A Smirk and a Guilty Plea: Watching Rex Heuermann Own His Crimes

Rex Heuermann lumbered into Judge Timothy Mazzei's courtroom in Riverhead, New York just after 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 8th. It was standing room only, with the architect's ex-wife and daughter, Victoria, managing to get seats in the back corner.

Rex Heuermann entering court in shackles

Pretty soon, we wouldn't be using the word "alleged" before Gilgo Beach serial killer. Family members of Heuermann's victims had already been escorted in by law enforcement and filled 32 chairs.

"The defendant will plead guilty to seven counts in the indictment," Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney announced.

Judge Timothy Mazzei questions Rex Heuermann about his decision to plead guilty in Gilgo Beach serial killer case, before Heuermann admitted to 8 murders. (Video courtesy of Law & Crime)

District Attorney Raymond Tierney leaves court, after hearing Rex Heuermann plead guilty to 8 murders.

There were three, Murder 1 counts, because Heuermann killed three of the women--Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello--in less than a two year period. This ensures a sentence of life without parole. These victims were part of the "Gilgo Four," who were discovered in the brush along Ocean Parkway in December 2010.

Maureen Brainard-Barnes, a mother of two who had disappeared in 2007, is the fourth woman in this group.

"Nineteen years, I lived in a space between heartbreak and hope," Maureen's sister, Melissa Cann, said tearfully later in the day. "To every family out there still searching, please do not give up hope. Even in the darkest moments, justice will find its way."

Maureen's two children, now young adults, had stood with other relatives during the District Attorney's packed press conference.

In court, we had learned that Heuermann will be cooperating with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, which has already interviewed quite a few serial killers. It's a division the public became familiar with in the popular Netflix series, "Mindhunter." In fact, investigators found copies of books by FBI profiler, John Douglas, in Heuermann's house.

The main news to come out of Heuermann's mouth concerned the method of death he chose in the seven cases he was indicted for, along with an eighth murder he took responsibility for.

"Strangulation," Heuermann said repeatedly. His courtroom demeanor included occasional smirks and a matter of fact testimony about his crimes.

In multiple cases, Heuermann didn't stop his brutality with strangling.

He confessed to dismembering a 1996 homicide victim, Karen Vergata--whose legs washed up on the shore of Fire Island that year. Her skull wasn't discovered until 2011 in Tobay Beach, during the springtime search for more victims on Ocean Parkway.

Karen Vergata

"The New York Post is still calling our girls sex workers," an angry Lynn Barthelemy, mother of the first victim who was found, bristled at the press conference. "Stop it."

But the New York Post was not alone in focusing on how these victims earned their living.

When the world first learned that a serial killer was on the loose on Long Island in 2010, the headlines blared about an unknown psychopath who hired escorts on Craig's List--and then killed them.

During the thirteen years it took to learn the killer's name, the media had to do some self-reflection on how it covered the case.

Renowned civil attorney Gloria Allred, now representing some of the victims' families, talked about the "whys" of sex work when she took her place at the podium after the court proceeding. She pointed out that some women feel they have no other choice, when they have bad job prospects, children to feed, and rent bills to pay.

"I am glad this is OVER," the mother of 20 year old Jessica Taylor said.

Taylor was killed and dismembered in 2003, when she disappeared just before her mother's July birthday. The night before her torso was discovered in Manorville--forty miles east of Gilgo Beach--a witness reported seeing a dark-colored Chevy Avalanche backing out of the woods. The killer had attempted to mutilate Taylor's tattoo, which said "Remy's Angel," but investigators were able to salvage what was left of it and identify Taylor. Her other body parts were found along Ocean Parkway in 2011.

Jessica Taylor

The adoptive parents of Valerie Mack, a young mom who was 24 when she vanished, mournfully showed up in court after driving from their home in south Jersey. Mack, too, had been dismembered and placed in the woods of Manorville in the year 2000.

"Ed and Joanne Mack, Valerie's adoptive parents, gave her a home," the District Attorney observed, "and probably the only support she had in her life."

Valerie Mack

Mack's son Edwin is now suing the Heuermann family for wrongful death, accusing the killer's relatives of disregarding his activities and possibly being complicit. The civil attorney representing Mack's son is John Ray.

"We just heard that Mr. Heuermann and Rex Heuermann alone is responsible for these crimes," Bob Macedonio, attorney for the ex-wife, Asa Ellerup, said outside court. "Any suggestion that Asa Ellerup or Victoria Heuermann were involved in any way is irresponsible."

Rex Heuermann’s ex-wife and daughter surrounded by media, after listening to him plead guilty in courtroom’s last row. Daughter, Victoria, got emotional.

The District Attorney has said repeatedly that Rex Heuermann killed victims inside his Massapequa Park home, when his family was out of the state or out of the country.

One other piece of news that emerged during Raymond Tierney's press conference concerned a Ram Charger that was used to transport 1993 victim Sandra Costilla's body. The vehicle was recovered in Pennsylvania but no other details were provided.

The murder of Sandra Costilla (in photo) is the earliest crime Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to

There has been lots of anticipation surrounding what will happen when Heuermann's DNA is entered into a national database.

"After sentencing, he'll go into CODIS," District Attorney Tierney said.

But some, like me, who have followed the case closely aren't sure that Heuermann's DNA will link him to crimes outside New York State.

One top investigator with the case told me that Heuermann liked to work close to home. Still, it's worth noting that Heuermann had property in Las Vegas and South Carolina.

Heuermann's defense attorney, Michael Brown, said the judge's ruling last September to allow nuclear DNA evidence into the trial was "monumental," in terms of a legal setback. Brown also lost his bid to have some of the murder cases tried separately.

"There came a point when the defendant said he wanted to plead guilty," Michael Brown said.

Michael Brown, Rex's defense attorney

District Attorney Tierney noted the "lion's share" of the case was built around phone records, financial records, a witness who was roommates with Amber Costello, the Chevy Avalanche driven by the killer, and DNA. Another huge development came months after Heuermann's arrest, when forensic extractors recovered a planning document for murder from one of the electronic devices recovered at the architect's home. Investigators also found at least one news article saved for each murder.

D.A. Tierney thanked the task force of law enforcement personnel from different agencies who all contributed to a successful result in the serial killer case. But he singled out an investigator named Clyde who gathered the rootless hairs from a number of the victims, hairs that became extremely important in the case.

And Tierney gave a quick shout-out to New York State Police investigator Tifini Atai, who took the information about a first generation Chevy Avalanche and cell phone data in Massapequa Park and came up with the name Rex Heuermann on March 14, 2022. He was arrested 17 months later.

Tifini Atai, New York State Police Investigator who isolated Rex Heuermann’s name during DMV and data search of Chevy Avalanches in March 2022, stands with colleagues who worked the case.

At this point, there is only one, unidentified murder victim out of the 10 discovered on Ocean Parkway between December 2010 and April 2011.

That would be Asian Doe, a biological male dressed in women's clothing.

The D.A. said an identification would go a long way in getting closer to justice for the victim, but Doe's name still remains a mystery.