Suspect in Gilgo Beach serial killings expected to plead guilty in court today

By Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — The man accused of killing seven women and discarding their remains on a stretch of Long Island, New York, over three decades is expected to plead guilty in a long-awaited court hearing Wednesday.

Rex Heuermann, a 62-year-old architect based in Massapequa, has been in custody since July 2023 and has pleaded not guilty to the murders of seven women, including four whose bodies were found on Gilgo Beach in 2010.

He is set to appear in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead at 11 a.m., per a court spokesperson.

According to a source familiar with the case, Heuermann is expected to “take responsibility” for all seven murder charges. No deal was struck with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office in exchange for this plea, according to the source.

The charges carry a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. A trial had been set for September.

Heuermann’s attorney Michael J. Brown did not respond to a CNN request for comment.

A guilty plea would represent the end of a case that dates as far back as 1993 and took decades for investigators to solve – frustrating victims’ families, who felt the investigation was not taken seriously.

The case began in earnest with the 2010 disappearance of 23-year-old Shannan Gilbert. The search for her whereabouts led to the discovery of at least 10 sets of human remains, primarily young female sex workers, along Ocean Parkway and launched the hunt for a suspected serial killer.

But the investigation went cold for over a decade. Meanwhile, the Gilgo Beach killings were featured in an acclaimed non-fiction book, a Netflix movie and true-crime documentaries.

In 2022, Suffolk County launched a multiagency task force to reexamine the killings and soon built a case against Heuermann using DNA, hairs, cell phone records and witness testimony, according to court records.

Heuermann was arrested in July 2023 and charged with the killings of three of the “Gilgo Four” victims, and prosecutors have since charged him with four more murders in incidents dating as far back as 1993.

In all, he is accused of killing seven people: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Amber Costello, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack and Sandra Costilla.

For the victims’ families, a guilty plea would be a relief after years of waiting for justice, said Robert Kolker, the author of “Lost Girls,” the 2013 non-fiction book about the killings.

“The point of ‘Lost Girls’ was that the killer chose his victims because he thought that they wouldn’t be missed. And the tragedy is that for many years he was right,” Kolker told CNN.

“What this new energy around the case, and the arrest, and what this possible guilty plea show is that perhaps this is changing. We understand the humanity of victims in cases like these in a way that we didn’t years ago.”

The seven victims

Over nearly two decades, a number of women in their 20s who police said worked as escorts or sex workers went missing on Long Island.

The remains of Sandra Costilla were found in North Sea in 1993. Partial remains of Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old Philadelphia mother who worked as an escort, were found in Manorville in November 2000, with further remains discovered in 2011, according to police. Jessica Taylor’s remains were discovered in Manorville in 2003, with more found along Ocean Parkway on Gilgo Beach in 2011, according to police.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes was 25 years old when she was last seen on July 9, 2007. Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old sex worker, was last seen on July 12, 2009, in the Bronx, according to Suffolk County police. Megan Waterman was 22 years old and working as a sex worker when she was last seen on June 6, 2010, police said. Amber Lynn Costello was 27 years old and living on Long Island when she was last seen on September 2, 2010.

In May 2010, Shannan Gilbert went missing in the community of Oak Beach after visiting a client, and her mother began a tireless quest to pressure police to search for her and take her case seriously.

That December, police discovered Barthelemy’s remains in bushes along an isolated strip of waterfront property in Gilgo Beach. Two days later, investigators discovered the remains of Brainard-Barnes, Waterman and Costello strewn across a half-mile stretch in Gilgo Beach. Together, they became known as the “Gilgo Four.”

“They were buried in a similar fashion, in a similar location, in a similar way,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in 2023. “All the women were petite. They all did the same thing for a living. They all advertised the same way. Immediately there were similarities with regard to the crime scenes.”

The four women, whose remains were found wrapped in camouflaged burlap, worked as escorts who advertised on Craigslist and were last seen between July 2007 and September 2010, officials said.

Seven more bodies were found nearby over the following year. Gilbert’s remains were found in Oak Beach in December 2011, and authorities later said they believed her death may have been accidental and not related to the Gilgo Beach slayings.

The case against Heuermann

In February 2022, then-Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison formed a multiagency task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach killings. The task force included the Suffolk County Police Department, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Police and the FBI.

Heuermann was first mentioned as a possible suspect the next month, according to Tierney.

Investigators homed in on Heuermann by looking at cell tower records, a physical description of the suspect, a green pickup truck, credit card billing records and computer records, according to prosecutors.

They also recovered a male hair from the burlap wrapped around the victims’ remains. Investigators got a sample of Heuermann’s DNA from leftover pizza crust and connected it to the DNA found on the victim, according to prosecutors.

Heuermann was charged in July 2023 with the killings of Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello and was held without bail. He was then charged in January 2024 with the murder of Brainard-Barnes, in June 2024 with the murders of Taylor and Costilla, and in December 2024 with the murder of Mack.

In a June 6, 2024, court hearing, prosecutors said investigators found disturbing content on Heuermann’s devices, including a planning document outlining a strategy for future killings.

Last September, Suffolk County Judge Timothy Mazzei ruled that evidence derived from cutting-edge DNA technology will be admissible at his trial. Prosecutors had said the evidence connects Heuermann to the killings, while his defense has questioned the accuracy of the technology.

The end of his criminal case may not mean the end of Heuermann’s legal issues. On Monday, Valerie Mack’s son, Benjamin Torres, filed a lawsuit against Heuermann and his family, accusing Heuermann of wrongful death and his wife and daughter of aiding and abetting the killing spree.

Heuermann’s attorney did not respond to a CNN request for comment on the suit Tuesday, nor did Robert Macedonio, an attorney for Heuermann’s wife Asa Ellerup and daughter Victoria Heuermann.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Macedonio stressed his clients were not involved in Rex Heuermann’s alleged crimes.

“I want to say this without ambiguity: Mrs. Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann had no knowledge, no involvement in, no connection whatsoever to these horrific crimes. None,” he said, adding Victoria Heuermann was three years old at the time of Valerie Mack’s death.

“The individual responsible acted alone,” Macedonio said.

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CNN’s Brynn Gingras and Kelly McCleary contributed to this report.