The case against Rex Heuermann, accused of killing seven women in the Gilgo Beach area of Long Island between 1993 and 2011, came to an abrupt ending after he pleaded guilty Wednesday. For years, the high-profile serial killer case frustrated investigators. It was featured on true crime shows and podcasts, and was even the subject of a best-selling book. Then came Heuermann’s arrest in 2023. Now, after denying his guilt for years, Heuermann pleaded guilty to murdering seven women. He also admitted to killing another woman but wasn’t charged with her death. He will be sentenced on June 17.
Rex A. Heuermann, the Gilgo Beach serial killer, pleads guilty in court on Wednesday to the murders of eight women during a 17-year killing spree.
Gilgo Beach case haunted Long Island For years, Gilgo Beach has been synonymous with the horrific and unsolved murders of young women. Concerns of a possible serial killer cast a long shadow over Long Island. It all began with Shannan Gilbert. In May, 2010, the 23-year-old sex worker disappeared one night after making a frantic 911 call. “There’s somebody after me,” Gilbert can be heard saying on the call. “Where are you, ma’am?” the 911 operator said. “I don’t know,” Gilbert said. Gilbert had been at a client’s home on Long Island, she told the operator. She was never seen alive again.
The Gilgo Four Police spent seven months searching Suffolk County for Gilbert, along with her determined family. Finally, K-9 units found human remains near Gilgo Beach – but it wasn’t Gilbert. Rather, it was the bodies of four other women: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello. They were dubbed the Gilgo Four. All were petite, in their 20s, and had been working as online escorts before disappearing. Investigators widened their search. By the following spring, they had found six more sets of human remains in the Gilgo Beach area. There were 10 total victims. Some of their deaths dated back to the 1990s.
The locations where eight of 10 bodies were found near Gilgo Beach since December 2010 are seen in this Suffolk County Police handout image released to Reuters on September 20, 2011.
Investigators were stumped, and wondered if it was the work of one serial killer, or many. In 2011, police found Gilbert’s body in a marsh, miles away from Gilgo Beach. Her death was ruled an accidental drowning. No closer to uncovering the truth, the investigation stalled.
Investigations and infighting “The victims’ families were very frustrated because of the infighting. They felt that the FBI, Suffolk Police, County Police, Sheriff’s Department – they were not all on the same page. They were fighting with each other over territory,” CBS News New York’s Jennifer McLogan said. James Burke, at the time Suffolk County’s police chief, had blocked the FBI from the case. They did not join the investigaiton until 2015, after Burke was indicted on unrelated conspiracy charges, which released his stranglehold on the police department. Still, progress in the Gilgo Beach case was slow. “Through the years, I would say law enforcement did not lose hope, but citizens did,” McLogan said. The mystery took a turn in early 2022, when Rodney Harrison, the new Suffolk County police commissioner, formed a task force devoted to cracking the case. The team started reviewing every piece of evidence collected over the years.
Rex Heuermann’s arrest About two months later, detectives made a long-awaited break in the decades-long case. Rex Heuermann was linked to a pickup truck that a witness described seeing when Amber Costello disappeared in 2010. From there, investigators started taking a closer look at Heuermann, ultimately leading to his arrest on July 14, 2023. At the time of his arrest, he was an architect working in an office in New York City. He was married, but his wife, Asa Ellerup, filed for divorce just a few days after his arrest. The couple shares an adult daughter, and he is stepfather to Ellerup’s adult son. Investigators believe Heuermann committed the murders while his wife and children were out of town. Heuermann has been held in the Suffolk County jail since his arrest.
The case against Rex Heuermann Upon his arrest in 2023, Heuermann was initially charged with the murders of three women — Barthelemy, Waterman and Costello. He was later also charged with killing Brainard-Barnes, as well as Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor, and Valerie Mack. Heuermann originally pleaded not guilty in every case. In September 2025 the judge ruled that all seven murder cases would be tried together. It was a blow to the defense, which wanted to split the cases, arguing the modus operandi differ and that jurors wouldn’t be able to separate evidence. The case was expected to go to trial in September 2026, with prosecutors planning to call more than 100 witnesses. “It’s a dizzying amount of information — seven murders that span from 1993 to 2010,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.
The evidence in Gilgo Beach murders In the days following his arrest, investigators searched Heuermann’s home and dug up his backyard. Guns were recovered from the home, along with electronic devices. In June of 2024, the prosecution introduced evidence that suggested Heuermann was familiar with a remote part of Suffolk County, where victims’ remains were dumped. Prosecutors alleged that investigators found “torture pornography” and a so-called “blueprint” Heuermann allegedly used to plan kills among his possessions. Then came a battle over DNA evidence. Prosecutors said investigators recovered some of Heuermann’s from a pizza crust he discarded in a Manhattan garbage can. Prosecutors said that cutting-edge whole genome testing tied Heuermann’s DNA to hair found on or near six of the victims. The defense challenged that decision, saying it was in violation of public health law since the lab involved wasn’t licensed in New York. Heuermann’s attorneys have criticized the process as “magic.” In September 2025 the judge ruled the DNA testing can be used at trial, marking the first time such evidence can be admitted. Phone evidence was introduced in early March. According to a court filing, Heuermann allegedly used burner phones to contact dozens of sex workers more than 500 times in the two years before his arrest.
