Suspect charged in Long Island serial killings; one suspected victim had lived in Philly

A New York man has been charged in the murders of three women who died in a series of killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders that left 11 victims, including a Philadelphia woman whose remains went unidentified for 20 years, authorities say.

Long Island architect Rex Heuermann, 59, was arrested late Thursday, and was arraigned in a New York state court in Riverhead on Friday.

Heuermann is a resident of Massapequa Park, an area across Oyster Bay from Gilgo Beach, where police found skeletal remains along a nearby highway in 2010 and 2011. A married father of two, Heuermann works as a licensed architect with a small firm in Manhattan that has done store buildouts and other renovations for major retailers, offices, and apartments.

Since bodies now attributed to Heuermann began surfacing along the South Shore area of Long Island, N.Y., in 2010, names including the Long Island Serial Killer, the Gilgo Beach Killer, the Manorville Butcher, and the Craigslist Ripper have been attributed to the perpetrator. In 2020, a Netflix film, Lost Girls — based on the 2013 book Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery — dramatized the killings.

Among the suspected victims is Valerie Mack, a Philadelphia resident who went missing in the spring of 2000 at age 24. Her partial remains were initially discovered in November 2000, but remained unidentified until 2020.

Heuermann has not been charged in Mack’s killing. He is charged with first- and second-degree murder in the deaths of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello, and is a primary suspect in a fourth killing, according to the New York Times. He pleaded not guilty in his arraignment Friday.

Authorities began investigating what would come to be known as the Gilgo Beach killings in December 2010. The disappearance of Shannan Gilbert, a 24-year-old sex worker from Jersey City who went missing after leaving a client’s home in Oak Beach, triggered the search.

Several months later, a police officer working with a cadaver dog searching for her body along Ocean Parkway discovered the remains of another woman. Over a period of days, investigators found three other bodies in close proximity.

The investigation continued, and by spring 2011, authorities had found 10 sets of human remains in the area, including eight women, one man, and one toddler. Authorities later linked some of the remains to parts of dismembered bodies found throughout Long Island. Authorities discovered Gilbert’s body that December, about three miles away from where the other 10 were found.

Most victims were female sex workers. Four of the identified women — Barthelemy, Waterman, Costello, and Maureen Brainard-Barnes — became known as the Gilgo Four because they were found within a quarter-mile of one another.

Another victim, Jessica Taylor, a sex worker living in Manhattan, went missing in July 2003, and her partial remains were found about 45 miles east of Gilgo Beach. Additional remains identified as belonging to Taylor were found in March 2011.

Four other victims remain unidentified.

Mack was a 24-year-old who went missing near Port Republic in Atlantic County in the spring of 2000. A sex worker with a last known address in Philadelphia, she also went by the name Melissa Taylor.

Months after Mack went missing, her partial remains were discovered in Manorville, N.Y. The rest of her body wouldn’t be found until 2011, when police discovered more remains along Ocean Parkway on Long Island, near where remains of other Gilgo Beach victims were found.

Police would not discover Mack’s identity until May 2020, when genetic genealogy testing revealed the body was hers. Before that announcement, she was known as “Jane Doe #6″ or “Manorville Jane Doe.”

“For two decades, Valerie Mack’s family and friends were left searching for answers,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart said following Mack’s identification. “And while this is not the outcome they wanted, we hope this brings some sense of peace and closure.”

While Heuermann was not charged in Mack’s killing, or those of other suspected victims, additional charges may be filed as the investigation continues, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Friday.

Heuermann’s arrest Thursday came following a renewed investigation in the case. Last year, authorities formed a task force with the FBI that worked to solve the slayings.

Ultimately, investigators were able to associate Heuermann with a pickup truck that one witness claimed to have seen when one victim disappeared in 2010. Authorities later matched Heuermann’s DNA — recovered from a pizza crust in a box that he tossed in a Manhattan trash can — to genetic material recovered from the bodies, which had been found bound and hidden in thick underbrush.

Authorities said investigators later linked Heuermann to other evidence in the case, including cell phones used to arrange meetings with the slain women, and taunting calls that a person claiming to be the killer made to a victim’s relatives using her cell phone following her disappearance in 2009.

Heuermann is being held without bail, with Suffolk County prosecutors citing the “heinous nature of these serial murders.”

“This is a day that is a long time in coming, and hopefully a day that will bring peace to this community and to the families — peace that has been long overdue,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said during an unrelated Friday appearance on Long Island.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.