ellerup's attorney, Robert Macedonio, right, walk to the courtroom as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island's infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Rex A. Heuermann, center, pleads guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings, at a court hearing in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)

Elizabeth Baczkiel, mother of victim Jessica Taylor, walks to the courtroom as Rex Heuermann, accused in Long Island's infamous Gilgo Beach serial killings, is expected to plead guilty, Wednesday, April 8, 2026, at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

Rex A. Heuermann, pleads guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings, at a court hearing in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)

Attorney Michael Brown speaks with the judge as Rex A. Heuermann, pleads guilty to murdering seven women and admitted he killed an eighth in a string of long-unsolved crimes known as the Gilgo Beach killings, at a court hearing in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, N.Y., Wednesday, April 8, 2026. (James Carbone/Newsday via AP, Pool)