Families Chant "Ogre! Ogre!" As Gilgo Beach Killer Heads to Prison
- Mary Murphy
- Jun 18
- 4 min read
Rex Heuermann in jailhouse green.
It was a surreal ending to one of the most horrendous, true crime cases I have ever covered.
After listening to statements about the psychological torment inflicted by a serial killer on the children, siblings and parents of his victims, Rex Heuermann himself indicated he would say a few words. But they were hollow.
Gilgo Beach serial killer, Rex Heuermann, did not apologize in his court statement.
The former midtown Manhattan architect, now 62, seemed to enrage Judge Timothy Mazzei with his utter refusal to apologize for torturing and killing eight women, between 1993 and 2010. Most of them were murdered in the basement of his Massapequa Park home. The judge practically tore an apology out of Heuermann.
Judge Timothy Mazzei blasted Heuermann before imposing his sentence.
Judge Mazzei imposed a sentence of three, life terms without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murders of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Lynn Costello, who were killed within a 14-month period in a series of premeditated homicides. Heuermann pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the strangulation deaths of Sandra Costilla (1993), Valerie Mack (2000), Jessica Taylor (2003) and Maureen Brainard-Barnes (2007). Costilla's body showed evidence of about 25 torture marks with a sharp instrument; Valerie Mack and Jessica Taylor were dismembered. Heuermann also took responsibility for the 1996 dismemberment murder of Karen Vergata, a crime he was never indicted for.
"Get Him Out of Here!"
The sentencing proceeding at Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead, New York took about two hours, as the District Attorney's Office, led by D.A. Raymond Tierney, announced nine relatives of the victims would speak, while several others sent letters to be read in court.
Amanda Funderberg, the sister of Gilgo victim Melissa Barthelemy, was applauded as she left the sentencing. She had faced down Heuermann and reminded him of the taunting calls he made to her in the summer of 2009, after Melissa went missing.
“You Can Look at Me While I'm Talking to You” Amanda Funderburg, sister of Melissa Barthelemy, confronts the man who taunted her.
"She'd be 41 years old," Funderburg noted, "but instead, she's forever 24."
Earlier, Jasmine Robinson, the cousin of victim Jessica Taylor, made a scathing statement about Heuermann's missteps, which eventually led to his capture.
"You certainly were sloppy," Robinson said. "You made a whole planning document and you messed that up."
In early 2024, forensic experts were able to extract deleted files from one of Heuermann's computers, which revealed the extensive planning he did before his murders.
And Robinson slammed Heuermann's hubris that he might have something novel to offer the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit.
"You're boring, you're not prolific, and you're not even Top 5," Robinson said, an apparent reference to other serial killers.
Robinson spoke to the court on what should have been Jessica Taylor's 43rd birthday. Jessica was only 20, when her torso was discovered in the woods of Manorville, Long Island in July 2003. Police found a witness who said a dark Chevy Avalanche was seen backing out of the woods, the night before Jessica's torso was found. Heuermann drove a first-generation Chevy Avalanche.
Megan Waterman’s daughter Liliana, in black dress, leaves court after addressing Heuermann.
Melissa Cann, the sister of Maureen Brainard Barnes, shook as she recalled the survivor's guilt she felt when her sister's body was found in December 2010, three years after Maureen had gone missing.
"When he took her life, he destroyed mine as I knew it," Cann told the court. "In many ways, I became one of his victims, too--shackled in my own mind."
Referring to Heuermann's "pride" at working with the FBI, she retorted: "You are nothing more than a case specimen. I don't know what shapes you. You are a coward. You are no longer the one in control of this story."
Maureen's daughter, Nicolette Brainard-Barnes, shared, "I was only 7 years old when I lost my mother, and for the next three years, she was missing."
Nicolette spoke of the depression she suffered as a little girl.
The aunt of victim Megan Waterman, Elizabeth Meserve, spoke about Megan being trafficked by a pimp and killed by a sociopath who thought he could "erase" evidence of Megan's existence.
"Their lives had meaning, purpose, and value," Meserve noted.
Meserve also took aim at the documentary production that paid Heuermann's wife, children and attorneys to participate in a true crime series.
"A demon kills our loved ones and his family gets filthy rich off his crimes," Meserve said angrily. She encouraged New York State lawmakers to pass Bill 86730, which would prevent the families of criminals from selling a story or belongings for profit.
Before Judge Mazzei imposed his sentence, District Attorney Raymond Tierney talked about the "pathetic attempts by the defendant to continue to manipulate his family. I have no doubt this defendant is sorry. He is sorry he got caught."
And Tierney recounted one of the sick calls that Heuermann made to Melissa Barthelemy's sister, Amanda, one that hadn't been previously disclosed in court.
"I can't tell you whether you will see your sister again," Tierney said, quoting Heuermann. "But I am going to wait and maybe I'll come see you myself."
DA Ray Tierney outside court with victims’ families after the Gilgo sentencing.
As of Friday, June 26, Rex Heuermann's housing status changed in the New York State prison system. He was listed with Elmira Correctional Center, where his records are being assessed, although he was physically moved to Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York--about 30 miles south of the Canadian border. It's known as "Little Siberia" in some parts, an isolated place surrounded by concrete walls that are 40 to 60 feet high, depending on which research source you use. Two convicted killers famously broke out of Clinton in 2015, after the prison seamstress gave them tools to cut through steel in their cells. They escaped through the prison steampipe system and emerged through a manhole a block from the facili…
Rex Heuermann has been moved to the Green Haven Correctional Facility, a processing center, in upstate Dutchess County, New York. He will receive medical, mental health, and security evaluations there, before he is assigned permanent housing in a maximum-security prison.