In 2010, police searching for a missing woman found human remains in bushes along a barrier island road near Gilgo Beach in New York. Police almost immediately feared some had been left behind by a serial killer.
Over the years, investigators have 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.
Below is the timeline for the investigation It led to arrest rex Heuerman, Who pleaded guilty On Wednesday, he killed seven women and admitted in court that he had killed an eighth.
November 20, 1993: Two hunters discovered the body of Sandra Costilla, 28, in a wooded area in North Sea, a small village in the Hamptons. Costella was living in New York City.
April 20, 1996: Partial remains of Karen Vergata They were discovered on Fire Island, a barrier beach off the coast. Her name remains unknown to investigators until 2022, when new DNA analysis will help them identify her. Vergata, 34, was involved in sex work when she disappeared.
June 28, 1997: The partial remains of a woman were discovered inside a plastic tub in a public park in West Hempstead, New York. Investigators nicknamed her “Peach” after the tattoos on her body. Her identity remained a mystery for many years, but in 2025 police identified her as Tanya Jackson, a US Army veteran who had been living in Brooklyn before her disappearance.
September 2000: The partial skeletal remains of Valerie Mack, who worked as an escort in Philadelphia, are found in a wooded area in Manorville, New York. Mack, 24, was last seen by her family in the spring or summer of that year in Port Republic, New Jersey.
July 26, 2003: The partial skeletal remains of Jessica Taylor were discovered in a wooded area in Manorville. She was 20 years old when she disappeared and was working as an escort.
July 9, 2007: Maureen Brainard Barnes, 25, who traveled to New York from her home in Norwich, Connecticut, to work as sex workers, was last heard from by a friend. She says she is leaving her hotel to meet a client. Investigators later said cellphone records showed her phone was last used on Long Island.
July 10, 2009: Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old sex worker, was last seen in her Bronx apartment. She told her friend that she was meeting a man and would be back in the morning. Phone location data pinpoints her last known location on Long Island. Days later, a man began using Barthelemy’s mobile phone to make taunting phone calls to her relatives.
May 1, 2010: Shanann Gilbert, a sex worker, disappears in the barrier island community of Oak Beach, New York, after escaping a client’s home and knocking on a neighbor’s door. In a recorded 911 call, she told a dispatcher that people were following her, but she could also be heard declining offers of help. Her pimp, the client and a neighbor told police she appeared disoriented and ran away all night alone.
June 6, 2010: Megan Waterman, 22, who traveled to Long Island from Maine to work as sex workers, was last seen at a hotel in Hauppauge, New York.
September 2, 2010: Amber Lynn Costello, 27, was last seen leaving her home in West Babylon to meet a sex work client. A male friend later told investigators that the person he assumed was the customer was driving a Chevrolet Avalanche.
December 11, 2010: A police officer and his dog discovered human remains while conducting a training exercise along Ocean Parkway. Authorities initially suspected they may have located Gilbert, but were later able to identify the victim as Barthelemy.
December 13, 2010: Police found the bodies of Costello and Brainard Barnes Waterman on the same quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway where Barthelemy’s remains were found.
December 14, 2010: Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer publicly announces the discovery of the bodies and says a serial killer may be the cause. Police are expanding their search, while still looking for any sign of Gilbert.
March 29, 2011: Some of Taylor’s remains were discovered along Ocean Parkway.
April 4, 2011: Additional remains of Valerie Mack are found along Ocean Parkway. Near those remains, investigators also found the remains of a 2-year-old girl, later identified through DNA as Jackson’s daughter, Tatiana Dykes. Elsewhere along the road, investigators discovered the remains of an Asian man. Investigators estimate that he died five to ten years ago and was in his late teens or early twenties. He has not yet been identified.
April 11, 2011: Additional remains of Vergata are discovered along Ocean Parkway, several miles west of Gilgo Beach. Police also found additional remains of Jackson along Beach Road.
December 13, 2011: Gilbert’s skeletal remains were discovered in a tidal marsh near Oak Beach. After an autopsy, Suffolk police said she drowned accidentally.
January 2022: The Suffolk County District Attorney forms a new task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach murders.
July 13, 2023: Detectives arrested Heuerman and charged him with the murder of Costello, Waterman, and Barthelemy. The main evidence is cellphone location data indicating that Heuerman and the women were in the same places at some of the same times, and traces of DNA have also been found on the remains.
January 16, 2024: Heuerman is charged with causing the death of Brainard Barnes. Prosecutors say the hair found with her body is genetically similar to a DNA sample taken from Heuerman’s wife.
May 20, 2024: Investigators begin a new search of Heuerman’s home. It lasts approximately a week.
June 6, 2024: Heuerman is charged with the murders of Costella and Taylor.
December 17, 2024: An indictment is unsealed accusing Heuerman of causing Mac’s death.
December 18, 2025: A Florida man named Andrew Dykes, He pleads not guilty For the murders of Tanya Jackson and Tatiana Dykes. Investigators say Andrew Dykes is Tatiana’s father and DNA evidence links him to the crime. Authorities say that while the case was ultimately not connected to the other Gilgo Beach deaths, the investigation benefited from additional resources poured into investigating the serial killer.
April 8, 2026: Heuerman He admits guilt to seven counts of murder, including the killings of Barthelemy, Brainard Barnes, Costello, Costella, Mack and Taylor Waterman. He also admitted in court that he killed Vergata. The ruling is scheduled to be issued on June 17.