RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (Court TV) — A man charged in the deaths of seven women whose bodies were found buried along a stretch of New York’s Gilgo Beach showed no emotion as he entered guilty pleas to multiple charges on Wednesday.
Rex Heuermann appears in court to plead guilty on April 8, 2026. (Newsday/Ben Carbone)
Rex Heuermann, 62, pleaded guilty to murder in the deaths of Sandra Costilla, 28, Valerie Mack, 24, Jessica Taylor, 20, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Megan Waterman, 22, and Amber Costello, 27. He also pleaded guilty to transporting a body to Suffolk County in the death of an eighth woman, Karen Vergata. He was not charged with Vergata’s murder.
Each of the victims had been in the sex trade when they died and were found buried along a stretch of Gilgo Beach. No charges have been filed in the deaths of several other women whose bodies were found in the same area.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney offered an overview of the evidence against Heuermann at the hearing, saying prosecutors had amassed 120 terabytes of data, including 7,015 pages of evidence. Tierney went through each of the victims, saying that Heuermann admitted to luring the women with promises of money and strangling them to death. As Tierney listed the crimes, Heuermann could be seen saying “yes.”
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Costilla was the first woman to be killed; Tierney said she was strangled and dumped in Southampton, before being found by hunters on Nov. 20, 1993. Vergata was the next target; she was killed in April 1996. Her body was dismembered and discarded in multiple locations. Her skull was found in 2011 and she was not identified until 2023. While Heuermann admitted to strangling Vergata, he was not charged with her murder as part of his plea agreement with prosecutors.
Mack was killed next, sometime between Sept. 1 and Nov. 19, 2000. Mack was dismembered and her body discarded in two locations along Gilgo Beach. Three years later, Taylor was killed in July 2003. Taylor was similarly dismembered and discarded in the same general vicinity as Mack.
Asa Ellerup walks into court on April 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Tierney said that in 2007, Heuermann used a “burner phone” to arrange to meet with Brainard-Barnes before killing her on July 9. An online advertisement led Heuermann to Barthelemy on July 10, 2009. After her death, Heuermann tied up Barthelemy’s remains with tape and burlap before dumping her at Gilgo Beach. Waterman was also wrapped in burlap and left nearby after she was strangled on June 6, 2010.
The final victim, Costello, was killed on Sept. 3, 2010, one day after the pair’s previous encounter the night before had been disrupted.
MORE | A timeline of the investigation into the Gilgo Beach killings
Heuermann’s ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, was at the courthouse for the plea hearing and spoke to reporters outside. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families,” Ellerup said. “Their loss is immeasurable and the focus should be on them at this time and moment. I ask that you give some privacy to my family as they navigate through this very difficult time.”
Heuermann’s attorney, Michael J. Brown, spoke after the hearing and said that his client plans to cooperate with the FBI’s behavioral analysis unit. “When Rex decided that he wanted to accept responsibility and didn’t want to proceed to trial from a defense standpoint, we then pivoted and did our best to protect his interest,” Brown said.
Heuermann is scheduled to return to court on June 17 for his sentencing, where Tierney said he is expected to be sentenced to three consecutive life sentences plus 100 years. Brown said he expects Heuermann to speak at the sentencing hearing.
