US Gilgo Beach serial killer given life without parole
After decades of waiting for justice, relatives of women killed by New York’s Gilgo Beach serial killer attacked him before he was sentenced to life in prison. He told them, “I am responsible” for the crimes committed.
“The words I say will mean nothing,” added Rex Heuermann, a Long Island architect who lived a secret life of violence for years before confessing to killing eight women.
Wednesday’s sentencing capped an extraordinary investigation that solved one of New York’s most perplexing mysteries. The seemingly unconnected and largely overlooked disappearances of young women became the focus of true crime documentaries, books and podcasts after police began discovering the victims’ skeletal remains in sandy scrub along a coastal parkway.
Heuermann, 62, will not have the possibility of parole.
“A million years is not enough,” said Jasmine Robinson, cousin of victim Jessica Taylor.
“Nothing can fix this.”
“You disgust me so much, I can’t stand it,” he added.
As a number of victims’ relatives spoke, Heuermann sat with his hands on the defense table, stared straight ahead and tapped with his fingers.
Then Amanda Funderburg, the sister of victim Melissa Barthelemy, ordered Heuermann to take care of her. She looked towards him, but her eyes were looking down a little.
“I hope you suffer,” Funderburg said, describing a taunting phone call she received from Barthelemy days after his disappearance. Funderburg was 15 years old.
JoAnn Mack, the mother of victim Valerie Mack, told the killer that her daughter “had dreams and you took them all away from her.”
“Justice was served, but it cannot replace what was taken,” Mack said.
Heuermann pleaded guilty in April to charges that he killed seven women: Barthelemy, Mack, Taylor, Megan Waterman, Amber Lynn Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Sandra Costilla.
Heuermann also admitted in court to killing the eighth victim, Karen Vergata, but was never charged in her death. He said he strangled his victims, most of whom were sex workers, and dismembered some of their bodies.
“Are you at least a little upset?” Judge Timothy Mazzei asked angrily on Wednesday.
Heuermann nodded and appeared to say, “Yes.”
The judge raised his voice and said, “You’re disgusting, you’re a vile man, if you’re even a man.”
“And you’re a coward.”
Spectators in the packed courtroom jeered as Heuermann was led away in handcuffs.
Victims’ families describe puzzling loss
Most of the women disappeared between 2000 and 2010, and their remains were all found on Long Island. Most were on Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach. Costilla’s remains were found in the Hamptons in 1993, and Vergata’s remains were found on Fire Island in 1996.
Heuermann’s ex-wife and two adult children said they did not participate in the sentencing out of respect for the victim’s families.
The case arose in 2010 while investigating the disappearance of another sex worker, Shannan Gilbert, when investigators began finding remains along Ocean Parkway. Shannan Gilbert’s death was ultimately ruled an accidental drowning.
The case went cold until 2022, when detectives linked Heuermann to a pickup truck that a witness reported seeing in 2010 when one of the victims went missing.
They eventually matched DNA from a pizza crust that Heuermann had thrown into a trash can in Manhattan with genetic material from fragments of highly decomposed hair found in the woman’s remains.
Investigators also collected other evidence, including cellphone and tracking data, that showed Heuermann arranged meetings with some of the victims shortly before their disappearance.
After Heuermann’s arrest in 2023, prosecutors recovered what they described as a “plan” for the murders from computer files. The documents included a series of checklists with reminders to limit noise, clean bodies and destroy evidence.
Heuermann will soon be transferred to a state prison after spending the last three years alone in a separate cell in the Suffolk County jail, reading crime novels and briefly corresponding with the infamous “Happy Face Killer.”
As part of his guilty plea, Heuermann agreed to cooperate with the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit to help catch other serial killers.
