Families of Rex Heuermann victims confront US serial killer: ‘Save a spot in hell’ | Gilgo Beach serial killings
Families of eight women killed by Rex Heuermann spoke about the Gilgo Beach killer’s sentencing Wednesday in Riverhead, New York, more than three decades after the 62-year-old Manhattan architect began his killing spree.
Heuermann pleaded guilty to killing seven women and admitted killing the eighth victim in April. Just before Heuermann was sentenced to life in prison without parole for crimes he admitted to on Wednesday, he offered a weak, general apology for his actions.
“Everything said is true,” he said. “There are no words I can say. The words I say have no meaning.”
Judge Timothy Mazzei reacted to this by calling the serial killer “a disgusting and pathetic little man, if you’re a man. You’re a coward.”
These sentiments were echoed in statements made by various family members of Heuermann’s victims. Kimberly Overstreet, sister of victim Amber Costello, called Heuermann “an angry, murderous sex addict.”
Megan Waterman’s daughter, Liliana Waterman, who was three years old when her mother was killed by Heuermann, recalled learning about her ordeal: “I came across an article about her. That’s when I really realized what had happened. I remember asking what ‘whore’ and ‘pimp’ meant.”
Waterman said she was heartbroken and “for years I tried to find a place where I felt like I belonged.”
Waterman’s aunt Elizabeth Meserve told the serial killer: “Go away, you evil demon.”
Jasmine Robinson, cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, told Heuermann: “You make me feel so disgusted, I can’t stand it.”
“A million years is not enough,” Robinson said of Heuermann’s upcoming sentencing. “Nothing can fix this.”
“Justice was served, but it cannot replace what was taken,” said JoAnn Mack, mother of victim Valerie Mack. “He had dreams and you took them all away from him.”
Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ two children and her sister also appeared in court on Wednesday and spoke about how the loss of their mother affected them. Melissa Cann, Maureen Brainard-Barnes’ sister, said she had lived with “survivor’s guilt” for decades.
“It was a weight that I carried everywhere,” Cann said, crying deeply. But that blame “is not mine to bear. It’s Rex and Rex’s responsibility alone,” he said.
When the sentence ended, judge Mazzei said: “Okay, get him out of here.” Later, chants of “giant, giant” and applause rose in the courtroom.
Earlier in the verdict, Suffolk district attorney Ray Tierney told the court Heuermann continued to profit from and control his ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, by participating in a recent documentary about the case.
“He sought to enrich and manipulate from behind bars,” Tierney said, adding: “Eight young women were needlessly and brutally murdered at the hands of this defendant.”
He described the effect of the crimes on the victim’s families as “overwhelming” and that their suffering “will never end”.
“Rehabilitation of this defendant is not possible,” he continued.
Tierney criticized Heuermann for calling Amanda Funderburg, the sister of victim Melissa Barthelemy, on Barthelemy’s phone to taunt her. Funderberg described the meeting in which Heuermann told his sister what he had done.
In one of the most powerful moments of the sentencing, Funderberg asked Heuermann, who was sitting a few feet away and looking down, to look at him as he spoke.
“I hope you suffer as my sister did,” he said. “Save a place in hell, see you there.”
Outside court, John Ray, the lawyer representing the family of Shannan Gilbert, the young woman whose disappearance led to the discovery of the Gilgo Four, said her victim impact statements were “extraordinarily well done”.
“They had the impact they had on us,” he said. “But as he himself admitted, they have no effect on him. They had no effect on him.”
Ray also said Heuermann “was most likely killed in other states” and cited what he called “credible evidence” from women who came to him.
“He was very interested in stalking. That was one of his hobbies. He was stalking women in Florida, Virginia, Philadelphia and possibly Anchorage, Alaska. These are people who survived him, but there may have been people he killed there as well,” Ray said.
The decision concludes an investigation that began in 2011 with the discovery of four groups of remains on Long Island’s South Shore; they later became known as the Gilgo Four. The remains had previously been found in the area, leading to concerns that a serial killer was at work.
All of Heuermann’s victims were sex workers, and Suffolk police have faced accusations of carelessness, bureaucratic incompetence and corruption for years as reasons why investigators failed to identify a suspect.
A change in police leadership has led to the formation of a task force in 2022 and the involvement of the FBI. Within months, Heuermann was tied to a dark Chevrolet Avalanche spotted around the time of Amber Costello’s disappearance; vehicle information was in police files from the beginning.
DNA and cell phone records supported the investigator’s identification of Heuermann as the suspect, and he was arrested on a street in Manhattan in 2023.
Heuermann remained largely silent throughout the judicial process. In April, when he pleaded guilty to seven murder charges and confessed to an eighth, he said only that he had used “chokes” on all of his victims – Barthelemy, Mack, Taylor, Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costilla and Karen Vergata.
