Suspected Gilgo Beach murderer Rex Heuermann facing new charges for additional killings
Suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann will be slapped this week with murder charges related to additional victims, sources told The Post Monday.
Heuermann, 60, will be arraigned on a new indictment Thursday before State Supreme Court Justice Timothy Mazzei in Riverhead, sources said.
The indictment is related to additional victims — including one found in North Sea, a community in Southampton which was recently searched by investigators.
Authorities have also recently focused again on an area in Manorville where partial remains of two Gilgo Beach victims, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack, were found over two decades ago. It was unclear if he’s expected to be charged with one or both of those murders, sources said.
A body previously found in the North Sea area was identified as Sandra Costilla, who was murdered in 1993 but has not so far been included among the so-called Gilgo Beach victims.
Nonetheless, the site was the subject of a new police search in April — although it was unclear if the search was tied to Heuermann’s case.
Investigators suspected convicted serial killer John Bittrolff in Costilla’s death, but he was never charged in her slaying — which remains one of several unsolved Long Island murders.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney declined to comment.
News of the fresh charges comes after cops conducted another search of Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home over several days last month and were pictured hauling boxes, seemingly filled with evidence, out of the house.
Heuermann is accused of killing four women more than a decade ago, with authorities saying evidence, including DNA and cellphone records, tied him to the crimes.
Investigators have not yet determined where Heuermann’s alleged victims were killed before their bodies were dumped on local beaches — prompting the second search of his home last month, law enforcement sources told The Post at the time.
Who were the Gilgo Beach victims?
Suspected serial killer Rex Heuermann — a New York City architect and married dad of two — was arrested in connection with the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach murders. The arrest is tied to the so-called “Gilgo Four,” women found wrapped in burlap within days of each other in late 2010.
The years-long investigation that led to the arrest revolved around the discovery of more than 10 sets of human remains along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach in Suffolk County between December 2010 and April 2011.
Most victims were petite female sex workers with green or hazel eyes. But there were also two exceptions: a 2-year-old girl and a young Asian man.
Melissa Barthelemy, 24
- Barthelemy was a sex worker who lived in the Unionport section of the Bronx and dreamed of one day opening her own beauty salon. She was last seen alive in her basement apartment on Underhill Avenue on July 12, 2009. Heuermann was charged for Barthelemy’s murder in July 2023.
Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25
- Brainard-Barnes was living in Norwich, Connecticut. She went missing after taking an Amtrak train from New London, Connecticut, to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan on July 6, 2007. Her remains were found in December 2010. Heuermann was charged for Brainard-Barnes’ murder in January 2024.
Amber Lynn Costello, 27
- Costello, 27, was a sex worker and heroin addict who lived in West Babylon, New York, at a home with a woman and two men. She advertised on Craigslist and Backpage to support her and her roommates’ drug habits. Costello was found on December 13, 2010, after having been last seen leaving her home September 2, 2010. Heuermann was charged for Costello’s murder in July 2023.
Megan Waterman, 22
- Waterman, a 22-year-old mom of one, was last seen on June 6, 2010. She lived in Scarborough, Maine, and earned a living as an escort. She was last seen by her family boarding a New York-bound Concord Trailways bus in Maine. Her body was found on December 13, 2010, on the north side of Ocean Parkway, near Gilgo Beach. Heuermann was charged for Waterman’s murder in July 2023.
Jessica Taylor, 20
- Remains belonging to Jessica Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Valerie Mack, 24
- Valerie Mack was 24 years old and living in Philadelphia when she went missing. She worked as an escort, using the alias “Melissa Taylor.” Relatives last saw Mack in the spring or summer of 2000 in Port Republic, New Jersey, but she was never reported as missing to the police. Her partial skeletal remains were found in Manorville in September 2000 but were initially known as “Jane Doe No. 6.” More bones were found on April 4, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Unidentified Asian man
- The skeletal remains of a yet-to-be-identified Asian man were found along Ocean Parkway on April 4, 2011. It is estimated that the man was between 17 and 23 years old at the time of his death. He was approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall with bad teeth.
‘Peaches’ and her daughter
- An African American woman’s partial remains were discovered in Hempstead Lake State Park back in 1997, and she had become known as “Peaches” because of a bitten tattoo of a peach on her left breast. On April 4, 2011, police uncovered the remains of a toddler, who was about 2 years old at the time of her death. DNA testing confirmed that one of the skeletons was that of the 2-year-old girl’s mother, “Peaches.”
Karen Vergata
- A victim previously referred to as Jane Doe No. 7 has been identified as 34-year-old Manhattan woman Karen Vergata. Vergata is believed to have disappeared around Feb. 14, 1996; two months later, her legs were found in a plastic bag at a park near Fire Island’s Blue Point Beach. At the time of her disappearance, Vergata was believed to have been working as an escort. Two sets of Vergata’s remains were identified in August 2023.
Shannan Gilbert, 23
- Gilbert was a Craigslist escort who lived in Jersey City, traveled with her driver Michael Pak from Manhattan to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, at his home in the Oak Beach Association on the morning of May 1, 2010. She spoke with two neighbors before disappearing. Her body was discovered in a marsh near Oak Beach — about half a mile from where she was last seen alive — on December 13, 2011.
Jessica Taylor, 20
- Taylor, a 20-year-old woman working as an escort in New York City, were found in a wooded area in Manorville on July 26, 2003. Her additional remains — initially labeled “Jane Doe No. 5” — were discovered on March 29, 2011, along Ocean Parkway.
Sandra Costilla
- Costilla was murdered in 1993 but had not been included among the so-called Gilgo Beach victims — until now. Investigators suspected convicted serial killer John Bittrolff in Costilla’s death, but he was never charged in her slaying — which remains one of several unsolved Long Island murders.
Heuermann’s lawyer, Michael J. Brown, and a lawyer for his estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, confirmed last month that authorities were searching the home of the dad of two, who has pleaded not guilty and is currently in jail awaiting trial.
Ellerup’s lawyer, Robert Macedonio, said, “There have been no [new] arrests made nor are we anticipating any for the family.”
It was the second time authorities searched the home and grounds since Heuermann’s arrest last year in connection to the “Gilgo Four” murders.
The slain women — Amber Lynn Costello, 27, Melissa Barthelemy, 24, Nicole Brainard-Smith, 24, and Megan Waterman, 22 — were sex escorts who solicited clients on Craig’s List and other online sites.
Their bodies were discovered on isolated sandy stretches along Ocean Parkway between 2010 and 2011, however, their slayings remained a mystery for over a decade until cops reopened the case in 2022 and identified Heuermann as a suspect.
Mazzei, the judge overseeing the case, has said he would like to have discovery in the case completed by the end of July.
Heuermann has been held at the Riverhead Correctional Facility in Suffolk County since his July 13, 2022 arrest.
He was previously due back in court for a conference on June 18.
