Architect charged on Long Island A series of long unsolved murders The accused, known as the Gilgo Beach murders, is expected to plead guilty on Wednesday, closing a case that has confounded investigators, disturbed victims’ relatives and horrified a true-crime-obsessed public for years.
Rex Heuerman, 62, is charged with Seven women were killedmany of them sex workers, over a period of 17 years. Pleading guilty would put him in prison for the rest of his life.
His decision to plead guilty was confirmed by three people familiar with it. They spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the petition has not yet been filed in court. Heuerman will be sentenced at a later date.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney scheduled a news conference for Wednesday afternoon, following the morning court hearing. He will be joined by family members of the victims and the Gilgo Beach Homicide Investigation Task Force, which solved the case with the help of evidence including DNA taken from a discarded pizza crust.
A message seeking comment was left for Heuerman’s attorney, Michael Brown.
The investigation into the Gilgo Beach case began in earnest in 2010 after police found several sets of human remains along a remote beach highway on Long Island’s South Shore, launching a search for a possible serial killer that attracted global attention and spawned a Hollywood movie.
Investigators used DNA analysis and other evidence to identify the victims. In some cases, they were able to link them to remains found elsewhere on Long Island years earlier.
The remains of six victims — Melissa Barthelemy, Maureen Brainard Barnes, Amber Lynn Costello, Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor and Megan Waterman — were found in the woods 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 an eighth woman, Karen Vergata, whose remains were found on Fire Island, more than 20 miles (32 kilometers) west, in 1996, and near Gilgo Beach in 2011. Heuerman has not been charged in Vergata’s killing.
But despite attention, including a docu-series and the 2020 Netflix movie “Lost Girls,” the investigation has dragged on for more than a decade, punctuated by fleeting leads and dashed hopes.
In 2022, six weeks after the new police commissioner formed the Gilgo Beach Task Force, investigators identified Heuermann as a suspect using a vehicle registration database to link him to a pickup truck a witness reported seeing when a victim disappeared in 2010.
Herman He lived for decades In Massapequa Park, it’s about a 25-minute drive across a bridge that runs south from Oyster Bay to the stretch of sand where the women’s remains were found. Some victims are believed to have disappeared from this community, and cell phone towers were found in the area, authorities said.
After the truck was discovered, a grand jury authorized more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants, allowing the task force to dig into Heuerman’s life.
Investigators collected phone billing records he allegedly used to arrange meetings with victims, retested DNA found with the bodies and searched Heuerman’s Internet search history, which showed he had viewed violent torture pornography and shown a keen interest in the Gilgo Beach killings and the renewed investigation. Investigators said cellphone data showed Heuerman was in contact with some of the victims just before they disappeared.
To get Herman’s DNA, a task force surveillance team tracked him down in Manhattan, where he worked, and watched him throw the remains of his lunch — a box of partially eaten pizza crusts — into a trash can on the sidewalk.
Investigators rushed in, seized the box, and sent it to the crime lab, which matched DNA from the shell to male hair found on the burlap used to restrain one of the victims. He was arrested in July 2023.
After Heuerman’s arrest, investigators spent more than 12 days searching his yard and home, where they found a basement vault containing 279 weapons. Investigators said they found what they described as a file on his computer A “plan” for the killingsincluding a series of checklists with reminders to reduce noise, clean up bodies, and destroy evidence.
Last year, a judge denied Heuerman’s request to do so Exclude DNA evidence It was obtained through advanced techniques that prosecutors say prove he was the killer.