Gilgo Beach murders: One year after Rex Heuermann's arrest. How did we get here?
LONG ISLAND - It's been one year since suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann was arrested and charged with murdering three women on Long Island. Fast-forward to today, his total number of alleged killings sit at six.
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According to police, phone records and DNA from a discarded pizza crust led them to originally charge Heuermann with the murders of three of the 11 victims: Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello.
Police say they used DNA evidence from this thrown-out pizza to link Heuermann to the crimes.
- July 14, 2023 reporting: Arrest records show that detectives believe Heuermann used burner cell phones to contact his victims and, in one case, used one of the victim's cell phones to make "taunting" phone calls to her family in which he admitted killing and sexually assaulting her.
- July 14, 2023 reporting: Records also show that, earlier this year, investigators were able to obtain DNA from a pizza crust that Heuermann threw out. That DNA was a close match for a hair found on one of the victim's naked bodies.
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Gilgo Beach murders: Suffolk County DA details Rex Heuermann’s arrest
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney joined Good Day New York with details about the special task force and investigation that led to the arrest of Heuermann.
How did we get to this point?
Starting in 2010, police searching for a missing woman found 10 sets of human remains in the scrub along a barrier island parkway, not far from the sands of Gilgo Beach. Over the years, investigators used DNA analysis and other clues to identify the victims. In some cases, they were able to connect them to remains found elsewhere on Long Island years earlier.
Here's a timeline of the investigation that spanned decades:
Timeline of the investigation
1996
April 20, 1996: The partial remains of Karen Vergata are discovered on Fire Island, a barrier beach off Long Island's southern coast. Her name remains unknown to investigators until 2022, when new DNA analysis helps them make an identification. Vergata, 34, was last in contact with her family on Feb. 14, 1996. She was involved in sex work when she vanished.
1997
June 28, 1997: The partial remains of a woman, nicknamed "Peaches" by investigators after a tattoo on her body, are discovered stuffed inside a plastic tub in a state park in West Hempstead. Her identity remains unknown.
2000
September 2000: The partial skeletal remains of Valerie Mack, who had been working as an escort in Philadelphia, are found in a wooded area in Manorville. Mack, 24, was last seen by her family in the spring or summer of that year in Port Republic, New Jersey.
2003
July 26, 2003: The partial skeletal remains of Jessica Taylor are discovered in a wooded area of Manorville. She was 20 when she vanished and had been an escort working in NYC.
Courtesy of Jessica Taylor’s family
2007
July 9, 2007: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, 25, who had traveled to New York City from her home in Norwich, Connecticut, for sex work, is last heard from by a friend. She says she is leaving her hotel to meet a client. Investigators later say cellphone records showed her phone was last used on Long Island.
2009
July 10, 2009: Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old sex worker, is last seen at her apartment in the Bronx. She tells a friend she is going to see a man and would be back in the morning. Cellphone location data puts her phone's last known location on Long Island.
July 17, 2009: A man begins using Barthelemy’s mobile phone to make taunting phone calls to her relatives. There are additional calls on July 23, Aug. 5, Aug. 19 and Aug. 26. In one, a man says he killed her.
2010
May 1, 2010: Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker, disappears in the barrier island community of Oak Beach after fleeing the house of a client and banging on a neighbor’s door. In a recorded 911 call, she tells a dispatcher people are after her, but she can also be heard refusing offers of help. Her pimp, the client and his neighbor all tell police she appeared disoriented and ran into the night on her own.
A picture of Shannan Gilbert.
June 6, 2010: Megan Waterman, 22, who had traveled to Long Island from Maine for sex work, is last seen at a motel in Hauppauge.
Megan Waterman
Sept. 2, 2010: Amber Lynn Costello, 27, is last seen leaving her home in West Babylon to meet with a sex-work client. A male friend later tells investigators he noticed a Chevrolet Avalanche, presumably driven by the client.
December 11, 2010: A police officer and his dog discover Barthelemy's remains while conducting a training exercise along Ocean Parkway.
Dec. 13, 2010: Police find the bodies of Costello, Brainard-Barnes and Waterman on the same quarter-mile stretch of Ocean Parkway where Barthelemy’s remains were located.
Dec. 14, 2010: Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer publicly announces the discovery of the bodies and says a serial killer might be to blame. Police expand the search, looking for additional remains or for any sign of Gilbert.
2011
March 29, 2011: Some of Taylor’s remains are discovered along Ocean Parkway.
April 4, 2011: Additional remains of Valerie Mack are found along Ocean Parkway. Near those remains, investigators also find the remains of an unidentified female toddler, later identified through DNA as the daughter of "Peaches." Elsewhere on the parkway, investigators discover the remains of an Asian male. Investigators estimate he died 5-10 years earlier and was in his late teens or early 20s. He still has not been identified.
SCPD composite sketch of unidentified Asian male
April 11, 2011: Additional remains of Vergata are discovered along Ocean Parkway, several miles west of Gilgo Beach. Police also find remains belonging to "Peaches" along the beach parkway.
Dec. 13, 2011: Gilbert’s skeletal remains are discovered in a tidal marsh near Oak Beach. After an autopsy and further investigation, Suffolk Police say she most likely accidentally drowned. Her family still suspects she was murdered. One expert hired by the family said it was possible her death was a homicide.
2022
January 2022: The Suffolk County district attorney convenes a new task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach slayings.
2023
July 13, 2023: Investigators arrest Heuermann and charge him with murdering Costello, Waterman and Barthelemy. They say they also believe he killed Brainard-Barnes, but do not initially charge him with her slaying.
2024
Jan. 16, 2024: Heuermann is charged in the death of Brainard-Barnes. Prosecutors say a hair found with her corpse is genetically similar to a DNA sample from Heuermann's wife.
Late April 2024: Police conduct a new, multiday search of a wooded area in Manorville where Taylor and Mack's remains were discovered more than a decade earlier.
May 20, 2024: Investigators launch a new search of Heuermann's home. It lasts nearly a week.
June 6, 2024: Heuermann is chargedwith the killings of Sandra Costilla and Jessica Taylor.
The Associated Press wire services helped contribute to this report.