{"id":189933,"date":"2026-04-08T19:33:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189933\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T19:33:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:33:21","slug":"gilgo-serial-killer-reveals-how-he-murdered-8-victims-as-their-horrified-relatives-gasp-in-court-during-guilty-plea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/189933\/","title":{"rendered":"Gilgo serial killer reveals how he murdered 8 victims as their horrified relatives gasp in court during guilty plea"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann admitted Wednesday that he\u00a0strangled and dismembered eight sex workers<\/a>\u00a0then dumped their remains along desolate stretches of Long Island.<\/p>\n

The Manhattan architect and Massapequa Park schlub\u2019s chilling guilty plea includes the\u00a0slayings of seven women he had been charged with killing<\/a>\u00a0since 1993 \u2014 and an eighth victim newly linked to him.<\/p>\n

The victims\u2019 relatives gasped in Suffolk County court as the notorious killer repeatedly answered, \u201cStrangulation,\u201d when asked how he murdered each of the women.<\/p>\n

Rex Heuermann smirked in court as he plead guilty to murdering eight sex workers on Long Island. Newsday<\/p>\n

Heuermann told the court he strangled all eight of his victims. Newsday<\/p>\n

He appeared calm and even glib as he rattled off the horrors \u2014 at times appearing to be holding back a smirk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heuermann also confessed that he dismembered the women and tied them up in burlap, bringing his daughter, Victoria, to tears inside the Riverhead courtroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will serve three consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole,\u201d prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

The gruesome confession brings an end to a heartbreaking saga that has haunted Long Island for three decades.<\/p>\n

Asa Ellerup, estranged wife (center left), and her daughter, Victoria Heuermann, arrive outside court on April 8, 2026. AP<\/p>\n

Asa Ellerup (center), estranged wife of Rex Heuermann, and Ellerup\u2019s attorney, Robert Macedonio (right), walk to the courtroom at Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, NY. AP<\/p>\n

Heuermann, 62,\u00a0admitted he\u00a0murdered Amber Lynn Costello, Megan Waterman, Melissa Barthelemy, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who were famously known as the \u201cGilgo Four\u201d \u2014 as well as Valerie Mack, Jessica Taylor, and Sandra Costilla, the first victim killed in 1993.<\/p>\n

The married father of two also copped to\u00a0killing Karen Vergata, whose 1996 murder had not previously been linked to him.<\/p>\n

Heuermann lawyer Michael Brown\u00a0said his client\u2019s decision to finally admit to the murders came after two devastating rulings by Judge Timothy Mazzei \u2014 allowing all of the DNA evidence to be used and refusing to try the crimes separately at trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He called the evidence \u201coverwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown also claimed Heuermann all of a sudden wanted to spare all the families details of his gruesome crimes at a trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe certainly wanted to save the families of the victims the ordeal of going to trial, and coupled with saving his family that ordeal \u2014 it was definitely a factor,\u201d Brown told reporters.<\/p>\n

The guilty plea could also help his wife and daughter, Asa Ellerup and Victoria Heuermann, from liability in pending and expected civil lawsuits filed by his victims\u2019 families.<\/p>\n

In addition, Brown said the killer agreed to work with the FBI on other serial killer cases.<\/p>\n

Heuermann, who\u00a0was arrested in 2023<\/a>, will be sentenced on June 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heuermann\u2019s family \u2014 including his longtime wife (left) \u2014 have claimed they had no idea what he was allegedly doing in his spare time. AP<\/p>\n

The locations where eight of ten 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. Reuters\/Suffolk County Police<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, the regular guy who goes to work, has kids in the local school and in a good neighborhood, but he\u2019s killing people on the side,\u201d a neighbor told NBC News about Heuermann in 2023.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Suffolk County prosecutors on Wednesday released stomach-turning details of each of the killings, which show the Massapequa Park monster struck every few years.<\/p>\n

The first murder was in November 1993, when Heuermann picked up Costilla, strangled her and dumped her body near Fish Cove Road in Southampton, where she was discovered by hunters just days later.<\/p>\n

Top row: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello. Bottom row: Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor, Valerie Mack, and Karen Vergata. Suffolk County Police Department<\/p>\n

Asa Ellerup, ex-wife of Rex Heuermann, surrounded by security at Suffolk County Court on Wednesday, April 8, 2026, New York, N.Y. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

He struck again in April 1996, when he arranged to meet Vergata, strangled her, then cut up and scattered her remains.<\/p>\n

Vergata\u2019s legs were found on Blue Point Beach later that month, but her skull wasn\u2019t discovered until April 12, 2011, on Ocean Parkway, not far from the Gilgo Beach victims.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old mom was only identified as Jane Doe No. 7 until a DNA test revealed her true name in 2023.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Baczkiel, the mother of Jessica Taylor, leaves the court after the sentencing. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

Attorney Gloria Allred and a family member of Heuermann\u2019s victims are leaving the courtroom. AP<\/p>\n

Heuermann\u2019s next victim was Mack, who disappeared between September and November 2000. Prosecutors said the killer dismembered her body and dumped the remains on Gilgo Beach and in a wooded area in Manorville.<\/p>\n

Her body was found during a police search of Gilgo in 2011.<\/p>\n

In July 2003, the architect strangled Taylor, again dismembering the body and using the same two dump sites on Gilgo Beach and in Manorville, where she was found in 2011.<\/p>\n

Asa Ellerup speaking to the media outside of Suffolk County Court after the sentencing. James Keivom for NY Post<\/p>\n

Heuermann used a burner phone to arrange a rendezvous with the next victim, Brianard-Barnes, in July 2007. Prosecutors said the body was \u201csecured\u201d with three belts and left on Gilgo Beach, where she was found in December 2010.<\/p>\n

In July 2009, he used another burner phone to arrange a date with Barthelemy, strangling her to death, wrapping her body with tape and burlap, and dumping her on Gilgo Beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her remains were found during the 2010 search of the beach.<\/p>\n

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Waterman became the seventh victim in June 2010, when Heuermann picked her up at a Hauppauge Holiday Inn, killed her, and left her on Gilgo Beach taped up in burlap.<\/p>\n

Waterman\u2019s body was found six months later.<\/p>\n

Costello was the serial killer\u2019s last victim. He picked her up in West Babylon in September 2010, later leaving the body also wrapped and tape and burlap on Gilgo Beach, where she was found on the north side of Ocean Parkway that December, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Heuermann pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for Waterman, Costello, Barthelemy and Vergata, and second-degree murder for Brainard-Barnes, Taylor, Mack and Costilla.<\/p>\n

Brown said he was not involved in two other Gilgo Beach slayings \u2014 Shannon Gilbert, a sex worker who disappeared in 2010, and an unidentified victim known only as \u201cAsian Doe.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Suffolk County Crime Scene and Homicide Detectives searching for missing woman Shannon Gilbert in Oak Beach on March 30, 2011. New York Post<\/p>\n

The slayings remained a chilling mystery until 2022, when Suffolk County cops reopened the case and busted Heuermann outside his Manhattan office the following year.<\/p>\n

Clever police work and cutting-edge DNA evidence helped take down the ogre-like, alleged serial killer, whose arrest has spawned real-crime documentaries and led to unprecedented media attention.<\/p>\n

Suffolk investigators\u00a0even scraped DNA from a used pizza box<\/a>\u00a0Heuermann tossed into a Big Apple trash can to help crack the cold case. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The home of serial killer Rex Heuermann and his ex-wife, Asa Elleup. James Messerschmidt for the NY Post<\/p>\n

Since his arrest, sickening details have emerged. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said he killed all of the women\u00a0in the basement of his home<\/a>, which appears to be in squalid conditions compared to other houses in the pristine Nassau neighborhood.<\/p>\n

His family \u2014 including his longtime wife \u2014 has claimed they had no idea what Heuermann was allegedly doing in his spare time.<\/p>\n

Heuermann\u2019s stepson Christopher Sheridan walking his dog in Massapequa Park the morning of his father\u2019s guilty plea. James Messerschmidt for NY Post<\/p>\n

He also kept a Tinder account and buzzed prostitutes\u00a0on burner phones more than 500 times<\/a>, prosecutors revealed in March. Heuermann made \u201csignificant searches for pornography related to bindings, torture, rape, snuff videos, crying, bruised and impaled women and\/or girls,\u201d according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

Heuermann had long maintained his innocence as his defense team tried to contest DNA evidence and point to other potential suspects.<\/p>\n

Now it appears his fight for freedom will end on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Though a source pointed out to The Post, \u201cThe end to this is he dies in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann admitted Wednesday that he\u00a0strangled and dismembered eight sex workers\u00a0then dumped their remains…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[33014,33015,776,57,238,9,11,10,15339,19980,773],"class_list":{"0":"post-189933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-gilgo-beach","9":"tag-gilgo-beach-murders","10":"tag-long-island","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-murders","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-serial-killers","17":"tag-sex-workers","18":"tag-suffolk-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}