For over a decade, a series of unresolved murders discovered along the southern coast of Long Island had fueled one of the most controversial cases of the recent American chronicle. The investigations, launched in 2010 after the discovery of four bodies near Ocean Parkway, had led investigators to immediately hypothesize the action of a single manager, identified by the media as the “serial killer of Gilgo Beach”. The case has remained long without a turning point.
On Wednesday, the 62-year-old Rex Heuermann, a New York architect with a study in Manhattan and a resident in Massapequa Park, found guilty of the murder of seven women between 1993 and 2010, confessing an eighth murder for which he had not been formally accused. The Prosecutor has asked more ergastoli; the judgment is scheduled for June. Heuermann’s arrest in July 2023 was made possible by a systematic reopening of investigations by the Suffolk County Task Force, which had used new DNA analysis techniques, historical telephone data and a detailed reconstruction of the suspect’s movements.
Victims identified in the process include Melissa Barthelemy (24 years), Megan Waterman (22), Amber Costello (27) and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (25), whose bodies were found in 2010. These include Jessica Taylor (20), who died in 2003, Valerie Mack (24), who died in 2000, and Sandra Costilla (28), who was killed in 1993 and found in Southampton. Heuermann also confessed to the murder of Karen Vergata (34), who died in 1996. In many cases, the victims worked as an escort and used online platforms to meet clients. The families of the victims have always argued that, because of the work of the same victims, the authorities would not place maximum attention to the case.
During the hearing, Heuermann described how he approached the victims: he contacted the same as clients, killed them by strangulation and concealed their bodies in sacks of jute along isolated stretches of the Long Island coast. As part of the proxy agreement, he agreed to cooperate with the FBI to help clarify any links with other cases that were opened in the same area. The story was recently resumed in the 2025 documentary “Gone Girls: the serial killer of Long Island”, which reconstructed the phases of investigations and criticalities emerged in the relationship between law enforcement forces and victims’ families.
L’articolo The “serial killer of Gilgo Beach” has confessed, after more than thirty years comes from IlNewyorkese.
