Rex Heuermann, a New York man who pleaded guilty to eight Gilgo Beach murders, is expected to be sentenced June 17 to multiple life terms without parole and an additional 100 years to life—after prosecutors tied him to killings from 1993 to 2010 and a yearslon
By the time Rex Heuermann walks into court for his sentencing. the numbers will sound almost impossible to hold in one mind: eight women killed over nearly two decades. and a punishment prosecutors say will span decades of life sentences. He pleaded guilty on April 8, and he is expected to be sentenced June 17.
The case began to change in 2010 and 2011, when parts of the women’s remains were found near Gilgo Beach in New York’s Long Island region. But the arrest did not come until 2023.
Under the terms of his expected sentence. Heuermann would face three consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders of Melissa Barthelemy. 24; Megan Waterman. 22; and Amber Costello. 27. He would also face a consecutive sentence of 100 years to life imprisonment for the murders of Maureen Brainard-Barnes. 25; Jessica Taylor. 20; Sandra Costilla. 28; and Valerie Mack. 24. He is not facing the death penalty because capital punishment was declared unconstitutional in New York in 2004.
Prosecutors say Heuermann killed the women between 1993 and 2010. an arc that prosecutors described as leaving a “painful scar” on the community. Before the arrest. the investigation relied on fragments—findings near Gilgo Beach. leads that took years to connect. and finally DNA evidence that shifted the case from suspicion to identification.
In jail since his arrest. Heuermann has been reading violent crime novels and meeting with only a few visitors. including family members. Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon told the Associated Press. Toulon also said Heuermann responded to a letter from Keith Hunter Jesperson. known as the “Happy Face Killer. ” after Jesperson confessed to killing eight women.
What prosecutors say about the murders
Prosecutors allege a sequence of killings that stretches from the early 1990s into 2010.
They say Heuermann strangled Sandra Costilla to death in November 1993 and left her body in North Sea. a hamlet on Long Island. where it was quickly discovered by hunters. In April 1996. prosecutors say he killed and dismembered 34-year-old Karen Vergata. with partial remains found on Blue Point Beach in the Town of Brookhaven that same month.
They add that in late 2000, he killed Valerie Mack, and part of her body was found by hunters in Manorville, about 40 miles east of Gilgo Beach. Prosecutors say parts of Jessica Taylor’s body were also found in Manorville after she was killed in July 2003.
For the more recent part of the pattern, prosecutors say Heuermann used a “burner phone” to arrange meetings tied to the killings of Maureen Brainard-Barnes in 2007, and then again to kill Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello in 2009 and 2010.
Court documents describe how prosecutors believe Heuermann planned and tracked the investigation. They say he methodically planned the murders using a document found on his hard drive. committed many of them while his family was out of town. and searched for information about subsequent investigations. Searches of his home. prosecutors say. uncovered hundreds of weapons. violent pornography. and newspaper articles about the Gilgo Beach killings investigation.
A “double life” behind the case
The picture of Heuermann that emerged from prosecutors and law enforcement is stark: an everyday routine in one place, and locations tied to victims’ remains in another.
Suffolk County Sheriff Errol Toulon previously told USA TODAY that Heuermann was living a “double life.” Prosecutors say Heuermann worked as an architect in Manhattan and lived with his wife and children in Massapequa Park, across a bay from where his victims’ remains were found.
Gilgo Beach discovery and the investigation’s long gap
In December 2010. police found the bodies of Barthelemy. Waterman. Costello and Brainard-Barnes while conducting a training exercise along a Gilgo Beach roadway. Those women later came to be known as the “Gilgo Four.” As investigators kept searching the area where the women were found. prosecutors say more remains from earlier victims tied to the case were discovered.
In early 2022, a new task force created to crack the case linked Heuermann to a Chevrolet Avalanche pickup truck spotted by a witness, and began surveilling him. A major break arrived when investigators obtained his DNA from a discarded pizza crust and matched it to a hair found on the remains.
By July 2023, Heuermann was arrested outside his Manhattan office. At first, he was charged with the murders of Waterman, Barthelemy, and Costello.
Charging followed in later stages: in January 2024, he was charged with the murder of Brainard-Barnes; in June 2024, he was charged with the murders of Taylor and Costilla; and in December 2024, he was charged with the murder of Mack.
The plea and what came after
At the time of his arrest, Heuermann initially pleaded not guilty and tearfully denied committing the killings, his lawyer said.
As the case moved through the courts, the timeline of admissions also grew. Prosecutors say Heuermann pleaded guilty to the eight Gilgo Beach murders after years of investigation and also admitted to killing another woman, 34-year-old Karen Vergata.
Heuermann’s sentencing comes after his April 8 guilty plea.
His former wife’s account added another layer. Asa Ellerup. who was married to Heuermann for 27 years and filed for divorce in 2023 after he was arrested. revealed in a Peacock documentary that her husband confessed to the killings to her in August 2025. Ellerup said Heuermann admitted that all but one of his victims were killed in their home.
After Heuermann’s April plea, his lawyer, Michael J. Brown, told reporters that Heuermann maintains he has no other victims. When a reporter asked, “Is he sorry?” Brown said, “I would hope so.”
The sequence of events spans two different kinds of time: years of scattered evidence—from the Gilgo Beach discoveries in December 2010 and the search that continued through 2011—and then a sudden acceleration after a DNA match and a surveillance effort that began in early 2022. For investigators. the gap between the remains and the arrest is where the case tightened; for the families. that same gap became part of the waiting.
What the sentencing means now
With capital punishment off the table because New York’s death penalty was declared unconstitutional in 2004. the court’s decision will come down to life terms and their structure. If prosecutors’ expectations hold. Heuermann will receive three consecutive life sentences without parole tied to the murders of Barthelemy. Waterman. and Costello. followed by a consecutive 100 years to life for Brainard-Barnes. Taylor. Costilla. and Mack.
He will be sentenced June 17. Until then, the case remains a reminder of how long it can take to turn evidence into accountability—and how the timeline of investigations can stretch far beyond the lives at the center of them.
Rex Heuermann Gilgo Beach murders Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney Errol Toulon June 17 sentencing Melissa Barthelemy Megan Waterman Amber Costello Maureen Brainard-Barnes Jessica Taylor Sandra Costilla Valerie Mack Karen Vergata Keith Hunter Jesperson Happy Face Killer
So June 17 is when he finally gets it, right?
Eight murders and he gets life without parole x like a million years?? Honestly I don’t even get how sentencing works, but it sounds like the judge is trying to say “forever” in court language.
They found remains in 2010/2011 but didn’t arrest him till 2023… so were they just sitting on it? Or did they really not connect the dots til later? I feel like it’s always “years later” with these cases, and it’s frustrating.
100 years to life sounds fake like a movie. If he’s already getting life without parole, why add the extra 100? Maybe it’s just to make people feel better. Also “pleaded guilty” doesn’t sound like justice if you ask me, but I guess the victims’ families will take whatever they can get.