Rex Heuermann pleads guilty, admits to killing 8 women in Gilgo Beach serial case
NEW YORK -- Rex Heuermann admitted Wednesday to murdering eight women during a 17-year killing spree that terrorized Long Island and labeled him the Gilgo Beach serial killer.
"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.
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?" Tierney asked. "Yes," Heuermann answered in clinical fashion.
Heuermann's ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, leaned forward in her seat, gripping the back of the chair in front of her. She was seated with their daughter in the back row of a courtroom packed with relatives of victims and investigators who have labored over the case for decades. More investigators stood along the wall and windows.
Heuermann pleaded guilty to strangling to death Sandra Costilla, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, whose remains were found near Gilgo Beach and elsewhere on Long Island.
Heuermann also admitted he intentionally causing the death of Karen Vergata, 34, who was last heard from on Valentine's Day 1996. Her legs and feet were found later that year on Fire Island. Her skull was found in 2011 near Tobay Beach in Nassau County.
He was not formally charged with Vergata's death but admitted to it as part of the plea agreement.
Several of the victims' relatives sobbed quietly and were seen wiping tears as Heuermann admitted to the rash of killings beginning in 1993 and concluding in 2010.
After the hearing, Ellerup stood with daughter Victoria outside the courthouse to ask for privacy and offer a brief remark to the families of the young women her ex-husband killed.
"My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Their loss is immeasurable," Ellerup said.
Prosecutors said his family was away when Heuermann committed the murders and uninvolved.
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"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. "Rex Heuermann and Rex Heuermann alone is responsible for these crimes."
The 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 the alias "Thomas Hawk" 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 "burn gloves" and "consider a hit to the neck next time."
He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 17.
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